64-bit FreeNAS not accepting all of my RAM...

[larry_]

Hey folks,

I just built a NAS - Box with 8Gigs of RAM , an e350 processor and just one 2TB disk. However when I go into my setup / webgui, the nas says there are only 3.6gigs of ram installed.


System Information
Hostname freenas.local
FreeNAS Build FreeNAS-8.0.3-RELEASE-p1-x64 (9591)
Platform AMD E-350 Processor
Memory 3696MB
System Time Tue Jan 31 14:54:43 2012
Uptime 2:54PM up 23:57, 0 users
Load Average 0.08, 0.04, 0.06
OS Version FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p6


Why is this?

 

[louisk]

It sounds like you found a motherboard that will only address 4G of RAM. I'd check the manual for the motherboard. If the motherboard is able to address >4G, I'd look at your memory and make sure it's good.

 

[survive]

Hi Larry_

First thing I would do is grab a copy of Memtest+ here:

http://memtest.org/#downiso

and see what it reports back. Let it do a full pass (assuming you see all 8GB) just to be sure the RAM is good.

What's the make & model of the E-350?

-Will

 

[z0ned]

64-bit FreeNAS not accepting all of my RAM

I have EXACTLY the same problem. Memtest shows all 8GB are good. BIOS also shows 8GB.

Did you ever get this resolved?

Thanks

Matt.

 

[clownphish]

I have an AMD-E450 that was doing a similar thing after a software upgrade from FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-x64 (r12701M) to FreeNAS-8.3.0-RELEASE-p1-x64 (r12825). I checked that it was all detected in the BIOS, memory was supported, no newer version of BIOS available, etc. I enabled the autotune option, did a full power off of the box and waited a minute, then powered back on. Next time it booted it detected 8GB. No idea why it stopped detecting the full 8GB after an upgrade though! I didn't think the autotune should affect how much memory is detected by the box (but I'm reluctant to remove the settings to test now!)

Edit 2: So I did go ahead and remove the tunables, untick the 'autotune' and reboot. FreeNAS correctly detects the full amount of memory now Did the tuneables change fix anything? Who knows?!

 

[infinitatus]

Even more than that. I have an Asus E35m1-i deluxe. I updated Bios to latest, and then i have put 2 x 8 Gb. RAM on it. First time i booted it only detected 8Gb. Second time, it detected 16 Gb. Although it is not officially supported, It is running fine. And ZFS just loves RAM. (Besides that, this board is pasively cooled, is very economic and has 6 Sata connections). So I would not worry too much. Normally it is recognised again after a reboot if you do something like an upgrade.

 

[clownphish]

First time i booted it only detected 8Gb. Second time, it detected 16 Gb.

Do you mean FreeNAS detected 8Gb then 16Gb, or the BIOS itself?

 

[infinitatus]

Do you mean FreeNAS detected 8Gb then 16Gb, or the BIOS itself?

If I remember well, it was the BIOS. FreeNAS always saw what the BIOS saw. I have rebooted several times after, but it never happened again.

 

[clownphish]

Huh, that was different to my issue then. My BIOS always reported 8GB but FreeNAS didn't always see that much. Very odd!

 

[clownphish]

Resurrecting this old thread I posted on because I'm having the same problem again and I found it while searching for solutions! This time I've had the problem when upgrading from 9.1.1 to 9.2.0-RELEASE

On boot-up I can see 8GB detected:
real memory = 8589934592 (8192 MB)
avail memory = 3663638528 (3493 MB)

And sure enough, in the system page it only shows 3.6GB again.

Build FreeNAS-9.2.0-RELEASE-x64 (ab098f4)
Platform AMD E-450 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics
Memory 3670MB

It's been running happily for months with 8GB detected and used. I did a GUI upgrade and now it refuses to see more than the 4GB. I've tried removing autotune settings, rebooting, powering off, re-adding autotune settings and nothing seems to change it.

I don't understand why performing an upgrade has changed this. Any ideas?

 

[pirateghost]

what upgrade file did you use?

 

[clownphish]

FreeNAS-9.2.0-RELEASE-x64.GUI_Upgrade.txz
Checksum was successfully verified from the download page

I even ran uname -a to check that the 64-bit kernel was installed:

[root@axiom] ~# uname -a
FreeBSD axiom.firefly.local 9.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE #0 r+2315ea3: Fri Dec 20 12:48:50 PST 2013 root@build.ixsystems.com:/tank/home/jkh/checkout/freenas/os-base/amd64/tank/home/jkh/checkout/freenas/FreeBSD/src/sys/FREENAS.amd64 amd64

Edit:
Tried a factory reset and it still doesn't detect the full amount

real memory = 8589934592 (8192 MB)
avail memory = 3668627456 (3498 MB)

 

[cyberjock]

You bought AMD.. you are surprised because? ZING!

Seriously though. Maybe try a BIOS update? If there are any memory remapping feature maybe try changing it?

 

[clownphish]

I'll take a look and see if there's a BIOS update but I doubt it. Any idea why I would have this behaviour on upgrade though? It seems like the BIOS is reporting the correct amount of memory to the OS (or am I reading this wrong?). I couldn't find much information about the difference between the avail memory and the real memory output.

dmidecode seems to show all the memory present...

[root@axiom] ~# dmidecode -t memory
# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0028, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: None
Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x002A, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0028
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4096 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM2
Bank Locator: A1_BANK1
Type: DDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Kingston
Serial Number: ED1C69E4
Asset Tag: A1_AssetTagNum1
Part Number: 99U5471-019.A00LF
Rank: 2

Handle 0x002C, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0028
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4096 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM1
Bank Locator: A1_BANK0
Type: DDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Kingston
Serial Number: D71D7A02
Asset Tag: A1_AssetTagNum0
Part Number: 99U5471-019.A00LF
Rank: 2

SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0028, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: None
Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x002A, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0028
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4096 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM2
Bank Locator: A1_BANK1
Type: DDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Kingston
Serial Number: ED1C69E4
Asset Tag: A1_AssetTagNum1
Part Number: 99U5471-019.A00LF
Rank: 2

Handle 0x002C, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0028
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4096 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM1
Bank Locator: A1_BANK0
Type: DDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Kingston
Serial Number: D71D7A02
Asset Tag: A1_AssetTagNum0
Part Number: 99U5471-019.A00LF
Rank: 2

 

[cyberjock]

An easy test is to do a dmesg and look for that prefetch warning for systems with <4GB of RAM. If you are getting that warning it's definitely using only 4GB of RAM.

 

[clownphish]

Thanks all for the replies on this. I checked for a newer BIOS but no dice. It did lead me to hooking up the monitor and looking at the BIOS settings though and that's when I noticed that it was only seeing 4GB of memory too, despite listing both DIMMS as 4GB each! Unplugged both DIMMS and reseated, still sees 4 GB. Booted with one DIMM, sees 4GB; booted with the other, sees 4GB. Booted with both of them again and now it sees 8GB again!

Really odd...can't explain this behaviour and why it was so co-incidental with my FreeNAS upgrade (despite having rebooted a few days ago and all was fine and dandy at 8GB). Glad it's back now though (hopefully for a while!). Appreciate the replies and hope this helps someone else in the future.

 

[nasmrk]

Just built my first FreeNAS, all brand spanking new:

MainBoard: GIGABYTE GA-B75M-HD3
2 x 8G Kingstone KVR1333D3N9 memory
running FreeNAS-9.2.1-BETA-b9c6b76-x86

FreeNAS reports 3461MB of RAM while:

dmidecode -t memory
# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0007, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: None
Maximum Capacity: 32 GB
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x0040, DMI type 17, 34 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0007
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 8192 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: ChannelB-DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK 2
Type: DDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Kingston
Serial Number: 8E06238C
Asset Tag: 9876543210
Part Number: 99U5471-047.A00LF
Rank: 2
Configured Clock Speed: 1333 MHz

Handle 0x0042, DMI type 17, 34 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0007
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 8192 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: ChannelA-DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK 0
Type: DDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Kingston
Serial Number: 92061F8C
Asset Tag: 9876543210
Part Number: 99U5471-047.A00LF
Rank: 2
Configured Clock Speed: 1333 MHz

dmesg shows:

real memory = 17179869184 (16384 MB)
avail memory = 3558625280 (3393 MB)

I did everything described on forums here, autotune, deleted Tunables created by autotune, swapped the RAM, used one stick of RAM at the time (FreeNAS still reported 3393MB).
BIOS always managed to report proper RAM size though.
Did BIOS reset.
Nothing seems to work. Would appreciate any input from the old-timers and newbees' like me here.
Cheers,
Mark

 

[Dusan]

You downloaded the wrong version.

running FreeNAS-9.2.1-BETA-b9c6b76-x86

x86 is the 32-bit version, you need the x64 build.

 

[nasmrk]

Holly caw! That's what happens when you first build the machine and then try to set it up!
Thank you! I will switch and post the result!

 

[nasmrk]

Sure enough - system and FreeNAS reports full 16Gb of memory under x64 build.
Thank you Dusan for pointing that out!
Cheers,
Mark