TrueNAS Core box complete Fail

[wittend]

I'm trying to rebuild my modest TrueNAS Core server and encountering alarming difficulties. Previously, I ran for about a year on the Motherboard SATA connectors. Due to a series clumsy mistakes and lack of understanding I lost all of my data, and trashed my single striped pool. After that, I decided one of the onboard SATA connectors seemed wobbly (or maybe not). To avoid using that connector, I purchased a replacement PCIe controller that supported more disks. I didn't realize how many more disks, but I wanted to be able to expand with a couple of spares.

My big question, is this a suitable controller?: LSI 9300-16I 9305-16I 9305-24I IT Mode HBA JBOD PCI-E 3.0 SATA SAS 12Gb (9305-24I + 6 SFF-8643 SATA). I went through the hardware guides that talk about the LSI controllers, and things looked OK, as best I could understand. In the card's BIOS, (Avago Tech Config Utility v8.35.00.00 (2017-05-05), I see Controller Topology SAS 3224 SAS9305-24i (01:00).

I put this all together, and all seemed shiny and good. I plugged the SSD drives into the (non suspect) onboard connectors, and all the rest into one of the SAS -> SATA cables, Everything came right up, drives were getting resilvered, and all looked happy.

After a couple of hours, I did see one one error - DA0 indicated an unrecoverable error, but everything went forward and the pool was online. I didn't really trust it yet, but after configuring things I moved a few GB of data to see if things seemed. OK.

Then I let it sit about 36 hours and did other stuff. I came back and things looked BAD. Two drives offline, pool still up, but walking with a serious limp. And as I poked around - read only, not changing anything, the third drive went offline and then the whole system went down. And then would not boot back up!

I walked away for a couple of days (in despair). Now, to provide the system info, I booted it again. Looked at but did not change the BIOS. Pretty much the same old defaults. No RAID, hardware or otherwise. Bunches of errors in the Web GUI, but all from two days ago. My Pool is offline though.

• Motherboard make and model
  • ASRock
  • H77M-ITX
  • UEFI Version H77M-ITX P1.10
  • Mini ITX
• CPU make and model
  • Intel core IT-2700K
• RAM quantity
  • 16 GB, Non-EC LPDDR3
• Hard drives, quantity, model numbers, and RAID configuration, including boot drives
  • Boot (mirrored):
    • 1 Crucial 128 GB SATA SSD
    • 1 PNY 240GB SATA III SSD
  • Storage
    • 4 x WD Red 4TB, ~ 1yr old
• Hard disk controllers
  • LSI 9300-16I 9305-16I 9305-24I IT Mode HBA JBOD PCI-E 3.0 9305-24I 24 ports.(overkill, I know)
• Network cards
  • 1 GB onboard, (not currently identifiable, but assume Realtek) loads 're' driver. (I know, not good, I have Intel replacement but no free slots).

About all I know is to replace the MB, CPU, and memory (and Ethernet), and I have no clear reason to believe that the problem lies there.
Any advice would be appreciated and followed - within my budget, which is quite small now.

Dave

 

[NugentS]

A few issues with what you have written:
1. Motherboard Make and Model, you seem to have given us a make and size - not a model
2. Intel Core IT-2700K - It should be a core i3, i5, or i7 I suspect
3. What model of WD Red are they? They are probably SMR drives, in which case they are not suitable
4. You mention 3 seperate LSI cards - which one is it? Can you include a link to where you got it from and some photos of the card, front and back
5. What case are you using?
6. What PSU are you using?

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, take a step back and list as much detail as you can. I'm honestly pretty confused.

 

[wittend]

I meant to add that:

The PNY SSD is: SSD2SC240G1SA754D117-820
The Crucial drive is :M4-CT128M4SSD2
Both seem OK now.
All of rhe WD Drives are:
ATA WDC WD4003FFBX-6

I am running TrueNAS Core - 13.0-U6.1

And what I may have done is to try to run Manual S.M.A.R.T. checks on the Pool drives.

Dumb, Heh?

Dave

​

 

[wittend]

I will have to dig for the board ID.
No clue what PSU - plenty good enough. not the problem
Case? are you kidding?

Dave

 

[Ericloewe]

Case? are you kidding?

Not at all: Cooling, backplanes, expanders, those are all very relevant points very much tied to the chassis. It's important to narrow these things down systematically.

 

[wittend]

And no, that information describes ONE LSI board. The naming is VERY confusing, but this is what I have. It is a configuration that supports 12 SAS drives at 12 Gbps, or 24 SATA drives at 6 Gbps. One part of the description is the cables (SAS->SATA) that were included.

Dave

 

[wittend]

The case is one MiniITX case with SSD drives, PS, MB, etc. The other is a purpose built box just for the WD drives. Open frame. 120 mm Fan, but all covers are off, all fans are working properly. Everything has worked well for over a year, I monitor all temperatures and all are WAY within spec.

Dave

 

[danb35]

is this a suitable controller?: LSI 9300-16I 9305-16I 9305-24I IT Mode HBA JBOD PCI-E 3.0 SATA SAS 12Gb (9305-24I + 6 SFF-8643 SATA)

Which one? You list at least three there (the 9300-16i, the 9305-16i, and the 9305-24i), naming one (the 9305-24i) twice. If it does have 6 SFF-8643 ports, it could only be the 9305-24i, but those are SAS ports, not SATA. None of them functions as you describe ("12 SAS drives at 12 Gbps, or 24 SATA drives at 6 Gbps"). No part of that description identifies any cables.

Any of those three controllers should be fine, and any of them is gross overkill for what you're doing.

 

[wittend]

Ok Sorry I see now. It is the 9305-24i. I am very confused by both the standard naming and the cables.

Dave