New FreeNAS enthusiast

[Trebor27]

Just wanted to say Hi. I’ve just embarked on my first FreeNAS build/install.
System so far , old to try to repurpose hardware laying about.

Supermicro X8STI-F
XEON W3690 6-core CPU
24GB ECC UDIMM (DDR3)
Semi modular thermal take PSU 750W
Will plan to reuse 4x 2TB Seagate NAS drives from my ReadyNAS Ultra 4. Plan to expand with 1 more disk possibly RAIDZ2.

Plan to use as NFS, iSCSI, SMB Share, with PLEX server for my ripped Blu-Rays.

So far struggling with boot issues of installation media. Running headless over IPMI.

Rob

 

[Chris Moore]

Just wanted to say Hi. I’ve just embarked on my first FreeNAS build/install.
System so far , old to try to repurpose hardware laying about.

Supermicro X8STI-F
XEON W3690 6-core CPU
24GB ECC UDIMM (DDR3)
Semi modular thermal take PSU 750W
Will plan to reuse 4x 2TB Seagate NAS drives from my ReadyNAS Ultra 4. Plan to expand with 1 more disk possibly RAIDZ2.

Plan to use as NFS, iSCSI, SMB Share, with PLEX server for my ripped Blu-Rays.

So far struggling with boot issues of installation media. Running headless over IPMI.

Rob

Are you mounting the ISO via the IPMI interface?
We need more detail.

 

[Trebor27]

Are you mounting the ISO via the IPMI interface?
We need more detail.

No, I’m only using IPMI in lieu of a keyboard and monitor.
I’m making a bootable installation usb flash key using Rufus. (sandisk extreme 64G)

I then plugged in my blank 32G flash key (sandisk) to install to.

I’m about to try a few things shortly tonight...

So it hangs at a white text screen that states:
BTX version is 1.02
Consoles: internal video/keyboard

Rob

PS. Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Chris Moore]

Probably best to mount the ISO via the IPMI interface because, often times, making a bootable USB stick does not work. Sometimes, because the system board is incapable of interfacing with the USB stick. At least, I've seen a lot of problems with them booting especially the older system boards.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Trebor27]

Probably best to mount the ISO via the IPMI interface because, often times, making a bootable USB stick does not work. Sometimes, because the system board is incapable of interfacing with the USB stick. At least, I've seen a lot of problems with them booting especially the older system boards.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Well what do you know! It’s got much further!

Considering these USB boot issues, would you recommend going SATA for my install disk, rather than USB? I have a spare 128GB SSD laying around actually.

I tried IPMI mount of the ISO yesterday. But clearly “never used IPMI noob” problems were getting in the way and I didn’t want to be too fancy.

Thanks a lot for the advice! Will post back on how I get on!

Cheers
Rob

 

[Trebor27]

So I *am* booting from a USB again, where FreeNAS installed to and I now get to:

https://imgur.com/a/4mKJXCq
I'm guessing this is all USB boot issues. I think I will try my SSD drive on a SATA channel next. I just need to move some stuff off of it first.

 

[Chris Moore]

What version of FreeNAS are you trying to install?
You are doing the BIOS install, right?

 

[Trebor27]

What version of FreeNAS are you trying to install?
You are doing the BIOS install, right?

Yeah I'm using BIOS install, not UEFI.
I'm installing FreeNAS 11.2-BETA1. (I want the PLEX plugin, so I assume I need the beta for that. But I could be wrong?)

I just completed an install to one of my mechanical HDD, just to see. It's working much better, so I think it's just USB boot issues. I've just booted to the Console setup from my spinning disk.

It sounds similar to this FreeBSD issue here actually.
http://blog.ataboydesign.com/2017/0...ols-located-can't-boot-on-freebsd-11-release/

I think I'll just use the 128GB Crucial SATA SSD and be done with it.

Thanks for your help! I'm off to "tinker" a bit now. This weekend I will move the SSD over and get my final install working. Try prove it's stable and then think about migrating my old NAS disks across.

Cheers
Rob

 

[IQless]

I'm installing FreeNAS 11.2-BETA1. (I want the PLEX plugin, so I assume I need the beta for that. But I could be wrong?)

I would suggest going with the STABLE instead of BETA. PLEX plugin is available for the stable versions as well.
If you are new to FreeNAS going with STABLE is always a smart choice :)

 

[Trebor27]

Okay, thanks, I’ll download STABLE next and run that version up.

I’ll try the install to USB agin, just in case. But I think I’m resigned to using the SSD now anyway.

Cheers
Rob

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Will plan to reuse 4x 2TB Seagate NAS drives from my ReadyNAS Ultra 4. Plan to expand with 1 more disk possibly RAIDZ2.

Be aware of the fact that adding a single disk after pool creation isn't possible with ZFS without further ado.
Cyberjock's slideshow is a good starting point for more information.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

 

[Trebor27]

I didn’t appreciate that, so thanks for the heads-up!

I just read the first few slides in that presentation and already it’s fantastically useful, so thanks for the pointer!

Cheers
Rob

 

[Trebor27]

So here is me thinking. Hey I'm a long term Linux user, I should be able to get FreeNAS working, no problem... (User not Sys-Admin, nor software engineer. I design IC's and have always been technical with PC's.)

URGH. Is all I can say.

I've been having a beast of a time. I can now get it to "reliably" install repeatedly, but actually getting it configured is proving a challenge. ( I put reliably in quotes, as I do see some messages which are possibly innocuous, maybe not.)

The WebUI is constantly locking up on me. I've not once got through he wizard yet. I occasionally get timeout's requesting new pages, very often, I don't even get that though, I just get that animated "loading" message, forever.

I'm starting to experiment with older versions of FreeNAS now in an attempt to get something working... (Old hardware older version of FreeNAS was my theory, but no luck yet.)

Thinking, "This must be flaky hardware or I've turned into a complete Gibbon", I decided to try Rockstor, just to see.... BAM, up and running in minutes...

Ok I'm not a Gibbon, maybe just a monkey!

Rob

 

[Chris Moore]

The WebUI is constantly locking up on me. I've not once got through he wizard yet. I occasionally get timeout's requesting new pages, very often, I don't even get that though, I just get that animated "loading" message, forever.

You may very easily have some defective hardware if you are using an X8 series Supermicro system. They are quite old at this point.
You should do some burn-in / diagnostic testing before you try to install FreeNAS. Here is a good guide that will help you with what do do and how to do it:

Uncle Fester's Basic FreeNAS Configuration Guide
https://www.familybrown.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=fester:intro

Also, some additional reading for when you have time:

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/

Hardware Recommendations Guide Rev 1e) 2017-05-06
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

Proper Power Supply Sizing Guidance
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/

Don't be afraid to be SAS-sy
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/don't-be-afraid-to-be-sas-sy.48/

 

[Chris Moore]

Supermicro X8STI-F

Personally, I wouldn't try to use that board because it doesn't have enough PCIe slots.
I used a X8STE with FreeNAS, so there is no reason your board shouldn't work, unless there is something wrong with it.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/X58/X8STE.cfm

 

[Trebor27]

Hi Chris,

Firstly, thanks for your ongoing help.

I will do some homework and reading, so thanks very much for the pointers. I'm not giving up yet.

I need to do a burn-in test of my hardware I agree. I already ran a "default" run of memtest86 on my 12 GB of RAM I have installed, no issues found, hardly a burn-in test though.

I think coming up with some torture test is maybe my next move.

I got Rockstor running no problem, with Plex server and had no issue copying 60GB of data across.

I also got NAS4Free up and running. But I only got as far as creating a VDEV, ZFS Pool and created a mount. I never went as far as to get SAMBA working or anything.

Rob

PS. That X8STE does indeed look very similar to this board I have.

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm not giving up yet.

Great!

PS. That X8STE does indeed look very similar to this board I have.

I was using the same CPU that you have and I was able to install and run FreeNAS 9.3.something and ran FreeNAS on that rig for a year or more before I switched to something a little newer. My main reason for upgrading at the time was so I could have IPMI. The X8STE doesn't have IPMI and I wanted that very much. I would have got the X8ST3-F, which is almost exactly the same as what I had, but with IPMI, only it cost way too much. It is still selling for over $100 on eBay. I still have the X8STE and it is still a great board, it is just missing IPMI. I use it for a Linux distro that I only ever SSH into.
Anyhow, if you feel like it, give version 9.3 a try. If it doesn't work, I would say there has got to be a hardware fault.
Be sure to post back. No point struggling alone.

 

[Trebor27]

I think it’s simple to say, FreeNAS is not compatible with my X8STI-F motherboard....

NAS4FREE works fine and i’m Running a burnin test under NAS4FREE as I type this. FreeNAS just refuses to install well... issues faced:
Read errors when using IPMI virtual CD for install.
Errors reported for the IPMI virtual floppy, with no image mounted.
Errors reported reading from my SSD after install.

Basically, I think there is a general issue with the dated bios and FreeNAS somewhere. I finally tried configuring the SATA ports to RAID in the BIOS, JBOD, to see diff FreeNAS might be able to still do soft-RAID in ZFS using the JBOD. But it refused to even install to the disks at that point...

I think I’ve given up, at this point, with FreeNAS, and I’m exploring NAS4FREE right now as an alternative.

I have that running with ZFS, SAMBA and AFP, with timemachine backups running also. So far so good, been running all night RSYNC’ing data from my other NAS....

I’m not knowledgeable enough in Linux/FreeBSD yet, to do detailed debug to root cause the issue. I wouldn’t really know where to start. If there is any pointer or websites or guides I’ll gladly read and research further.

Rob

 

[joeinaz]

I have an X8DTE and I am going to use VMware to install FreeNAS. One thing I noticed is the internal USB ports only support booting from a CD-ROM or USB disk. My USB key did not seem to work. I installed VMware on a USB key (connected to the rear panel) and successfully installed both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 18 as guest operating systems. I will get to FreeNAS this week. The benefit of using VMware is the hardware is virtualizied and presented to the guest O/S as a generic device instead of hardware that may need a specific driver or is not supported at all.

 

[Trebor27]

I have an X8DTE and I am going to use VMware to install FreeNAS. One thing I noticed is the internal USB ports only support booting from a CD-ROM or USB disk. My USB key did not seem to work. I installed VMware on a USB key (connected to the rear panel) and successfully installed both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 18 as guest operating systems. I will get to FreeNAS this week. The benefit of using VMware is the hardware is virtualizied and presented to the guest O/S as a generic device instead of hardware that may need a specific driver or is not supported at all.

You know what. Ironic you should just reply. I just got FreeNAS installed and seemingly configured by using a different USB key, AND by using the front panel USB ports. Ironically, I have always been trying to use the internal ports on the motherboard.

Also, on the few occasions I got it installed previously, I think I used the rear panel USB ports. But I always made the mistake of swapping the boot key over to the internal ports. I wonder if that’s been the issue all along?

Very interesting.

Also FreeNAS imported my pool and vdev configuration created using nas4free/xigmanas.

I’m going to tinker a little longer to see how well this works.

Cheers
Rob