USB key dying, and misplaced key help

[SamB84]

Hi all

I'm on freenas 9.3

My USB key has died along with the PSU few days ago after a heavy storm (weirdly i even turned the freenas box off to prevent issues but somehow it was the only device to be affected ), I've replaced the PSU and it seems ok now but now the USB key is playing up. All the drives (6 in total) are in POST so they appear to be ok

I tried to boot via other freenas option menu and its booted up but when trying to import the volumes its just blank, and the boot partition is degraded. I've grabbed another USB key and downloaded 9.3 from the archive URL someone posted in another thread.

Just need some guidance

If I've misplaced the key can i just use a passphrase? I dont even remember it being encrypted but its been so long since I've had to touch this unit as its been solid ive lost the config backup and i guess the key.

I've read somewhere that the key can be here: '/data/geli' but when i SSH in i cant see it anywhere?

Any help greatly appreciated

 

[SamB84]

a bit more info:

initial setup - boots, normal boot fails.

error is:

unable to open database /data/freenas-v1.db disk i/o error

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

If I've misplaced the key can i just use a passphrase? I don't even remember it being encrypted but its been so long since I've had to touch this unit as its been solid I've lost the config backup and i guess the key.

If your pools are encrypted you will need either the recovery key (which has no passphrase even if the primary encryption key used one) or the primary encryption key AND passphrase if it was set. If you do not have either then you will be unable to access your drives.

Depending on how messed up your old USB stick is you may be able to get the keys off it.

The primary encryption key is in fact found in /data/geli on many versions of FreeNAS but if you wiped the usb stick or are using a new one it won't be there. You'd have to use the original usb stick without erasing the data on it.

 

[SamB84]

whats an easy way to establish if it is encrypted or not? I have setup a new USB key if i import the volumes without decrypting is there any risk to the data if they are encrypted? I saw one video where it shows the volume as locked but i get nothing in the list when i tried importing one of the volumes (less important one).

When i booted up with the initial setup option i can get to the GUI but the volume manager and disks view don't load correctly so I'm wondering if that's because the usb is corrupted

I still have the old key but i cant find /data/geli via putty ssh are their any guides anywhere?

Again thanks for the help

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

I have setup a new USB key if i import the volumes without decrypting is there any risk to the data if they are encrypted?

If encryption is in use you won't be able to import without the appropriate keys.

I still have the old key but i can't find /data/geli via putty ssh are their any guides anywhere?

It may be in a different location in your version of FreeNAS.

but the volume manager and disks view don't load correctly so I'm wondering if that's because the usb is corrupted

When you get errors or something doesn't work correctly it would help greatly if you posted exactly what failed and exactly how, include screenshots if you must.

 

[SamB84]

thank god, so after creating new usb and importing then creating the CIF shares it seems to be all fine so no encryption - thank the lord - I thought I hadn't encrypted anything. Weird bit that i mentioned earlier is the view disks and view volumes is empty but the side bar is showing them as added

Backup time

Heres a snip to show what i mean

Anyway i also found by BT cloud backup of all my family photos so did something right and the volumes are accessible now, will backup and then look to update freenas when i get some time