New disks are not recognized - FreeNAS-11.2-RELEASE-U1

[maozefang]

Hi guys,
thank you for the continued support and sorry for the late reply.

Hi Maozefang,

Should you wish to keep pushing for your diagnosis, you can do something like this :
--Power off FreeNAS
--Unplug the drives used by FreeNAS (pool and boot)
--Plug only the new drives that you try to get recognized
--Make yourself a new FreeNAS installer
--Add a temporary 8+ Gig USB stick
--Boot the server with the Installer and install a brand new FreeNAS on the temporary stick
--See if that new temporary drive has better luck recognizing the drives

You can try re-using the same connections as the existing drives as well as with the extra connections you are trying to use.

If the new drives are not recognized when plugged in the same cables and ports as the existing drives, you know the problem is around the drives.
Should the drives works only when plugged in the same cable / ports as the existing drive, the problem is probably related to the board.
Should you get the new drives recognized when plugged in different ports, then you may have fix your setup. Put back you server in its original state (boot drive and drives with the pool) and reboot your actual FreeNAS instance.

You can do this kind of testing with a different operating system like Linux. If Linux can see the drives on the extra ports, then the problem is not in the hardware.

Good luck doing your diagnosis,

Hi Heracles,

I have not gone to that extent yet. Server is used by the family daily so I try not to have it down for too long.
But I will follow those steps as I agree they could help narrow it down. I did try the Hard drives in Windows (using a docking station) and they were recognized so if it is hardware related I believe it will be with the connections (cables, mobo ports).

Are these shucked USB drives? That makes a big difference.

Take a look at this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W3-uOl4ruc

Hi Chris,
No they are not shucked. Bought them as internal sata drives. I do use hot swap bays from rosewill, but I have already tried the drives directly attached (SATA + power)

What are teh spec's on your power supply?

You might want to try a molex to SATA power connector. Some users have run into issues related to SATA revision 3.3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#SATA_revision_3.3

Running an EVGA Supernova 750 B2 Bronze.

 

[maozefang]

Hi Team,

I have got good news, disks finally recognized!!
Bad(dish) news though, while it seems to have been due to hardware issues, it's still a bit unclear if it was just bad ports, bad cables or a combination of all.

I took the time to go through the troubleshooting steps provided by Heracles

Hi Maozefang,
--Unplug the drives used by FreeNAS (pool and boot)
--Plug only the new drives that you try to get recognized
--Make yourself a new FreeNAS installer
--Add a temporary 8+ Gig USB stick
--Boot the server with the Installer and install a brand new FreeNAS on the temporary stick
--See if that new temporary drive has better luck recognizing the drives

You can try re-using the same connections as the existing drives as well as with the extra connections you are trying to use.

If the new drives are not recognized when plugged in the same cables and ports as the existing drives, you know the problem is around the drives.
[new drives were recognized when using same cables and ports as existing drives]
Should the drives works only when plugged in the same cable / ports as the existing drive, the problem is probably related to the board.
Should you get the new drives recognized when plugged in different ports, then you may have fix your setup. Put back you server in its original state (boot drive and drives with the pool) and reboot your actual FreeNAS instance.
[shuffling the drives around and trying different cables, they failed to be recognized consistently in two out of the six SATA ports on the mobo
oddly enough though they were recognized in the ports I had tried initially over the past week]

I now have all drives hooked up to the H310_IT Mode to avoid any "interference" from the SATA ports on the motherboard.

While it appears to be working fine now, this incident has put me on a path for an upgrade. I found what I believe is a good deal on some used old server hardware and will likely switch my installation over, unless you guys see any red flags in the below:

• Motherboard: Supermicro X8DTI-F
• Memory: 48GB (12x4GB) DDR3
• CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon L5630
• HBA: Dell H310-IT Mode
• Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82574L

I can't thank you enough for the help guys! I was about to throw in the towel and give up on expanding my pool before the advice and meticulous troubleshooting steps.

 

[Chris Moore]

• Motherboard: Supermicro X8DTI-F
• Memory: 48GB (12x4GB) DDR3
• CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon L5630

This is a bit older than what I usually suggest. The only problem I see with it is that it will draw a more power and generate more heat.
You might want to look at a build with some components from this list if you can afford it:

Specific build changes to upgrade as high as 512GB of RAM

 

[maozefang]

This is a bit older than what I usually suggest. The only problem I see with it is that it will draw a more power and generate more heat.
You might want to look at a build with some components from this list if you can afford it:

Specific build changes to upgrade as high as 512GB of RAM

Hi Chris,
I will keep that link as a reference. It currently is beyond what I can legitimately spend on my system given the modest usage.

The Supermicro X8DTI-F was a lucky coincidence as a neighbour company was upgrading their servers and almost giving them away. I hope it serves me for a little while. 24 hours running now and so far so good :)