USB config troubles

[mhlangensiepen]

OK now I am getting really frustrated. Had a working RAID1 config with 2x1TB SATA. Boto was from LiveCD with 2GB USB Key. This was working and I could reboot and all would be fine.

This morning I shut the server down, plugged a HP T1500 into a spare USB port and rebooted. NAS4FREE came up with a blank config. I have spent 2 hours trying to restore the config, checking and reformatting the USB stick and so on and still no luck. At the moment, the USB stick is formatted as FAT. I created a directory on it called conf and copied my last config backup to it renaming it as conf.xml on the way.

No matter what I do, NAS4FREE will not either reload a config or save a new one! I have tried with numerous USB sticks and nothing seems to work. NAS4FREE is aware of the stick as it shows when I plug or unplug it.

Does anyone have any ideas please? This is the second time I have lost my array config (with over 200GB of data on it) but I'm not worried about the data - this is just a copy and we won't be going live for 10 days.

Thanks

Mike

[armandh]

when you boot from the cd set the Nic [step 1]and the Ip address [step 2]
then with a blank fat formatted usb in the nas go to the Gui at the client computer and use the restore option
restore the previously saved [down loaded] config file

re boot the nas and it should read from the restored config on the usb stick

back with FN7 I changed the name of a saved config file to match that of a file inside a config folder on a floppy
it did work but the naming of the file and folder I would assume has to be exact
just setting the nic and IP and then restoring is much easier

your original problem I suspect was that a non config usb storage was polled first
finding no config Nas4Free produced the default.

it is because of all the odd USB problems I use these for the OS and config
http://www.logicsupply.com/categories/f ... sh_modules
also available in SATA and 44 pin PATA

[mhlangensiepen]

That finally worked but the USB was formatted as FAT32!!! It didn't seem to work with just FAT. I'm a bit worried about the status of the Raid array - what is the best way to check the filesystem for errors? I can see al my files there and they seem to be intact.

Thanks very much for your help. I'll have a look at the SATA version of those boot modules (I could NOT get the system to boot off an Embedded USB Memory Stick).

[armandh]

if you can see the files and open them chances are all is well
[without the config the drives are not mounted]
booting from a USB stick [rather than just storing the config there]
first requires a bios that will allow usb boot and have it enabled.

then do not count on all the USB ports to boot but usually the back panel ones are ok
some bios will not boot from expansion cards [PATA, SATA or USB]
avoid using a USB stick over 2Gb [a problem booting with some older P4 vintage computer bios]
lastly use step 9 on the embedded live CD to transfer the boot stuff

going from a downloaded image file to the usb stick has not the assurance of a working os that the live cd transfer does. [IMHO]

again, I do not use USB on the production NAS

I did test the move of the saved file and it works in NAS4Free as I found it to in FreeNAS

the saved config file needs to be renamed config.xml
it needs to be placed in a folder named conf
that folder must be placed in a fat formatted medium that the computer and NAS4Free will read

I once used a 8Mb camera OEM flash card plugged in to a usb adapter
8 Mb was OK as the config.xml file is very small, only about 20Kb [that is Kilo]

this is a needless work around until you need it for recovery
then it is nice to know it works

PS if you are moving the drives to different hardware
after restoring you will likely need the 1 & 2 steps again for the new nic on the old config.

[mhlangensiepen]

Thanks for all the hints. All my USB sticks were 4GB or greater - I'll have to look for a 2GB one. I updated the bios on the motherboard just in case but the motherboard is only 2 years old and definitely supports USB boot.

I think what I'll do is get another PC running with USB or SATA Flash boot and then just transfer data across once I am happy with the reliability.

Thanks again - most helpful!

Mike

[shakky4711]

Hello,

just my few ideas...

An only 2 years young board must be able to boot from USB without any issues. Some boards require you declare the stick as a harddisk manually in the bios settings, then it gets corect identified.
Read the manual to locate USB Port no 1 und use this one for the usb boot device. Some boards have limited the boot capacity to not all usb ports. Furthermore when the stick ist plugged to port no1 it gets initialized at first during boot up, so other devives plugged in afterwards will not bring your setup in trouble.

When you boot from the LiveCD and install the embedded version the size from he usb stick does not matter, my latest setup is booting from a 8GB Transcend JetFlash600.

I totally aggree to ARMANDH, his suggested usb/sata flash drives are much more reliable than standard consumer usb-pendrives. But his suggested brand is not available in all countries, TRANSCEND has these types of professional storage devices likewise available, found on their website at section "Industrial". I have 4 from the IDE-Flash drives for my machines running successfull.

Generally when your config is lost the data on the disks is still present, setting up NAS4Free again makes it available in a few minutes again, so it is normally never lost.

Always backup your config file by the WebGUI to your client PC, so you are able to do a fresh install within 5 minutes including all indvidual settings.


Shakky

[armandh]

a round up of the last bits of information

I tried a few things on my newest MOBO [EVGA Z68]
shown here booting from a SATA flash drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcfeRPWCBWM
ALL the 2.0 USB ports booted
I know my sons 3.0 USB stick is backward compatible to a 2.0 port
but it is full of stuff so I could not test it
the 2.0 usb flash did NOT boot in the 3.0 port

there is nothing wrong with the live CD boot
with some flash storage for the config

it all loads to the memory [ram-drive] any way