Additional NIC is NOT recognized in Truenas

Hattan.hala

Cadet
Joined
Aug 2, 2021
Messages
1
Hello,

I Just set up a new Truenas server.

I prefer to have 2 interfaces in my NAS device so I added a new NIC since the motherboard I have only came with 1.

the setup went fine, everything is working, however, Truenas didn't recognize my new network card.
After doing some testing on windows, I found that the new NIC is working just fine and windows can recognize the new interface.

Unfortunately, only Truenas was not able to see the new interface.

I've tried to run various commands, the system doesn't see it.

I tried moving it from one port to another (I have 2) but the results remain the same.

Can someone suggest another course of action or commands I can utilize to troubleshoot the problem?

thanks.

I am using:

TrueNAS-12.0-U4.1
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-HD3 LGA1150
CPU: Intel I7-4770
RAM: 32 GB DDR3
HD: (1) 120GB SSD Kingstone OS Drive & (3) WDRed 2TB @ Raid Z
HD Controllers: 6 x SATA 6Gb/s
Network Cards: 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller (On-board) & added TP-Link 10GB PCIe Network Card (TX401)-PCIe (the one is not recognized)
 

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,681
Many manufacturers do not provide FreeBSD drivers for their hardware, which means that someone has to port a Linux driver (if one is available in source code form, which it often isn't) or try to reverse-engineer one from scratch. Even when one is, quite often a random ethernet card's ability to function in a NAS isn't that great, because typical NAS use is extremely demanding.

We have a great section on recommended 10 gig ethernet hardware:

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/10-gig-networking-primer.42/

and on hardware selection in general.

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,176
They don't even tell you what controller they use. That, together with the fact that the whole card looks like a straight rebadge of an Asus card, means that it is almost certainly an Acquantia NIC. There's been a bit of a saga with the drivers for those things on FreeBSD.
 

NugentS

MVP
Joined
Apr 16, 2020
Messages
2,945
Stick with Chelsio / Intel NIC's
 

Faravid

Cadet
Joined
Oct 26, 2021
Messages
1
TP-Link TX401 works fine in TrueNAS-12.0-U6.
Yes, it's Acquantia NIC.

Combo I have been testing it for a day now:
- TrueNAS server with TX401
- Mikrotik CSS610-8G-2S+IN with 2 x Mikrotik's own 10Gbps SFP-modules.
- Desktop PC with 2.5G integrate NIC (MSI B550 Tomahawk, Realtek chip)
- 5 meters of CAT6 wiring to the switch and 2 meters from switch to server

I have been running backups for steady 2.5Gbps for a couple of hours now
 

emsicz

Explorer
Joined
Aug 12, 2021
Messages
78
Many manufacturers do not provide FreeBSD drivers for their hardware, which means that someone has to port a Linux driver (if one is available in source code form, which it often isn't) or try to reverse-engineer one from scratch. Even when one is, quite often a random ethernet card's ability to function in a NAS isn't that great, because typical NAS use is extremely demanding.

We have a great section on recommended 10 gig ethernet hardware:

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/10-gig-networking-primer.42/

and on hardware selection in general.

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
I didn’t find any recommended hardware in the topic linked. It’s a wall of text with academic lecture on networking. Is there a simple list of tried/know to work PCIE networking cards?
 

nabsltd

Contributor
Joined
Jul 1, 2022
Messages
114
I didn’t find any recommended hardware in the topic linked
The "What Card Do I Pick?" section didn't jump out at you?

But, I will note that much of that article was written around the time FreeNAS 11 was released, and the underlying BSD of TrueNAS Core has changed the landscape a bit. In addition, TrueNAS Scale is based on Linux, and in that world, Intel NICs are the absolute king, with Broadcom a close second.
 

jgreco

Resident Grinch
Joined
May 29, 2011
Messages
18,681
I didn’t find any recommended hardware in the topic linked. It’s a wall of text with academic lecture on networking. Is there a simple list of tried/know to work PCIE networking cards?

Yeah, you actually do need to read the thread to get the info. Fortunately the end result can be summarized without a lot of work:

1) By far the best choice is the Chelsio T520-CR card, which is a card that iXsystems uses or used to use in their TrueNAS product.

2) The Intel X520 is an excellent choice but is limited to PCIe 2.0. It has awesome compatibility with almost every OS and works great with TrueNAS. Other Intel cards generally work well but some like the X710 have a steep learning curve for firmware updates and tweaking.

3) Other cards such as the Solarflare 6122 or ConnectX-3 cards come with caveats but can be made to work. Avoid Broadcom cards or other cards from companies that do not specialize in high performance networking.

The fact that these suggestions are older cards is not a mistake. It takes some work to get these things working well, and finding all the performance-impacting issues are left to those of us who might be actually trying to use these cards to the max.
 

emsicz

Explorer
Joined
Aug 12, 2021
Messages
78
Yeah, you actually do need to read the thread to get the info. Fortunately the end result can be summarized without a lot of work:

1) By far the best choice is the Chelsio T520-CR card, which is a card that iXsystems uses or used to use in their TrueNAS product.

2) The Intel X520 is an excellent choice but is limited to PCIe 2.0. It has awesome compatibility with almost every OS and works great with TrueNAS. Other Intel cards generally work well but some like the X710 have a steep learning curve for firmware updates and tweaking.

3) Other cards such as the Solarflare 6122 or ConnectX-3 cards come with caveats but can be made to work. Avoid Broadcom cards or other cards from companies that do not specialize in high performance networking.

The fact that these suggestions are older cards is not a mistake. It takes some work to get these things working well, and finding all the performance-impacting issues are left to those of us who might be actually trying to use these cards to the max.
That is a great answer, just not to my quesiton.
Is there a simple list of tried/know to work PCIE networking cards?
So... no is the answer. This is what I needed, for future reference.

TypeSupportNo. of connectionsConnection typePrice
Chelsio T520-CRSupported2SFP~ $600
Intel X520Supported2SFP~ $150
Intel X540-T2Should work/don't know210GBase-T~ $350

I don't want to curb the enthusiasm, I'm just saying please give me a QVL so I can throw money at this and be done with it.
 
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