Can't see Disks!

[NASA]

I'm new to FreeNAS: I built two servers earlier this year, but had to wait to purchase four 2.5" Seagate enterprise-grade drives (two per server) until the prices of hard drives dropped this past summer. I installed two of these 1 TB drives in one of my servers (Supermicro) with FreeNAS 8.0.1 loaded. The software saw the drives and I created a mirror volume with them. I then tried to upgrade to FreeNAS 8.2, but I could not do so via the GUI, so I reflashed my USB stick with the newer software. When I attempted to load the volume I had previously created, it loaded, however, the software sees the volume but not the individual disks! I did not have this problem with 8.0.1. I have already tried detaching the volume and recreating it--when I do I detect both drives as "ad0" and "ad1," but it does not fix the "View Disks" problem. Also, the "Volume Status" does not seem to work--I get a blank page. What good is it having a Raid 1 volume if one cannot see the status of its individual disks?

When I booted up FreeNAS 8.2 for the first time, I created a static IP4 address via the boot menu. When I go to the "Network" page on the GUI, however, I see nothing but another blank page. I see the interface I created under "Interfaces," but there is no place to put in my gateway, etc.

I am also trying to resolve the clock issue--where does FreeNAS get it's time, via the server/motherboard clock time server or its own time servers?

Thanks for your help--in particular to my first issue.

 

[cyberjock]

If you are getting alot of blank pages there's likely something wrong with the FreeNAS installation. Perhaps the USB stick is bad?

I'd try a new USB stick first. Your data is safe as long as long as you don't do anything to write data to the disks themselves.

 

[NASA]

Thing is, I have two server boxes, each with their own separate USB sticks containing 8.2, and they both seem to behave the same way.

 

[cyberjock]

Then you have 2 bad sticks! J/K.

So with a fresh install you get completely blank web pages when you click on some links? Can you post a screenshot?

 

[NASA]

It's not that the web page is completely blank: it is just that the area under the "View Disks" tab contains no information when I click on it.

I have another possibly-related issue: when I set a password and try to log on again, the system won't let me log on--it indicates a CIFS error (even though I have turned on CIFS).

I thought about your postulation of an installation error and I think I may have a possible answer: when I downloaded the installation file, I unzipped it with 7-ZIP and then wrote it onto my USB sticks with Win32DiskImager (on my Windows XP 32 bit machine). When I went to write the file, however, it prompted me to include a hash (which it displayed). I did not check on the box to load the hash AS THE INSTRUCTIONS I USED MADE NO MENTION TO DO SO. To wit:

"Next, launch Win32DiskImager, shown in Figure 2.4b. Use the browse button to browse to the location
of the .img file. Insert a USB thumb drive and select its drive letter (in this example, drive E). Click the
Write button and the image will be written to the USB thumb drive." [page 38 of FreeNAS Users Guide]

I assumed, since FreeNAS 8.2 booted up, that all was well, but now I think I should have checked the hash button--could this be my problem???

Thanks for sticking with me in this matter; I don't want to end up with two $850.00 paper weights.

 

[jgreco]

It could be okay or it could be bad.

Try this. See if you can get to System -> Advanced -> Firmware Update. If so, download the "upgrade" firmware from the Internet and then send it to your box. If you can do that, you're likely to have good firmware running. That's an important first step, so see what that does for you.

 

[NASA]

I did try that, but the system returned an error message when I went to upgrade it--possibly because I was attempting to "upgrade" to the same version of the software as I had previously loaded (without the hash key)? I can try reflashing my USB sticks to the firmware, this time checking off the "hash" box, if you think that method might resolve my issue.

 

[jgreco]

I don't think it will resolve your issue, but on the other hand, if you're not sure your firmware is complete and correct, then it's pointless for us to sit here and waste time trying to debug a problem that's all in your machine's head. I would expect corrupted firmware to be much more obvious than what you're seeing, but it is well within the realm of possibilities that a failed partial or corrupted load could break things in subtle ways. Bad flash is also a possibility, but less likely in your case since you're seeing it on both machines. Otherwise I'd be telling you to try different flash with a fresh load. If you happen to have different flash, you might want to try that anyways, just to be certain that you're really installing fresh, etc.

 

[Stephens]

Hopefully the flash he's using is 4GB or greater.

 

[NASA]

I just wasted a couple more hours on this project:

1. Yes, I am using 4GB USB drives.

2. My problem has nothing to do with checking or unchecking the "hash" box on Win32DiskImager.

I have tried redownloading, unzipping, and loading the file on my two different USB drives. No change in behavior. Out of curiousity, I then downloaded, unzipped, and loaded the 32-bit version of the file on a USB drive. Still no change in behavior. This issue is getting frustrating. I watched the firmware post and noticed boot errors. I will, presently, post screenshots, if I can figure out how to do that.

 

[NASA]

Here is the first screenshot:

 

[NASA]

And here is the second:

 

[jgreco]

And it stops there? If so, it's hanging at some point during boot.

 

[NASA]

And it stops there? If so, it's hanging at some point during boot.

No, it does not stop.

I have been reading other posts where disks are not recognized after previous usage. I am baffled that FreeNAS does not address this issue.

 

[cyberjock]

Your screenshots show that the disks are being detected as ada0 and ada1. They're ST91000640N's. I would zero out the entire disk if I were in your place. If you don't have a way to do it easily you can use a disk called Parted Magic. It has an eraser tool that will zero out the entire drive. It will take a few hours, but it may fix your problem.

Also if either/both of your disks have problems and that is part of the problem, zeroing out all of the sectors will definitely make the problem come to light.

I've had to zero a few disks because they just didn't seem to play very well with whatever remnant data was on the drives from previous use. I had a drive that was returned from RMA not work until I zeroed it.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not sure why you're baffled that FreeNAS doesn't address the issue. It's pretty clear you are in new territory being that there was some question as to if your FreeNAS installation was corrupt or not. Its fine to be in new territory, you gotta learn somehow. But someone that is in new territory should NOT be questioning the developers of FreeNAS on what should or shouldn't be working. The issue is MUCH more likely to be with the new guy that isn't even sure if he installed the OS correctly than an actual issue with FreeNAS. Leave the questioning of what should or shouldn't be working to the people answering your questions on the forum. They're the ones in a position to say that something is wrong or the problem is user related. All you'll do is turn people off when you start making wild accusations like that.

The other thing you shouldn't do is come in the forum and start a thread that says "Dammit.. FreeNAS sucks.. help me fix it or I'll go elsewhere". Guess what... the senior guys prefer if you just leave because your attitude alone is plenty of reason to not help. Using FreeNAS is a priviledge for those smart enough to know how to use it. If you aren't willing to even try to do stuff yourself and have an open mind when you have a problem and automatically assuming it must be FreeNAS we don't want you here. ;)

 

[NASA]

First of all, thank you for your response with information about the disks. I will look into Parted Magic, but I'd rather not have to yank my disks out of the system and put them in another system just to zero them out if I can help it. Second, however, you appear to have read more into my brief comment than what I intended. What I was suggesting was that FreeNAS should (i.e., it would be helpful if FreeNAS might) included a utility that can zero out the disks. In my case, it is not as if I had used the disks for years in some other system. The disks were brand new as of this past Friday. I set them up as a volume in FreeNAS 8.0.1 in an attempt to upgrade the system's software to 8.2 (the system requires a place to put the new software). Why FreeNAS 8.2 did not recognize disks that 8.0.1 placed into a volume is what baffles me--and I noted that I discovered that a number of other users on this forum have had the same problem. My repeated reinstalls of FreeNAS only proved that I had installed it correctly the first time (or, I guess, that I have never installed it correctly, but I doubt that).

If the disk issue was not the only problem I was having, it might be less of a headache for me; but I mentioned the password problem, the update problem, the network status not appearing, etc. It leads me to wonder if there is some sort of compatibility issue between FreeNAS and its underlying operating system with my particular hardware (a Supermicro Atom 525 motherboard). Is this a possibility?

I will tackle the disk issue as I have some more free time, but I am wondering if some other software like NAS4Free might work better with my hardware. I am running PfSense (via USB stick) on a similar hardware box, and I have had absolutely no problems with it.

Peace.

 

[cyberjock]

If your system could use the disks you could zero them from inside FreeNAS. Part of the problem is that if something is wrong that requires zeroing them, it's possible that the same problem will prevent the disks from being available in FreeNAS(for whatever reason). No amount of programming can fix that issue.

 

[NASA]

Please allow me to clarify my issue: I am able to create a volume with my disks in FreeNAS 8.2, write files to and read files from them, but the FreeNAS GUI "View Disks" tab fails to show my disks.

 

[NASA]

EUREKA!!!

I did not consider what web browser, and version of the same, I was using to access the FreeNAS 8.2 GUI.

I was using IE8 under Windows XP.

I just tried using IE9 under Windows 7, and with it I can now see my disks under the "View Disks" tab of FreeNAS 8.2.



Now I have to next address why I cannot log into the GUI after setting a password.

 

[cyberjock]

I was thinking something was terribly wrong. I wasn't convinced there was a problem with the hardware, software, or user. But the problems are significant and not recurring, so it was a game of "wtf?". Guess we know now. You're the second thread I've seen that has had problems with IE8 under XP. Perhaps something that should be mentioned in the manual or something.