SOLVED Bollocks trying to install 11.2 on a separate drive.

[Binary Buddha]

So, I just screwed up my server. I was trying to install 11.2 on a different drive which might have screwed up my boot. Overall the 11.2 install been having separate issues. But, it appears to screw up something on my "old" install. If I try to boot off of the old drive it kicks out an error saying it couldn't find the boot disk.

Luckily, I was recording the stuff with Supermicro's IPMI video stream saving. Jump to the end of the video to see what I'm talking about.

https://youtu.be/itQCoSm5wvg

NOTE: Not worried about the 11.2 install. I'm pretty sure it failed since I was using the iKVM Java Virtual Media IPMI to load the ISO. I gotta find a USB drive to actually burn it to disk and try it old fashioned way.

 

[Chris Moore]

It has nothing to do with IKVM or virtual media. I loaded it that way and it works just fine.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Binary Buddha]

So, using a USB DVD drive the results are slightly different. However it's still killing at the dd part of the install.

https://youtu.be/AO4JbYKzPn8

 

[pschatz100]

What happens if you remove the old boot device and just try to boot from the new one?

What was wrong with the 11.2 install? Which build of 11.2 did you try to install?

 

[Binary Buddha]

What happens if you remove the old boot device and just try to boot from the new one?

What was wrong with the 11.2 install? Which build of 11.2 did you try to install?

Well the 11.2 didn't really get installed because it kept dying after it dd'd the designated install drive. Although, it might be due to the IPMI interface would reboot after that. Check the videos at the end. The closest I'll get is to about 30%? after the install location gets activated?

 

[Binary Buddha]

Well that was iffy... It's installed and running now. Apparently it had some issues with the thumbdrive. Anybody know how to mirror the boot disk that doesn't involve the BIOS?

 

[Chris Moore]

Well that was iffy... It's installed and running now. Apparently it had some issues with the thumbdrive. Anybody know how to mirror the boot disk that doesn't involve the BIOS?

Through all of that, you didn't try using a different drive? USB memory sticks are notoriously unreliable. They are not the recommended boot media.
Hardware Requirements:
http://www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/
Also, look at the manual:
https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/system.html#mirroring-the-boot-device

 

[Binary Buddha]

Through all of that, you didn't try using a different drive? USB memory sticks are notoriously unreliable. They are not the recommended boot media.
Hardware Requirements:
http://www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/
Also, look at the manual:
https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/system.html#mirroring-the-boot-device

No USB Memory sticks? I've heard the contrary to point that it's actually recommended.

 

[pschatz100]

No USB Memory sticks? I've heard the contrary to point that it's actually recommended.

If you search the forum, you will find lots of discussion about booting from USB thumb drives. They work, but even the best ones are not reliable and they do go bad - often when doing system upgrades. Newer versions of FreeNAS are a lot more susceptible to this than older versions were. You can still use thumb drives, but many folks are now using small SSDs. They are cheap enough, and makes for a much happier experience.

 

[Chris Moore]

No USB Memory sticks? I've heard the contrary to point that it's actually recommended.

You heard that where? How old was the data? Things change over time.

I am going to post this screen shot so I can highlight the relevant portion of the information:

If you wan to read it yourself, here is the link:
https://www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/

Please pass the word; tell all your friends, family, acquaintances, people you don't know…

 

[Binary Buddha]

You heard that where? How old was the data? Things change over time.

I am going to post this screen shot so I can highlight the relevant portion of the information:

View attachment 26980
…

They need to reword the installer. It says a "flash drive" is recommended. When you say a "flash drive" most people think of "thumbdrives" not SSDs. And the issue didn't have to do with the thumbdrive I was using. It was the IPMI BIOS setting somewhere that had to do with "Power Efficiency".

 

[diskdiddler]

USB thumbdisks are fine, I'm 4 years deep on them with a single very minor issue. Saves money, saves sata ports.

 

[Binary Buddha]

USB thumbdisks are fine, I'm 4 years deep on them with a single very minor issue. Saves money, saves sata ports.

So, I know I can create a partition on another thumbdrive and zfs mirror the boot disk zpool to it. However, do you know how to mirror the boot partition in FreeBSD? That way if the thumbdrive goes bad I can just boot off of the other thumbdrive that would have the same system boot disk data on it.

 

[Binary Buddha]

It has nothing to do with IKVM or virtual media. I loaded it that way and it works just fine.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

So, apparently it had something to do with the BIOS setting I did somewhere involving the Power Efficiency. I set it back to the defaults and it went fine. I think the Power Efficiency thing kept bouncing the IPMI thus interrupting the install.

 

[Chris Moore]

So, I know I can create a partition on another thumbdrive and zfs mirror the boot disk zpool to it. However, do you know how to mirror the boot partition in FreeBSD? That way if the thumbdrive goes bad I can just boot off of the other thumbdrive that would have the same system boot disk data on it.

https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11/system.html#mirroring-the-boot-device
There is a menu option for that. It is really easy.

 

[Binary Buddha]

https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11/system.html#mirroring-the-boot-device
There is a menu option for that. It is really easy.

Just got this with the fancy new interface.

[EFAULT] Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/plugins/zfs.py", line 129, in extend i['target'].attach(newvdev) File "libzfs.pyx", line 370, in libzfs.ZFS.__exit__ File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/plugins/zfs.py", line 129, in extend i['target'].attach(newvdev) File "libzfs.pyx", line 1292, in libzfs.ZFSVdev.attach libzfs.ZFSException: device is too small During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/job.py", line 332, in run await self.future File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/job.py", line 363, in __run_body rv = await self.middleware.run_in_thread(self.method, *([self] + 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 132, in extend raise CallError(str(e), e.code) middlewared.service_exception.CallError: [EUNKNOWN] device is too small

 

[Chris Moore]

Just got this with the fancy new interface.

[EFAULT] Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/plugins/zfs.py", line 129, in extend i['target'].attach(newvdev) File "libzfs.pyx", line 370, in libzfs.ZFS.__exit__ File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/plugins/zfs.py", line 129, in extend i['target'].attach(newvdev) File "libzfs.pyx", line 1292, in libzfs.ZFSVdev.attach libzfs.ZFSException: device is too small During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/job.py", line 332, in run await self.future File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/job.py", line 363, in __run_body rv = await self.middleware.run_in_thread(self.method, *([self] + 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 132, in extend raise CallError(str(e), e.code) middlewared.service_exception.CallError: [EUNKNOWN] device is too small

That might be a bug. Probably needs to be reported through the bug tracking system.
Sign up for an account on this site: https://redmine.ixsystems.com/projects/freenas
Then report the error through the GUI here:
https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/system.html#support

 

[Binary Buddha]

That might be a bug. Probably needs to be reported through the bug tracking system.
Sign up for an account on this site: https://redmine.ixsystems.com/projects/freenas
Then report the error through the GUI here:
https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/system.html#support

Done. Apparently they misunderstood the question of why all the other confusing stuff got outputted instead of just saying the drive is too small to mirror to.