USB Boot Degraded, won't allow removal

[David Henrickson]

Hello and thank you in advance!

I got a warning that my boot pool (single USB) has degraded already (first FreeNAS install was August 2018, so much for longevity on this Kingston DataTraveler 16Gb 3.0). I have added another Kingston and told it to mirror. It did. Then I tried to remove the other at what seemed like a 12 hour re-sliver and it wouldn't boot now off of the new one. I reinstalled the degraded on and it worked just fine, albeit still degraded. I installed then a 3rd to replace the degraded on and keep the other as a mirror. I cannot get any of the new ones to just take over the responsibilities of the boot...so, I feel that they are pointless at this point. How can I remove the old one? I keep getting some screwed up error. Here is the error:

Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/plugins/zfs.py", line 145, in detach
target.detach()
File "libzfs.pyx", line 370, in libzfs.ZFS.__exit__
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/plugins/zfs.py", line 145, in detach
target.detach()
File "libzfs.pyx", line 1329, in libzfs.ZFSVdev.detach
libzfs.ZFSException: Can detach disks from mirrors and spares only

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 161, in call_method
result = await self.middleware.call_method(self, message)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 1109, in call_method
return await self._call(message['method'], serviceobj, methodobj, params, app=app, io_thread=False)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 1049, in _call
return await methodobj(*args)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/schema.py", line 664, in nf
return await f(*args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/plugins/boot.py", line 187, in detach
await self.middleware.call('zfs.pool.detach', 'freenas-boot', dev)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 1113, in call
return await self._call(name, serviceobj, methodobj, params, app=app, pipes=pipes, io_thread=True)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 1063, in _call
return await run_method(methodobj, *args)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/main.py", line 1009, in run_in_thread
return await self.loop.run_in_executor(executor, functools.partial(method, *args, **kwargs))
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/concurrent/futures/thread.py", line 56, in run
result = self.fn(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/schema.py", line 668, in nf
return f(*args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/plugins/zfs.py", line 147, in detach
raise CallError(str(e), e.code)
middlewared.service_exception.CallError: [EUNKNOWN] Can detach disks from mirrors and spares only

Not fully sure what this means. I have also attached a screenshot of what my boot pool looks like. Suggestions? The photo shows part of my boot pool is "unavailable." This I know. I just unplugged the USB. This happens whether its in or isn't so I ruled that out.

 

[dlavigne]

Were you able to resolve this? If not, the resilvering process can be pretty hard on USB devices (it's more geared for SSD devices). For a USB boot drive, I make sure that I always have a copy of my latest config and just do a fresh install/restore config when the stick fails. It ends up being quicker in the long run and easier on the sticks.

 

[David Henrickson]

No, I was not. I have three USB devices in there. the degraded one and two good ones. I cannot just mirror the degraded one and use the mirror as it states its not a boot devices during startup....even though it is MIRRORED. Doesn't make any sense. So, maybe I will have to do what you suggested. Just start from scratch. what I am TERRIFIED to do IS to start from scratch as redoing ALL of my album artwork and reorganizing it all in PLEX once I'm back up. But even that plugin is still shaky. On one day....states on but off another.

 

[David Henrickson]

I appreciate you checking in, I do. I'm just not sure that the USB Boot volume is done being worked on. It does not do what it states in the manual it is designed to do. Wondering if you even know of a time-frame on that. Thank you again.

 

[dlavigne]

No, I was not. I have three USB devices in there. the degraded one and two good ones. I cannot just mirror the degraded one and use the mirror as it states its not a boot devices during startup....even though it is MIRRORED. Doesn't make any sense. So, maybe I will have to do what you suggested. Just start from scratch. what I am TERRIFIED to do IS to start from scratch as redoing ALL of my album artwork and reorganizing it all in PLEX once I'm back up. But even that plugin is still shaky. On one day....states on but off another.

Reinstalling the OS does not affect any data stored on disks or your plugins.

 

[David Henrickson]

I know it won't affect the "data;" however, since the Plex plugin is actually using the plex plugin, like it was designed to do, NOT in the jail using script, I don't want to have to install that, as then I know I will have to redo everything. It happens every-time I have to install plex.
I will give it a shot and see what happens. Thank you.