SOLVED FreeNAS stops responding with external drive connected

[larynx]

I'm currently using FreeNAS-9.10.1 (d989edd) and it's being used as a CIFS server with less than 10 users. There is an external USB drive connected and setup in a ZFS pool that is used for backups.
Every few days I've been getting a few messages in the console containing

swap_pager: indefinite wait buffer

and eventually the box stops responding, I can't login to the web GUI, CIFS shares stop working and the console doesn't respond either the only thing that works is a hard reset. I searched around for possible solutions but they mostly point to a drive being bad but scrubs on the drives (internal and external) showed no errors so I decided to just disconnect the external and see if that helps and it seems to be working so far and the box has been running fine for the past 2 weeks.

How can I have the USB drive connected without the box freezing up?

thanks

 

[depasseg]

What are your system specs?

 

[Spearfoot]

I'm currently using FreeNAS-9.10.1 (d989edd) and it's being used as a CIFS server with less than 10 users. There is an external USB drive connected and setup in a ZFS pool that is used for backups.
Every few days I've been getting a few messages in the console containing and eventually the box stops responding, I can't login to the web GUI, CIFS shares stop working and the console doesn't respond either the only thing that works is a hard reset. I searched around for possible solutions but they mostly point to a drive being bad but scrubs on the drives (internal and external) showed no errors so I decided to just disconnect the external and see if that helps and it seems to be working so far and the box has been running fine for the past 2 weeks.

How can I have the USB drive connected without the box freezing up?

thanks

It may mean your system is trying to swap to the USB drive, but the drive is 'too slow'. If indeed this is the problem, removing the swap partition from the USB drive should help...

 

[larynx]

What are your system specs?

The CPU is an Intel Xeon E3-1270 V2 @ 3.50GHz and it has 32GB of ECC RAM, there are 4 1TB drives setup in a RAID10 pool.

It may mean your system is trying to swap to the USB drive, but the drive is 'too slow'. If indeed this is the problem, removing the swap partition from the USB drive should help...

Is there an option in the GUI to that or do I need to edit some configuration files?

 

[Spearfoot]

...there are 4 1TB drives setup in a RAID10 pool.

RAID10? Are you running FreeNAS with a RAID controller? How is your pool configured?

Is there an option in the GUI to that or do I need to edit some configuration files?

By default, FreeNAS creates a 2GiB swap partition on every disk. You can change this from the GUI, by specifying a new value for the "Swap size on each drive..." setting under System->Advanced. The problem is that changing this only affects new drives added to the system, it won't remove a swap partition from your USB drive. We don't know for certain that this is your problem, but it could be. Swap space based on a USB drive is a bad idea, because they're so flaky.

Is this USB drive your only backup? If so, you need to consider means of making another backup...

One way to use the FreeNAS GUI to remove the swap partition on your USB drive would be to:

• Set the swap size to zero in System->Advanced, as described above
• Select the USB drive on Storage->View Disks and Wipe it
• Recreate the volume on the USB drive

This should give you a new, clean volume on the drive with no swap space.

The caveats are that you'll destroy any data currently stored on the USB drive, which means you ought to have another backup stored elsewhere. And you need to be absolutely certain that you wipe the correct drive! ;)

 

[larynx]

By default, FreeNAS creates a 2GiB swap partition on every disk. You can change this from the GUI, by specifying a new value for the "Swap size on each drive..." setting under System->Advanced. The problem is that changing this only affects new drives added to the system, it won't remove a swap partition from your USB drive. We don't know for certain that this is your problem, but it could be. Swap space based on a USB drive is a bad idea, because they're so flaky.

I have another backup besides the external USB drive so I decided to go with recreating the volume without the swap space and see if it solves the issue, so far so good

 

[larynx]

I have another backup besides the external USB drive so I decided to go with recreating the volume without the swap space and see if it solves the issue, so far so good

UPDATE: a week later and the server is still running fine

 

[Spearfoot]

UPDATE: a week later and the server is still running fine

Nice! Would you please change the thread status to 'SOLVED'? That will help the next person with the same problem to find this thread.