FreeNAS as storage solution on an unused desktop

[GSK1985]

I'm looking for some extra storage and was thinking of maybe using my leftover desktop pc as a solution.

Specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
CPU: Intel i7 2600k
Ram: 16gb
FreeNAS installation disk: OZC 120GB SSD
Storage: 3 x 4 TB Ironwolf

I've already installed Freenas, just as a test. But the HDD are not showing up in FreeNAS, while they are showing up on boot.
So I'm think this system might not be compatible after all.

 

[jgreco]

It's not a particularly good fit, and if you wanted to store anything important, another 4TB drive so you could do RAIDZ2 would be advised. Make sure that you have turned off any host-based RAID and are presenting the ports as AHCI and it'll probably work.

 

[GSK1985]

Thanks for the advice. The ports are presenting as AHCI, and they're not showing up.
I might be better of getting a new mobo, cpu and some ram that is better compatible for a project like this.
I'd like to have my data stored safely.

 

[Yorick]

Take a look Chris Moore's recommendations over yonder: https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/specific-build-components-list-up-to-32gb-ram.109/ . In a nutshell, you want a solid "server grade" board, ECC memory. The SATA ports on those boards are well supported, so is the NIC. You can get quite inexpensive combinations if you don't buy the latest and greatest.

If you want safe data storage, you're looking at raidz2. Keep in mind that changing the number of drives in a raidz2 is not possible (currently). You can replace with larger capacity drives down the road, but you can't add extra ones. You can add an entire second raidz2 vdev, but that's beyond most home use cases - and home physical cases. Exceptions notwithstanding, I know we have crazy people with over 24 disks. I say 'crazy' with affection :).

 

[Philip Robar]

Ignore the naysayers, your setup should work just fine as a simple home server. If you need more ports in the future Host Bus Adaptors (HBA) like the Dell H220 or the Dell H310 are practically free on eBay (often with cables) or you can use a USB to SATA cable for your boot drive(s) if you want to free up all of your Intel SATA ports. (Using flash drives for the OS will work, but is no longer recommended.) (I do agree, though, with the advice that 9th and 10th gen Supermicro server motherboards, Xeon E3's, and ECC memory can be found used for quite reasonable prices.)

Some googling says that the Z68 chipset and its internal SATA ports should just work as long as they're in AHCI mode. In the BIOS (Have you installed the latest version?), make sure that eXteme Hard Drive (XHD) is 'Disabled', that PHC SATA Contol Mode is set to 'AHCI', and that SATA Port0-3 Native Mode is 'Enabled'.

Look through dmesg can you see the Intel SATA controller?
# dmesg | grep -i ahci or # dmesg | grep -i intel
<snip>
ahci0: <Intel Ibex Peak AHCI SATA controller> port 0xa400-0xa407,0xac00-0xac03,0xa880-0xa887,0xa800-0xa803,0xa480-0xa49f mem 0xfb1f8000-0xfb1f87ff irq 19 at device 31.2 on pci0
<snip>

What does # camcontrol devlist show?

 

[GSK1985]

Ignore the naysayers, your setup should work just fine as a simple home server. If you need more ports in the future Host Bus Adaptors (HBA) like the Dell H220 or the Dell H310 are practically free on eBay (often with cables) or you can use a USB to SATA cable for your boot drive(s) if you want to free up all of your Intel SATA ports. (Using flash drives for the OS will work, but is no longer recommended.) (I do agree, though, with the advice that 9th and 10th gen Supermicro server motherboards, Xeon E3's, and ECC memory can be found used for quite reasonable prices.)

You're getting my hopes up ;). However, the drives aren't showing in FreeNAS yet, in the shell they are, just not under disks.
However, say I'm running this system now start with storing data, and wish to upgrade my hardware down the line. Is that possible with keeping all the data on the disks?

Some googling says that the Z68 chipset and its internal SATA ports should just work as long as they're in AHCI mode. In the BIOS (Have you installed the latest version?), make sure that eXteme Hard Drive (XHD) is 'Disabled', that PHC SATA Contol Mode is set to 'AHCI', and that SATA Port0-3 Native Mode is 'Enabled'.

Check, these are all set. However not on latest BIOS version. Will update now.

Look through dmesg can you see the Intel SATA controller?
# dmesg | grep -i ahci or # dmesg | grep -i intel

Code:

root@freenas[~]# dmesg | grep -i ahci
ahci0: <Marvell 88SE9130 AHCI SATA controller> port 0xcf00-0xcf07,0xce00-0xce03,0xcd00-0xcd07,0xcc00-0xcc03,0xcb00-0xcb0f mem 0xfbdff000-0xfbdff7ff irq 19 at device 0.0 on pci6
ahci0: AHCI v1.20 with 8 6Gbps ports, Port Multiplier not supported
ahci0: quirks=0x900<NOBSYRES,ALTSIG>

+ even more lines

What does # camcontrol devlist show?

Code:

root@freenas[~]# camcontrol devlist
<Marvell 91xx Config 1.01>         at scbus7 target 0 lun 0 (pass0)
<OCZ-AGILITY3 2.15>                at scbus8 target 0 lun 0 (pass1,ada0)
<ST4000VN008-2DR166 SC60>          at scbus9 target 0 lun 0 (pass2,ada1)
<ST4000VN008-2DR166 SC60>          at scbus10 target 0 lun 0 (pass3,ada2)
<ST4000VN008-2DR166 SC60>          at scbus11 target 0 lun 0 (pass4,ada3)
<AHCI SGPIO Enclosure 2.00 0001>   at scbus14 target 0 lun 0 (pass5,ses0)
<Generic STORAGE DEVICE 9451>      at scbus16 target 0 lun 0 (pass6,da0)

 

[Philip Robar]

So the controller and all the drives are being seen by the OS.

Here's a good guide to using FreeBSD's command line tools to destroy and create new partition tables and partitions. Ignore the main point of the article—thought it's interesting from a historical point. Destroying the existing partitions and creating a new GPT partition table should be enough to get your disks to show up in the GUI (perhaps with a reboot).

FreeNAS: creating ZFS zpools using partitions...

 

[GSK1985]

So the controller and all the drives are being seen by the OS.

Here's a good guide to using FreeBSD's command line tools to destroy and create new partition tables and partitions. Ignore the main point of the article—thought it's interesting from a historical point. Destroying the existing partitions and creating a new GPT partition table should be enough to get your disks to show up in the GUI (perhaps with a reboot).

FreeNAS: creating ZFS zpools using partitions...

Well, this is very weird. After 10 restars, multiple attempts(!) on flashing the BIOS, but not being able to due to no USB being recognized...they suddenly appear in FreeNAS now.

Thanks for the input. Still one question remains, say, if I want to upgrade my HW (MOBO, CPU + RAM)..is it easy to transfer those disk to that new machine without los of data?

I just ordered a 4th disk so I can rund RAIDZ2.

 

[Yorick]

Transferring drives: Yes. FreeNAS uses gptid to identify disks, which means which controller port they are attached to literally doesn’t matter. You can move everything to new hardware, and your pool will come right in. It would be helpful to label the disks so you know which is 0, 1, etc.

 

[GSK1985]

This is strange. I've ordered the extra hd for RaidZ2. Put it in the system, bios is definately detecting it...but FreeNAS doesn't see the new disk. It's the exact same brand and size (Seagate 4tb Ironwolf).

It's sees those first 3 disks, but not the new one.

When I go into the shell:

Code:

root@freenas[~]# camcontrol devlist
<Marvell 91xx Config 1.01>         at scbus7 target 0 lun 0 (pass0)
<OCZ-AGILITY3 2.15>                at scbus8 target 0 lun 0 (pass1,ada0)
<ST4000VN008-2DR166 SC60>          at scbus9 target 0 lun 0 (pass2,ada1)
<ST4000VN008-2DR166 SC60>          at scbus10 target 0 lun 0 (pass3,ada2)
<ST4000VN008-2DR166 SC60>          at scbus11 target 0 lun 0 (pass4,ada3)
<ST4000VN008-2DR166 SC60>          at scbus12 target 0 lun 0 (pass5,ada4)

 

[GSK1985]

Some extra info:
- Change power supplies, disk not recognized
- Changed positions in Sata, disk not recognized

The other 3 disks stay visible in Freenas not matter what.

All 4 disks stay available in the shell.

 

[GSK1985]

Quick update. I think it has to do with a bug in 11.3.
My disks are not showing up in the GUI, I'm pretty certain now it isn't a hardware issue, but a 11.3 issue, why?..
If I update to the 12.0 nightlies test version...NO problem at all. All the drives are displayed, instantly.

I've tried to install 11.2, however, that one fails during install.

Code:

panic free guard1 fail

edit. at a certain point I had 11.3 showing 3 drives, as mentioned above. But after I wiped that disk and reinstalled it, the drives aren't showing anymore. I've update to 12.0 twice just to test it out..and they popup in there instantly.

 

[Philip Robar]

In the GUI, do the disk(s) not show up in Storage->Disks or just when you try to create a pool?

It shouldn't matter to the GUI, but what does # gpart show device-name say for each drive?

 

[GSK1985]

In the GUI, do the disk(s) not show up in Storage->Disks or just when you try to create a pool?

It shouldn't matter to the GUI, but what does # gpart show device-name say for each drive?

Ok..so here's what I did.

Install 11.1 > created the pool
Updated to 11.2 > Disks still there and pool also
Updated to 11.3 > Disks still there and pool also

Everything is working fine now, it seems like 11.3 just had difficulties initializing the disks or something!
Thanks for all the help!

 

[Jailer]

This is not a very good start for a server I would want important data on.

Ignore the naysayers,

Those "naysayers" like to try and steer users towards reliable safe storage for important data. And if you're building a server it's pretty safe to assume your data is important to you.

 

[pschatz100]

If you have not done so, clear your browser cache. It has been reported that, after upgrading from older versions of FreeNAS, some of the displays in the 11.3 GUI do not display correctly until the browser cache has been cleared. I had this happen on my system.