critical alarm flashing red. all drives are online how do I determine which drive experienced error.

[kenjcalgary]

CRITICAL: March 19, 2017, 3:47 a.m. - The boot volume state is ONLINE: One or more devices has experienced an unrecoverable error. An attempt was made to correct the error. Applications are unaffected. Ive checked drive status of my drive all 4 show online
Intel core duo e6600
P5k motherboard
8 MB ram
32 GB thumb drive for OS
4 western digital blue drives, 4 TB each.

 

[jlpellet]

From your message it appears that the issue is with the boot volume (the USB stick) NOT your data pool. From your message, it looks like you have a single boot drive so any error there may result in the system failing on next boot (as I understand it, the boot volume is used almost entirely to boot rather than read/write during system operation). I recommend the following.

1. Back up config to a different system immediately. This will let you perform a fresh install & recover you setting & pool in just a few minutes.

2. Make certain you have another USB stick for a fresh install.

3. From the GUI, you can open the shell the clear the error & run a scrub (zpool clear freenas-boot & zpool scrub freenas-boot in 9.10).

In my experience, this error can appear as USB sticks just aren't that good. I suggest reading the docs on mirrored boot pools. Others with more experience may chime in but for future reference I suggest including the OS version.

Hope this helps.
John

 

[kenjcalgary]

I appreciate your help John.
I agree that thumb drives are not the best medium for storage, small ssd's are inexpensive and make more sense.
I did an update yesterday and monitor was showing a lot of errors, took about an extra 10 - 15 min to reboot after updating.
Upon waking this morning I could hear one of my drives working (sounded like read write head moving ) checked status and found that critical red light flashing.
decided to shut down pc and received a warning indicating drives are re silvering do i want to continue with shut down, selected cancel and did not shut down

 

[kenjcalgary]

freenas 9.10 is the OS version.
just started verify install.
install verified successfully.

And critical red light still flashing.
I am considering an OS reinstall.
as mentioned all drives in volume show online.

also shows
scrub
status : complete
errors : 0 repairs : 0
Rebooted pc, did not get re silvering warning.
have a green light, no system alerts.
I kinda feel, in the dark about what happened, I'm hoping a rough install of an update, maybe a bug. not sure if system is going to be ok

I do have a 8 TB seperate back up, but only for the next 3 weeks.

• 

 

[kenjcalgary]

not sure what you mean by Back up config to a different system and From the GUI, you can open the shell the clear the error & run a scrub (zpool clear freenas-boot & zpool scrub freenas-boot in 9.10).
a scrub may have inadvertently already been done.

 

[kenjcalgary]

I think your asking me to reinstall the OS on a new drive, right?

 

[gpsguy]

Correct.

Before you do so, use the Save Config to backup your configuration file. It's just above the orange box in this section of the docs: http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/system.html#general

Do a fresh install of the same version of FreeNAS (don't use Corral) that you're using on a new flash drive, When prompted to run the wizard on first boot, cancel that. Login the webgui and restore the configuration (that you saved above).

I think your asking me to reinstall the OS on a new drive, right?

 

[Jailer]

If you look closely at the error you posted it says your boot volume is what experienced the error. Not sure why you would initiate a scrub on your main pool when the error clearly stated it was your boot volume.

Slow down and take a deep breath before you go mashing buttons when an error pops up. Read the documentation (it's linked in the GUI) and then come here and ask questions if you still can't get things figure out.

 

[kenjcalgary]

If you look closely at the error you posted it says your boot volume is what experienced the error. Not sure why you would initiate a scrub on your main pool when the error clearly stated it was your boot volume.

Slow down and take a deep breath before you go mashing buttons when an error pops up. Read the documentation (it's linked in the GUI) and then come here and ask questions if you still can't get things figure out.

thanks for the fed back Jailer, I'm not sure if I initiated a scrub but, as indicated.also shows
Scrub

Status: Completed

Errors: 0 Repaired: 0 Date: Sun Mar 19 06:12:02 20

A scrub is the process of ZFS scanning through the data on a volume. Scrubs help to identify data integrity problems, detect silent data corruptions caused by transient hardware issues, and provide early alerts of impending disk failures. FreeNAS® makes it easy to schedule periodic automatic scrubs.

Each volume should be scrubbed at least once a month. Bit errors in critical data can be detected by ZFS, but only when that data is read. Scheduled scrubs can find bit errors in rarely-read data. The amount of time needed for a scrub is proportional to the quantity of data on the volume. Typical scrubs take several hours or longer.

wondering if a verify install could initiate a scrub.
or maybe an automatic part of program self healing.

My IT skills are very limited.

 

[kenjcalgary]

I did a system dataset save and received a notification - System Dataset successfully updated.

Sorry, I'm not sure what the direction from John meant - Login the webgui and restore the configuration (that you saved above).
do you mean once I reinstall OS Ver 9.10. login then restore the configuration.
I'm not sure how to restore the configuration.(definitely favor doing that).

 

[gpsguy]

Did you read my message in post #7, where I showed you in the docs to save the configuration? Did you do it?

In the same message, I explained John's directions in more detail.

To restore the configuation, go to "System → General → Upload Config"

Sorry, I'm not sure what the direction from John meant - Login the webgui and restore the configuration (that you saved above)..

btw, you might find it helpful to helpful to download a PDF version of the documentation for reference purposes. You can download it via the link in my signature.

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

From your message it appears that the issue is with the boot volume (the USB stick) NOT your data pool. From your message, it looks like you have a single boot drive so any error there may result in the system failing on next boot (as I understand it, the boot volume is used almost entirely to boot rather than read/write during system operation). I recommend the following.

1. Back up config to a different system immediately. This will let you perform a fresh install & recover you setting & pool in just a few minutes.

2. Make certain you have another USB stick for a fresh install.

3. From the GUI, you can open the shell the clear the error & run a scrub (zpool clear freenas-boot & zpool scrub freenas-boot in 9.10).

In my experience, this error can appear as USB sticks just aren't that good. I suggest reading the docs on mirrored boot pools. Others with more experience may chime in but for future reference I suggest including the OS version.

Hope this helps.
John

Not to derail the main topic, but trying to learn more about the utilization of USB sticks along with what the OP is experiencing at the moment... If you said they are not that good, how come the development team recommends you use one? Not trying to argue. I am just trying to learn more.
I am about to start another system and I've seen posts in the forum where some systems use SSD drives. I use one in one and so far so good... What are the recommended sticks to be used with FreeNAS? Thanks.

 

[Jailer]

how come the development team recommends you use one?

It's offered as an option for installation in the documentation, not necessarily the recommended option.

You'll find some forum users, myself included, recommend against installing to a usb drive due to their questionable quality compared to an SSD or SATA DOM. In the end it's all a matter of personal choice what media you choose to install FreeNAS to.

 

[kenjcalgary]

Did you read my message in post #7, where I showed you in the docs to save the configuration? Did you do it?

In the same message, I explained John's directions in more detail.

To restore the configuation, go to "System → General → Upload Config"



btw, you might find it helpful to helpful to download a PDF version of the documentation for reference purposes. You can download it via the link in my signature.

sorry about the confusion, name mix up. I really don't know if I fallowed the instructions properly, I get the impression that you're asking me to save the configuration separately on a usb disk.
What I did was a system dataset save, and received a notification - System Dataset successfully updated.

 

[kenjcalgary]

sorry about the confusion, name mix up. I really don't know if I fallowed the instructions properly, I get the impression that you're asking me to save the configuration separately on a usb disk.
What I did was a system dataset save, and received a notification - System Dataset successfully updated.

 

[kenjcalgary]

I'm going To restore the configuation, go to "System → General → Upload Config" and try to see what you mean.

 

[kenjcalgary]

So much for grammar

 

[kenjcalgary]

"System → General → Upload Config" it seems like I'm being asked to choose a file location on my network attached pc, I've created a file folder, have not selected update yet is this what you mean.

 

[kenjcalgary]

I believe that you want me to send my current configuration to an external file folder.
when I go to upload configuration, this process seems like it wants me to select a file folder to download from to restore my system configuration. Do I not need to upload my current system configuration to an external file folder first the reinstall the OS then download my saved system configuration from that external file folder.

 

[gpsguy]

I didn't say do a system data set save, I said to follow the directions in the documentation to save a copy of your config. It'll save that file on the computer (not your FreeNAS server) where you opens the web browser.

When you restore the config, you'll point to location where you saved the configuration.