SOLVED New Build keeps rebooting

[Mutley]

Hi everyone,
my goal was to build a FreeNAS media server running Emby and possibly a cloud for personal use. I've followed the guidelines with the specs for a build, motherboard supermicro X10SLL-f, Xeon 1230V3 processor, 2 x 8gb ram samsung M391B1G73QH0-YK0, 2 x WDRed 3TB hard drives, ocz vertex 120 gb ssd, Silverstone SST-SG11b case, two Noctua 80mm fans, one Fractal 120mm fan and one Akasa oem 92mm heatsink fan. I'm using FreeNAS 11.1-RC1 as operating system. Got everything installed and running, so my first initial problem was fans spinning up and down like a yoyo every 5 to 10 seconds. Did research and managed to sort using the ipmi which stabilised the fans. This I thought was what was causing the reboots. On a cold boot machine stayed on a couple of hours before becoming temperamental and shutting down and rebooting. this has been going on for two weeks or more. So I thought the SSD might be failing as its not new , so decided to run software on a Sandisk usb stick, again runs ok then something triggers and reboots the machine, sometimes 10 minutes sometimes 30, can be less can be more. Next step was taking out ram and using one stick at a time and trying it in both slots. Still reboots erroneously. Next step was to reseat the cpu and fan as heatsink came preloaded with thermal paste, so I cleaned off and used a new tube to see if that was the cause . Again still rebooting, What I didn't do at beginning was stress test the machine. So I've run memtest 86 for 15 hours had no errors, passed and completely stable. Plugged in my FreeNAS usb and within minutes its rebooting. As you can see I'm at a loss as to whats wrong, I'm not familiar with FreeNAS and how you can see or obtain errors to diagnose. I have a fair knowledge of hardware and think that if it is running ok for 15 hours without a problem on memtest86 the hardware seems ok. I've never come across this on a build before. The temperatures are minimum on machine as its not working to potential so its not heat, also tested without case lid. Any suggestions greatly appreciated

 

[dlavigne]

Anything in /var/log/messages?

 

[joeschmuck]

I'm using freenas 11.1-RC1

First of all you need to use 11.1-Stable or 11.0-U4, RC anything could be a problem, I don't think it's this problem but remove it from being a suspect.

Second, you didn't state that you ran a CPU Stress Test so I'd recommend running a CPU Stress Test for 1 to 3 hours. Normally I'd say 30 minutes but in your situation you are troubleshooting a problem.

Third, Strip the machine of everything, meaning the hard drives and add-on cards. Now bootstrap FreeNAS and see if it stays running for any length of time. You won't have any vdevs but that is okay, the test is to see if FreeNAS is causing the issues.

Fourth (which may need to be done first), is the motherboard IPMI and BIOS firmware packages up to date?

Fifth, Try to run a FreeBSD 11 live disk.

 

[Mutley]

Thanks for the quick responses
No I hadn't done a cpu stress test, so at present that is what I am now doing, temperature is up to 61C at moment. and fans have sped up to compensate.
I thought I had a stable version so perhaps that's my problem from the start, we will see. I've downloaded version 11.0-U4, which I will install after about an hour of stress testing and see how I get on, Bios is up to date as there isn't any updates for board, but looks like ipmi can be updated

 

[wblock]

Is this an old OCZ Vertex SSD, or one made since Toshiba bought OCZ? I would not recommend using one of those pre-Toshiba models.

What brand and model of power supply are being used? The symptoms could suggest several things. Maybe an improper CPU fan installation, maybe a power supply problem. Is the RAM the correct type for that motherboard?

I would recommend using the stock CPU cooler.

 

[Ericloewe]

Hi everyone,
my goal was to build a FreeNAS media server running Emby and possibly a cloud for personal use. I've followed the guidelines with the specs for a build, motherboard supermicro X10SLL-f, Xeon 1230V3 processor, 2 x 8gb ram samsung M391B1G73QH0-YK0, 2 x WDRed 3TB hard drives, ocz vertex 120 gb ssd, Silverstone SST-SG11b case, two Noctua 80mm fans, one Fractal 120mm fan and one Akasa oem 92mm heatsink fan. I'm using FreeNAS 11.1-RC1 as operating system. Got everything installed and running, so my first initial problem was fans spinning up and down like a yoyo every 5 to 10 seconds. Did research and managed to sort using the ipmi which stabilised the fans. This I thought was what was causing the reboots. On a cold boot machine stayed on a couple of hours before becoming temperamental and shutting down and rebooting. this has been going on for two weeks or more. So I thought the SSD might be failing as its not new , so decided to run software on a Sandisk usb stick, again runs ok then something triggers and reboots the machine, sometimes 10 minutes sometimes 30, can be less can be more. Next step was taking out ram and using one stick at a time and trying it in both slots. Still reboots erroneously. Next step was to reseat the cpu and fan as heatsink came preloaded with thermal paste, so I cleaned off and used a new tube to see if that was the cause . Again still rebooting, What I didn't do at beginning was stress test the machine. So I've run memtest 86 for 15 hours had no errors, passed and completely stable. Plugged in my FreeNAS usb and within minutes its rebooting. As you can see I'm at a loss as to whats wrong, I'm not familiar with FreeNAS and how you can see or obtain errors to diagnose. I have a fair knowledge of hardware and think that if it is running ok for 15 hours without a problem on memtest86 the hardware seems ok. I've never come across this on a build before. The temperatures are minimum on machine as its not working to potential so its not heat, also tested without case lid. Any suggestions greatly appreciated

There's your problem - your Enter key is broken.

 

[joeschmuck]

There's your problem - your Enter key is broken.

Yup, I saw that too.

 

[Mutley]

Whats an enter key !!
PSU is a Thermaltake toughpower 750

 

[Mutley]

Just an update, now changed motherboards, problem is just continuous reboots, not getting past post

 

[Mutley]

Now changed to a new power supply unit "Corsair RM850X" and still keeps rebooting, so now the only thing left is the cpu

 

[Mutley]

Memory definitely says unbuffered

 

[wblock]

Sorry, I had already deleted my post as not relevant. If the system has the wrong type of memory, it generally does not boot at all.

 

[Mutley]

So.... totally confused now, replaced cpu with another and still the same problem of continuous reboots. For some reason it would not recognise usb with FreeNAS. So I've now gone and downloaded a new copy, and installed on original SSD and system now boots up. I'm actually back to square one, but replacing a motherboard, power supply and cpu and not knowing what was faulty.......If any

 

[joeschmuck]

One of the issues I have with this problem is not knowing your computer experience level. It's difficult to know if you are doign things properly, for example when you replaced the motherboard did you insert the CPU properly and apply thermal compound properly. We have to assume that you are doign things properly.

So as of right now you system is working flawlessly when it boots from a SSD?

When you attempt to boot from a USB Flash drive, what exactly happens? How far in the boot process does the system get? How did you get the FreeNAS boot image on the USB if the system isn't booting properly?

What I think I need you to do it take us in a step by step process on how you do things. Also, don't use the fans speed script or any other tweaks until your system remains operational. And restore your BIOS to the default settings. Who knows what you migth have done accidentally via IPMI that is causing you issues. Didn't this all start up when you started using the fan script?

 

[Mutley]

Totally understand about understanding peoples experience, I've probably built about 8 pc's over the years. Servers though no experience. And you learn as you go along, picking up faults quicker. Obviously yes I have been using thermal paste, and cpu will only fit into the board one way, I have of course reseated in case a pin wasn't having contact , but they are virtually idiot proof nowadays. My initial outlay of parts were the motherboard, memory and pc case were new, the ssd, cpu and psu were off an unused pc, although cpu I bought 2nd hand.That probably didn't help the situation as i was adding a complication to the equation that not everything was new, believing everything will work perfectly. So my initial response to the crashing was thinking it was the ssd, as that was a couple of years old, so I then reverted to using a new usb stick. Again pc was booting but after a few hours started rebooting. I've been using rufus to burn the software onto usb. So having the usb crash, gave me doubts about the hardware. I probably went the wrong way in trying to find the fault, as I replaced the motherboard first which of course was new. If I look back now I should of started with the old parts then moved onto the new parts. But when I changed the motherboard the pc would only get to post and couldn,t find a boot. I was now not seeing the wood for the trees as they say. I then changed the psu and of course still had the problem, startup only went to post, no boot. I then decided to run a burn in to put some pressure on the computer. Using ultimate cd on usb stick, pc booted and everything seemed fine. It then dawned on me a couple of hours later that ultimate cd booted, so why didn't freenas. In the meantime, another cpu arrives, its 2nd hand, but i thought I can't be that unlucky to have two cpu's that don't work. So of course started up, only got to post. I now decided to download another copy of FreeNAS 11.1, using rufus it was burnt to a new usb, and I then decided to use the ssd. Everything started up, and has been running about 4 days with no problem. I think somehow, a copy of FreeNAS became corrupted on usb where stick was in and out building and stripping pc. So that then added to the confusion of giving me two faults instead of the initial one. Something I did pickup was the power lead to the psu was a 10 amp power lead, as I didn't change the lead just the unit. I checked the new lead that came with the psu, and this was a 13 amp fuse. So I decided that should be changed just in case, and do wonder if this was the initial problem from the start. And its running very quiet also which I'm pleased about.

 

[joeschmuck]

What bothers me is you said it was working fine initially and then it just failed. The only thing I can think of was you were running the fan script. Maybe it did something it shouldn't have done? Just trying to find out the root cause of your problems. I do think you built the USB Flash drive incorrectly. While Rufus can work, I've had issues with it so I always default to using the ISO and either place it on a CD-R or mount it as a Virtual Drive for the server via IPMI.

 

[Mutley]

The fan script was one of the immediate changes I did, as it was such an annoying bug which i'd not come across before, fans spinning up and down every 5 seconds got very annoying and noisy. So whether I did the correct scripts I'm not sure, I have tweaked a bit, and everything is running fine. I do actually wonder if the FreeNAS wrote itself correctly from Rufus. I've only installed Emby, and I've noticed that the structure is different in that it has installed itself into a jail on volume1, which it didn't do before. I also do think it could be the power lead.

 

[gsjmia]

I just went through a similar experience, built two new identical systems with Asrock E3c223D2I mobos. One ran fine but the other was unstable and would reboot every 45 min or so. Luckily (this time), I was able to swap parts back and forth. It was the Kingston Hyperfury RAM--swapped RAM to the other system and the exact same error/behavior started to appear in the other system.