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As the question insinuates, I'm green to networking, but had built my own NAS box a few years ago. Here's my build for reference:

  • ASRock C2550D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard
  • Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC
  • 4x Seagate 4TB NAS HDD

I set it up as RAID-Z2

Everything had always run smoothly. Upgraded to FreeNAS 11.1 STABLE release. Until about a month ago when I received the following warning on the dashboard:

Critical error: The boot volume state is ONLINE: One or more devices has experienced an error resulting in data corruption. Applications may be affected.

Doing some reddit and google searches, looked like I needed to do a fresh OS install. Which I attempted, but then when I shut down the NAS box to do a reinstall of FreeNAS, my motherboard wouldn't "POST". not even sure i'm describing that correct... got no VGA output, couldn't connect to the network, couldn't boot from USB. I accessed the board thru IPMI, worked with ASRock customer support, and they said I should submit an RMA and return the board under warranty (they didn't explain what it was that they saw that required a warranty claim).

This is fine, I suppose. But my main question is whether my data shares are safe. So far the reddit resopnse and the ASRock customer support have said they should be safe, as the motherboard and the OS dont operate on the hard drives themselves.

Looking for reassurance, I guess.

dasMetzger
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Your data pool should be safe

Anyway, it is easy to test: just connect the four disks to another mainboard, boot from a FreeNAS USB key, and try to import your pool.

shodanshok
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  • how would I do that without a board that supports ECC RAM? do the disks need to be connected in any certain way (like use the same type and numbered SATA ports)? I do have my config saved to my PC, I was told to load that after booting with a new FreeNAS install. – dasMetzger Jan 17 '18 at 16:29
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    You do not need ECC RAM for importing a ZFS pool. Moreover, the disk themselves store enough metadata for auto-importing even with missing external configuration file (ie: `zpool.cache` file) and/or with changed physical devices name/path – shodanshok Jan 17 '18 at 17:05
  • how do i import my pool? i just got the motherboard back and did a fresh install of FreeNAS on a new USB drive. i have the saved config from before i sent out my motherboard. it's of a different Release level though. does that matter? – dasMetzger Feb 17 '18 at 05:06
  • From a command line shell, try issuing `zpool import `. From the GUI, you can do that from the `Volume` page – shodanshok Feb 17 '18 at 07:36
  • do I do that before or after uploading the config I saved from before? can my config be from release 11.0 while now running 11.1? – dasMetzger Feb 17 '18 at 13:21
  • Try importing you config first, you should have no problem going from 11.0 to 11.1 – shodanshok Feb 17 '18 at 14:02