Added HDD not detected by FreeNas 8

[TDPsGM]

This is the hardware that I am currently running:

Platform ASUS E35 M1-M Pro - AMD E-350 Processor
Memory 3678MB (Patriot Gamer 2 Series DDR3 4GB PC3-12800)
2 x Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K3000 SATA III Internal Drive w/ 64MB Cache
OS Version FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p3
FreeNas Build: FreeNAS-8.0.2-RELEASE-amd64 (8288)

I initially just attached 1 drive only (both are brand new and unformatted).

The install went off perfectly, and I am just playing with it trying to learn how to use it.

The Problem:

I've attached the 2nd drive, and was going to make a 2nd volume with which to tinker with, but I am unable to create it as FreeNas 8 can't SEE the 2nd drive.
It is Detected in the BIOS.

I know you can't add a disk to an existing pool, but I should be able to add a disk to the system to create ANOTHER pool - shouldn't I?

With the looking around that I have done, am I to understand that there is potentially a Hardware issue with FreeNas 8?

Thanks for your assistance.

 

[ProtoSD]

There are at least 3 ways to check to see what disks FreeNAS sees using the command line:

sysctl kern.disks

camcontrol devlist

dmesg | less

Give any or all of those a try and see what you can discover.

 

[TDPsGM]

Posted messages during the Boot

There are at least 3 ways to check to see what disks FreeNAS sees using the command line:

sysctl kern.disks

camcontrol devlist

dmesg | less

Give any or all of those a try and see what you can discover.

Thanks Protosd - but I am not sure where to enter THAT code. Do I do it AT the Machine itself by selecting '9' or "Shell" after it has finished booting?

And How do I get out of the shell once I am done there? Is there a handbook of basic codes for working at the command line level?


In the mean time, I took a couple of pictures during the boot process of what was being posted and it looks like both drives are being recognized as can be seen in the image below (Boot_FreeNas8_5.jpg). I am not sure if this means anything, but I thought that I'd throw it out there for comments.




I have attached most of the post images in case they were helpful.

Again, Thank you for the assistance.

 

[TDPsGM]

command line results

Before I give you the results I want to mention 2 things that may or may not have a bearing on the situation:

During the install AHCI was not enabled in the BIOS. Would this have had anything to do with my problem?
&
I have updated the BIOS to the latest version to see if that would help.


COMMAND LINE RESULTS

I ran the first 2 commands

sysctl kern.disks
&
camcontrol devlist

and this is what I saw (if I am reading this right - the system can see the disks):



Then I ran the command:

dmesg | less

and again on the last page it looks like the system can 'SEE' the drive.



I have included all the images for that command in the attachments to this post.

Any Ideas?

Again, Thanks for the assistance.
p.s. How does one get OUT of the SHELL interface once you are in it?

 

[ProtoSD]

Hi TDPsGM,

Sorry I wasn't around to answer your earlier questions about the console. To get out of the shell you just type 'exit' and press enter.

It certainly seems like the GUI should be letting you use that disk. Can you do another command and post the results?

gpart show

 

[TDPsGM]

gpart_show

Here you go:



Is there a way to save what is posted in Shell to a text file of some sort?
Taking the pictures is not hard, I was just wondering if there was a simple way to copy and paste that I don't know about.

... regardless, there it is.

Am I to understand that each " => " is a device the system can see . . . with the da0s1 being the Flash Drive that FreeNas8 is on?

... and the reason that we don't see a "da1" MBR is that the new drive has not been formatted - is that right?

It is a RAW drive (new, right out of the box). I had understood that some people where having trouble with drives that had been formatted before. If that is the case, we can take that out of the picture.

If it does need formatting (for some reason) I am familiar with using the gparted program, and the older Ranish 2.43 for setting partition tables and tweaking the MBR ( if you think that that might help ).

I Do have another 1TB drive that is currently in NTFS format that I could probably throw in there to see if FreeNas8 can SEE it. If I get a chance to do that I'll do so.

Thanks again for the assistance!

 

[ProtoSD]

Here you go:

Is there a way to save what is posted in Shell to a text file of some sort?

Yes, you can redirect the output to a text file like this for example: gpart show > /mnt/tank/output.txt

But then the trick is getting the text file off to another system. The console doesn't allow you to copy & paste.

Am I to understand that each " => " is a device the system can see . . . with the da0s1 being the Flash Drive that FreeNas8 is on?

... and the reason that we don't see a "da1" MBR is that the new drive has not been formatted - is that right?[

Yes, but something seems strange... da0 & da0s1 are the same drive, but it looks like there are 2 differents sets of partition tables???

It is a RAW drive (new, right out of the box). I had understood that some people where having trouble with drives that had been formatted before. If that is the case, we can take that out of the picture.

If it does need formatting (for some reason) I am familiar with using the gparted program, and the older Ranish 2.43 for setting partition tables and tweaking the MBR ( if you think that that might help ).

I Do have another 1TB drive that is currently in NTFS format that I could probably throw in there to see if FreeNas8 can SEE it. If I get a chance to do that I'll do so.

Thanks again for the assistance!

The GUI *should* see that disk and write a partition table on it and then it would show up with 'gpart show'. I was thinking it might have some type of partition table that was corrupt or something, but since it doesn't appear in gpart show, it seems clean.

If you know what you're doing with Gparted, you can create a GPT partition table instead of a MBR partition table, but I think that might cause more problems. I guess you could try it and if it doesn't work wipe the partition table. GPT uses 2 copies of the partition table, one at the beginning & one at the end, so they both need to be wiped if it doesn't work. If you do create a GPT partition table on the disk, don't create any partitions, just let it write the blank partition table.

I'd try to explain more, but I've gotta run right now. I'll try and check back later.

 

[TDPsGM]

Problem Found - HDD Drive WAS Being Seen . . .

On a hunch I decided to attach a drive that was significantly different to the installation - a 250 GB Hitachi Drive - Hoping that it might help me SEE what is going on.

I had assumed that when the Drives were added to the system that they would be numbered in this order:
ada0, then ada1, then ada2, etc --- apparently this isn't the case (if someone could clarify why we are seeing what we are seeing it would be appreciated).

I removed all partitions on the 250 GB Drive with Gparted, created a GPT Partition Table, and left the drive unformatted.
Then I connected to the system and tried to create a new volume. Here is what I see NOW in the GUI:



It was the ada0 that was throwing me.

I was expecting to see both ada0 and ada1 because there was already a 2 TB drive there with data on it and I thought the drive numbering STARTED at ada0.
So when I went to create the additional volume, I thought that it would show BOTH Drives in the list. I guess it doesn't show drives already in use as a protective measure (which is good). I just didn't understand that.

In case you were wondering, I ran the other commands that were given earlier in shell and this is what I see:

NOTE:
Hitachi HTS543225L9A300 FBEOC40C ==> is the 250 GB Drive
Hitachi HDS723020BLA642 MN60A5C0 ==> is the 2 TB Drive already in the system. (By the way, the other 2 TB drive that I was trying to install is named EXACTLY the same when your run the commands in shell and so I didn't know which was which . . . and of course I ASSUMED that the one with data on it was the one labelled ada0 was it when it WAS NOT. (Doh! My bad.)




So, I'll create a volume on that new test drive and re-run the commands and post the results.

It looks, however, like I just didn't understand what I was seeing/understand how FreeNAS8 does things - but I am learning.

Comments on what I have shown would be appreciated.