How do I get a log of my system for help?

I was running truenas scale 23.10.2 and had restarted the machine. Truenas is now in a boot loop that will load up to the “Console Setup” screen and then immediately reboot.

I have tried going into the command line in the grub screen and ran “zpool status -v” as per suggestion in “Joe’s Rules For Asking for Help”. However it’s seems to be the grub terminal and I don’t think it will has the zpool info. Also I get an [OK] Reached target zfs-volumes.target - ZFS Volumes are ready and a [OK] Finished zfs-mount.service - Mount ZFS filesystems. I just can’t verify the zpool status as the system loops back into reboot even if I quickly enter “6” ( Truenas shell) or “7” (linux shell) on the Console setup.

I did have success in the Grub boot menu by selecting the Previous "TrueNAS Scale 23.10.1.1. It works but I did have to import the 2 zpools. Also I don’t believe it has the same data. Before I shut down the server I had added a user in the 23.10.2 version and that user is not showing in the bootable 23.10.1.1 version. Also a share is now missing in this old version (the dataset that was created on the zpool drive at the same time is there)

What info can I send to help anyone diagnose this issue? Pls keep in mind I’m very new to the terminal and commands so eli5 pls

Do you have a copy of the config?

If not - why not?

I do back up the data drives but not the drive I installed to.

As to why I didn’t - cause I’m 5. Seriously, I don’t have a good reason. I guess I figured if it ever failed I would just reinstall forgetting that I would loose configurations. In fact I don’t know what I should have a copy of or backup (as far as system goes).

The system does boot so the config should be there? Is there a way to stop the boot or copy the config? Perhaps doing the "e’ on the Grub menu and have it just load the shell then I could access where the config file is. I wouldn’t know what to type though

The config file is simply a backup of the TrueNAS configuration. It makes a re-install a lot easier.

I would do the following.

  1. Unplug all the data disks and boot the NAS - does it boot and stay up or does it loop.
  2. If it loops, reinstall, with OS and boot (still no data disks). If it now boots and stays up then shutdown, reattach the data disks and boot. Hopefully it stays up
  3. Import the pool and set up the rest of the NAS again
  4. Use the multi-report by @joeschmuck to ensure you get a copy every so often so a re-install gets a lot easier
1 Like

Thank you. That worked. I unplugged the data disks, booted and it stayed up. Shut it down, attached the drives and everything is back. I didn’t even need to import the pools. Now to go ready the multi-report by @joeschmuck so I can recover easier in the future.