[SOLVED] LiveUSB .457: Config restore fails....

[madgabz]

Hi,
As adviced, I found a CF disk (sony memory stick) and wrote the 457 LiveUSB image to it with Win32 Disk Imager, as I want to test if N4F works with my old 0.7.2.8191 setup first.
I already exported the zfs pools previously, as well as made a backup from my configuration

Inserting and booting from the memstick went fine (took a loong time to get the opensolaris.ko up and running!), but as i log into the webgui, and try restore the configuration file, this is what i'm met with:

Code: Select all

The configuration could not be restored. Invalid file format.

Hmmmm.... opening the xml file reveals version number 8.9, which is the lowest supported version, so that SHOULD be fine. I admit, i use non-standard characters in my password, could that be the problem?

Thanks in advance,
Gabriel S. Hansen

[raulfg3]

Hmmmm.... opening the xml file reveals version number 8.9, which is the lowest supported version, so that SHOULD be fine. I admit, i use non-standard characters in my password, could that be the problem?

not sure sorry.

But if you only want to test, you can go to disk and use the new button "clear & import disk" , when done go to ZFS and import your previosly exported pool.

now you must have your pool online, so you only need to share what you want.

[madgabz]

Yes, i tríed to import my two pools, 1 small mirror-pool, 1 big 2-1tb-disk-stripe, but it said the mirror-pool was defunc'ed! My big stripe-pool was ok, but only after enabling ssh, login and doing a 'zpool import POOLNAME'
The other pool needed -f to import, but i got too scared at that point to continue and do a sync + scrub, so I've rebooted into old system, had to restore config, then sync, to get zfs disks back online. They're now scrubbing....
I'll try and backup the configuration again to a new file, then try again!
Do I have to use LiveUSB or could I use regular image to upgrade my old install?

[raulfg3]

As adviced, I found a CF disk (sony memory stick) and wrote the 457 LiveUSB image to it with Win32 Disk Imager

Sorry, I don't read carefully your first post.

Live USB is intended to work as LIVECD , this mean, you need to install embeded or full on other boot disk ( or USB Key) = is designed for those users that can't have a CD reader, but have several USB, so you boot from liveUSB and install on other USB ( Full or embeded, what you want/need).

once installed on a new USB if you select embeded, you can upgrade from WebGUI, and if yours install is full you can upgrade from liveCd or from liveUSB.

[madgabz]

OK, thanks, Raulg3, i appreciate it very much!

Before i start, here's my setup:
mobo: ASUS M2NPV-MX ACPI BIOS Revision 0702
Southbridge: nForce 430
2 xUltraDMA 133/100/66/33
4 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports Support RAID 0,1,0+1,5,JBOD
NVIDIA MediaShield™ RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD span cross Serial ATA drives
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+
RAM: 2 * 512 MB
Disks:

1. at0: 120 GB System disk
   Pool: Music - Mirrored:
   1. at4: 160 GB
      at6: 160 GB
   Pool: DataRaid1 - Striped:
   1. at8: 1TB
      at10: 1TB

I tried booting liveUSB and burned a LiveCD (OO'er! new 507 version), installed embedded x86 on the USB memstick, and booted from that. Now, i'm getting weird errors, probably related to my nVidia chipset, where NAS4Free recognizes the MediaShield RAID functionality, and thinks, my first pool is a nVidia RAID stripe ar0, even if the nVidia RAID functionality is DISABLED in BIOS! But, thats another story.

OK, so when I boot from USB-CF Embedded install, and do a config restore (with a modded config as per these instructions, I only get my DataRaid1-pool recognized! As per above nVidia problem, I'm getting nervous if NAS4Free will destroy my first Music-pool, zpool import -f Music doesn't work, it says its an unrecognized, possibly damaged pool! OK, whats going on here? I can reach the webgui, but I'm getting nervous about that faulty pool, and decides to boot back to original 0.7.2.8191system.

Trouble begins: Boot up process is stalled several times, first when it tries to load the configuration, and several times after, like when trying to mount local disks. I have to escape the stalled commands with CTRL-C, to continue boot process. Finally, the system comes up, even my Music pool is working!! all services are working including SSHd and my custom installs (Headphones, Sickbeard, Subsonic, etc..) EXCEPT WebGUI for the NAS!!!! It seems, as i was restoring the modified config while booted into the test N4F 507 embedded install, it changed configuration on my ORIGINAL install! wtf? And, because I cannot get to the webgui, i cannot restore to a proper config!
So:

1. Is this a bug, that N4F writes changed configuration to original system disk, or is it a feature?
2. How do I restore the original config, without using the webgui? Manually edit /boot/loader.conf|rc ?

Thanks in Advance,
Gabriel S. Hansen

NOTE:
Here, I have to add, it is NOT possible to install Full ON A CF/MemStick, at least not from within the console menu, and I can't find any proper instructions/help on how to upgrade from embedded to full on a Flash-disk!

[raulfg3]

Here, I have to add, it is NOT possible to install Full ON A CF/MemStick, at least not from within the console menu, and I can't find any proper instructions/help on how to upgrade from embedded to full on a Flash-disk!

It's posible , read this post: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=268

When boot from liveCd or live USB use option 9 ( install/upgrade) in the new menu use option to upgrade to full install.


My suggest is that if you want, do a fresh full install on a new CF, once you boot fine from this new CF, configure by hand all services ( IP, DNS and Gateway in first place, use "clear & import" disk button, and "clear & import RAID.

This must load your RAID in a new fresh config (not a converted from old config), next you need to configure shares and users if needed.
last you need to reinstall your manually added packages like Headphones, Sickbeard, Subsonic.

Remenber that load previosly saved FreeNAS config and convert it to Nas4Free config is for normal ( default install) if you have installed packages by hand you have a not-standart install and is not posible to preserve all changes.


PD: In general is disappointed to use on-board RAID (or hardware RAID), because if your board Dies, you lose all your data ( o at least you need the SAME hardware to mount the RAID).

If possible to you, I suggest, boot from old FreeNAS CF, save (Backup) all your valuable data in a safe place.
Destroy your Hardware RAID, configure BIOS in AHCI mode, delete first & last sector of disk to safe delete embeded RAID config that confuses BSD / N4F

and do a fresh full install on a new CF and configure this time a ZFS Raid ( RaidZ1 or mirror) is more robust that a RAID5 -0 equivalent and several times robust that your actual fake-onboard RAID.

[madgabz]

Again, raul, thanks for your input!
Basically, it seems all my disks have been converted to use the new drive designations, ADAxx, instead of old ATXX, becauce of the ata-driver update in N4F, I think i read somewhere that Dayosuke said this conversion was a 1-way street afair....

When boot from liveCd or live USB use option 9 ( install/upgrade) in the new menu use option to upgrade to full install.
My suggest is that if you want, do a fresh full install on a new CF, once you boot fine from this new CF, configure by hand all services ( IP, DNS and Gateway in first place, use "clear & import" disk button, and "clear & import RAID.

Hmmm, ye, i will start over on fresh install now. I already did a install ON CF, FROM LiveCD, but will retry that:
1. Boot LiveCD
2. Option 9: Install Embedded to CF
3. Reboot to LiveCD again
4. Option 9, Upgrade to Full on CF
Let's see if that works!
Anyway, you're right, i have to start over on all my non-standard application installs, what a bitch, eh?

PD: In general is disappointed to use on-board RAID (or hardware RAID), because if your board Dies, you lose all your data ( o at least you need the SAME hardware to mount the RAID).

I'm fully aware of the problems with using stupid 'fake'-raid from onboard chipsets, which is why I - as already stated - disabled that function in BIOS to begin with. But, as it seems, freenas/nas4free doesnt care about bios, and recognizes the onboard chipset raid functionality anyway. I have never ever configured any hardware based RAID for my freenas system! The only reason there MIGHT have been a reference to a former raid setup on those two disks, is that the two 160GB disks originally were bought and used as a fast boot/system-raid on an old windows XP system. I am not entirely comfortable with trying to erase first and last sectors of those two disks, but as these two doesn't contain superimportant data (already got my music backed up to DataRaid1-pool, lol), but thanks for the heads up on that, might save me some trouble from now on!

I'll be back!

[madgabz]

Sorry, if I seem stupid/slow: HOW exactly do I install a FULL nas4free system on a USB STICK? I understand fully, that i can install embedded to a regular harddisk (a CF-based disk on a IDE-converter is regarded as a regular harddisk), then convert that to FULL.
But I'm trying to install a FULL nas4free TEST system on a 1 GB Sony Memory Stick in a regular Kingston USB Card Reader. There are no options to convert a USB-based embedded system to a full system, or am I mistaken?

[raulfg3]

In wiki you can see that is a good decision to delete first and last sector of used disk when you decide to use in Nas4Free to avoid problems with metadata stored in this sector ( ZFS, on board Raid and hardware RAID , store his config in this sectors to know how the raid is config and what disk is each disk in the raid). <-this is part of the magic of ZFS if you change the board or the SATA controller, your pool still can be detected and mounted because this info exist , but is a problematic info if you want to use the disk in a new pool or in a new RAID because the info still is live until you erase it.

http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=faq:0129

[raulfg3]

Sorry, if I seem stupid/slow: HOW exactly do I install a FULL nas4free system on a USB STICK? I understand fully, that i can install embedded to a regular harddisk (a CF-based disk on a IDE-converter is regarded as a regular harddisk), then convert that to FULL.
But I'm trying to install a FULL nas4free TEST system on a 1 GB Sony Memory Stick in a regular Kingston USB Card Reader. There are no options to convert a USB-based embedded system to a full system, or am I mistaken?

You can do in first time a full install on the 1GB sony MMS, you only need to boot from liveCD or liveUSB and select option 9, in the next menu use full install, when promt about size of install select 900MB ( if you use default 384MB suggested by Nas4Free), you can't install aditional packages because your "/" can be full ( out of space).


PD: Remember that is recomended to do embeded install if you use USB stick or MMS but you can do a full install in your USB Key or your Memory Stick if you use a good brand and designed for a profesional/ production enviroment).

I personally use a 4GB CF to install full Nas4Free and have no write exhaust problems.

And you can allways define your logs and databases on the data disk: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1229&p=4599&hilit=move+logs#p4599

[madgabz]

OK, tried installing FULL x64 .509 like you said: I was too scared to destroy arrays, because at no point was it clear, that choosing option 9 and FULL install too HDD+SWAP+DATA would EVENTUALLY lead me to the option of choosing install device! Thank You for holding my hand, there, Raulfg3!
Oh well, installing full x64 on my memstick didn't pan out, it seems my poor old Sony Memstick couldn't cope with a full install, though it behaved nicely when testing a few LiveUSB-images....
Finally, decided to take the plunge and install 509 full on System HDD. It came up beautifully, and i at least got my big DataRaid1 recognized and imported.... As most of my services was relocated to run from this array, it was easy to get them back online.

Regarding that presumably lost Music-pool.... Well, as you said, I went into BIOS, enabled nVidia RAID for SATA ports 1 and 2 where the two array disks resided, and VOILA, F10 during boot and i could go into nVidia RAID config, and delete that array. rebooted and disabled nvidia raid entirely, and as N4F came up, no problems with detecting a faulty ar0 nVidia stripe array. I added the two disks under Disk Management, started up a bash shell w ssh, zpool import Music, and VOILA! - it's imported. Back to webgui, 'zfs' - 'Configuration' - Synchronize all and overwrite, and, lo and behold, My Music-pool is back and looking healthy!

W00T!

Thanks a bunch, raulfg3!!! Am I happy i decided to go ZFS only!!!!

/Gabriel S. Hansen