[nycbug-talk] FreeBSD 9 installation failure

[Brett Wynkoop]

On Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:19:13 -0400 (EDT)
Matt Juszczak <matt at atopia.net> wrote:

> > See http://mfsbsd.vx.sk/.  If you need help after looking at that
> > page let me know.  Pretty straight forward.
> >
> > You can do zfs mirror or zfs stripped using that install image and
> > your hardware.  If you are i386 you need at least 512Mb memory....I
> > know my x86 box crashed at 384M under heavy I/O load.
> >
> > The least I have run on AMD64 has been 4G and zfs is great that way.
> >
> > If you want to go the gmirror route google FreeBSD gmirror onlamp
> > and you will get the article that I follow when I do gmirror
> > installs.  I can never remember all the details.
> 
> The dedicated facility installing FreeBSD for us just reported back
> for the final time:
> 
> "I think we'll have to give up on FreeBSD 9. We tried cdboot,
> bootonly ISOs on two separate chassis with and without RAID. Looks
> like we just can't support that OS."
> 
> I trust them a lot - they've never had any problems with FreeBSD
> 8.x.  Is FreBSD 9.x really that picky?  I've installed it a few times
> without issues.  I'm wondering if the incorrect image is being used -
> the box has 8 GB RAM, so I'm assuming the 64 bit OS (amd64) is
> correct?
> 
> -Matt

Greeting-

I suspect that they are doing something very wrong.  Most NOC operators
dislike doing anything outside what they usually do and are not very
motivated to work with other things.

Get them to set the disks as individual disks...put the raid controller
in JBOD mode and boot the mfsbsd image.  Once they have done that have
them log in and configure the IP address, default route and
resolv.conf.  After that you can log into the box running against the
CD via ssh with login: root password: mfsroot.

Once you have done that you can inspect the system and see if the disks
are seen by the system.  If they are then /root/bin/destroygeom will
wipe the disks and get them ready for install.  You can then
run /root/bin/zfsinstall to install the system.  When the install is
done you can chroot /mnt then add a user and set up rc.conf so that on
reboot you can login via ssh as that user, then su (remember to put the
user in group wheel) and finish setup, do portsnap fetch, build what
you want.

I have a little free time on my hands I can jump on the box booted from
the CD and set it up for you if you need.  Beyond that I can suggest a
colo that can handle this type of install in the local area.  I no
longer work there, but I know the staff and most of them are much
better than the average noc-monkey and I know they have done this type
of install already.

-Brett

-- 

wynkoop at wynn.com
917-642-6924
718-717-5435