Can ping Freenas, but can't access Web Gui

[KyleTheHuey]

So I'm new to Freenas and new to networking. I just grabbed an old workstation HP Compaq Pro 6305 and am trying to turn it into a NAS. I have it hooked directly into one of my mesh routers (TP Link M4) and have installed freenas. At first bootup, it shows me IP address 0.0.0.0. If I try to set it up as DHCP, it says it can't connect. If I manually set it to the IP address that my router gave it, I am able to ping it from command prompt, but I can't open up the Web GUI. Is there some special port forwarding or something I need to do with my router to allow them to talk? Is it a hardware issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[melloa]

There are no ports. I'd say to start troubleshooting your network. I have never had to configure FreeNAS IP on a fresh install. It always finds all NICs I have on the box and try DHCP.

Check if the NIC link and activities LEDs are on/flashing, if the NIC is recognized (go to the shell and type

Code:

dmesg | more 

to read the boot messages.

 

[KyleTheHuey]

Thanks for your response. I will try that out tonight. I did notice that there was a steady green light but no blinking light. I also installed Unraid last night and it worked flawlessly, so I do think that Freenas doesn't agree with my network card.

 

[melloa]

Also keep in mind, if you have the factory configuration for that computer::

Memory, standard

4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM

Doesn't meet the minimum requirements.

Internal drive bays

One 8,9 cm (3.5")

One drive NAS? Limited and without redundancy.

Network interface

Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet BCM 5761 (standard); 802.11 g/n 1x2 wireless PCIe NIC (optional)

NIC is no good.

Look for a system that has ~16GB ram, four to six bays, Intel NIC.

 

[Yorick]

I also installed Unraid last night and it worked flawlessly, so I do think that Freenas doesn't agree with my network card.

I think you are spot-on with that. FreeBSD is a bit strict when it comes to hardware support, not nearly as loose as Linux. Also, the "8 GiB minimum, 16 GiB to get something decent out of it; three disks can get you somewhere, six is great" guidance for FreeNAS is real. ZFS trades RAM for speed, and relies on multiple physical disks to do its checksumming work. ZFS with one drive doesn't give you any advantage over any other file system.

In my mind, the main reason to choose FreeNAS is ZFS. With one drive and 4GiB, FreeNAS is a decidedly sub-optimal choice.

Your options as I see them are:
- Stick with UnRaid. Nothing wrong with that, particularly with one drive.
- Go for FreeNAS and buy the extra hardware to make it happen: A second drive to mirror the first one (does the enclosure have room / SATA ports for that?), an SSD boot drive if you can, USB 2.0 (!) stick if you can't - main concern is USB dying on you; more RAM to get to at least 8 GiB, better 16 GiB, and an Intel add-in NIC - can the motherboard / case handle that?

The second option might be more hassle than it's worth. That's up for you to determine.

Edit: Before you make a decision, read https://forums.plex.tv/t/freenas-vs-unraid/169684/6 and consider how important data integrity is to you. With a single disk, there is none either on UnRaid or ZFS - with multiple disks, ZFS has the advantage, though that comes at the cost of less flexibility with regards to hardware choice and disk layout.