Lost connection on Freenas 11U1 and VMware 6.5

[rrruhena]

Hi Guys, I am new using freenas and I really need help from community.

First, let me try to explain my environment:

1 Freenas Server (i3 / 8GB / 2x500GB(mirror) for S.0 and 4x3TB(Raid 10) for storage) with two Realtek NICs using Failover
2x Vmware Server using the last version (6.5)

I was using this environment for a couple of weeks without problems, but last week, I had to transfer the last virtual machine from my old environment (KVM) to a freenas server. This VM has 1TB+ of disk usage and the copy was estimated on 3 days.

OK, I started the copy using the default realtek driver of freenas and no kind of tunnable on freenas. The copy worked fine until 89% (After 2 days) when the network of freenas server stops to responding.

When I removed the cable from nic master, the server starts to responding again. When I plugged the cable of server, it's stops. Reading many posts, I did a reboot on server and everything started to working again.

So, I decided to start the copy again, but this time, using a realtek v193 driver, downloaded from realtek and compiled on a freebsd machine. I added a tunneble to load the driver and rebooted the server again.

After 12 hours, the server died again with the same problem when I was using the default network driver.

So, I removed the failover and tried to run with only one interface. Same error again ...

Can the realtek nic be the guilt? Or there's something of tweak that I can do on freenas server to solve this?

Thanks for your help!

Roberto

 

[gpsguy]

Yes, We don't recommend Realtek NICs for FreeNAS. Use something like an Intel Pro/1000 instead.

How are accessing your storage. If you are using iSCSI you"lol need more RAM. We typically suggest a minimum of 32 GB.

The 8GB minimum requirement is for basic storage with a small volume.

 

[rrruhena]

Hi gpsguy, thanks for your answer.

I am using a NFS shared to store the virtual machines. I know that 8GB of ram is the minimum requirement, but my environment is too small (less than 15 machines).

Do you think that replace the NIC will solve this issue? Do you know why the NIC dies after some hours?

 

[gpsguy]

Do a forum search for: Realtek

Don't waste your time with Realtek's.

 

[gpsguy]

For RAM needs with NFS, do a forum search. I can't easily do it from my phone.

Just because you only have 15 VM's doesn't mean 8GB is adequate.

 

[Stux]

It's probably just the RealTek NIC crapping out. Unfortunately you won't get any help beyond that.

If you disable sync writes on the target dataset or install a slog, your copy should go *much* faster, as in 20x.

 

[rrruhena]

Hello Guys
I buy two Intel Pro 1000 NICs to replace the Realtek.
Now, I have a new problem: using to nic's with failover configured, when I unplugged the lan cable from master, the server be unreachable... something is happening but I don't know why the slave NIC don't work alone.
Is there some tunnable or something that I have to do in this scenario? Testing both nics alone (without failover) they work well...
Thanks!

 

[rrruhena]

Update: I take a driver from intel site (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...work-Adapter-Gigabit-Base-Driver-for-FreeBSD-), compile it add a flag on tunable to load.
After a reboot, the failover starts to working properly.
I will do more tests, but, for now, its working well.

 

[Stux]

Sounds like you might want to bug report it then