FreeNAS does not show any of my drives.

[Poppa]

Hello, I am new to FreeNAS and just installed it last night. I was able to install version 9.10 just fine and then updated it to v9.10.2-U4. The only problems I am having are that S.M.A.R.T. will not run and FreeNAS doesn't see any of my 36 drives. I previously used OMV on this system and it was able to detect all my drives.

My System

Supermicro CSE-847A-R1400-LPB.
Supermicro X8DTE motherboard.
Intel Xeon 5650 2,67Ghz Hex-core processor.
24GB Samsung M393B5170EH1-CH9 PC3-10600R RAM.
5 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 HBA's connecting all 36 drives.
36 Toshiba HDWE160 6TB drives.

 

[Ericloewe]

5 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 HBA's connecting all 36 drives.

There's your problem. Get rid of those pieces of crap.

 

[Poppa]

That is really not very helpful or appreciated in any way.

That is what I have and I am not going to buy new hardware just so I can use a piece of free software. As I said above, OpenMediaVault was able to recognize my drives so the problem is obviously with FreeNAS.

 

[Ericloewe]

That is really not very helpful or appreciated in any way.

It's the truth.

As I said above, OpenMediaVault was able to recognize my drives so the problem is obviously with FreeNAS.

In a way. The existence of a vaguely usable Linux driver doesn't mean there's a usable FreeBSD driver and that's not going to change unless Marvell changes that. Even then, they're still second-tier hardware.

 

[danb35]

That is really not very helpful or appreciated in any way.

There's a bit of irony in a person with a username of "PopAStiffy" whose location is listed as "Your Moms Funhole" lecturing about what's helpful.

 

[Poppa]

There's a bit of irony in a person with a username of "PopAStiffy" whose location is listed as "Your Moms Funhole" lecturing about what's helpful.

:D

How is my location or username relevant?

 

[danb35]

How is my location or username relevant?

If you have to ask the question, you wouldn't understand the answer.

In any event, @Ericloewe answered your question in his "not very helpful or appreciated in any way" response: your hardware isn't supported by FreeBSD, and therefore isn't supported by FreeNAS. Use different hardware, or use a different OS.

 

[Ericloewe]

:D

How is my location or username relevant?

It leaves a certain puerile impression that doesn't bring up associations with a rational discussion that can get rather complicated, in some areas.

 

[Poppa]

So there is no way of getting FreeNAS to support my cards? I have found discussions about these cards and the lack of support for them outside of Windows and Linux dating back to 2010. It is now 2017, how can there still be no support for Marvell controllers yet? Can the Linux driver be ported to BSD?

I did come across a post in an old tread on HardForum that says a solution was found to make these cards work on FreeBSD and that post references another thread here that details the solution.

 

[Stux]

So there is no way of getting FreeNAS to support my cards?

You could port/write/debug a driver, then get that merged into FreeBSD, then ask the FreeNAS devs to pull that, and then it would work (depending on how competent your driver development was)

Or do the above, but instead of getting it into FreeBSD, make your own build of FreeNAS with your own drivers.

Of course, developing a driver is non-trivial.

You would be better off using a Linux OS which does support your hardware, or getting different HBAs. The LSI 2008 based HBA's (ServeRAID m1015,m1115, dell somethingorother) etc are all highly recommneded.

 

[Ericloewe]

It is now 2017, how can there still be no support for Marvell controllers yet?

Blame Marvell, they're the ones who don't give a damn.

 

[tvsjr]

It is now 2017, how can there still be no support for Marvell controllers yet? Can the Linux driver be ported to BSD?

For the very same reason that (most) people don't want their beat-to-hell 1979 Chevy pickup to do 200MPH... it isn't a Ferrari, so why try to make it one?

Put another way, the Marvell chipsets suck. Even where they're supported well (like Windows) they're still known for causing issues, poor performance, etc.

FreeNAS is about Ferrari performance, but that always comes with a a cost... in this case, good hardware. That's why you see recommendations for using Supermicro motherboards rather than whatever random board you happen to find at the computer store cheapest, large amounts of ECC memory, drives that are known to behave well, etc. And, if the Marvell cards are going to suck anyway, why invest significant effort into supporting them? That even assumes that the manufacturer gives a damn about supporting them (Marvell doesn't).

If you want the beat-to-hell Chevy pickup, find any one of a myriad of other options out there for a NAS solution. If you want the Ferrari, accept that you need to feed it properly.