Failure to boot

[dropofdreams]

Hey there. So I've been using the 9.3 nightlies for quite some time now. every few nights, I'll get an email telling me that there is an update available. Like a good boy, I followed through when no one was using the server and the update completed and the system rebooted. Normally, after a few minutes, I'm prompted to re-login to the web GUI. In this instance, I never was. This isn't a first in the time that I've been using freenas but I figured I'd go clear whatever prompt I had assumed was causing the hangup in the morning. Morning came and I headed down to the garage where the servers are and I turned on the console to find that freenas didn't boot at all...It actually gave me an error telling me that it had failed to complete an operation. A reboot doesn't resolve this. I figured I'd pull the flash drive to see if there were logs on it that would explain what was going on but found that I couldn't read from the flashdrive. It's being shown as a RAW partition. My questions are whether or not the data I have on my mechanical raid array is lost and or will I be able to resolve the failure to boot issue with the my current configuration intact?

 

[pirateghost]

1. Don't run nightly builds on a production box.

2. you can reboot to a prior known good install, using the menus on boot (GRUB).

3. Windows cannot read ZFS so sticking the thumb drive in a Windows box does not do any good at all. There is no reason for this.

4. Your data drives are likely fine. Nothing about your data resides on the USB drive, merely the configuration of the system.

To fix this, reboot. When prompted at GRUB screen pick the previous working boot environment.

 

[dropofdreams]

I'm not able to reboot as no menu ever presents itself. I knew that it wouldn't natively be able to read it and so I attempted to mount it with another tool to see if the partition was readable. No go. I also understand that the data isn't on the flash drive. We have a couple hundred terabytes worth of data. What I didn't know was whether or not a new install of freenas would import the previous volume or if it would require a format of the drives. I'll go grab a screenshot of what I am seeing though on the terminal.

 

[Mirfster]

What I didn't know was whether or not a new install of freenas would import the previous volume or if it would require a format of the drives

A new install should be able to import the volume without issue as long as all the drives are accessible.

 

[pirateghost]

I'm not able to reboot as no menu ever presents itself. I knew that it wouldn't natively be able to read it and so I attempted to mount it with another tool to see if the partition was readable. No go. I also understand that the data isn't on the flash drive. We have a couple hundred terabytes worth of data. What I didn't know was whether or not a new install of freenas would import the previous volume or if it would require a format of the drives. I'll go grab a screenshot of what I am seeing though on the terminal.

Why do you need a menu to reboot? You have a power button right?

 

[dropofdreams]

2. you can reboot to a prior known good install, using the menus on boot (GRUB).

I was specifically referring to this bit of your statement. However, I'd like to offer you thanks as I was able to see it during a verbose boot. It hangs for literally 1 second before moving on. I was able to select the prior version and we're all set. Thanks a ton.