ASRock N3150-ITX

[MarkosMark]

Hello!
I'm new to FreeNAS and I bought some simple hardware to get to know the OS. I bought an ASRock N3150-ITX with 8GB ram which would be able to run FreeNAS according to my google search here on the forum. I downloaded the latest version (FreeNAS-11.1-U1) and installed it to an USB drive (connected to USB 2.0). I can boot the system and access the WebGUI, but I can't use the drives connected. I can see the drives connected in the WebGUI but when I go to Volume Manager, I can't add the drive like in the screenshot below (found this in the wiki)

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. This is probably not enough info to help me so let me know what info you need more. I'll be happy to share it here.

This is my hardware:
OS version: FreeNAS-11.1-U1
Motherboard: ASRock N3150-ITX (embedded CPU: Intel® Quad-Core Processor N3150)
RAM: 2x 4GB DDR3 so-dimm (non ECC)
HDD1: WD1600AAJS-75M0A0 is connected to SATA3_1
HDD2: ST3160828AS is connected to SATA3_2
USB-drive: SanDisk Ultra USB3.0 16GB (connected to USB2.0 on the back)

 

[Nick2253]

Step one: please provide a detailed breakdown of your hardware. In this case, it will help if you let us know which ports your HDDs are plugged in to. https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/updated-forum-rules-8-3-16.45124/

I would not recommend that motherboard. Other than the obvious risk of not having ECC memory (https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/ecc-vs-non-ecc-ram-and-zfs.15449/), there are all sorts of other issues with the motherboard. The biggest problem is the Realtek NIC: Realtek NICs are generally not well supported in FreeBSD, and can lead to all sorts of weird issues, with dropped packets and weird slowdowns. Make sure the unnecessary components, like the soundcard, are disabled in the BIOS. They can lead to other weird problems. The controller is kinda funky on that board, with two ports with the chipset, and two ASMedia ports. I can see that the ASMedia controller has been tested and working in FreeBSD, but I'm not sure how robust it is, or what kind of issues you might expect to run into with the FreeBSD drivers. Also, if you're using USB, you want to make sure you're plugged in to one of the USB 2 ports.

 

[BigDave]

I bought some simple hardware to get to know the OS.

As long as you are only evaluating and not planning on storing important files, the hardware (you listed) is not ideal but should work.

You may run into issues due to using this hardware and therefore need to understand that you
will not be getting a large number of people jumping to help. Having said that, let's see what we can do for you.

To avoid asking you questions about your hardware, please read my signature and as @Nick2253 has requested, give the details about your hardware. For instance how many drives do you have connected?
Have you read the Users Guide, specifically sections starting with 8.1. There are links throughout the Guide, they are there to help people, read the guide and read the links.
FreeNAS has a steep learning curve, but it's not difficult to learn the basics and begin to play around with.

My recommendation for beginners is to start off with just two drives in a simple mirrored volume. Learning how to administer a NAS is important so you know what to do when you have a hardware failure.

Hardware fails and your ability to keep from losing your data when it does will depend on how well
you are prepared.

Form the two drive mirror, put one copy of one file on it (I used a MP4 movie file) and learn to set up and use the CLI via SSH (Secure Shell). Use the command line to gain important information that is not available in the GUI like S.M.A.R.T. data from your drives and many other useful functions.

IMHO the two most important skills you need to learn is

1) how to recover from a failed disk for your
operating system AND your volume, these are similar but different

2) How to recover from a failed update and get to know about boot environments, the latter
being one of FreeNAS's coolest features

 

[MarkosMark]

Sorry for my incomplete first post. Because it's a kinda minimum adjustable system I thought there wasn't much to specific more, but now I see I could mention some things more. I made screenshots in the bios so every hardware question above is answered. The type of disk, the ports connected to and the settings are all visible in the screenshots. It might be a bit overkill to place them all here but maybe I would miss some important settings.
USB-drive is connected to the USB2.0 port on the back.
WD1600AAJS-75M0A0 is connected to SATA3_1
ST3160828AS is connected to SATA3_A1

 

[MarkosMark]

 

[Nick2253]

Dude, seriously?

We don't need a dump of your BIOS settings. Just give us a rundown of what hardware you have. The forum rules list exactly what we're looking for. I'm not going to look through a dozen pictures to piece together your setup, when a couple lines of text would do. I mean, some of your screenshots don't show anything other than a list of BIOS submenus; they literally show nothing that is helpful to solving your problem.

 

[MarkosMark]

Dude sorry I tried to take some extra effort to give the most possible info that could be useful? Why so aggressive?
And some of my screenshots? Only the one of the Advanced menu, I added it to keep it structured how I made the screenshots (okay, not important to put here but I thought it would keep it more clear)

WD1600AAJS-75M0A0 is connected to SATA3_1
ST3160828AS is connected to SATA3_A1

 

[Nick2253]

Dude sorry I tried to take some extra effort to give the most possible info that could be useful? Why so aggressive?

I'm sorry you took my comment as aggressive.

Posting BIOS screenshots is not helpful, and imposes extra work on those who are trying to help. What is helpful is a quick, bulleted list of the information requested in the forum rules. It also allows easy searching if future users have related issues (and the issue in this case turns out to be hardware related). Furthermore, the Tapatalk app doesn't do a great job of rendering pictures, and for those forum users on mobile (or otherwise slower connections), the dozen+ pictures are an added burden which can lead to those users abandoning the thread (and therefore not providing help).

Again, I'm sorry that you took my comment as aggressive. My goal is to help you get a resolution to your issue. And the best way to achieving that is to follow the forum rules, and post the hardware information requested. Two long-time users of the forum requested this information, and you still have not provided it.

WD1600AAJS-75M0A0 is connected to SATA3_1
ST3160828AS is connected to SATA3_A1

If the problem was related to the ASMedia controller, this configuration should reveal it (since you've got one HDD on the Intel controller and one on the ASMedia controller). Did you go through a burn-in process with these drives, and wipe them prior to install? I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I recall that FreeNAS won't show drives that it thinks have data on them.

I just realized your first screenshot was from the wiki, not from your own server. When you go to Storage-->Volumes on your FreeNAS server, what do you see?

 

[MarkosMark]

I'm sorry you took my comment as aggressive.

Okay sorry I guess there was a misunderstanding from my part :) I'm just trying to be as helpful and with all the info as possible.

Posting BIOS screenshots is not helpful, and imposes extra work on those who are trying to help. What is helpful is a quick, bulleted list of the information requested in the forum rules. It also allows easy searching if future users have related issues (and the issue in this case turns out to be hardware related). Furthermore, the Tapatalk app doesn't do a great job of rendering pictures, and for those forum users on mobile (or otherwise slower connections), the dozen+ pictures are an added burden which can lead to those users abandoning the thread (and therefore not providing help).

I didn't know that about Tapatalk, I changed the pictures to thumbnails.
I did search about this setup before I bought it. I saw multiple people who successfully us this system. Otherwise I wouldn't bought it.

Again, I'm sorry that you took my comment as aggressive. My goal is to help you get a resolution to your issue. And the best way to achieving that is to follow the forum rules, and post the hardware information requested. Two long-time users of the forum requested this information, and you still have not provided it.

I must be overlooking something because I think I gave all the requested info.

OS version: FreeNAS-11.1-U1
Motherboard: ASRock N3150-ITX (embedded CPU: Intel® Quad-Core Processor N3150)
RAM: 2x 4GB DDR3 so-dimm (non ECC)
HDD1: WD1600AAJS-75M0A0 is connected to SATA3_1
HDD2: ST3160828AS is connected to SATA3_A1
USB-drive: SanDisk Ultra USB3.0 16GB (connected to USB2.0 on the back)

I don't know what more info I can give?

If the problem was related to the ASMedia controller, this configuration should reveal it (since you've got one HDD on the Intel controller and one on the ASMedia controller). Did you go through a burn-in process with these drives, and wipe them prior to install? I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I recall that FreeNAS won't show drives that it thinks have data on them.

I just realized your first screenshot was from the wiki, not from your own server. When you go to Storage-->Volumes on your FreeNAS server, what do you see?

I'm not home at the moment, I'll check that screen when I get home.
Is there a way to format the disks in FreeNAS? Or should I do this on a different way (can boot Ubuntu live, what type of format should I use?)

 

[Nick2253]

OS version: FreeNAS-11.1-U1
Motherboard: ASRock N3150-ITX (embedded CPU: Intel® Quad-Core Processor N3150)
RAM: 2x 4GB DDR3 so-dimm (non ECC)
HDD1: WD1600AAJS-75M0A0 is connected to SATA3_1
HDD2: ST3160828AS is connected to SATA3_A1
USB-drive: SanDisk Ultra USB3.0 16GB (connected to USB2.0 on the back)

I don't know what more info I can give?

That's perfect, thank you.

An additional thought as to why this is particularly helpful: I'm typically a part of 20+ active threads across a variety of support issues. It's impossible for me to keep everything straight just by memory. A nice summary like the above helps me reorient myself to what's going on, and makes it easy to re-engage.

I'm not home at the moment, I'll check that screen when I get home.
Is there a way to format the disks in FreeNas? Or should I do this on a different way (can boot Ubuntu live, what type of format should I use?)

We can always do it via the command line in FreeNAS if need be. Like I said, I can't remember if that's something that FreeNAS does as a kind of "mother may I" protection or not.

Also, did you do the drive burn-in? It's a really low-effort step that can pay dividends down the road by identifying any disk issues before you put data on them.

I did search about this setup before I bought it. I saw multiple people who successfully us this system. Otherwise I wouldn't bought it.

Something to be mindful of is that many people are able to get FreeNAS working on systems that should not support it. However, they rarely go back and update their build logs with the issues they run into down the road. That's part of why we advice people to post their hardware prior to buying it so these issues can come to light before anyone spends any money. If you're aware of the possible issues, and those risks are acceptable given the cost savings, accessibility, etc., then great; more power to you.

 

[MarkosMark]

That's perfect, thank you.

An additional thought as to why this is particularly helpful: I'm typically a part of 20+ active threads across a variety of support issues. It's impossible for me to keep everything straight just by memory. A nice summary like the above helps me reorient myself to what's going on, and makes it easy to re-engage.

You are right, I added it to my first post

We can always do it via the command line in FreeNAS if need be. Like I said, I can't remember if that's something that FreeNAS does as a kind of "mother may I" protection or not.

Also, did you do the drive burn-in? It's a really low-effort step that can pay dividends down the road by identifying any disk issues before you put data on them.


Something to be mindful of is that many people are able to get FreeNAS working on systems that should not support it. However, they rarely go back and update their build logs with the issues they run into down the road. That's part of why we advice people to post their hardware prior to buying it so these issues can come to light before anyone spends any money. If you're aware of the possible issues, and those risks are acceptable given the cost savings, accessibility, etc., then great; more power to you.

I think I did two things wrong. I didn't format the drives before using them in FreeNAS and I connected one to the SATA3_A* port.
I booted Ubuntu Live and formatted both drives and then connected them to the SATA3_A1 and SATA3_A2 ports. I was pretty sure these were the ASMedia ports and these would be compatible right? But when I connected them to these, FreeNAS wasn't able to see them. Now I connected them to the SATA3_1 and SATA3_2 port and now I can see them in FreeNAS. And I'm able to add them!
Edit: I made a pretty stupid mistake. The ASMedia ports are recognized now. I'm doing a clean install of FreeNas at this moment with the drives connected to the SATA3_A* ports.

I did the burn-in test as described here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/howto-hard-drive-burn-in-testing.21451/
And this are the results:
WD1600AAJS-75M0A0

Code:

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME		  FLAG	 VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE	  UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate	 0x002f   200   200   051	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   0
  3 Spin_Up_Time			0x0027   136   134   021	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   4166
  4 Start_Stop_Count		0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   262
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate		 0x002e   100   253   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
  9 Power_On_Hours		  0x0032   068   068   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   23771
 10 Spin_Retry_Count		0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count	   0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   227
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   82
193 Load_Cycle_Count		0x0032   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   262
194 Temperature_Celsius	 0x0022   109   097   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   34
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000	Old_age   Offline	  -	   0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count	0x0032   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000	Old_age   Offline	  -	   0
240 Head_Flying_Hours	   0x0032   072   072   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   20989
241 Total_LBAs_Written	  0x0032   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   15677960030
242 Total_LBAs_Read		 0x0032   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   8067285205

ST3160828AS

Code:

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME		  FLAG	 VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE	  UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate	 0x000f   058   048   006	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   198735666
  3 Spin_Up_Time			0x0003   098   098   000	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   0
  4 Start_Stop_Count		0x0032   089   089   020	Old_age   Always	   -	   12266
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate		 0x000f   069   060   030	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   8092555
  9 Power_On_Hours		  0x0032   084   084   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   14176
 10 Spin_Retry_Count		0x0013   100   100   097	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count	   0x0032   089   089   020	Old_age   Always	   -	   11997
194 Temperature_Celsius	 0x0022   036   046   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   36 (0 5 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   058   048   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   198735666
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000	Old_age   Offline	  -	   0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count	0x003e   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0000   100   253   000	Old_age   Offline	  -	   0
202 Data_Address_Mark_Errs  0x0032   100   253   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0

 

[wblock]

It is rare to need to format or wipe drives before being using them with FreeNAS. One exception to that can be old RAID metadata. The Wipe Disk option in the FreeNAS GUI can remove that.

 

[MarkosMark]

Things seems to be working for so far :)

However I want to try to install OpenVPN (for PIA) within transmission but I'm having problems.

I'm trying this guide: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...g-up-transmission-with-openvpn-and-pia.24566/
But I'm getting this error:

Code:

root@transmission_1:/ # pkg update
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
pkg: Repository FreeBSD load error: access repo file(/var/db/pkg/repo-FreeBSD.sqlite) failed: No such file or directory
pkg: http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:11:x86:64/latest/meta.txz: No address record
repository FreeBSD has no meta file, using default settings
pkg: http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:11:x86:64/latest/packagesite.txz: No address record
Unable to update repository FreeBSD
Error updating repositories!

Some solutions I found was checking the Network > Global Configuration. This are my settings:
Hostname: freenas
Domain: local
IPv4 Default Gateway: 192.168.178.1
Nameserver 1: 8.8.8.8
Nameserver 2: 8.8.4.4

Rest is empty. This should be okay right?

I also found I should do
dig google.com
But this gives "dig: Command not found."

I can ping 8.8.8.8.

 

[Nick2253]

Can you ping "google.com"? Can you reach "http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:11:x86:64/latest/packagesite.txz" from your browser?

My guess is that you have not configured the DNS servers from within the jail. You should check the ping command from the main FreeNAS to make sure you have DNS resolution and internet access on the box, but ultimately it's the jail where it matters.

 

[MarkosMark]

It was indeed my DNS. Couldn't ping google.com
I changed the config file
cp /etc/resolv.conf <jail_root>/<jail_name>/etc/resolv.conf
And I can ping google now and "pkg update"

Is there a way I can let the DNS change automatically in the jails when I change them in the global configuration?

 

[Nick2253]

I do not believe so, at least nothing built in to the GUI. You could create a cron task that does this every night.

 

[MarkosMark]

The system actually works good so far. I only need to search a noob proof guide to give Plex permission to read the movie location.

There are a two things I would like to do:
- the jails are installed on the first disk. Can I move them to another location so I can put the disks in sleep when idle? I want to use a second usb drive to install the jails to, but I don't want to reinstall everything and config everything again
- I bought other drives (couple of 3tb reds) and want to replace the other two drives (they are only 160gb so kinda useless). What's the easiest or best way to copy the content from the old drive to the new drives?

 

[MarkosMark]

Okay I'm at the point I have to decide what to do.

If I stay with FreeNAS, there are a couple of things I'm thinking about.
- I bought 4x 3TB reds and I want to use 3 of them. 2x 3TB in mirror for data backup and one 3TB just for media. Is this a smart thing to do? (media files aren't important, just some movies and tv-shows) I will also backup my data to another NAS (synology) at a different location.
- I want to keep the power as low as possible because I won't use the system that often. First I was thinking about letting the drives spin down because I want to schedule transmission to only download at night. And I won't access my backup daily. But spinning down the drives is a bad idea? It probably can be spun down from 11:00 till 02:00 because I want to run transmission between 02:00 and 11:00.
Another option I thought about was even more extreme I guess, and that's to shutdown the system between 11:00 till 02:00. Schedule a bios powerup at 02:00 and let FreeNas shutdown the system at 11:00ish.
- Another thing in mind is, is it smart to use a SSD to run FreeNAS and it jails on? Do drives (HDD) use less power when there is no activity on it but it isn't in spindown? Or is using an SSD useless if you want to do it to preserve power?

(Or... do you guys think I should use XPenology or something? I don't know if there are advantages of using XPenology instead of FreeNAS for my use.)

 

[MarkosMark]

Can someone help me with my last questions. I really want to start using my system, it's just gathering dust at the moment.

 

[Inxsible]

I bought 4x 3TB reds and I want to use 3 of them. 2x 3TB in mirror for data backup and one 3TB just for media. Is this a smart thing to do? (media files aren't important, just some movies and tv-shows) I will also backup my data to another NAS (synology) at a different location.

You lose redundancy on the 3TB for media. But if you are ok with that risk, then it's definitely doable.

I want to keep the power as low as possible because I won't use the system that often. First I was thinking about letting the drives spin down because I want to schedule transmission to only download at night. And I won't access my backup daily. But spinning down the drives is a bad idea? It probably can be spun down from 11:00 till 02:00 because I want to run transmission between 02:00 and 11:00.

I believe I have explained this to you in another thread (or was that some other OP). Anyway, this will cause your load count cycle on the HDDs to go up quickly. Plus the amount of power that an HDD uses in idle is around 6-7 watts, so you won't save much because each time a drive starts up, it pulls in about 30-33W. So you might not end up saving much.

Another thing in mind is, is it smart to use a SSD to run FreeNAS and it jails on? Do drives (HDD) use less power when there is no activity on it but it isn't in spindown? Or is using an SSD useless if you want to do it to preserve power?

SSDs will use less power than HDDs. If you have the money, you can go with all SSDs. You are going to have only a 2x3TB and you will be able to get that size in a SSD but it might be expensive so again no advantage in terms of saving money in power because of the upfront cost.