SOLVED JBOD prevents TrueNAS boot

[blanchet]

Abstract:

My TrueNAS server does not boot after connecting a JBOD
The EFI boot loader crashes with the message "too many disks"

Hardware:

• SuperMicro Server with X11DPi-NT motherboard
• Chassis: CSE-847BTS-R1K23LPBP4 (36 disks)
• JBOD: SC847E1C (44 disks)
• LSI 9300-8i for the chassis
• LSI 9300-8e for the JBOD
• boot disks: dual SATA Intel SSD connected on the LSI 9300-8i

There are many disks: 2+36+44 = 82 hard disks

If the JBOD is powered before the TrueNAS boot loader appears (with the TrueNAS logo in ASCII-art),
then the EFI boot loader crashes with the message "too many disks" and the server does not boot.

It is not possible to boot in LEGACY (BIOS) mode because the BIOS lists only the first 26 disks
so it cannot find neither the boots disks connected to the LSI-9300-8i nor the same boot disks connected directly to the SATA ports.

The solution:
Continue to boot in UEFI mode, but change the boot order for the LSI 9300 boards

When the computer starts, press CTRL+C to enter the AVAGO configuration utility
and change the boot order to boot firstly with the LSI 9300-8i that holds the boot disks.

After changing the boot order in the Avago utility, the server boots normally again.

 

[ChrisRJ]

It is not possible to boot in LEGACY (BIOS) mode because the BIOS lists only the first 26 disks
so it cannot find neither the boots disks connected to the LSI-9300-8i nor the same boot disks connected directly to the SATA ports.

Is this an assumption or have you validated it? My experience is that the BIOS and the OS are acting differently here. My old FreeNAS system only showed 4 disk in the BIOS, but worked well with all 6 in the end.

 

[Arwen]

I've had a similar problem. One server with 26 disks on a LSI / Avago card. It "lost" which disks were the boot disks. I was able to get into the utility and change the primary & secondary boot disks to 25 & 26. But, I think that server was using BIOS.

 

[blanchet]

Is this an assumption or have you validated it? My experience is that the BIOS and the OS are acting differently here. My old FreeNAS system only showed 4 disk in the BIOS, but worked well with all 6 in the end.

It is an assumption based on my fleet of Supermicro servers.

When I boot in LEGACY mode

• I see the BIOS trying to enumarate the disks and the letters of the alphabet and it never find the boot disks
• In the BIOS, when I try to setup the hard disk boot priority, I see only a subset of my disks

On the other hand, I have another server with the same motherboard (but not the same BIOS version) with only 26 disks (24 in the front and 2 in the back) and it boots well in LEGACY and in UEFI mode.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Doesn't that point to the BIOS version as the culprit?

 

[blanchet]

Maybe the new BIOS version is the culprit, but anyways the very latest servers support only UEFI, so UEFI-compatible solution is preferable