Assistance Requested in Building My First FreeNAS

[dramic]

Now that I have all my parts and had time to put it together. I installed the two CPUs and the 8 RDIMMS, all of which as the exact same P/N, capacity, rank, and speed. I boot the server and I notice that I was behind on a few versions of BIOS and that of the 64 GB of RAM installed, it only acknowledged 32 GB. So I updated the BIOS is the hopes that this could fix the issue. I was sadly mistaken. Did an embedded memory test native to the R510 and reads all DIMMs as "Passed." I currently see them as running in "Optimized" mode and I have confirmed that I can not change them either.

Am I doing something wrong or missing something? Any help or guidance to publications that can point me in the write direction will be gladly appreciated. I have looked at the Dell R510 Manual, Dell Support page, and random forums (which ironically point back to the manual since the guy who posted it didn't realized he needed a second CPU).

 

[kdragon75]

64 GB of RAM installed, it only acknowledged 32 GB.

I see that you only have one CPU. This is why you can only see half of your RAM.

 

[kdragon75]

I am infact limited to 32GB as I only have one CPU as well. At least until it get 16GB DIMMS.

 

[dramic]

Im running 2 x5560s.

 

[kdragon75]

Im running 2 x5560s.

Yep I must have been reading something else. Try running 4 DIMMs at a time and rotate through your sticks and see if they all show up. Then start populating the board and see if you have any slots with issues. Assuming your in "optimized" memory mode, I don't know what else to check off the top of my head.

 

[dramic]

I am completely speechless, but I must admit to my own stupidity. This entire time I have somehow convinced myself that I purchased 64 GB and so I must've installed 64 GB. Even after looking directly at the part number and sticker on the DIMMs, I still thought I had 8 GB sticks...

FYSA--don't drink bourbon and build servers. Your millage may very.

Nevertheless, @kdragon75 have you set up the BIOS in any specific way to accommodate FreeNAS? I have also been reading Stilez's post on crossflashing the H200. Am I right in understanding that I have to move the card from the storage slot to another PCIe slot on the riser to cross flash?

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...o-crossflashing-lsi-9211-hba-and-variants.54/

 

[kdragon75]

m I right in understanding that I have to move the card from the storage slot to another PCIe slot on the riser to cross flash?

I couldn't tell you. I flashed my card on a supermicro X9 board. I don't know why it would matter. As for the BIOS, I enabled all the power save options and disabled virtualization as I don't ever plan to use bhyve VMs. I use my FreeNAS storage server as a storage server.

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

I use my FreeNAS storage server as a storage server.

Really, who does that? Actually so do I. I was beginning to think it was just me...

 

[dramic]

Hey Gents! I'm sorry for the leave of absence, I was meaning to post updates recently, but I ended up having family come for an extended visit.

Nevertheless! I got my H200 up and running and flashing it was a small undertaking because I wanted to understand why I was doing what I was. I followed Stilez' newcomers guide, however upon reading the previous guide I was using this guide as a quick reference point for applicable steps. Below are a few things that I learned from all of my efforts:

1. Pay attention to the supported boot environment (MSDOS, EFI/UEFI) according to your Mobo's capability. Ensure you are booting into the right "sas2flash" or "sas2flsh" utilities. I had to do a few experiments with both my gaming tower (Z97 Intel Mobo) and the Dell R510. I couldn't run either version of the utility on the R510, but I could run the entire setup on my Z97 system. I have tried different types of USB devices (2.0/3.0, flashdrives/HDD, and even SATA to USB adapters for my SSDs), my best guess could be usb controller firmware??? However, that might not be the case since it recognized every USB device plugged in...

2. I had issues with the firmware when I went to check at the very end if you followed the abbreviated steps. Following these steps below ensured proper installation of incremental firmware versions:
a. sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118p7.bin, reboot, then sas2flash_p19.efi -o -f 2118it.bin

Now here is where I need additional brainpower. For one reason or another the two GbE ports onboard the R510 seem to be not working. I do not get light indications (connection and data LEDs). I have done the following:

1. Cleared and defaulted iDRAC Hardware Configurations
2. Power cycled with Cold Start procedures
3. Installed new BIOS version (v1.14) was v1.11. I did rollback with no success.
4. Completed Dell Firmware Updates via Dell Repository

Could it be that I would need to reinstall FreeNAS to install appropriate drivers for it to recognize the LOMs(LAN on Mobo)?

Thanks as always gentlemen!

 

[kdragon75]

1. Cleared and defaulted iDRAC Hardware Configurations

Have you booted into the BIOS and checked in there? Th iDrac and BIOS are two very different things.

 

[dramic]

@kdragon75, I have. Here is the thing I do not get. I have set the integraded NIC 1 and 2 to both "disabled (OS)" and enabled with reboots each time, yet I get a solid green LED on GB 1 and nothing on GB 2.

 

[kdragon75]

@kdragon75, I have. Here is the thing I do not get. I have set the integraded NIC 1 and 2 to both "disabled (OS)" and enabled with reboots each time, yet I get a solid green LED on GB 1 and nothing on GB 2.

That is odd. I'm guessing you tried swapping cables around... What does your lspci output say? Here is mine for comparison:

Code:

[root@FreeNAS ~]# lspci																											 
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5500 I/O Hub to ESI Port (rev 13)															
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 13)										
00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 13)										
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev 13)										
00:09.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 9 (rev 13)								   
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 10 (rev 13)								 
00:14.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers (rev 13)									 
00:14.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers (rev 13)								   
00:14.2 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers (rev 13)								 
00:16.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)							 
00:16.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)							 
00:16.2 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)							 
00:16.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)							 
00:16.4 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)							 
00:16.5 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)							 
00:16.6 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)							 
00:16.7 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Chipset QuickData Technology Device (rev 13)							 
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4											 
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5											 
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2											
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1											 
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2											 
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3											 
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6											 
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1											
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)																	 
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller													
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 20)										
01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 20)										
03:00.0 PCI bridge: Integrated Device Technology, Inc. [IDT] PES16T4A/4T4G2 PCI Express Gen2 Switch (rev 02)						
04:02.0 PCI bridge: Integrated Device Technology, Inc. [IDT] PES16T4A/4T4G2 PCI Express Gen2 Switch (rev 02)						
04:03.0 PCI bridge: Integrated Device Technology, Inc. [IDT] PES16T4A/4T4G2 PCI Express Gen2 Switch (rev 02)						
05:00.0 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2532-based 8Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA (rev 02)									 
05:00.1 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2532-based 8Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA (rev 02)									 
06:00.0 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2532-based 8Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA (rev 02)									 
06:00.1 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2532-based 8Gb Fibre Channel to PCI Express HBA (rev 02)									 
08:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] (rev 03)		   
09:03.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. MGA G200eW WPCM450 (rev 0a)									 
[root@FreeNAS ~]#

Note the two Broadcom devices.

 

[dramic]

That is odd. I'm guessing you tried swapping cables around... What does your lspci output say?

I have a swapped cables. I am able to remote via iDRAC, so I used that cable since it was a known good. Also to clarify I have iDRAC set to dedicated rather than shared.

I ran the command and I see the same thing as is listed on yours.