What to do when FreeNAS system drive (USB-PEN) is gone

[Lubos K.]

Hi,

I'd like to ask you for help with this issue. Sorry if I missed some thread with a similar problem already solved .

First, what the setup is:
- USB-PEN drive as a FreeNAS system drive (as recommended)
- 2 data drives WD30EFRX in a mirror setup with ZFS file system
- running in a Dell T410
- Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5620 @ 2.40GHz
- RAM 8158MB ECC
- Onboard controller in AHCI mode
- FreeNAS-9.2.1.8-RELEASE-x64 (e625626)

What happened:
- USB-PEN drive is dead, probablly USB controler is burnt, no possibility to access any data from it

What to do?
- I have a configuration backup from WebUI of the FreeNAS (System-Settings-Save config)
- No data drives snapshots are available
- When I install the system again and load the configuration, does it also cover the Storage configuration. Will it be the same as before? Will Storrage (ZFS mirror) be accessible?

If not, is there anything I can do manually directly in the system?

How to backup the system drive to have a fast and save solution when this happens again?

Thank you.

Beat regards,

Lubos

 

[phoenix]

Once you restore your config to the new FreeNAS install it should be in the same state as the original version.

 

[danb35]

What @phoenix said. Your config file backup is all the backup you really need of your FreeNAS system drive. Do a clean install on a new USB drive, upload the config file, and you should be good to go. With 9.3, you can set up a mirrored boot device, so you have a "live" backup at all times. It's still recommended to keep a backup of your config in case you do something to hose the configuration. You might want to look at https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/backup-config-file-every-night-automatically.8237/ for a script to back up the config file automatically.