Is this actually my USB stick that is damaged? [SOLVED]

[Iandoug]

HI

One of my boxes is reporting an error, and says I must restore from backups. Which would be problematic. (I do have backups on tape, but it's a lot ... and never had to restore directly to NAS before)

The error message is below, but this looks like it is the USB stick with FreeNas on rather than my data disks.
We're in South Africa and I've had to frequently power down and restart the box lately due to load shedding.

Can someone please confirm that it is the USB stick, and suggest best route to deal with it? Will simply installing a new stick with latest version of FreeNas be the correct move? Or I suppose I can replace the files in question with copies from another FreeNas box? But probably should replace the USB stick too?

Thanks, Ian

/mnt/freenas3/ian# zpool status -xv
pool: freenas-boot
state: ONLINE
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 59.5K in 0h6m with 4 errors on Sat Dec 14 03:51:39 2019
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
freenas-boot ONLINE 0 0 4
da0p2 ONLINE 0 0 25

errors: Permanent errors have been detected in the following files:

//usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/dojango/templatetags/__init__.pyc
//usr/local/www/freenasUI/freeadmin/templatetags/__init__.pyc
//usr/local/www/freenasUI/storage/templatetags/__init__.pyc
//usr/local/www/freenasUI/freeadmin/templatetags/freeadmin.pyc

 

[blueether]

I would guess that you are correct and your USB stick is on the way out.

Do you have a spare sata port and somewhere to place a small ssd? If you do I would replace the USB with a SSD.

Either way I would:

1. Backup all data that is irreplaceable (looks like you may have this covered)
2. Back-up the FreeNAS config
3. and then do a clean install (you could use the same version that you have installed of take the chance to update the OS)
4. upload the saved config and let the server reboot a time or two

 

[jgreco]

The boot pool? Your stored data is fine. Your FreeNAS installation isn't, but that can be trivially replaced. @blueether has suggested a good course of action. USB keys tend to die rapidly, so the SSD thing is a great suggestion.

 

[Iandoug]

Thanks guys, will see what I can do. The boxes are all HP Microliant servers so there is (AFAICS) no spare SATA slot, will replace the USB stick with new one.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks guys, will see what I can do. The boxes are all HP Microliant servers so there is (AFAICS) no spare SATA slot, will replace the USB stick with new one.

If you have a way to feed it power, you could use a USB-to-SATA convertor with a regular SATA SSD. If not, I've had more luck with USB 2.0 sticks versus USB 3.0

 

[Iandoug]

Either way I would:

1. Back-up the FreeNAS config

Hi

Sorry to be such a noob, but what exactly do you mean by FreeNAS config? The /etc/conf.d folder or something else?
The file freenas.conf does not appear to have any useful in it.

It turns out that it's actually a microSD card and not a thumbstick. There are external slots for esata drives but I don't have any and money is a bit ticht at the moment. Did buy new microSD card though.

Thanks, Ian

 

[jgreco]

Sorry to be such a noob, but what exactly do you mean by FreeNAS config? The /etc/conf.d folder or something else?
The file freenas.conf does not appear to have any useful in it.

FreeNAS is an appliance and you're not expected to be rummaging around in its files. Log into the GUI and avail yourself of the administrative option to download the FreeNAS config.

 

[Iandoug]

:)
I did actually try there first before.

Found it this time, thanks.

Cheers, Ian

 

[Iandoug]

Installed on new MicroSD card and seems fine. Thanks for all the help

 

[jgreco]

Just so you're aware, most microSD cards do not do any sort of wear-leveling and tend to fail fairly quickly when used as a FreeNAS OS drive.

 

[Iandoug]

Just so you're aware, most microSD cards do not do any sort of wear-leveling and tend to fail fairly quickly when used as a FreeNAS OS drive.

So noted, thanks. The other two boxes are older and both use thumbdrives for the OS. Not had issues with them. Previous SD was Verbatim class 10, new one is SanDisk class 10, so will see how it holds up.

I guess HP thought they were being smart to switch from thumbdrives to microSD cards.

At least now I know the procedure if something similar happens again.

Cheers, Ian