No disk or volume shown in the Storage Tab for Configuration

[Andes Help]

I have been going back and forth for a couple of hours trying to find a disk and create a shared volume. Following the Installation Documentation has not provided any insight on what the problem is. FreeNAS can not, or will not, display anything, a volume, or disk as existing. When I try to create a shared volume there are no member disks shown. It is just a blank form with no way to even search for a disk. This is a new install to a new hard drive.

When trying to create a /shared volume all I get is an error message:

* The path must reside within a volume mount point

That error means absolutely nothing to me.

Thanks for your help.

 

[gcooper]

This should probably be under the support channel.

First off, which version are you running?

I have been going back and forth for a couple of hours trying to find a disk and create a shared volume. Following the Installation Documentation has not provided any insight on what the problem is. FreeNAS can not, or will not, display anything, a volume, or disk as existing. When I try to create a shared volume there are no member disks shown. It is just a blank form with no way to even search for a disk. This is a new install to a new hard drive.

If you go on to your console with the setup menu. Press 9, then type in the following command, what does it say?

Code:

camcontrol devlist

When trying to create a /shared volume all I get is an error message:

* The path must reside within a volume mount point

That error means absolutely nothing to me.

You need to create a share in an existing volume or dataset in order to share data -- otherwise your 'data' would be lost at reboot because virtually everything else on FreeNAS is either a) stored in RAM, or b) on a readonly image. That's what the message is trying to put across.

 

[Andes Help]

If this needs to be transferred to the Support Form, that would be fine. Thanks for your reply.

First off, which version are you running?

8.0.2 release i386 (8288)

If you go on to your console with the setup menu. Press 9, then type in the following command, what does it say?

Code:

camcontrol devlist

<WDC WD800AAJB-00J3A0 01.03E01> at scbus0 target 0 lun 0 (ada0,pass0)
<ATAPI DVD DD 2X164X16 G7H9> at scbus1 target 0 lun 0 (pass1,cd0)

You need to create a share in an existing volume or dataset in order to share data -- otherwise your 'data' would be lost at reboot because virtually everything else on FreeNAS is either a) stored in RAM, or b) on a readonly image. That's what the message is trying to put across.

That is exactly what I have been unable to accomplish. When I go into "Add CIFS Shares" and try to select a path the only path shown in the drop down box is [/QUOTE] /mnt [/QUOTE]. And, even when I manually type in a specific path I get the "The path must reside within a volume mount point" error. Searching the Forums I have found numerous posts about the exact same issue and none of them have had any solution provided. That is why I posted my question.

 

[gcooper]

8.0.2 release i386 (8288)

Random question: how much memory do you have?

<WDC WD800AAJB-00J3A0 01.03E01> at scbus0 target 0 lun 0 (ada0,pass0)
<ATAPI DVD DD 2X164X16 G7H9> at scbus1 target 0 lun 0 (pass1,cd0)

There's the problem. You installed FreeNAS on your 'target' hard disk. What you should do is purchase a robust USB stick (Toughdrives a pretty good) and at least another drive so you can setup a mirror (just in case one of the hard drives goes south -- it happens), or more disks if you want to setup a more robust RAID config (RAIDZ/RAIDZ2 if you go the ZFS route; graid3 if you go the UFS route).

You want to install FreeNAS on the USB stick and setup your volumes as desired.

That is exactly what I have been unable to accomplish. When I go into "Add CIFS Shares" and try to select a path the only path shown in the drop down box is

/mnt

. And, even when I manually type in a specific path I get the "The path must reside within a volume mount point" error. Searching the Forums I have found numerous posts about the exact same issue and none of them have had any solution provided. That is why I posted my question.

If the docs need to be changed, that can be done. I have both wiki and commit access, so if you have feedback on what should change and it makes sense, I'll be more than happy to do it.

 

[Andes Help]

I have 2Gb RAM.

There's the problem. You installed FreeNAS on your 'target' hard disk.

OK. Now that does not make any sense to me. Are you saying that FreeNAS requires a minimum of two drives to work? If so, then it will not work as the File Server I need.

 

[digitaltrash]

Andes Help

See #25.

 

[Andes Help]

Ok. Thanks. With that restriction I don't understand how this can be promoted as a good file server package. It is more like a temporary portable file server. So it is onto bigger and better file server applications.

It was worth a try.

 

[digitaltrash]

From what I've read, folks refer to it as an appliance, rather than a file server. I'd personally say (from my experiences) that it is still in development, not ready for use (even home use) nor production (especially), but good people with programming skills are fixing the bugs. I think its's great to see server-like features (ZFS in particular) in a tight package up to 2Gb for free, with polished UI (but not functionality, yet).

For prime ZFS environments, I'm beginning to look at solaris (opensolaris), then FreeBSD, then other derivatives of traditional unices like linux. I have to say, though, that FreeBSD, even though it is probably not the best for ZFS yet (not an expert on this, just stating things I've read on forums and the like) is still very attractive due to all the rest of the services that can be run of off it with confidence of reliability.

 

[gcooper]

Ok. Thanks. With that restriction I don't understand how this can be promoted as a good file server package. It is more like a temporary portable file server. So it is onto bigger and better file server applications.

It was worth a try.

Or you could just buy a $5 USB stick.. oh well -- good luck.

 

[janptak]

@Andes Help and alike.

I am using Freenas since version 0.6x. Its more than 5 year (or more - correct me if I am wrong). Week ago Ive upgrade everything to Freenas 8.

For all this time freenas =never= let me down. My data survived hdd crashes, MB crashes, PSU crashes and countles power line failures etc. Once my server was almost flooded, and once water from broken water pipe was pouring over freenas box - it was standing 1 cm deep into water and box completely wet ;-) And my data was intact!
Previously I was using netgear solutions, HP servers etc. They cost a lot and crash periodically! (ie Netgear sometimes simply format drives (sic!) )

To me Freenas proved itself bulletproof enough so I dont even look for other solutions.

Everywhere theres a need for NAS I always recommend freenas or building it by myself. Its simply build, configure and forget strategy.

And whats wrong with installing it on usb-stick?? I had it installed on CF cards, usb-sticks etc and its great idea.