NAS Server Stops or Hangs, Where to look?

[venkavis]

I have installed and been running 8.0.4 for the last 5 days and it seems like after running for a day the server stops or hangs. The web gui gives error 'Unable to find the location' and on the machine running FreeNAS the console is just frozen.

My only option is press reset and the the server runs again.

I searched the documentation and I am unable to find where I can see the server logs so that It can point to some error or so.

If its a hardware issue say the motherboard or power supply or Disk I don't know how it will show up on the server? Maybe I have to run another OS and see.

Looking for some directions here. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[survive]

Hi venkavis,

First thing I would do is memtest the box. Get a copy from memtest.org & let it run for at least a full pass...I prefer to let it run overnight.

I assume it's a new system....have you had any luck running anything else on it?

-Will

 

[venkavis]

You are right. Its a New system I built. Will run the memtest and report back on this thread.

Thank you.

~Venkat

 

[venkavis]

I ran the memtest for 10 hrs and It passed and there were no Errors or failures.

I also checked ASUS support side and this memory is supported and in their QVL list.

Next step is to see freeNAS logs. I am unable to see any documentation on where I can find those and in the Web GUI I see no options to look at system log.

 

[survive]

Hi venkavis,

You can view the logs 2 ways:

1) by sshing in and running "more /var/log/messages" or "tail /var/log/messages". Use "tail -f" to "follow the messases file

2) In the GUI go to "Settings" -> "Advanced" and tick "Show console messages in the footer". Save and refresh your browser (hit F5). You will get a black box at the bottom that shows the last 4-5 lines of log, click it to get a bigger window.

Something to keep in mind....your board is newer than the FreeBSD version FreeNAS is built off of. I usually try to avoid such a situation because FreeBSD\FreeNAS most likely won't have drivers for some or all of the components. It might identify things enough to load a generic driver, but that won't account for any peculiarities that a proper driver would account for.

Have you been able to run anything else on the system? If you don't have any data on the drives you could try booting a DBAN disk (dban.org) and use that to blast a ton of data through your system to your drives (note: DBAN is made to destroy data). Grab a copy of Hiren's boot CD and use some of the tools here: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd under "testing tools".

Honestly, one of my favorite system tests is installing FreeBSD & running "make buildworld".

-Will

 

[venkavis]

Thanks Will.

I will be installing a windows 7 on a different hard drive and run on this machine to see if there is anything to do with the hardware.

Also could you please expand on the "your board is newer than the FreeBSD version FreeNAS is built off of". Where can I find the details of what exact hardware was the freeNAS/FeeBSD build was built off? I can buy the same hardware if its available.

You are correct to point about the drivers, because when I enabled SMART and see the messages when SMART runs every 30 minutes, It doesn't seem to properly identify the Hard Drive and reports that its unable to verify or says drive is unavailable. But I can perfectly access the Shares on the NAS Box from my windows machines.

~Venkat V

 

[venkavis]

After the Memtest, I also did the firmware update on the ASUS Motherboard. After that the machine is currently running freeNAS without any hand for the last 6 days. I assumee that the BIOS firmware upgrade fixed the issue for now.