FreeNAS Mini XL and disk drive LED

[djf_jeff]

Hi,

I just bought a Mini XL from Amazon and I have a question about it.

I have put 4 WD Red 6TB drives in it and configured them in RaidZ2. Now I am copying the data over and only the LED from disk 1,2,3 are blinking. The one from disk 0 never blink (sometime it blink one time and stop). At time, only the LED from disk 2 and 3 are blinking...

Everything seems alright, FreeNAS does not report any error. If I go to the Reporting page, all disk indicate the same activity (IO, busy, pending, etc).

Is it normal?

 

[nojohnny101]

Unless drive LEDs are important you, trust what is being reported in the GUI.

 

[djf_jeff]

They are not important directly, I was more wondering why some of them was not working when they should have.

Thanks!

 

[nojohnny101]

I was more wondering why some of them was not working when they should have.

That I can not tell you, I have never owned a Mini XL

 

[Stux]

Try swapping the bay trays around. If the problem moves then it's probably the tray is damaged. Otherwise it might be the led is faulty.

Does it *never* blink? Or just rarely?

 

[djf_jeff]

It's weird. At first, the led for disk 0 was flashing but now it never flash.

For disk 3, it depends. When I start to copy data, it flash but stop soon after. Only disk 1 and 2 keep flashing...

The disk seems to work fine and I have no error anywhere.

 

[djf_jeff]

Ok, it seems the led are faulty. I have launched a scrub and the led on disk 1 and 2 are always on and the one on 0 and 3 are off... The weird thing is they were working when I received my Mini XL a couple days ago...

 

[nojohnny101]

If you are concerned about it or it is bothering you, I would contact iXSystems and see what they say.

 

[djf_jeff]

Thanks, this is what I have done and I am directed to the hardware support staff. The first diagnostic seems to point to a hardware backplane issue. We will see!

 

[ilchymis]

Did you find a resolution to this? I'm seeing something similar on my new, non-XL FreeNAS Mini: Disk 0's activity LED works, but 1, 2, and 3 don't light up even during a scrub, and the system seems to be working fine otherwise.

 

[djf_jeff]

In fact, yes and no. I have contacted iXsystems and it seems the issue is with the hardware backplane. My system was also part of a batch that still had the old motherboard (I bought from a reseller) so they decided to send me a new system. The new system should be here today.

And by the way, the support at iXsystems is awesome. People often forget that when they compare the price of DIY vs FreeNAS Mini, and it make sense when there is no issue. But support still count for something when an issue arise.