FreeNAS Installation failed

[Tristan Fiske]

Okay so this is my first time installing FreeNAS because I have always made active directory domains on Ubuntu but somebody told me FreeNAS is much better. I"m installing on an old HP dl380 G5, I have 7 bays with 73 gig drives all on separate logical drives as "raid 0" (even though there are only 1 drive in each), So I have the FreeNAS installation media on an 8gb stick, and I have a 32gb stick to install FreeNAS on. Every time I try to install FreeNAS (on any drive/usb stick) the installation at "The FreeNAS Installation on da5 da7 has failed. Press enter to continue" and I press enter and it just brings me back to the home menu. http://imgur.com/gallery/v2bsI

 

[Tristan Fiske]

Update: I unplugged the USB that I was going to install FreeNAS on, and I realized that the "da" coresponds to the hard drive, and no matter what drive I use, it tells me that that specific drive has failed. so if I use da0 then it says "The FreeNAS Installation on da0 has failed. Press enter to continue"

 

[BigDave]

What is the 32GB flash drive listed as during the install? At some point you are asked to which drive you want the OS to be installed to, are you seeing the 32GB flash drive at that point? You may have also to read up a bit about the ZFS file system used for FreeNAS and it's incompatibility with hardware RAID cards. Host Bus Adapter cards work very well with FreeNAS when placed in IT mode with the P20 firmware (that matches up with the driver used in FreeNAS current stable versions). If you are new to FreeNAS, you should not be trying a beta version of the software, (read version 10 master). The recent stable version is 9.10.2, Good luck:)

 

[Tristan Fiske]

Yeah I see the 32gb flash drive and when I select it it just says "FreeNAS installation failed" and Other people say the hardware raid card in the dl380 g5 works fine with FreeNAS.

 

[BigDave]

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/confused-about-that-lsi-card-join-the-crowd.11901/

As far as the failure of the installation, you are going to have to post your hardware specs as per forum rules at the top of the forum page. Look for the link in red.

 

[Tristan Fiske]

Well it's a base model hp dl380 g5, 8gb ram, x2 dual core, and a HP Smart Array P400 raid card. and they are all basic hp 73 gig hard drives, I just got this machine, haven't gotten an OS that I can tell the specs.

 

[Spearfoot]

Well it's a base model hp dl380 g5, 8gb ram, x2 dual core, and a HP Smart Array P400 raid card. and they are all basic hp 73 gig hard drives, I just got this machine, haven't gotten an OS that I can tell the specs.

You might consider pulling the P400 RAID card and using an LSI-based HBA (LSI 9211/IBM M1015/Dell H200). There are quite a few reports of problems running FreeNAS or ZFS on these servers when equipped with the P400, e.g.:

http://serverfault.com/questions/29349/disabling-raid-feature-on-hp-smart-array-p400
https://community.hpe.com/t5/ProLia...sable-Automatic-RAID-on-DL380-g5/td-p/6695883

The root problem with the P400 is that you can't use it in IT mode; instead you have to set up each separate disk as a RAID0. Not an optimal configuration for FreeNAS/ZFS.

 

[Tristan Fiske]

Okay, I'll look into that but shouldn't there be a way to run it off of like a raid 5? when I searched it most people seemed to be able to do it just fine.

 

[Spearfoot]

Okay, I'll look into that but shouldn't there be a way to run it off of like a raid 5? when I searched it most people seemed to be able to do it just fine.

No, sir, you don't want to give FreeNAS a RAID5 or any other kind of RAID array - it works best with direct control of the disks. You might be able to get it to 'work', but without the regular low-level scrubs and SMART tests that FreeNAS performs on disks, you're liable to lose your data without notice because of failed disks.

 

[Tristan Fiske]

Okay, So would something cheap like these work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-Su...880723?hash=item43fcc99f13:g:-SIAAOSwImRYb8pp

 

[Tristan Fiske]

or even this, even though it is 3gb/s http://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-SAS3081...221049?hash=item282074db39:g:3osAAOSwa~BYZEFe

 

[Spearfoot]

Okay, So would something cheap like these work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-Su...880723?hash=item43fcc99f13:g:-SIAAOSwImRYb8pp

It looks like an LSI 9211, and it should work, according to this thread. But read the fine print[1]. :)

If I were you, I'd do some add'l 'due diligence', but, again, it seems that these Sun cards should work well w/ FreeNAS.

[1] I am not responsible for any decisions you make, including purchases of equipment.

 

[Tristan Fiske]

I understand you are not responsible, thank you for your input!