SATA SSD's missing serial number in GUI [Solved]

[eyeofmaat]

I am having an issue where the serial numbers in the GUI for my 6x Sata SSD's are missing/blank.

This is resulting in a duplicated serial number error when trying to add another pool (of unrelated disks).
This may be an issue with TN-13, as i *think* the serial numbers were visible previously. They are setup as mirrors, and i have added a new pair in the past without issues.

My Hardware is a Dell R720, with an IT flashed H310 connected to these 6 disks.
When i look in iDRAC for these disks, it is able to tell me the serial numbers. The serial numbers displayed in iDRAC are unique between the 6 SSD's

When i attempt to make the new pool (HDD's in a disk enclosure), i get the following error:

[EINVAL] pool_create.topology: Disks have duplicate serial numbers: '' (mfisyspd0, mfisyspd1, mfisyspd2, mfisyspd3, mfisyspd4, mfisyspd5).

The TN GUI lists these SSD as mfisyspd0-5 with a blank serial number.

I do not know enough about the shell commands to check any command line options.

Can you please let me know if there is something i can do to fix it, or if a bug report needs to be filed.
If usefull, i could reboot into an old v12 environment to check it.


Current TN version: TrueNAS-13.0-U2
Uptime only 15 hours, as i had shutdown previously when adding the additional disk enclosure
Dell R720, E5-2643, 96GB RAM,
8x single disk raid 0 connected to H710p (Temp storage pool)
6x SSD connected to H310 flashed to IT (VM Storage pool)
12x HDD inside MD1400, connected to H830 in Non-Raid (Main storage pool)
12x HDD inside MD1400, connected to first MD1400 (these are the new disks im trying to use)

 

[jgreco]

mfisyspd0, mfisyspd1, mfisyspd2, mfisyspd3, mfisyspd4, mfisyspd5

This suggests that your disks are hooked up to a RAID controller. Please see

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

LSI cards can have several different modes. MFI is the old MegaRAID SAS controller driver, and this is not acceptable for TrueNAS.

Confused about that LSI card? Join the crowd ...

A recent post prompted me to think, there's a lot of confusion regarding LSI HBA/RAID cards. If you're confused, it is probably understandable... it can be a bit complicated! ZFS users on FreeNAS should avoid using hardware RAID cards. ZFS and FreeNAS work best when the drive is managed...

www.truenas.com

Now as far as I know, the H830 is a RAID controller, and the words "in Non-Raid" are a Dell lie. Having a RAID controller and simply not configuring any RAID volumes does not make it "not a RAID controller". It still communicates to the host using the same driver and techniques.

Also, the H710p is definitely also a RAID controller.

Basically you don't have any storage controllers expected to be usable in this system except the H310, and your system is obliging you by not working.

Replace the H710p and the H830.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Check that the H310 isn't still using Dell IR or Dell IT firmware and "passthrough mode" instead of proper LSI IT, because as @jgreco points out those disks are definitely being handled by mfi which is likely why you can't see the serial numbers.

Running sas2flash -list and posting the results here should give us some idea if you have it correct, possibly lspci output as well.

 

[eyeofmaat]

I agree with regards to the H710p. This is a raid only card, so I have had to create single disk raid-0 and pass them to TrueNas. This only serves my temp storage pool, so if the whole pool fails i dont really care.

The H830 however, does have a HBA mode option: https://www.dell.com/support/manual...cc87e1-d534-451a-9947-56f1175886c5&lang=en-us

This is how my MD1400 is connected (and daisy chained to the 2nd one) and is working fine. These disks show up in TrueNAS as da10, da11, etc...

The Dell Perc H310 is "flashed to IT mode" according to the ebay article (2 years ago approx), so it should not support RAID at all. Here is the details of the controller

I also found this recent article: https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/enable-it-mode-at-dell-perc-h310.101575/
if i understand it, does that imply that the flash to IT mode was not actually done before i bought it? because mine are still showing mfi

 

[jgreco]

The H830 however, does have a HBA mode option:

It does not. See

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

Calling a RAID controller an HBA doesn't actually make it into one, just like calling a fat guy skinny doesn't make that so either.

There is some debate over whether MRSAS-driven controllers MIGHT qualify to be used in an HBA/JBOD mode. Basically it's really hard to know for certain, and the most encouraging thing I can say is that I'm not aware of any actual train wrecks so far. But we were able to say that about MFI at one point years ago, and I was proven wrong. So I'm a bit wary of overly optimistic statements.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I agree with regards to the H710p. This is a raid only card, so I have had to create single disk raid-0 and pass them to TrueNas. This only serves my temp storage pool, so if the whole pool fails i dont really care.

The H710P can in fact be crossflashed to an HBA now; however, it would likely result in your exiting pool being unmountable if the RAID logic on the Dell firmware obfuscates the disks.

Introduction - Fohdeesha Docs

fohdeesha.com

The H830 however, does have a HBA mode option: https://www.dell.com/support/manual...cc87e1-d534-451a-9947-56f1175886c5&lang=en-us

It's not a "true HBA" as pointed out - but we at least have some anecdotal evidence that the mrsas driver is acceptable.

The Dell Perc H310 is "flashed to IT mode" according to the ebay article (2 years ago approx), so it should not support RAID at all. Here is the details of the controller
View attachment 59062

That's still a RAID controller as evidenced by it being called out as a PERC H310 in your iDRAC, but you found the related thread:

I also found this recent article: https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/enable-it-mode-at-dell-perc-h310.101575/
if i understand it, does that imply that the flash to IT mode was not actually done before i bought it? because mine are still showing mfi

It's still running the Dell IR firmware. You'll want to push the official LSI IT firmware onto it for both stability and performance reasons (as the H310 is notable for having a very poor queue depth) and note that the "Mini/Mono" proprietary adapter cards require a different flash process from the full-size PCIe ones.

 

[eyeofmaat]

Thanks Jgreco. Understood. Ill add a HBA to my "to buy" list and replace the H830 sometime. I assume any HBA will work fine with the Dell MD1400's i have? (they are a bit noisy, but i dont have the cash to buy anything else right now)

HoneyBadger,

I can follow these steps to flash the H310 and the H710p (mini mono) after backing up data
I have a spair server and Perc I can use to test it, and if it works i can swap the devices to the NAS

Thanks for the help

 

[eyeofmaat]

Fixed.

Flashed another H710 also, which tested ok. I will need to swap it for the one in this system sometime, but it will likely ruin my boot and temp pool.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Fixed.
View attachment 59098

Flashed another H710 also, which tested ok. I will need to swap it for the one in this system sometime, but it will likely ruin my boot and temp pool.

It'll likely toast the pools that were on it, but if you're after an extremely redundant boot strategy (3 disks) even @jgreco will concede that a RAID card can play a valuable role there.

 

[jgreco]

even @jgreco will concede that a RAID card can play a valuable role there.

I think I was actually the one who pointed that out.

 

[eyeofmaat]

For what its worth, if anybody comes across this thread later, the raid disks on the H710P Mini were not toast. they did load back up just like before.
Obviously i cannot guarantee it will be the same situation for others specific situation. Mine were single-disk Raid-0's

in my case, I did choose to blow it away and rebuild the pool anyway. it was only temp data stored there anyway.

A 2-disk boot pool is fine by me, so dont need to use a raid card. I save the config file anyway when i make changes.
Thanks for your assistance and advice with this issue. Most appreciated.