Boot device degraded - advice?

[Tock]

Heyho small problem here and looking for advice^^.

Here the System Specs:

Boot device: Transcend JetFlash 8 GB Flashdrive
Mainboard: Asrock C2750D4I
RAM: 16 GB Kingston ValueRAM DDR3-1333 ECC DIMM
PSU: 360 Watt Seasonic G Serie
Storage: 3x 3TB WD Red in RaidZ-1

Now to my problem. The USB Stick was throwing some (around 6) Checksum errors out in the last month but today its at 51. When I first got the message about them I was thinking its not a big deal because I want to swap out the boot drive with 2 small sized SSDs in the summer but now I am a bit worried^^.

Should I simply reinstall freenas on the same USB Stick until I can get the SSDs? Can the problem cause data corruption on my data zpool? If not would I be too crazy to let it run like this until I get the SSDs?

Here is the zpool status -v output:

Code:

pool: freenas-boot                                                                                                               
state: DEGRADED                                                                                                                   
status: One or more devices has experienced an error resulting in data                                                             
        corruption.  Applications may be affected.                                                                                 
action: Restore the file in question if possible.  Otherwise restore the                                                           
        entire pool from backup.                                                                                                   
   see: http://illumos.org/msg/ZFS-8000-8A                                                                                         
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h36m with 13 errors on Mon May 25 21:19:30 2015                                                       
config:                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                   
        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM                                                                                     
        freenas-boot  DEGRADED     0     0    25                                                                                   
          da0p2     DEGRADED     0     0    51  too many errors                                                                    
                                                                                                                                   
errors: Permanent errors have been detected in the following files:                                                                
                                                                                                                                   
        freenas-boot/ROOT/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201502271818@2015-03-06-14:45:33:/usr/local/lib/db48/libdb_cxx-4.8.a                  
        freenas-boot/ROOT/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504100216@2015-04-13-17:52:12:/usr/bin/nslookup                                    
        freenas-boot/ROOT/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504100216@2015-04-13-17:52:12:/usr/bin/nsupdate                                    
        freenas-boot/ROOT/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504100216@2015-04-13-17:52:12:/usr/local/libexec/git-core/git-fast-import          
        freenas-boot/ROOT/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504100216@2015-04-13-17:52:12:/usr/local/libexec/git-core/git-http-backend         
        freenas-boot/ROOT/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504100216@2015-04-13-17:52:12:/usr/local/libexec/git-core/git-http-fetch           
        freenas-boot/ROOT/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201502271818@2015-01-24-21:59:19:/boot/kernel/kernel                            

Current build I am on is: FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201502271818.

 

[BigDave]

Back up your config. files now.
Purchase a name brand **read quality** 16GB USB flash drive ($10-$13)
Sandisk Cruzer Fit very popular choice.
Reinstall FreeNAS to USB and update config. from previous backup.

Should I simply reinstall freenas on the same USB Stick until I can get the SSDs?

Not recommended. IMHO using SSD for FreeNAS boot is a waste, a mirror would be twice the waste.

Can the problem cause data corruption on my data zpool?

No.
Your flash drive will continue to degrade until it will (one day soon), just not complete the boot process.

Edit: clarity

 

[joeschmuck]

I'm with Big Dave, you need to replace your USB boot device now. You could use a SSD as a boot device but anyone who does will end up using it for more than that but that is an entirely different topic and you can check that stuff out later. Of course if you find a 32GB to 120GB SSD for a real deal, it could be cheaper than a good USB Flash drive and your SSD should last longer than any USB Flash drive. And I would never mirror a SSD boot device for FreeNAS, but that is just my opinion. Actually I don't mirror by USB Flash either, it's a waste in my opinion. My configuration changes only when I upgrade my system and then I immediately save off my configuration file manually. If I were adding and deleting users all the time, I might change my opinion on this but in a home environment lets get real, how often do you change your configuration around after you are finally out of the tinkering stages playing around with FreeNAS?

 

[Tock]

Thanks for the responses^^.

I have now backed the config file up. Anything else I have to consider? My data zpool is encrypted and I have made a backup of the geli key.

I was thinking about low capacity SSDs (32 GB) due to FreeNAS 9.3s introduction of ZFS on the boot device and the unknown burden of it on USB Sticks.

I bought the USB Stick just for FreeNAS on the 10.08.14 and there was never something different on it^^. I'm probably going to get the Sandisk one twice just so that I have a higher chance at not getting uncorrectable errors.

 

[joeschmuck]

USB Flash drives have a short life span when you write to them frequently and it's a known limitation. When FreeNAS 9.x was introduced there became more writing back to the USB device when before it was a read only and write rarely setup. So in my opinion, if you have a spare SATA port, and you can find a decent priced SSD (doesn't matter the size), buy it and use it. FreeNAS will boot up a tiny bit faster but it's negligible. The real benefit is the fact that a SSD has more write operations than a USB Flash device could ever dream of having. Look for the sales and even refurbished drives, just check the SMART data to find out how much life is left on them. Also keep in mind that refurbished equipment likely means someone was not happy and just returned it after using it a few hours, even a small scratch won't hurt it's operation and a penny saved...

 

[BigDave]

I found this Intel 32GB SSD and the seller is taking offers...

 

[joeschmuck]

I found this Intel 32GB SSD and the seller is taking offers...

I would only ask the seller to show the wear level of the drive you are actually purchasing, or make a statement that it does not exceed some specific level that you are comfortable with. For a FreeNAS machine, it's probably not going to be a big deal unless it's ready to die.

 

[Darren Myers]

I got my 80Gb SSD"s from this seller here http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-X25-M...147?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4621cb05d3 for $35 each.

 

[cyberjock]

I've bought like 10 or so Intel 32GB and 64GB X25-Es. Those are SLC memory, rated for astronomically high write cycles. All of the drives have been 99%, except for 1. That one was 98%. It's basically theoretically impossible to wear out those drives in the 6 or so years that they have existed. I believe they were rated for over 100k cycles. ;)