SOLVED Changes to Boot Disk leads to grub rescue

[mihai]

The picture explains what I did, so I won't duplicate the information in text.

In short, I transferred the boot SSD to a mirror boot device, and now my Supermicro BIOS cannot detect a boot device.

Is there any elegant way to resolve this issue other than re-installing?

Much thanks.

 

[mihai]

Quick update: It does show up I guess but it says "This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system."

Though I don't know which NAS "disk" its referring to. I have three zfs pools.

This one is named SAS:#500 ID0B LUN0 ATA WDC WD75

There are no other disks visible.

 

[Ericloewe]

Quick update: It does show up I guess but it says "This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system."

No, that's one of the data disks. FreeNAS adds a dummy bootloader that displays that if you try to boot it to every data disk. Honestly, it feels like more of a nuisance than something useful.

my Supermicro BIOS cannot detect a boot device.

Motherboard model and BIOS version?

 

[mihai]

Motherboard model and BIOS version?

Model: X8DT6-F
BIOS: 2.0c
BIOS BUILD DATE: 05/15/12

 

[Ericloewe]

And the boot devices don't show up in the BIOS? That's not supposed to be related to FreeNAS at all.

How, exactly, are the new boot devices attached?

 

[zoomzoom]

@mihai It sounds like the new boot disks are not set as boot disks in the BIOS. The BIOS allows for ~4 or 5 disks to be listed as boot devices, and it could simply be some of those slots have been set to disabled, or the new boot disks are not listed. For either, you'll need to manually change the # 1 & 2 boot slots to the two disks in the mirror.

It does show up I guess but it says "This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system."

Though I don't know which NAS "disk" its referring to.

This occurs because the two disks in the mirror are not set as # 1 & 2 in the boot order, instead, one of the other HDDs that are apart of a pool are set as the first boot device.

 

[mihai]

And the boot devices don't show up in the BIOS? That's not supposed to be related to FreeNAS at all.

How, exactly, are the new boot devices attached?

Yeah I figured as much. They are attached via the SAS expander. It's an LSI2008-IT.

This occurs because the two disks in the mirror are not set as # 1 & 2 in the boot order, instead, one of the other HDDs that are apart of a pool are set as the first boot device.

Here's the things I looked at.

First, I went to the SAS Configurator and tagged the two disks as bootable in pictures SAS1 and SAS2.

Then I checked BIOS and they don't appear there. Also, are there some options I need to change? See BIOS1 and BIOS2 pictures.

I guess the real issue, as you two are hinting at is, how do I make two of the SAS disks bootable?

 

[Ericloewe]

Actually, I'm not sure how that is supposed to work. If they don't show up, you might have a boot option that is the SAS controller itself.

 

[Ericloewe]

@zoomzoom's advice about removing stuff from the boot priorities list is good, definitely try that.

 

[zoomzoom]

@mihai I didn't realize SAS is handled entirely differently in the BIOS, so at least some, if not all, of the advice in my prior reply may not apply.

• With the above in mind, would swapping Bays 0 & 1 with Bays 10 & 11 make a difference (i.e. placing the boot disks in Bay 0 & 1)?
• Does the LSI2008 Controller's OptROM have another option, other than Boot Support, under Advanced regarding booting from it?

 

[mihai]

Thank you two very much, I figured it out. It was as you two said.

For anyone else with this potential issue, I'll post my resolution:

I went into the RAID card config, and under Advanced Properties, and changed the "Maximum INT 13 Devices for this Adapter" to 2. I noticed this is the number of disks passed on to the BIOS as readable.

Then under SAS Topology, I allowed the two disks to be Primary and Alternate Boot.

Then in BIOS, only the two disks showed up as boot hard disks.