Hello. I wanted to post some of my experiences with a FreeNAS Mini I purchased in 2015.
Tl;dr: Four hardware failures in five years, and poor support for a new replacement.
My initial impressions of this machine were excellent -- it just worked. But in late 2016 I was hit with the BMC issues that plagued the ASRock C2750D4I motherboard and the machine failed to boot. ASRock RMA'd the board and I was back in business shortly thereafter. Afterward, the machine worked without issue for another two years. In early 2019, the hot swap controller backplane board failed. I contacted ixSystems and paid $40 for a replacement board. Again, once replacing that component I was back in business. However, my luck was short lived, and in late 2020 the machine failed to boot once again. This time I once again suspected the motherboard, so I contacted ASRock, who quoted me $240 for a replacement board, since I was now well out of warranty.
Rather than purchase yet another motherboard with a bad track record, I wondered if I should just purchase a brand new machine, so I decided to get a TrueNAS Mini XL. When I got it, I was unable to login to the BMC web console. The password provided in the TrueNAS documentation would not work. So I contacted ixSystems support.
To my surprise, I was told that this was a "software" issue and that I should follow up on the forums. I suppose technically it is software, but the BMC is on the motherboard. Regardless, I was informed that I would not receive any official support for this totally brand new machine. Ultimately I found the password stick inside the case, but I was pretty displeased with the level of service, especially given that I had already had so many issues with the previous machine. It didn't exactly inspire me with confidence that I would have a pleasant experience in the future.
So ultimately I returned the TrueNAS Mini XL and opted for the $240 replacement board from ASRock. We'll see how much life I get out of the new board now. But overall I didn't feel that it was a good look for ixSystems. I bought the machine to be a solid, robust server, but it has ironically been the machine that has given me the _most_ problems.
Rich
Tl;dr: Four hardware failures in five years, and poor support for a new replacement.
My initial impressions of this machine were excellent -- it just worked. But in late 2016 I was hit with the BMC issues that plagued the ASRock C2750D4I motherboard and the machine failed to boot. ASRock RMA'd the board and I was back in business shortly thereafter. Afterward, the machine worked without issue for another two years. In early 2019, the hot swap controller backplane board failed. I contacted ixSystems and paid $40 for a replacement board. Again, once replacing that component I was back in business. However, my luck was short lived, and in late 2020 the machine failed to boot once again. This time I once again suspected the motherboard, so I contacted ASRock, who quoted me $240 for a replacement board, since I was now well out of warranty.
Rather than purchase yet another motherboard with a bad track record, I wondered if I should just purchase a brand new machine, so I decided to get a TrueNAS Mini XL. When I got it, I was unable to login to the BMC web console. The password provided in the TrueNAS documentation would not work. So I contacted ixSystems support.
To my surprise, I was told that this was a "software" issue and that I should follow up on the forums. I suppose technically it is software, but the BMC is on the motherboard. Regardless, I was informed that I would not receive any official support for this totally brand new machine. Ultimately I found the password stick inside the case, but I was pretty displeased with the level of service, especially given that I had already had so many issues with the previous machine. It didn't exactly inspire me with confidence that I would have a pleasant experience in the future.
So ultimately I returned the TrueNAS Mini XL and opted for the $240 replacement board from ASRock. We'll see how much life I get out of the new board now. But overall I didn't feel that it was a good look for ixSystems. I bought the machine to be a solid, robust server, but it has ironically been the machine that has given me the _most_ problems.
Rich
