Upgraded hardware, can't connect after restart

[Berkyjay]

I recently purchased some new hardware and I installed it into my rig with today. But when I restarted I am unable to log into the web portal. I pulled my rig apart and made sure everything was installed and connected properly. But now I'm at an impasse on how to trouble shoot this since I don't have a graphics card to connect a monitor to and see what might be the issue.

Here is the hardware that was there before and the new hardware.

• Upgrading the motherboard from a ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac to a ASRock C236 WSI
• Upgrading the CPU from a Intel Core i5-4590 to a Intel Xeon E3-1220 V6
• Upgrading memory from Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 to Crucial 16GB Single DDR4 2400
• My case is a Silverstone DS380B with a SilverStone Technology 450W power supply, which is staying the same.
• The OS is on a thumb drive and I have 6 WD Red HDDs (Split among 2 separate pools).

I'm pretty much without my media server now and I'm freaking out. I tried to take as many precautions as possible and made sure that upgrading hardware was possible with FreeNAS. I'd really be appreciative if someone could give me some assistance.

 

[Chris Moore]

ASRock C236 WSI

Spec sheet doesn't say it is compatible with FreeBSD. It only lists Windows, not even Linux.

 

[Chris Moore]

since I don't have a graphics card to connect a monitor to and see what might be the issue.

Some system boards are not designed to boot without graphics support. Server boards usually can, but this is not a server broad.

 

[Berkyjay]

Spec sheet doesn't say it is compatible with FreeBSD. It only lists Windows, not even Linux.

I didn't even think that this would be an issue so I didn't even look. So that pretty much means I'm hosed them?

Edit:

WOuld you be willing to help me out getting the proper hardware? My main criteria is to have a mobo with 8 SATA3 ports. I currently have a Silverstone DS380 which has 6 hotswap bays. But I'm thinking I'll need to move up to at least a micro-ITX to get a mobo that handles 8 SATA3 ports. This OS specification has me freaked out as well since not every Mobo I'm looking at states what OS compatibility is has.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=30&K=8,12&L=4&A=1

 

[sretalla]

I'm not sure what status you are/were in when booted, but if your NIC shows link/act light activity, there's a decent chance you're OK, just not on the IP address you had before if you are using a new NIC (and hence new MAC address).

Check in your router/DHCP to see if your FreeNAS has been assigned an address.

 

[Berkyjay]

I'm not sure what status you are/were in when booted, but if your NIC shows link/act light activity, there's a decent chance you're OK, just not on the IP address you had before if you are using a new NIC (and hence new MAC address).

Check in your router/DHCP to see if your FreeNAS has been assigned an address.

Oh my gods I didn't think of that at all. I'll check when I get home this evening. Fingers crossed!

 

[Berkyjay]

I'm not sure what status you are/were in when booted, but if your NIC shows link/act light activity, there's a decent chance you're OK, just not on the IP address you had before if you are using a new NIC (and hence new MAC address).

Check in your router/DHCP to see if your FreeNAS has been assigned an address.

OK so I checked the attached devices on my router. None of the connected IPs allowed me to access the webportal. However when I go to the original IP I get this message:

So does this suggest that IP is still being used?

 

[Berkyjay]

I just heard back from ASRock and they've confirmed that specific board is not FreeNAS compatible. Unfortunately the replacement board they suggested only has 6 SATA3 ports.

Thank you for reaching out to us for support! For workstation server board such as C236 WSI, we mainly focus on validating desktop type of operating system. However, please reference to our server board model E3C236WSI which is using the same Intel PCH and LAN controllers https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C236D2I#Specifications . This specific board model has been validated with Redhat and Ubuntu. The only thing different is the C236WSI has a built-in audio chipset made by Realtek ALC1150. If your FreeNAS OS has a built-in driver for such audio device, you should be fine. Thank you!

So now I'm looking for a replacement board that is FreeNAS compatible and with 8 SATA3 ports.

Update:

OK now I'm not sure. The rep responded back to another query and said that he was saying that he sees no reason why the C236WSI shouldn't be compatible with FreeNAS. So I'm back to not knowing what the issue is.

 

[tfran1990]

A better option would be to get a HBA. what happens if a port on your mobo goes bad. Plus if you get a HBA you have more options for expanding down the road.

 

[Berkyjay]

A better option would be to get a HBA. what happens if a port on your mobo goes bad. Plus if you get a HBA you have more options for expanding down the road.

What's an HBA?

 

[Berkyjay]

So here's another response from the ASRock rep. He was asking me about how I access FreeNAS via the web portal.

Thank you for the clarification! Please note that this specific board is a workstation server board and BMC is not integrated in it like E3C236D2I for D4U. If the BMC is not built in to this board, you may need to check and see if Intel AMT is still available and can be found and enabled in BIOS.

This is now getting past my level of expertise so I'm unsure if this is something I can actually do.

 

[tfran1990]

Host bus adapter.
get yourself a cheap H220 flash it yourself. (or buy one that is)
when you need more then 8 sata ports then get the IBM expander i dont remember the exact name of it.

 

[myoung]

But now I'm at an impasse on how to trouble shoot this since I don't have a graphics card to connect a monitor to and see what might be the issue.

But there is HDMI/VGA on the board right? why cant you connect to those?

 

[Berkyjay]

Host bus adapter.
get yourself a cheap H220 flash it yourself. (or buy one that is)
when you need more then 8 sata ports then get the IBM expander i don't remember the exact name of it.

OK, I get what you're saying. It's essentially for something like this?

https://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/mobilerack/CSE-M28SAB.cfm

 

[Berkyjay]

But there is HDMI/VGA on the board right? why can't you connect to those?

This response from teh ASRock rep should answer your question:

Please note, this specific workstation server board doesn’t have an integrated graphics processor. The graphics processing is done by either a PCIe video card or the integrated HD graphics controller which is sometimes embedded inside the Intel CPU. Unfortunately, your CPU doesn’t have that integrated HD graphics controller https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...n-processor-e3-1220-v6-8m-cache-3-00-ghz.html . So in your situation, you must either install a PCIe video card or swap to another CPU that has an integrated graphics.

 

[myoung]

OK, I get what you're saying. It's essentially for something like this?

https://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/mobilerack/CSE-M28SAB.cfm

No, something like this. But the HBA is going to do anything for your boot issue so I wouldn't worry about that right now.

 

[myoung]

This response from teh ASRock rep should answer your question:

That's a bummer.

 

[Berkyjay]

No, something like this. But the HBA is going to do anything for your boot issue so I wouldn't worry about that right now.

Yeah true. My main focus is to get my server back up and running. I'm going to most likely install the old hardware back in and start a new with a new rig.

 

[Berkyjay]

That's a bummer.

I actually have access to a cheap little video card from work that I'll install tonight to see if I can get any more info on what the issue is. I'm dubious about the whole BMS thing he mentioned. It just sounds like this motherboard isn't compatible and I need to go in a different direction.

 

[Berkyjay]

OK I'm in! I had to connect a video card and tell the bios to configure the network so it would assign an IP.

But....

Now none of my disks are showing up. The only disk there is the thumb drive with the OS on it.

I have two alerts:

Not sure how to proceed.

Update:

Started a new thread in support/storage.