disks not showing up

[Trace8790]

ok so here is the situation, i have obtained an old mcafee dlp 5500 server from my work and am converting it to a 12 bay nas for my house. the system already has an intel raid controller in it which i have used and configured to use 8 bays (max it can handle) into a virtual drive/raid array. once i got this done however, the only time i can see that it exists is in the raid controller bios. i have freenas running as the sole OS which is running off of a usb drive. Freenas installed and runs great however i cant see the disks anywhere to be able to use them. my guess is that i need to install the drivers on the hard drives since they have all been wiped and formatted since i got the server. that is however just a guess. im pretty new to using freenas and raid controllers and any type of nas in general. i have 2 (one 4 bay and one 5 bay) qnap nas already running on my home network but why wouldnt i want even more storage lol. if anyone has any suggestions or fixes to why i cant see any of the drives or the virtual raid array i already made it would be greatly appreciated. i know there has to be a way to make this work i just dont have the experience yet to make it happen. thanks guys. if you have any questions or need any further info id be happy to help you help me as much as i can.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

the system already has an intel raid controller in it which i have used and configured to use 8 bays (max it can handle) into a virtual drive/raid array.

I'm not 100% sure which card you're using or how you're using it but do be ware that RAID card functionality is potentially bad news with FreeNAS. FreeNAS uses ZFS, a software RAID solution, that wants/expects direct access to disks. At best RAID cards add additional circuitry which could go bad between your disks and your system. More commonly they mask SMART tests used by FreeNAS to monitor your disks and other direct-access controls used by ZFS to control your disks. Some folks use RAID cards which they have "flashed" into IT mode to get around this. This essentially turns them into an HBA.

my guess is that i need to install the drivers on the hard drives since they have all been wiped and formatted since i got the server.

My bet is your RAID card is the culprit rather than your disks.

It is HIGHLY recommended that you NOT use any sort of hardware RAID whatsoever. Doing so it at best a waste and more commonly introduces risks that your system will be unstable. In some cases a system may work fine for a time but then run into trouble when the RAID card crashed.

 

[Chris Moore]

the system already has an intel raid controller in it which i have used and configured to use 8 bays (max it can handle) into a virtual drive/raid array. once i got this done however, the only time i can see that it exists is in the raid controller bios.

FreeNAS is not seeing it, most likely, because FreeNAS doesn't have drivers for it. You are not supposed to use hardware RAID cards with FreeNAS. FreeNAS uses the ZFS file system which does the disk management as part of the file system. Please do some reading about FreeNAS before you build something that will cause you future pain and suffering.
Here are some links for further reading:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Overview of ZFS Pools in FreeNAS from the iXsystems blog:
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/zfs-pools-in-freenas/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

Why not to use RAID-5 or RAIDz1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

Did you read the manual?
Latest version, as of today: https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/

 

[Trace8790]

ok so i opened it up removed the raid card (actually just switched where the mini sas was plugged in so it doesnt use the controller. now i can see each drive individually when i pull open the (f6) boot menu. so now i can see them on the actual device but i still cant see any of them when i pull up freenas to put them in pools or reformat or do anything with. am i missing a step or a setting or drivers so i can see it in freenas?

 

[Trace8790]

also thank you both for the help i really appreciate it

 

[Newfoundland.Republic]

@Trace8790 - The HBA needs to be in "IT Mode"; that is, no RAID functionality. With LSI-based cards (you can pick one up like the IBM M1015 on eBay for under $30) you flash the HBA into IT Mode. There are many posts on how to do this, YouTube videos, etc. As has been noted by @Chris Moore and @PhiloEpisteme FreeNAS uses ZFS which takes care of the RAID itself and needs direct access to the drives.