Mistakes were made, will this NIC solve the issue?

[Niptastic]

Hey everyone! I recently decided to replace my old "NAS" for a legitimate one. The previous setup was a windows PC with drives in RAID, a shared folder, and a Minecraft server. While wanting a stronger MC server, I starting reading about TrueNAS and figured this was a much better way to go. So thanks to YouTube research, I basically built a small gaming PC thinking it would work well (as a lot of YT videos use much older/junk hardware).

My problems started early as I received this error:

• “The web interface could not be accessed”.
• “Please check network configuration”

After searching, it seems my Realtek 2.5GB port isn't supported, and there's no real way to get it supported. I then found the recommended hardware PDF and see I could buy a NIC to potentially save the build. I was looking at picking up an Intel I210T1 PCI-Express Network Adapter found here:

Intel I210T1 PCI-Express Network Adapter - Newegg.com

Buy Intel I210T1 PCI-Express Network Adapter with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

I didn't find much, if anything, specific to this model working with TrueNAS. I'm sure I'm overthinking it, but I'd rather not spend even more money on the wrong thing. So if I buy, should that solve my connection issues? Thanks in advance..

The Hardware list:
Ryzen 5600G
ASUS TG B550M-Plus (Wi-Fi)
32GB 3200 CL18 G.Skill RAM
ADATA SSD boot drive

 

[Samuel Tai]

Yes, that NIC will work with the built-in em driver.

 

[Niptastic]

Fantastic. Thanks for the reply!

 

[pschatz100]

FreeBSD, which is the underlying OS for TrueNAS, does not support many of the features found on motherboards designed to run Windows. Realtek NIC's, in particular, can be problematic because they don't provide good drivers for FreeBSD. This is why INTEL NIC's are often recommended.

I would also disable in bios any features not being used by TrueNAS such as: WiFi, LED support, advanced USB features, audio, etc.

 

[Niptastic]

Unfortunately, I didn't know that when I designed the new system. I should have come here first. I do wish I tried TrueNAS on the old build 1st, because that would have brought this issue up sooner and I could built accordingly. Luckily, there's an easy (I hope) fix that's on its way.

I also turned off all the extras while attempting to get things to work. I appreciate the tips!

 

[pschatz100]

People who are new to TrueNAS often don't understand there differences in support for devices by the various operating systems: Windows, Linux, Mac OS, FreeBSD, etc. FreeBSD does not support as wide a variety of devices as does Windows. Therefore, just because something works fine under Windows, does not necessarily mean that it will work fine under FreeBSD. This comes up often with NIC's and SATA expansion cards.

Just about every gaming or consumer-oriented motherboard on the market today comes with a Realtek NIC. Unfortunately, Realtek doesn't put much effort into device drivers for FreeBSD. Some Realtek implementations work OK - others, not so well. It gets better with newer versions of TrueNAS (on newer versions of FreeBSD), but support for Realtek always lags behind support for Intel.

Occasionally, new forum members get angry about this, but there is a good reason for the hardware recommendations.

Two other things to think about:

• Read up on ZFS so you have a basic understanding of how it works and how to configure pools to meet your requirements. There are resources here in the forum that will explain ZFS as implemented by TrueNAS
• Don't forget to have a backup plan for your data.

and if you have the budget for it: Add a UPS. Computers need good power for most reliable operation.

 

[Niptastic]

So, a small update. I got the NIC a few days ago and it was a plug and play setup. I also setup my pools and users relatively easily. I still need to schedule some tasks to monitor disc health, but I'll get there. I also setup a spigot MC server, but can't seem to get a Forge MC (mods) server going. But hey, the system is up! Thank you all for the support!

 

[anderstn]

FYI it's no real issue running Truenas on regular hardware however how well the motherboard works, especially if you plan on running virtual machines, can vary a lot from vendor to vendor as a lot of features don't just depend on compatible hardware but also specific firmware features present on the board BIOS. That said don't worry about that bridge until you need to cross it. For a pure Freenas system the only real requirement is a compatible SATA controller and that is pretty much guaranteed. Just remember to run the SATA controller in AHCI mode in BIOS.

Disabling things like pschatz100 suggested can fix things if they cause a genuine problem, but as long as you are not seeing errors pop up on the Freenas machine disabling things shouldn't make a big difference either way. That said I would disable things that outright don't work like the network card simply because it might suddenly start working later on as the FreeBSD drivers mature and that can be a bit confusing as another network interface suddenly pops up on the dashboard.