[SOLVED] 6.6.6 update failed? Server crashes on unraid boot

[davis999]

Hi folks,

 

So i just ran an unraid OS update (6.6.5 --> 6.6.6). Now my server is stuck in an infinite reboot loop. Prior to this it was running strong. The server gets to the unRAID spash screen, and then launches unRAID. I see two lines that state "Loading /bzimage... ok" and "Loading /bzroot... ok", then it reboots. Sadly i dont have a backup of the flash drive prior to doing the update. I mistakenly thought it would be a safe update since it is a minor version increment. I should also mention that before i ran the unraid OS i did update a few plugins. I did try safe mode launch of unraid but it has same issue. Not sure what i can do now. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm afraid i'm in a bad place here. Thanks for any help.

 

-Dave

 

Edited January 8, 2019 by davis999

[itimpi]

Do you have a keyboard attached?    If so you might try using the GUI boot option instead as others have reported this can fix such an issue (although I have no idea why).

[davis999]

Just gave that a try @itimpi but no luck. I've tried all of the safe/gui mode options and they all cause a reboot. Appreciate the suggestion though.

[itimpi]

Another couple of suggestions to try and pin down the cause:

• Download the ZIP of the 6.6.6 release from the Limetech site and copy all the bz* type files in the zip to the root of the flash drive.   This would allow for the fact that one of them might not have written correctly.
• Prepare another fresh flash drive using the 6.6.6 release.  That will allow you to validate if it is an inherent issue with the 6.6.6 release or something else on the flash drive.

 

[JorgeB]

You can still download v6.6.5 from the download page to confirm that is the problem, you can also try redoing your flahsdrive.

[davis999]

I just took a look at the contents of the flash drive on another machine, and something is definitely wrong. A bunch of the files are showing with zero size, including some of the unraid "bz" files. Wondering if my flash drive has possibly become corrupted?

 

In other news, i did find a backup of my flash drive from 6.6.5 so i think ill try transferring that to a new flash drive and booting up. The only downside with this backup is that i did make a drive change since that backup was done, but im assuming i should be able to re-assign the drives and mark parity as trusted to get back up and running.

 

The only other thing i'm unclear on is regarding the unraid license key. I understand it is linked to the flash drive UUID. I think i read that if i boot up with a diff flash drive and same key, that unraid will ask me to migrate key for use with new flash drive, or something like that? Can anyone confirm?

[JonathanM]

9 minutes ago, davis999 said:

The only downside with this backup is that i did make a drive change since that backup was done, but im assuming i should be able to re-assign the drives and mark parity as trusted to get back up and running.

Was your array set to auto start? If so, you won't get that chance. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH BACKUPS THAT AREN'T CURRENT. You can lose data very easily that way.

 

Depending on how you did the upgrade, there should be a folder already on the flash drive containing the previous files.

[davis999]

No i dont have array set to auto-start. That sounds like a dangerous setting, if enabled. The fact that my flash drive is seemingly not in good shape makes me wary of using the files in "previous" folder. 

 

So i just tried something and managed to get the server to successfully boot up. I ran a chkdsk against the the flash drive to correct any errors. The files that chkdsk flagged were mainly files in the "previous" folder. I replaced all of the zero size files with new ones taken from 6.6.6 release downloaded from unraid site. I restored the network.cfg from the 6.6.5 backup that i found. All other config files appear to be readable on the flash drive. With that, i attempted to boot up server and i was able to get into web interface. I noticed that some settings were lost, mainly the cache drive assignments (not a big concern), and the server name was reverted to 'tower'. The data disk assignments were correct. I did not start array though. I think it's best if i move my flash drive contents over to a new flash drive before i attempt to get the array back up and running. 

 

Anyone have any concerns with doing that? (moving to new flash drive)

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, davis999 said:

I understand it is linked to the flash drive UUID. I think i read that if i boot up with a diff flash drive and same key, that unraid will ask me to migrate key for use with new flash drive

Exactly correct.

[davis999]

Alright, so here's the latest... I setup a new flash drive with the latest 6.6.6 release and transferred over my backed up config files, registration key, parity logs etc to the new flash drive. I booted up my server and was successfully able to access the web interface. All my config was retained, including shares, drive assignments, etc. Prior to starting array, I went through the process of replacing my registration key using Tools --> Registration. After completing the registration update, i started up my array and it's up and running. A parity check was automatically kicked off. Not sure what triggered the parity check exactly but it makes sense to let it finish just to be sure all is well. Going to mark this as resolved. 

Thanks again for the help @itimpi, @jonathanm, @johnnie.black  Much appreciated. You can't beat the great support of the UnRAID community!

Edited January 8, 2019 by davis999