Error creating passphrase for pool lucky

Marenz

Cadet
Joined
May 1, 2019
Messages
5
I just created my first pool on a freshly installed freenas. FreeNAS-11.2-U4.

I have two 3TB disks that I wanted to have as encrypted mirrored pool.
After creating the pool, I tried to set a passphrase.
However, all I get is the error message "Error creating passphrase for pool lucky".

I tried the legacy webinterface too, just to see if anything is different, and that got me the error message
"An encrypted pool containing the system dataset must not have a passphrase. An existing passphrase on that pool can only be removed."

At this point I am at a loss on how to continue.
 

His.Dudeness

Dabbler
Joined
May 14, 2019
Messages
15
Thanks, that helped me too! :)
The error message in the new UI could be a little bit more informative ;)

In the section "System - System Dataset" I found the two options for the syslog and the reporting database.
Can they help to prevent wearing the flash media if FreeNAS is installed on a USB-Stick? Are there more settings that might help preserving USB boot media?

cheers
Michael
 

Bigsby

Dabbler
Joined
Jun 11, 2019
Messages
17
Should I move the System Dataset to the freenas-boot pool? or is that bad?
 

Meyers

Patron
Joined
Nov 16, 2016
Messages
211
Should I move the System Dataset to the freenas-boot pool? or is that bad?

Just ran into this myself. I don't think it's "bad" but it does appear that all the logs are wiped on a reboot, which makes troubleshooting incredibly difficult.
 

gary_1

Explorer
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
78
Ran into this today also. I only have 6 sata ports, all used for data volume 4z2 so my only option that I can see is to move the dataset onto the mirrored usb flash boot pool. Not thrilled about that, but short of freenas adding a way to plug in a extra usb stick that is used during boot only to read the pool key and can then be unplugged, I'm not really wanting to run without a passphrase on the pool key.

Hopefully the extra logging doesn't kill my sticks even quicker than I'm already expecting from the way freenas now uses the base OS. Future builds are going to need 8 sata ports to avoid this, sadly only pcie slot I have is occupied by esata card used for backups, so that's out for now too.

Aside from increased wear, is there any other issue with system dataset on boot volume? What happens if boot volume dies and is reinstalled + config restored, is everything in the system dataset recreatable at run time?
 

catnas

Explorer
Joined
Dec 12, 2015
Messages
57
Move System -> System Dataset to a different pool.

Thanks for this. Pretty goofy error message and this was the only hit when I searched with quotation marks, so I'm glad this was here. Thank you.
 

remcycles

Cadet
Joined
Aug 22, 2019
Messages
2
I just ran into this as well. This is my first time setting up any NAS, so I bought a FreeNAS Mini E to make things easy.

I agree the error message does not indicate what's going on. Reading this whole thread is very helpful, but I still have questions.

I'm not sure where I should move the System Dataset if I'd like to passphrase protect my encrypted pool. I installed two drives and mirrored them, and still have two empty bays for future expansion. I can't find any docs on what type of drive freenas-boot is on, but I see that it's 14.91 GiB, so it's probably an internal flash drive of some sort.

The docs indicate that putting the system dataset on the boot drive is a bad idea.

From https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2-U5/system.html#system-dataset:
Depending on configuration, the system dataset can occupy a large amount of space and receive frequent writes. Do not put the system dataset on a flash drive or other media with limited space or write life.
And https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2-U5/reporting.html#reporting:
Reporting data is frequently written and should not be stored on the boot pool or operating system device.

I don't know if disabling both the "Syslog" and "Reporting Database" checkboxes makes freenas-boot a safe destination for the system dataset.

It sounds like disabling the "Syslog" checkbox causes log writes to the boot device (unless /var is mounted to memory):
Store system logs on the system dataset. Unset to store system logs in /var/ on the operating system device.

And disabling "Reporting Database" means I'll lose the data across reboots.


I don't really want to buy a third drive (and use up a drive bay) to host this System Dataset, but it seems like that's the safest option.

Am I missing something? Should I split my mirrored drives into two pools and passphrase protect one, but no the other? What would be a good size for a System Dataset pool?
 

remcycles

Cadet
Joined
Aug 22, 2019
Messages
2
Nevermind, that last idea won't work. A pool is made from whole vdevs, and vdevs are made from whole disks, so I can't split the pair of mirrored disks into two separate pools.

What type of drive (size, SSD vs spinning disk) would be recommended for the system dataset?

For now I think I'll just move to the installed boot drive without logs and find a way to back up the boot device often.
 

Free as in Nas

Dabbler
Joined
May 11, 2012
Messages
42
Hit the same issue today. I would like to report it as a bug but the process seems pretty esoteric. I'm running 11.2-u7 so for all I know it is fixed 11.3.

I loved to see a mention of the issues remcycles brought up in the documention under the passphrase section. It's going to affect any user with a single pool. I think I am just not going to use passphrases due to this limitation since my device is already stuffed full of drives.
 

Tsaukpaetra

Patron
Joined
Jan 7, 2014
Messages
215
I do believe it's logged as a ticket, but JIRA is down at the moment so I can't link it here. I don't know if it's been fully addressed though, but I do believe it is planned for 11.3 to make it more obvious that the system dataset cannot be encrypted with a passphrase.
 
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