FreeNAS 11.3-U3.1 installation failure - gmirror: No such device: swap

[AND_YOU_ARE]

I am trying to install FreeNAS on a computer built just for FreeNAS. This compuer is wired into my Unifi swith and can recieve an IP. System specs:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SSM-F-O
Intel Xeon E3-1240 V5 3.5 GHz LGA 1151 80W
2x16GB Samsung DDR4-2133 ECC Un-Buffer LP Server Memory Supermicro Certified MEM-DR416L-SL01-EU21
Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA w/ LSI 9211-8i P20 IT Mode
9x8TB WD Reds (four connected to the H310 card, and five on the mobo)
ADATA 64GB SSD (connected to the mobo)
Seasonic FOCUS GX-550, 550W 80+ Gold

Everything starts normally. The FreeNAS Installer splash screen comes up. I select option 1 (Boot FreeNAS Installer). The next screen I select option 1 (Install/upgrade). On the next screen I select my destination media (ada5 - the ADATA SSD). On the next screen, I see warning about the installation will erase all partitions, I select 'Yes'. I create a root password on the next screen. The next screen asks about the FreeNAS boot mode. The default selection is Boot via BIOS, I select this option, the other option is boot via UEFI. On the next screen it asks if I want to create a 16GB swap partition on boot devices. The default selection is 'create swap', and that's what I select. Next I am presented with the following error:


gmirror: No such device: swap.
dd: /dev/ada5: Operation not permitted
The FreeNAS installation on ada5 has failed. Press enter to continue...


I get to the same point after multiple attempts, even after recreating my install file on the usb disk. I was trying to install from an old USB2.0 disk, I went and tried a brand new Kingston 64bg usb3.0 disk and had the same results.
From some google search troubleshooting, I've also verified that secure boot is disabled in the bios. What else could be causing this to happen? I pulled the SSD and made sure that nothing was on the drive and made sure i could see the empty drive in windows. I even reformatted it for good measure. Same results ensue.

Would it have anything to do with the order of my drives?
ada0 WDC WD80EFAX
ada1 WDC WD80EFAX
ada2 WDC WD80EFAX
ada3 WDC WD80EFAX
ada4 WDC WD80EFAX
ada5 ADATA SP600
da0 ATA WDC WD80EFAX
da1 ATA WDC WD80EFAX
da2 ATA WDC WD80EFAX
da3 ATA WDC WD80EFAX

 

[Samuel Tai]

Don't create swap on the boot volume. FreeNAS will automatically create 2GB swap partitions on the data disks, and gmirror will pair up swap partitions on ada0-1, ada2-3, ada3-4, da0-1, da2-3 into mirror pools, which will then all be assigned to a master swap 10 GB stripe.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

I tried again, this time selecting no swap and the next screen comes up with the same error:

gmirror: No such device: swap.
dd: /dev/ada5: Operation not permitted
The FreeNAS installation on ada5 has failed. Press enter to continue...

Does this have anything to do with having an odd number of HDDs?

 

[Samuel Tai]

Does this have anything to do with having an odd number of HDDs?

Yes.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

So I need to either remove one of the nine drives or add another one?
I've done some google searching, but havent been able to find anything that says I need to have an even number of hard drives for FreeNAS. Is it not possible to run with nine HDDs?

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

I remove the cables from one of the HDDs and try again with eight HDDs and the SSD connected. I still get the same error.

 

[Samuel Tai]

How about with just the SSD connected?

 

[pchidley]

Not a fix for me yet but getting closer to a successful install.

FreeNAS installation failed – Operation not permitted

Ran into an annoying problem, have been having this problem multiple times in the past, and never remember what the fix is. So now it’s on the blog for the next time that I need it. Use the s…

ramsgaard.me

 

[pschatz100]

On my older Supermicro X9-SCM board, I have to match the boot type in the bios (BIOS or UEFI) with the boot mode I request during install. Check your bios settings. If the motherboard is set to UEFI boot, then request UEFI boot mode during install and see if that helps.

Also, I would remove all the data disks until you have FreeNAS install completed. It shouldn't matter, but you might as well simply the system to reduce variables that can affect install. Once FreeNAS is up and running, you can easily add them back.