SOLVED FreeNAS 11.1-U6: network interfaces: no entry has been found

[devnullius]

Hello,

My server has 2 NICs and for a moment it looked like one of them was set to 100Mb (upload was slow and the bandwidth was a little below that, instead of the regular and expected 850Mb).

SO I thought to check through the GUI what the link speeds were.

When I went to Network -> Interfaces, no entry has been found. So I thought to add my network entries by selecting Add and choosing "em0".

When I did that, the GUI moved to the IP of the 2nd interface em1. After removing the entry of the 1st em0 interface, I was completely locked out. I had to manually reboot my server. After the reboot, all is as it was: including an empty network interface list...

Any suggestions? :)

 

[Chris Moore]

Any suggestions?

The only interfaces that will show up under 'Interfaces' are the ones that have been manually defined. If your FreeNAS is operating from DHCP supplied addresses, the adapter is not listed under Interfaces. When you manually configured it, you disconnected the adapter from the DHCP address. When you deleted the manually defined adapter, you left the NAS with no configured adapter.
You should not have both network interfaces connected to the same network unless you are using some form of fail-over like a LAG, which would require a managed switch. If you have both network adapters on the same network, just with different IP addresses, you will create problems on the network that will slow everything down. If you want to learn more about networking, there is plenty of reading material out on the internet.

 

[devnullius]

Thank you for the info; I did not know DHCP adapaters would be ignored (I have static addresses through my router mapped to the MAC addresses).

I don't fully understand what you're saying here though: "If you have both network adapters on the same network, just with different IP addresses, you will create problems on the network that will slow everything down."

How could this slow anything down? And what other kind of problems are you thinking of? I don't see any...

And PS: I'm planning to use link aggregation if my computer supports it.


Post-edit: FreeNAS won't even allow 2 NICs with a static IP address in the same subnet? Wow. Unique ;p
Also: note: giving em0 a static address (same as the DHCP address), will stop the \\freenas folder from windows network... Going back to DHCP. NOthing to do here, for me :)

 

[Chris Moore]

How could this slow anything down? And what other kind of problems are you thinking of? I don't see any...

With two adapters (not configured properly) connected to the same network, you have created a network loop which can create a packet storm. This is a bad situation that can have the affect of massive slowdown of your network. You came here asking about why it was slow. This could be why.

PS: I'm planning to use link aggregation if my computer supports it.

FreeNAS supports link aggregation. The question is if your switch does, most consumer switches do not. Unless you have advanced network hardware, you are limited to one connection. Doing otherwise is asking for problems.

 

[devnullius]

Ooh that sounds like something fun to investigate, network storms :) I wonder why I never heard about this for Windows networks... I'd think I'd have picked that up somewhere after all those MCSE certificates long long long ago :) In my mind, it's just a 2nd LAN adapter with its IP address... Nothing spectacular, I thought.

I have a Router which supports link aggregation on 2 ports. If I enable link aggregation on my router, I'm all done and nothing needs to be done on the NAS-end?

I'm also planning to link aggregate my Windows Server; which supports on-board link aggregation (and saving me the 2 reserved ports on the router, as they will go to my regular 1GB LAN ports).

Super thanks! :)


Post-edit: I can now confirm that aggregating the 2 NICs on my Windows Server worked like a charm (easy too) and I'm now connected with 2Gb. Bandwidth to server hasn't increased yet (either HDD bottleneck or I really have a lot of noise that it can't even fill a 1Gb data line... Will do some investigating, but I doubt it's noise)

Post-edit: the RTFM for my original problem (empty network devices list in FreeBSD 11.1) --> https://doc.freenas.org/11/network.html (and the Whynot? here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/multiple-network-interfaces-on-a-single-subnet.20204/).
Apple has their own explanation here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3679

Microsoft explains how this nonstandard configuration actually works on Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/175767

National Instruments writes a small book on the topic: http://www.ni.com/white-paper/12558/en/

 

[Chris Moore]

In my mind, it's just a 2nd LAN adapter with its IP address... Nothing spectacular, I thought.

That is the thing. If you bond the two as a LAG there is only one IP address. Windows supports bonding two adapters also, but it is just one IP. One system should not have two IP addresses on one network. It is a networking principle, nothing to do with the operating system.

I have a Router which supports link aggregation on 2 ports. If I enable link aggregation on my router, I'm all done and nothing needs to be done on the NAS-end?

No, you need to bond the two interfaces into a LAG in the NAS, and since you will loose access to the GUI during that, you have to do it at the console.

I'm also planning to link aggregate my Windows Server; which supports on-board link aggregation (and saving me the 2 reserved ports on the router, as they will go to my regular 1GB LAN ports).

If you switch only supports one LAG group, you can only do one system. My managed switch supports four LAG groups which allows me to bond multiple ports on the switch together logically.

 

[devnullius]

PS: the router I'm using... http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/R9000/R9000_UM_EN.pdf Nighthawk X10.

My Windows Server now has a 2Gb connection (curious if it will keep it's assigned static IP address).
I still have the 2 reserved LACP ports for FreeNAS. Still reading up and your feedback helps a lot :)

 

[devnullius]

If you switch only supports one LAG group, you can only do one system. My managed switch supports four LAG groups which allows me to bond multiple ports on the switch together logically.

Could this be true despite that the Windows Link Status now shows 2Gb? I put its lan cables in 2 "regular" ports on my router, not the specially reserved lacp ports. If Windows shows 2Gb link speed, I'm using 2Gb link speeds, no? :)

And in my current setup... Will inbound AND outbound traffic both be 2Gb? Or will inbound / outbound be on 1Gb while the other is on 2Gb?

 

[devnullius]

That is the thing. If you bond the two as a LAG there is only one IP address. Windows supports bonding two adapters also, but it is just one IP. One system should not have two IP addresses on one network. It is a networking principle, nothing to do with the operating system.

It has been a long time I learned something basic :) I always wondered how Windows decided which network adapter would be used when having 2 NICs on the same subnet. I never thought it would load-balance though. I suspected one had to do something with routing tables to properly setup 2 IPs on same subnet and control which connections are used.
I never did it, I thought it would be too much for me to begin with (I never got routing tables) and I was annoyed by Windows apparent lack of giving the user control over which network adapter or network connection to use. I now suddenly have a lot of questions I always had wiped out in one smooth sweep :) And I'm surprised that ARP and MAC addresses and IP addresses for the OS are pretty much all the same, EVEN on Windows :) In my defense; according to the linked article, I'm not alone in the Windows world with weird and apparently wrong ideas :p

Thanks!

 

[Johnnie Black]

One system should not have two IP addresses on one network.

The exception to that is SMB Multichannel, the way it works with Windows is each NIC should have a different IP address but all on the same subnet.

 

[devnullius]

The exception to that is SMB Multichannel, the way it works with Windows is each NIC should have a different IP address but all on the same subnet.

For Windows 2012:
SMB Multichannel is enabled by default. There is no need to install components, roles, role services or features.
The SMB client will automatically detect and use multiple network connections if a proper configuration is identified.


Post-edit: Link aggregation is working. Speeds are sub-par. Moved that question to new discussion here https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/trying-to-find-the-bottleneck.70102/.