We’ve been having problems installing NexentaStor 3.1.1 on one of our storage servers using two Kingston quad-channel USB drives.
The idea was to maximise storage capacity and utilise all available HDD bays, while running NexentaStor off two mirrored high-speed USB drives.
The problem we encountered was that installation hang on “Updating Boot Archive” message. It was quite surprising that we were unable to find a workable solution, while this issue was extremely easy to resolve.
The Dell PowerVault x300 server we used (this step will be very similar to any Dell PowerVault or PowerEdge server) by default emulates USB drives as Floppy drives (even when set to Auto mode). This emulation type not only slows down USB stick operations, but causes NexentaStor to fail installing.
To resolve – run system setup (F2 at the boot time), navigate to the Boot options menu item, select USB emulation type. Change Emulation type for all available USB devices (except CD/DVD drive) to HDD.
Save and reboot.
Run NexentaStor installation again.