11.0-U2 Random Reboots

[SlayerSmalls]

I will start here with i'm a true first time user of FreeNas which has been fun to try and learn something new. So bear with me if I don't get references or commands properly.

I started 9.10 then moved to Corral. (we know how that went) Waited for 11 to release and then Started a fresh install. Installed just fine and imported my Drives and we were off. Added a SSD after the fact and started using that as my VM & Jail drive. Created a VM as well as 2 Jails, Plexmedia Server and Resilio Sync. For about a month no issues to report. One evening I noticed an update from 11.0-U1 to U2 for Stable was out and decided to do the upgrade. Everything appeared to go fine because it updated and rebooted. All services were up and all functions were doing just fine. No errors showing in the upper right hand corner. About a week later I noticed on the monitor for that machine that I was getting errors about 1 of my disks. The raid array was still working and the UI was giving no errors. I could access the data and even moved everything off of that array. I honestly cannot remember exactly what was on the screen but I looked up those errors and someone posted that the SATA cables were usually to blame. Replaced those and no errors on the Monitor until I accessed the drives from my SMB share. Shortly after that I was getting Critical Errors in the UI and so I deemed that drive a fail and sent it to get replaced.

Since I'm running a Teamspeak server as my VM I wanted to run the Freenas box even though the storage drives were not connected. Freenas would fully boot to show the IP address and then the machine would reboot. couple times I got into the UI again no errors were showing and then reboot. I added 1 drive back to the system, it booted and stayed booted, I scrubed the drive because I had the array in raid 0 (yes I know no redundancy this was just for speed) and so everything was running. But now I'm running into the problem where at any random times the machine will just reboot. No warning, no email, nothing it just reboots. i've checked Temps they aren't getting over 35C. I thought well maybe my plugins are freaking out the box because the storage isn't there any more. So I turned off those and turned off the auto start. Disabled SMB shares also. Still randomly reboots. Can someone please walk me through what I can do next to troubleshoot this issue please?

- Michael

 

[Chris Moore]

First, we need a rundown on exactly what hardware we are talking about. Without knowing anything about what you have in your system, I would guess it is a power supply causing random reboot, but if you can give some details, a better guess might be available.
I would say that it must be some hardware fault because FreeNAS will run for months without a reboot.

 

[SlayerSmalls]

First, we need a rundown on exactly what hardware we are talking about. Without knowing anything about what you have in your system, I would guess it is a power supply causing random reboot, but if you can give some details, a better guess might be available.
I would say that it must be some hardware fault because FreeNAS will run for months without a reboot.

MSI Z77 Mobo
Intel I7 3770k
8GB (4x2) Patriot 1333 memory
Intel 1G PCI Network Card
Corsair 750w PSU

Storage Drives:
Boot drive is a 16GB Flash Drive
SSD 120GB Sandisk
2- 5TB HGST Deskstar NAS Drives (one failed, RMA in process)

 

[Chris Moore]

MSI Z77 Mobo
Intel I7 3770k
8GB (4x2) Patriot 1333 memory
Intel 1G PCI Network Card
Corsair 750w PSU

Storage Drives:
Boot drive is a 16GB Flash Drive
SSD 120GB Sandisk
2- 5TB HGST Deskstar NAS Drives (one failed, RMA in process)

The first thing that jumps out at me is the system probably doesn't have enough memory. For the storage you have, 5TB, the memory should be fine, but you are also running some virtualization

Added a SSD after the fact and started using that as my VM & Jail drive. Created a VM as well as 2 Jails, Plexmedia Server and Resilio Sync.

Those things (especially the Plex) will eat your memory up. I have 32GB of RAM in my system that I run Plex on and it stays maxed out all the time.
It could still be some other problem with the hardware though.

I wonder if you bought this hardware just to build your NAS or if you re-purposed some older hardware you already had?
If you are interested in building something new, purpose built, here are links to some recommended hardware:
Quick Hardware Guide
Hardware Recommendations Guide

 

[SlayerSmalls]

It was re-purposed hardware. But still doesn't explain why everything has been running fine until after I did that update. The VM is only been assigned 2 virtual processors 2GB RAM and a 40GB drive. Runs Ubuntu 16.04 for Teamspeak. Nothing requiring much. The Plex server before the drive errors was able to run just fine etc. i know FreeNas loves having memory and I plan on getting more soon but it still doesn't explain why everything started happening after the update to 11.0-U2

 

[Chris Moore]

It was re-purposed hardware. But still doesn't explain why everything has been running fine until after I did that update. The VM is only been assigned 2 virtual processors 2GB RAM and a 40GB drive. Runs Ubuntu 16.04 for Teamspeak. Nothing requiring much. The Plex server before the drive errors was able to run just fine etc. i know FreeNas loves having memory and I plan on getting more soon but it still doesn't explain why everything started happening after the update to 11.0-U2

The thing to keep in mind is that the operating system is being used by many people that are not having a problem with it. Your hardware is only being used by you. That means the most likely source of the reboots is your hardware. It is even possible that the drive you sent off for warranty replacement was not where the problem was. The MSI system board you have could be the source of the apparent drive errors and the source of the random reboots. The drive itself might have been fine, but the controller it was connected to could have been were the problem was. You should examine all the capacitors on the system board to see if any are swollen but even if none are visibly defective it could still be where the problem is.
The only way to test it is to take your FreeNAS boot drive and boot it on another computer and let it run for a while to see if that computer reboots randomly. If FreeNAS runs fine on another computer, then it could be this computer that has the problem. Usually, in my 20+ years of working on computers for my job, if a computer is randomly rebooting, it is either the power supply or the motherboard. Are they under warranty?

 

[SlayerSmalls]

I understand that my setup isn't like everyone else's but I have done hardware testing. As I didn't want my OP to be super long. I've rebooted the machine with my spare SSD that has windows on it and the machine boots and runs fine. I've done memtests and other things and the machine doesn't reboot randomly. Another thing I will note it just happened. changed the settings to the Jail services to off and after saving the machine rebooted. I'm an IT admin myself and it seems more like a software crash than a hardware one.

 

[Chris Moore]

You can test it by rolling back to the previous boot environment. Here is the link to the document: http://doc.freenas.org/11/system.html#boot
You can select to previous boot environment and reboot to it or pick it from the grub menu when it comes up.
It is possible that something got corrupted in the latest release. You can give it a try. I had to roll back to a previous release once myself.

 

[SlayerSmalls]

I have rolled back, System is currently up and running. I will report back it we get more random reboots. Thanks

 

[Stux]

And if you get random reboots in U2 but not U1, then verify install (there's a button) and report a bug.

 

[danb35]

and report a bug.

...and if you report a bug, use the Support button in the web GUI to do so, so it can attach a copy of your debug file for the devs to help track down the issue.

 

[SlayerSmalls]

Reporting back, system has been up for 1 day and 8 hours. So no crashing since rolling back. I will submit the bug report. Lets see what happens next.

 

[Jailer]

You're going to need more memory if you want to run VM's and jails.

 

[SlayerSmalls]

You're going to need more memory if you want to run VM's and jails.

Everything is running fine in 11.0-U1. Looking at the monitoring I'm not overloading the memory. Usually the box is doing 1 thing at a time too. It's just me that uses this. I do plan to add more memory later as I know Freenas likes it but in my current setup I have enough memory per TB of storage and my VM.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[Jailer]

8GB is the minimum for just a filer. You add jails and VM's on top of that you're going to end up with an unstable system. What the monitoring shows has nothing to do with how the system responds to a shortage of memory.

 

[Chris Moore]

8GB is the minimum for just a filer. You add jails and VM's on top of that you're going to end up with an unstable system. What the monitoring shows has nothing to do with how the system responds to a shortage of memory.

I told the OP that but it was rejected when I laid it down.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Stux]

I told the OP that but it was rejected when I laid it down.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Pretty much, 2GB for the VM means you're running FreeNAS on 6GB which is 2GB below the minimum. And the minimum was raised from 6GB to 8GB because of random freezes on 6GB.

Just FYI.

 

[SlayerSmalls]

I will add this guys, currently my box has no data drives. SMB shares are off and have been removed. Jails and all services are off. Literally the only thing it's running is a VM. Still randomly reboots. I'm not discrediting anyone's response but seems rather strange still that ram would be my current issue.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[Stux]

I will add this guys, currently my box has no data drives. SMB shares are off and have been removed. Jails and all services are off. Literally the only thing it's running is a VM. Still randomly reboots. I'm not discrediting anyone's response but seems rather strange still that ram would be my current issue.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Certainly sounds like a bug in U2 if it doesn't do it in U1. Do run the verify install command...

On the update tab.