FreeNAS usb image (not installer)

[FlangeMonkey]

Hi Guys,

It's been a while since I needed to stick FreeNAS on a USB and I'm needing to migrate to a new USB stick. I've just noticed that FreeNAS took away the USB image (some time ago) and now only has an installer.

I find this irritating, as I now need to use 2 USB sticks to get the migration done.

Can anyone explain why they have done this?

Thanks,

 

[dlavigne]

The installer needs to format the boot pool in 9.3 and higher.

 

[cyberjock]

The old way used a fixed image size (just under 2GB). The new way formats and partitions the entire USB key. Because of these changes a USB image is totally inappropriate and won't do what you want it to do. ;)

 

[FlangeMonkey]

Interesting, I never had problems formatting to the full size of the USB, currently 4GB.

 

[cyberjock]

Right, but you never actually had access to the full 4GB. It was a static 2GB image, and only like 37MB of it was free space. We use a zpool on the boot device, and the installer installs to the whole disk so you can have as many (or as few) boot environments as you can fit on the device. :)

This is much better for the long term, but there is some inconvenience involved with installing FreeNAS. Most people opt for hardware that we recommend, so it has IPMI and supports virtual media. This means you can install through the IPMI controller without needing a real CD-ROM drive or a second USB stick.