Problems while booting - new installation

[matclou]

Hello everybody,

while installing FreeNas 11.3 on a completely new system, the first time I booted from an SSD, error messages appear.

In concrete terms, this message appears first:

Mounting from zfs:freenas-boot/ROOT/default failed with error 5: retry for 2 more seconds

Because I booted in Verbose note, it seems like FreeNAS fails at the following step:

WARNING: Unable to alias gptid/a8910852-583e-11ea-a58a-ac1f6bd4b05e to enc@n306686369656d30/type@0/slot@7/elmdescQSlot_06/p2/gptid/a8910852-503e-11ea-a58a-ac16bd4b05e - path too long

The mainboard of the system is a Supermicro X11SCM-F .

Do either of you have any idea what could be causing this? We're pretty clueless (and are absolute beginners at FreeNAS)

Kind regards

Matclou

PS: For widening audiences, I also posted this thread in the German part of the board - https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/probleme-beim-booten.82300/

 

[hervon]

Sadly you did not provide your hardware setup as requested in this forum.

Just to make sure did you follow those steps ?
1) Copy the FreeNAS INSTALLER to a USB or CD/DVD.
2) Boot from the installer then install FreeNAS to your SSD.
Those 2 steps can be done from another computer or through IPMI.

2. Installing and Upgrading — FreeNAS®11.3-RELEASE User Guide Table of Contents

www.ixsystems.com

 

[matclou]

Hi Hervon,

sorry, I forgot!

Here are the hardware details:

Mainboard: Supermicro X11SCM-F
SSD: WD Green SSD 240 GB 2282
HDD: 3x WD Red 4 TB
Processor: Intel Pentium G5400T
RAM: Kingston 8GB DDR4-2400MHZ ECC

Is anything missing?

Sadly you did not provide your hardware setup as requested in this forum.

Just to make sure did you follow those steps ?
1) Copy the FreeNAS INSTALLER to a USB or CD/DVD.
2) Boot from the installer then install FreeNAS to your SSD.
Those 2 steps can be done from another computer or through IPMI.

2. Installing and Upgrading — FreeNAS®11.3-RELEASE User Guide Table of Contents

www.ixsystems.com

I copied the FreeNAS installer to an USB stick and installed it via BIOS on the SSD. I first tried with UEFI but hat similar problems. (Didn't use another computer or IPMI for this).

 

[hervon]

Nice setup. Seems you did the right steps. Here are a few troubleshooting suggestions:
1) Disconnect all other drives before booting from the SSD. In case they would interfere.
2) Reinstall FreeNAS on another media like a USB flash drive. In case something is wrong with the SSD.
3) Reinstall the installer on another USB flash drive. In case the installer is corrupted.

Those suggestions are just guesses. Hope you get through!

 

[matclou]

I tried Option No. 2 and it really helped, now I am in the console setup. However, the FreeNAS does not automatically get an IP adress for the web interface.

However, the device has already an IP adress at my hom network, but when typing it into the browser, I only get to a web interface of the SUPERMICRO mainboard.

 

[hervon]

I don't understand what you mean with web interface. I guess you are connected to the IPMI interface. You need one cable to the IPMI port AND one cable to one of the lan ports. Normally the acquired freenas ip from the router is supposed to appear on the console. Example :

 

[matclou]

Exactly, I don't get the web interface IP like in your screenshot.

I also noticed that I attached the LAN cable to to the IPMI port and tried to connect it to one of the other LAN ports. However I still don't get an IP adress for FreeNAS. Is it really necessary to connect two cables to the LAN ports permanently? Is it not possible to deactivate IPMI?

 

[matclou]

A short update: I connected two cables to the NAS (1x nornal, 1x IPMI) and now the system runs. I have to try it with the SSD and the two cables again, although the error messages were different then.

I am also wondering: Is it possible to connect both LAN cables via a swith to the NAS? I am asking this because I only have one LAN Port at the place, where the NAS stands. Currently I am using a 10 meter LAN cable, which is not really practical :)

 

[Redcoat]

I am also wondering: Is it possible to connect both LAN cables via a switch to the NAS?

Yes, indeed it is.

 

[matclou]

And is it also possible to deactivate the IPMI? Or do you recommend to connect it? I am not sure for what it is important.

 

[Redcoat]

My recommendation is that you find the most comfortable way for you to keep it active. IPMI allows you to access your server's hardware configuration, many operating parameters and also the FreeNAS console without having a monitor connected to the VGA port on your mobo (often called "headless mode").

I don't have your motherboard but I took a quick look at the manual - you have a the dedicated IPMI port and also a "shared" mode where the IPMI gui is available on one of the LAN ports as well as the server LAN interface. There are options to configure these in the BIOS setup.

My own experience with the shared mode on earlier SuperMicro boards has been a bit frustrating so I would always direct connect an Ethernet cable to the IPMI port. You could decide just to swap a single cable over from the LAN port to the IPMI port when you want to access the IPMI functions, but surely it's better to invest in an inexpensive switch and provide yourself with additional LAN ports, one of which to use for IPMI.

 

[matclou]

Thank you! I think we will indeed buy a switch, this sounds good to me ;-)

We will now try to reinstall FreeNAS on our SSD, because it was not planned to run everything on a USB stick. As described in the initial post, we initially had problems to mount it on the SSD. We'll maybe come later back with new questions... ;-)

 

[pschatz100]

I don't understand what you mean with web interface. I guess you are connected to the IPMI interface. You need one cable to the IPMI port AND one cable to one of the lan ports. Normally the acquired freenas IP from the router is supposed to appear on the console.

This is not correct. You can use one cable for both IPMI and Freenas. There are multiple ethernet interfaces on the motherboard. One is dedicated for IPMI while the other two can be used for your network. The other ethernet connections will still allow you to access IPMI. You do not need to use the ethernet interface that is dedicated for IPMI - unless you want to use two ethernet cables for some reason.

You do not have to waste your money on a switch.

Check your motherboard manual for advice about setting up the motherboard and which ethernet connection to use. Keep in mind that you will still need to assign an IP address for IPMI and a different IP address for FreeNAS.

 

[Apollo]

@matclou , One question, if you have only one LAN outlet and you use it for Freenas, how will you be using Freenas? Do you have other computers on the LAN or is this the outlet from your internet provider?
Either way, I would still recommend a switch or better an unmannaged router.
If your connection is in fact LAN or WAN to your ISP, it is possible you have a maximum number of devices that can get assigned an IP. For being able to use more devices you may need to register them.
I would suggest you learn how to use IPMI, one of the benefit is to use it and mount a Virtual CD/DVD which point to the Freenas ISO file. This way, you won't need a USB key or other media to proceed with the install of Freenas.

 

[matclou]

Many thanks for your input! We have a few small tasks that still need to be done on our NAS and we will probably come back later to find a permanent solution for IPMI access. Maybe I'll also have some new questions for this thread! ;-)