R720XD Install

[andypm1982]

Hi there.

Ive been running truenas scale as a vm in esxi for a few weeks to see how it behaved with my other stuff.

I have now decided to run it bare metal but have been unable to get past the install stage all day.

I have tried installing to a single ssd and an ssd mirror using uefi and it all appears to install fine but upon reboot it runs through the basic boot up and then at the point where it would normally display the menu etc i just get a blank screen and it never appears on the network.

I have a Dell R720XD
256GB Ram
2x E5-2667 V2 CPUS
LSI 9207-8e connected to a powervault with 12x 6TB HE6 drives with a dual RaidZ2 ZFS array already functioning

Im in the process of crossflashing a H710 into IT mode but thats not adding to the current problem as i already have a functional array.

Can anyone shed any light on where i may be going wrong??

Thanks.

 

[jgreco]

Welcome to the forums.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Please take a few moments to review the Forum Rules, conveniently linked at the top of every page in red, and pay particular attention to the section on how to formulate a useful problem report, especially including a detailed description of your hardware, in particular not forgetting to describe whether or not you've forgotten to jettison any PERC RAID controller out of the hardware manifest.

 

[andypm1982]

Welcome to the forums.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Please take a few moments to review the Forum Rules, conveniently linked at the top of every page in red, and pay particular attention to the section on how to formulate a useful problem report, especially including a detailed description of your hardware, in particular not forgetting to describe whether or not you've forgotten to jettison any PERC RAID controller out of the hardware manifest.

I have added as much info as i have currently.

 

[Daisuke]

I have the same setup, what Scale version you run? Can you connect the SSD to an internal USB port and see if you can boot properly?

 

[andypm1982]

its the latest version of scale pulled from the site this morning.

When you say connect the ssd to an internal usb, i dont quite get what you mean.

 

[Daisuke]

What version is that. And you connect the SSD to an USB internal port with an adapter to make sure the OS is properly installed. If your H710 is not flashed to IT, the internal SSD should not be seen, unless attached to USB port. Flashing the H710 is quite easy, though. Is important to have it done prior dealing with any type of disk setup.

 

[andypm1982]

truenas scale 22.12.

i dont have any way to connect it internally. its currently connected to a h730p set in hba mode while i flash the h710, but unfortunately im getting the same issue trying to boot the linux iso i have to flash the h710. it runs through the initial boot up then goes to a blank screen. its almost like its looking for a gpu or something

 

[jgreco]

connected to a h730p set in hba mode

There is no such thing as an "H730p set in HBA mode." A controller is either a RAID controller or it's an HBA. Dell's lying to you. Your H730p is just a lobotomized RAID card, using the same RAID firmware and the same RAID drivers in the OS.

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

 

[andypm1982]

i partially agree which is why im flashing the 710, but the 730 does read all 20 ssd's connected to it as seperate drives.

also doesnt explain why i have basically 2 linux based OS's that are going to a totally black screen once initial boot up is done.

i have tried boot in bios and uefi and disabled virtualization as the flashing guide recommends and still with truenas and linux it just black screens at the same point.

ive stripped all card from the system and pulled all but 2 sticks of memory, 1 per socket and defaulted the bios.

Also tried both the front and back usb ports on the chassis.

unfortunately i dont have a gpu i can throw it to see if that bypasses the current issue although i dont see why it should

 

[andypm1982]

so some progress made. Swapping out the broadcom integrated nic for a intel one and throwing in a low profile quadro has allowed me to get into the linux iso and flash the h710.

Ill test see if getting the ssd onto a proper hba will now allow be to boot

 

[jgreco]

but the 730 does read all 20 ssd's connected to it as seperate drives.

Go back and read: The last paragraph of point 1) in my article, along with points 2), 4), 5), and 6). I don't care if your 730 reads all 20 SSD's as separate drives. It isn't particularly relevant. This isn't a buffet where you get to conveniently pick whatever numbers you prefer from the list I provided. ALL of the points listed are important, unless for some reason they are clearly not applicable.

also doesnt explain why i have basically 2 linux based OS's that are going to a totally black screen once initial boot up is done.

Don't know. Not only do I not have an R720XD to test with, I also generally avoid the Linux stuff except where I can't avoid it. If I understand the above correctly, it is both your crossflash-the-H710 ISO and also the TrueNAS Scale installer ISO that are going to black screen?

 

[Daisuke]

unfortunately i dont have a gpu

R720xd has a built-in internal video card, connect a screen to the blue video port. You need a screen to troubleshoot, you can use iDrac also as alternative, with a license.

Also, @jgreco is right, please follow his guidelines. I would start by flashing the H710 to IT mode and disconnect your LSI 9207-8e, then install properly the OS by booting from an TrueNAS USB flash installer as source, and picking the SSD connected to H710 as install destination.

 

[andypm1982]

i know it has a built in gpu, for some reason the linux iso particually didnt want to use it.

This isnt my first time running/using dell servers, ive ran one since r710 was currrent generation but ive ran esxi for 10+ years, this is just the first time ive ran truenas as i didnt like freebsd and wasnt a massive fan of zfs, but after trialing scale in a vm i wanted to move it to bare metal as it just seemed a waste of resources.

And yes as stated above in my previous post, all cards have already been pulled from the chassis, again not my first time flashing lsi cards.

So after flashing the h710 i attempted re-install without success.

installing in bios mode doesnt find any boot devices after reboot, installing as uefi finds a boot device after reboot but its greyed out and i cannot select it, installing in bios mode then switching to uefi on the reboot also leaves a greyed out truenas labelled boot device that i cannot select.

 

[Daisuke]

You’re telling us when you boot from TrueNAS USB installer, you see your SSD connected to H710 greyed out and cannot select it as destination for TrueNAS installation?

 

[andypm1982]

No. I am able to select it and install to it. Then after the reboot it appears as Truenas-0 in my boot list but it’s greyed out. I am unable to select to boot from it. I have both the bios and uefi bootloaders flashed to the card.

 

[andypm1982]

Should I be using uefi or bios for install on an r720xd?? I’ve always using uefi with the previous os’s.

 

[Daisuke]

You can boot from any, I personally have always UEFI boot enabled. There are two H710 mini models, the B0 and D1. Is important to flash the correct version for the specific model you have, as explained into provided flashing link procedure. Look at My TrueNAS Scale Build, for more details how I have everything setup.

This is what I have as choice, when I boot my R720xd (I boot from an SSD attached to internal USB port, to save the precious PERC connections for dual SSDs used for software pool, where I run all Kubernetes apps):







This is how my H710-mini and H810-external cards look in Avago utility, with H810 connected to one NetData DS4246:

 

[andypm1982]

so an update. I have it all working apart from at around 25% of truenas boot display output stops. Around 1 minute later it appears on the network and i can log in. So it all appears functional apart from the onboard vga output cutting out.