Cannot create new volume to use for storage

[mudshark]

Build FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201501212031
Platform AMD Athlon(tm) II X3 455 Processor 3.3G
Memory 3813MB (2) 2G strips by Crucial
Motherboard MSI K9N6PGM2-V2
(2) 2T SATA Toshiba hard drives mirrored in MoBo RAID for (1) 2T storage space
(1) IDE CD/DVD drive
(1) IDE boot drive

Completed FreeNAS install seemingly successfully but when I try to add a user it tells me there is "nonexistent" space in which to create a home directory.

"Storage > View Volumes" tells me there is no volume
"Volume Mgr" shows me "Available Disks" is (1) 2T drive (makes sense)
"Volume Layout" shows 2x1x2T mirrored

So, I click "add Volume" and after a progress bar shows for a split second I am put back at "View Volumes" which tells me there is no volume.

While on the topic of creating volumes, I ought to specify what kind of space I'd like available to the finished system...
I would like to set aside (rounding off)
1T for shared access (from Windows clients) probably in the form of a media server
500G for user directories
500G for FTP users (not necessarily the same as system users)

Thanks all!

 

[Ericloewe]

You've got half the minimum amount of RAM. You're using fakeRAID.

Neither of those bodes well. Please do some reading, particularly the minimum hardware requirements and cyberjock's guide.

 

[cyberjock]

That's common for ignoring our minimum requirements. The scripts terminate inappropriately and things you were trying to do are suddenly inconsistent with your config file.

 

[mudshark]

So thanks guys. I ordered RAM (will be running 8G later this week).
I've also disabled MoBo RAID in favor then of having FreeNAS do the mirroring.
Will report back later with hopefully great news!
PS - I couldn't find any "cyberjock's guide"

 

[cyberjock]

A link is in my sig...

 

[mudshark]

8G RAM now and there is no RAID done outside FreeNAS.
Everything seems to be running much more as expected now. Thanks.

Before I start using the drives for storage I have a couple of questions:

1- Upon initially accessing the FreeNAS GUI there is a point in the wizard where you are to pick a RAID mode. I chose "automatically choose for me".
(Now the volume manager seems to have nothing to do as the volume is already created.)

Q; Now that the system is running though I do not see where I can find what kind of storage pool was created?

2- Drive settings:
SMART is enabled for all drives
drives are set to spin down after 30 minutes of no activity.
APM = 127

Q: Will setting the Acoustic level to ON increase drive life?
Q: How do I run the SMART tests on the drives &/or on the array?

Thanks all.
RG

 

[danb35]

Q; Now that the system is running though I do not see where I can find what kind of storage pool was created?

Storage -> select your volume -> volume status button (near the bottom of the page, looks like a sheet of notebook paper)

Q: How do I run the SMART tests on the drives &/or on the array?

SMART tests are run on disks, not arrays. You configure/schedule them under Tasks -> SMART tests.

 

[mudshark]

Mirror0 = 2 drives
Mirror1 = other 2 drives
Fine. That's how I'd have set it up.
(And, my mistake, I knew no SMART tests on arrays! I must've been asleep when I wrote that!!!)

Thanks all. So much. I'm learning on this system and you've all been super helpful. Any other issues I come across will of course be under a new thread.
Thanks again!