What does the reset button do on the FreeNAS Mini E (from iXsystems)?

[JDLH]

I just bought a FreeNAS Mini E (from iXsystems). There is a button on the front panel labelled "reset". I can't find documentation about what this button does and how to operate it. Maybe the forums know.

Does the button respond to a momentary press, or do I need to hold it for some amount of time? How much time?

What does the system do in response to a reset button press? Reboot the OS? Erase configuration and let me reconfigure from scratch? Erase data on the disks?

I have pressed the button, and no smoke has emerged from the unit, but nor does it give a clear sign of what if anything the button caused to happen.

Thanks for any clarification you can offer.
—Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada

 

[dlavigne]

The latest version of the (new) Setup Guide is here: https://www.ixsystems.com/FreeNAS_Mini_EXL_BSG/. I don't see an explicit mention in that PDF indicating the operation for that button. Can you create a ticket at bugs.ixsystems.com asking for a doc improvement?

 

[JDLH]

Thank you for the prompt reply.

I phoned iXsystems support, and verbally mentioned the gap in documentation. We went over the Basic Setup Guide, and agreed that it shows the location of the Reset Button, but does not explain how to use it or what it does. They verbally agreed to bring this gap up with the documentation. Do you think that opening a ticket in writing will be a useful addition to the verbal report?

 

[dlavigne]

Yes, please open a ticket as the Docs dept is separate from Support (and may not get the message relayed to them without a ticket). Thanks, and I hope you enjoy your Mini E!

 

[JDLH]

Ticket #JJZ-669-51488 opened with iXsystems support.

In the meantime, answers about reset button behaviour here might be helpful.

I will contribute one detail: the iXsystems person who was helping me described the reset button as doing something close to a "reboot" operation, rather than any kind of configuration erase.

 

[Deleted member 70528]

Hello,

We've gone ahead and opened a ticket with our dev/documentation teams which can be seen here: https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/NAS-102900.

 

[needshelp]

is there any update on this that can be posted. I see the ticket talks about updated manual but would be nice to have some update here.

 

[Redcoat]

is there any update on this that can be posted. I see the ticket talks about updated manual but would be nice to have some update here.

All iXystems' docs are available for download here https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/knowledgebase_category/freenas/

 

[Redcoat]

As to what the button does: If functional and correctly connected to the motherboard's reset connector, pressing the button restarts a "frozen" computer or one that has failed to restart normally.

 

[needshelp]

ok thank you, I had a frozen system and held the power button because I was afraid of what the reset button would do. Now I have the ...data disk .. system halted message. So, I'll try the reset button. The latest manual does not seem to have any new information on the button.

 

[Redcoat]

Well, I don't think the reset button will help - your system has attempted to boot from one of the data drives and not from the boot device. You need to check the BIOS boot order and ensure that the boot device is correctly selected.

 

[needshelp]

yes, you're right didn't help and working on figuring out the boot order issue. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[Redcoat]

OK, come back if you have questions. You should probably be asking yourself how the boot order came to be disturbed as I gather that this system has been working from your earlier posts...

 

[needshelp]

yea it was working as my file server for a couple of months and I hadn't even logged in directly for a couple of weeks and then couldn't log in. I tried my direct attached console and keyboard and couldn't get to the command line (unfortunately I didn't make note of the error messages on the console) even with ctrl-c so I eventually did a hard reset using the power button. I am looking at the boot settings in the boot setup but it is not clear to me what I should select.

 

[Redcoat]

Do a screen copy of the Bios Boot Page and post it here so that we can see the list of devices to select from.

 

[needshelp]

Here are scree

n shots

 

[Redcoat]

Hmm.., well, I don't see your SATA DOM boot device listed. I wonder if it has croaked?

I suppose you could try the one that's currently selected. It won't be anything with "usb", it's not the WDC listing (that's one pf your data drives), it's not CD, and it's not Network, I don't know what AP:UEFI is.,

 

[needshelp]

There is an item in a boot override menu that has a UEFI OS (I-SATA0: 16gb sata flash drive)

 

[Redcoat]

Yes, that could very well be it - I had thought it might be larger than 16GB

According to the manual info it should be in the SATAIII_M0 slot. That could check with the SATA0 reference.

 

[needshelp]

so an update an more help needed :(
so that boot override menu didn't do anything. Ixsystems sent me a new sata dom which I successfully installed and have the machine up and running. I then imported a config file when I first set up the machine but it set up my old pools which I did not expect. I want to import my pools I had right before this crash but when I try import pool it does not list any pools. I really hope my data is not gone.