[Beginner]TrueNAS will not install on R730XD

[Tordenskrall]

Hi everyone. I was so lucky to be able to get ahold a PowerEdge R730XD. It was meant to be my first steps into building a homelab.
Specs are as follows:

2 x E5-2660v4
384gb memory
2 x 240GB SSD
4 x 800GB SSD
12 x 8 TB SATA
Dell HBA330 mini (in IT mode)
Intel(R) Gigabit 4P I350-t rNDC
2 x Mellanoxes which i dont use.

This unit had not been updated since 2016 so I spent quite some time updating it as updates failed alot, but eventually i got it. BIOS, Lifecycle controller, IDRAC, backplanes, network card etc has been updated to the latest version from Dell.

I have tried several ways to install TrueNAS and i always get to the install screen where i choose my install drives. I've tried several combinations. I mainly wanted to install it on the 2 x 240GBs, but ive also tried the 800GB ssd as target. However after i press install there seems to be a cascade of failure messages and after a short while the installation stops. I've attached some screenshots.
Boot mode is set to BIOS and not UEFI.

I tried USB install and also mount virtual media via iDRAC console. I am using a regular USB key, tried both 4gb and 8gb modules. No particular brand, just your typical free give-away USB. I use Balena Etcher to make the USB.

Another note; When i start up the boot it always gives me a couple of messages like this:

can't find 'etc/hostid'
can't find'openzfs'
can't find '/boot/entropy'

But it always passes this and goes onto the installer splash screen.

I have attached some screenshots I managed to grab from the iDRAC virtual console, not sure if it gives any insight.

 

[NugentS]

First I'd try a different USB Key - just in case. Also - I use rufus to create the boot USB - which does work
Second - have you tested the drives - at least one of those error messages seems to indicate that the boot pool was shagged during the install

Nice kit BTW (if / when it works)

 

[Tordenskrall]

First I'd try a different USB Key - just in case. Also - I use rufus to create the boot USB - which does work
Second - have you tested the drives - at least one of those error messages seems to indicate that the boot pool was shagged during the install

Nice kit BTW (if / when it works)

Thank you. I have tried both Balena and Rufus on several different USB keys. However I will try to buy a new one which hopefully has more quality.

I have not tested any drives, but they report to be healthy through iDRAC. The system has barely been used. It was part of a demo-system for storagespaces a while back. Now its outside support and someone was very kind and gifted it to me.

I will run a diagnostic through the LCC and see if that comes up with anything.

 

[Tordenskrall]

I ran diagnostic which did not tell me that anything particular is wrong. Then i tried installing FreeNAS 11.2. I am absolutely not very technical but but it doesnt seem like FreeNAS/TrueNAS is able to write to the disks somehow.

 

[neb50]

I have a couple R730xd's that I just got setup in the not as supported configuration.

Installed the Dell version of ESXi 6.7U3 onto the mirrored iDSDM SD cards
I have a PCIe to M.2 NVME adaptor with an intel Optane 16gb in it for a local datastore
Installed FreeNas onto the local datastore in ESXi using bios mode
Passed through the HBA330 to the FreeNas VM
Setup network and drive pools as you would normally do on a bare metal setup in FreeNas
Share back an NFS share for more ESXi host storage if desired

I did not try setting it up bare metal as I wanted to use ESXi to better use the CPU and RAM for other VM's

 

[Tordenskrall]

I have a couple R730xd's that I just got setup in the not as supported configuration.

Installed the Dell version of ESXi 6.7U3 onto the mirrored iDSDM SD cards
I have a PCIe to M.2 NVME adaptor with an intel Optane 16gb in it for a local datastore
Installed FreeNas onto the local datastore in ESXi using bios mode
Passed through the HBA330 to the FreeNas VM
Setup network and drive pools as you would normally do on a bare metal setup in FreeNas
Share back an NFS share for more ESXi host storage if desired

I did not try setting it up bare metal as I wanted to use ESXi to better use the CPU and RAM for other VM's

Thank you for your reply. After some further investigation this problem is not limited to installing just FreeNAS. I have the same issue trying to install Windows Server (bare metal) aswell. I get through the intial setup, but when i am prompted to choose installation drives for Windows it fails.

Windows spat out the following error code: 0x80070057

Google tells me:
The 0x80070057 error code means that Windows ran into a storage issue. Possibly, your hard drive or SSD didn't have enough space left to download or copy files. But this error could also signal a file system incompatibility, a corrupt hard drive, or any other storage-related issue.

This tells me the problem lies not with TrueNAS but somewhere else. Something is stopping the installers from writing to the disks i think, but being very new to this i have no idea how to troubleshoot that. I hope its not the HBA330 mini thats DOA.

Having a few R730XD yourself, any suggestions on how you would proceed to troubleshoot this?

 

[neb50]

Do you have anything else to install it onto?

iDSDM, USB stick, etc?

Have you tried the drives you are using anywhere else to see if they are good?

What are the settings on the HBA for the drives. Should just have an option to enable write buffer or something as an option for the HBA330.
Note: The H730 or 730P that I tried worked to pass the drives to FreeNas (still through ESXi as a VM), but limited the connection speeds to 150MBps.

What are the settings in BIOS for boot mode (UEFI or BIOS)

Which type of R730 do you have?

Based on the drives that you have listed, I am going to assume you have the 12-3.5" bays in the front, 4-3.5" mid bays, and the 2 rear bays.
Are you sure that they are all wired in correctly to the chassis/controller/expanders?
The CAM messages are normally from something connection related to the drives. On my old R720 16-2.5" bay setup, the 16-bay expander backplane did not like my Toshiba SSD's and would through CAM errors. I changed to 2 8-bay backplanes and the issues went away. I did not have any issues with these same drives when I put them in the R730xd with 24 bay expander. When I was having those issues, the other drives worked fine.

Also, you can go to the lifecycle controller and update everything with just it and a network/internet connection (unless it is a branded unit like the DL4300 that I have.) This makes it a little easier to make sure everything is up to date from their site directly.

 

[Tordenskrall]

Do you have anything else to install it onto?

iDSDM, USB stick, etc?

Have you tried the drives you are using anywhere else to see if they are good?

What are the settings on the HBA for the drives. Should just have an option to enable write buffer or something as an option for the HBA330.
Note: The H730 or 730P that I tried worked to pass the drives to FreeNas (still through ESXi as a VM), but limited the connection speeds to 150MBps.

What are the settings in BIOS for boot mode (UEFI or BIOS)

Which type of R730 do you have?

Based on the drives that you have listed, I am going to assume you have the 12-3.5" bays in the front, 4-3.5" mid bays, and the 2 rear bays.
Are you sure that they are all wired in correctly to the chassis/controller/expanders?
The CAM messages are normally from something connection related to the drives. On my old R720 16-2.5" bay setup, the 16-bay expander backplane did not like my Toshiba SSD's and would through CAM errors. I changed to 2 8-bay backplanes and the issues went away. I did not have any issues with these same drives when I put them in the R730xd with 24 bay expander. When I was having those issues, the other drives worked fine.

Also, you can go to the lifecycle controller and update everything with just it and a network/internet connection (unless it is a branded unit like the DL4300 that I have.) This makes it a little easier to make sure everything is up to date from their site directly.

I have not tried to install onto something else. I've only tried to install OS'es on the disks available in the chassis.

As for the HBA, it is as you say, the only option I can change is write buffer enabled or not for the individual disks. I have tried the BIOS in both UEFI and BIOS mode.

As for the disks, you assume correctly. I have 4 x 800GB SSD and 8 x 8TB SATA in the front, 4 x 8TB SATA in the mid and 2 x 240GB SSD in the back. All Dell branded drives. I have verified all the SSD drives that they work on other systems, so they are operational. I have not checked the SATA drives but i cant see how that would interfere with trying to install an OS to any of the SSD drives.

As for the wiring, i have not checked that yet. This was previously a working S2D node so i would assume the wiring is correct, but i will check it nontheless.

All drivers are updated to the latest from Dell through the LCC.

I think this all points to something with the HBA330 Mini, but thats just my feeling.

 

[Samuel Tai]

I suspect your HBA hasn't been flashed with the boot ROM in addition to IT mode. It won't be possible to boot off any disk attached to the HBA. Try installing instead to a USB to M.2 adapter with a small M.2 SSD, and setting that as the boot device.

 

[neb50]

I suspect your HBA hasn't been flashed with the boot ROM in addition to IT mode. It won't be possible to boot off any disk attached to the HBA. Try installing instead to a USB to M.2 adapter with a small M.2 SSD, and setting that as the boot device.

Does not having a boot ROM keep it from allowing the OS to be installed on a drive connected to it?
I thought that would just keep it from being able to boot from it, but wouldn't think that would cause it to fail the install.

Also, any reason to use a USB to M.2 for the test install instead of just a USB drive for testing?

I would recommend just removing all of the drives from the chassis and/or disabling the HBA in BIOS and try to install to a USB or PCIe to M.2 or iDSDM or whatever you have available to use to see if that works with FreeNAS/TrueNAS. If there are any other cards or anything in the chassis, remove them just to make sure it is as barebones as can be.

If that works, then you can start looking on HBA, cabling or other issues that are causing it to break.

I also remember seeing people having issues installing to R730's so you might try doing a search on this forum for those threads.

 

[Tordenskrall]

So, a small update here. After ALOT of tries i managed to install TrueNAS on an external USB harddrive and get it up and running. Whenever i try writing installs to the local drives its just fails. Also for other OS'es like Ubuntu, Windows etc.

I can see the drives in my chassis now in TrueNAS but if i try to make pool or anything it just spits out an error message.

This makes me conclude that my problem is not with TrueNAS but there is something with the HBA. Considering this is a forum for TrueNAS issues it might not be appropriate to continue this thread here.

I want to thank everyone for being so supportive. I will now focus my attention on the HBA330 mini, look at cabling etc.
If anyone has a last tip for a total beginner, I appreciate it.

Edit: As maybe a useful tip for someone visiting this thread later with the same issue. I had to disable x2APIC in bios + boot in BIOS and not UEFI mode to even get the installer working, so theres that.

 

[Tordenskrall]

I suspect your HBA hasn't been flashed with the boot ROM in addition to IT mode. It won't be possible to boot off any disk attached to the HBA. Try installing instead to a USB to M.2 adapter with a small M.2 SSD, and setting that as the boot device.

There is no doubt something wrong going on with the HBA. However, i took one of the drives out of the server and put it in my personal computer. From there i used Rufus to make a bootable image on that drive. It boots fine of the disk when in the server, however when i want to write, lets say the install itself, to one of the drives in the server it fails with your typical CAM SCSI error. The same is true for Windows installs aswell, so at this point i dont know if the HBA itself is DOA or if there is another issue or setting with it that i just havent figured out yet.

 

[Samuel Tai]

Yes, it looks like a bum HBA at this point. However, it could be cabling or backplane also.