@emmdee said in Netgate 8200 Max pfsense+ v22.05.1 local disk boot after install.:
After install, at least on the 7100 devices, I can always just load the boot menu and choose the internal disk after installing and it bypasses the USB as expected. This avoids having to get someone physically near the device the pull the USB for initial boot.
I do realize the installer instructions say to physically remove the USB to reboot, however it also says this for the 7100 device and it works fine choosing from the boot loader. The reason I'm trying to avoid physically removing the USB for each of these installs (I have to do several of these) is because these devices are located globally and it can take days for an international support request to the local datacenter to pull the drive, then I "hope" it works, and they have to then reinstall the drive when I'm done again anyways (for ECL usage) and there is back & forth with the facility crews and it can take days just to work with the datacenter depending on their location and facility SLA and it costs my company money every time I open a remote hands request.
Screenshot hopefully gives a good indicator of what I'm seeing.
[image: Screenshot-2024-02-22-at-12-12-27.png]
Here is the menu option after selecting < to show the path:
[image: Screenshot-2024-02-22-at-13-10-32.png]
I can boot to USB with no issue and reinstall as needed. I've tried reinstalling several times and with different options.
……
I'm on a serial connection so it's a little difficult to catch all messages.
I'm just looking for some insight or ideas on what I could try or diagnose remotely over a serial console without giving on-site teams the runaround. I can hop into an installer shell chrooted….
Let’s ask one question: how You connect to the pfSense itself in data center:
by SSH on a dedicated uplink;
OR
by “Special request for KVM access” to DC crew for extra payment?
Because of issues like this I ALWAYS prefer bare metal servers that have 2xPSU and BMC (iRMC, iRMC, etc…) on NON-SHARED (multiplexed) ETH.
And Yes, 2 physical uplinks better than 1 (even in same DC, even link aggregator switch are above in the same rack).
Even TOC in this case may be decrease because less numbers of “Special Requests” to DC crew.
But You ALWAYS have FULL server MANAGEMENT, MONITORING through SSL serts, and even MOUNTING REMOTE STORAGE.
