First time user of FreeNAS - rig will not see 10x 4TB HDDs attached to Adaptec 71605E controller

[Marc Locchi]

Hi all,
Thank you in advance for your help. I am first time user (48hrs into it!) of FreeNAS. I am upgrading my system with the Adaptec and have decided to move off Ubuntu for the first time in 4 years.

My Hardware:
Gigabyte ga-h55m-s2h - i5 2.6GHz - latest firmware (F7)
8MB RAM
10x WD Re 4TB HDDs (enterprise, RAID)
1x 500GB WD Blue (IDE) for FreeNas / OS install - single install of FreeNas 9.2.1.5 loaded
USB CD-ROM (installed from here)
Adaptec 71605E running in HBA mode (JBOD) - latest firmware

I first installed Ubuntu 14.04, and got all drives visible. Built SW RAID 6 array but while it was building I started doing some research and found FreeNAS / ZFS. I decided to go down this path as it is a better solution to what I need. So this is where the fun began!

Upon initial installation I ran into issues with the system. It would not complete booting and would finish up with an error 19, which I resolved with help from this forum entry.

So now I can access the NAS via the browser console (LOOKS AWESOME!), but the 10 drives do not appear.

I then tried following instructions from here and downloaded Adaptec FreeBSD drivers and installed the package from the console via USB stick, but I cannot get it working as I end up with "unable to extract table of contents, not a package?". In the console I run the command below which returns the error:

Code:

[root@LSERVER /mnt/usbstick]# pkg_add aacraid_freebsd_b30842.tgz               
tar: +CONTENTS: Not found in archive                                           
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.                                 
pkg_add: tar extract of /mnt/usbstick/aacraid_freebsd_b30842.tgz failed!       
pkg_add: unable to extract table of contents file from '/mnt/usbstick/aacraid_fr
eebsd_b30842.tgz' - not a package?                                             
[root@LSERVER /mnt/usbstick]#          

I am far from an UBUNTU / Linux specialist! But I am stuck at not being able to load the driver set. Will this make the drives visible to the OS when they are set up as JBOD (so no RAID)?

Many thanks!

 

[cyberjock]

I'd highly *highly* recommend you give up on Adaptec right now. Even if you get it working you'll be making concessions and may lose data as a result.

 

[Marc Locchi]

Hi cyberjock, I am not using any of the raid capability but rather using it only for JBOD set up. Why is Adaptec such as bad choice (particularly AFTER I spent the $400!). Thanks!

 

[cyberjock]

Blocks SMART testing
Blocks SMART monitoring
Blocks disk errors
Isn't particularly compatible with FreeBSD

They're just a very bad choice. That's why if you look at our hardware recommendations you see the IBM M1015(about $100 on ebay). You want a dumb HBA. RAID controllers, even in JBOD are nightmares just waiting to happen.

 

[Ericloewe]

Also, the lack of ECC makes the system a bad choice for FreeNAS. You say you're new here, did you read the stickies and Cyberjock's excellent introduction to FreeNAS?

Allow me a small pedantic moment to tell you that FreeNAS is not Linux, much less Ubuntu. FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD, another Unix-like OS.

 

[Marc Locchi]

Got it. Read the guide, very useful. This is not mission critical stuff for me per se, a home media server only, with back up. When the finance director (AKA wife) allows, a few other bits will be acquired... (32GB ECC for starters...)

 

[Ericloewe]

Got it. Read the guide, very useful. This is not mission critical stuff for me per se, a home media server only, with back up. When the finance director (AKA wife) allows, a few other bits will be acquired... (32GB ECC for starters...)

Ok, but for ECC you need Motherboard and CPU support. Without it, ECC is useless or even a hindrance (some hardware may not like seeing ECC...).

 

[cyberjock]

Got it. Read the guide, very useful. This is not mission critical stuff for me per se, a home media server only, with back up. When the finance director (AKA wife) allows, a few other bits will be acquired... (32GB ECC for starters...)

Haven't read that ECC vs non-ECC thread have you? If you had you'd know about the part about how non-ECC RAM trashed your backups too.. So arguing that you have a backup isn't an argument at all. You're still going to find out the hard way what it's like to lose your data if your non-ECC RAM goes bad. That is why I have that thread to begin with. Everyone things their backup is safe. Reality check: it's not.