OK, I FINALLY got FreeNAS Corral to install, but not in the way that most of you would like. Here is a work around until the specific issue is fixed (if it is ever fixed)... I'm assuming that the issue is related to the BIOS since the way I got this to work is through a VM where It mocked a non UEFI BIOS.
The solution to make FreeNAS work on the Z10PE D16 WS motherboard is through UNRAID, or if you can get it up and running ESXi Hypervisor (I could not get this to install with this motherboard just like FreeNAS).
Here is how I did it. Mind you I'm using PCI Express Passthrough with an HBA card so that I can properly pass through the drives as suggested in this blog post:
http://www.freenas.org/blog/yes-you-can-virtualize-freenas/
OK, full disclosure I have not fully tested this, and I have just now begun to play with the set up, but thus far it works!.
Here's how I did it:
1. download and install UNRAID following their instructions on their website:
https://lime-technology.com/
- I'm using the trial version to put this through it's paces before I buy a license.
- This OS not only is itself and NAS system (Downside being no striping, just a JBOD with parity disks for redundancy, not bad if your saturating a single 1GbE connection), but it's a powerful docker, application platform, but most of all a powerful yet simple Virtilization platform
2. I suggest connecting 2 SSD or more to your SATA ports and create a disk array with them in UNRAID. This will help drive everything that you may want to run, and save your ISO's, and Provide space for your VM software like Windows.
3. Follow all the required steps so you can start setting up VM's. You first need to start an array, and there may be a step or two: get started:
https://lime-technology.com/getting-started/) . after this, To enable VM you need to go to Settings > VM Manager
4. Map the Isos Folder to what ever computer you are accessing UNRAID from and download what ever ISO you want to add. To do this you need to know your UNRAID server IP or the server name you gave it. You will need to map your drive (you may need to look it up if you don't know how to)... however I will tell you to type this in the blank when mapping: "//yourservernameORtheIP/isos" This folder is where you can just copy what ever ISO you would like to utilize. I copied FreeNAS Corral
5. From here you can start setting up your First VM. In the VM tab you can click on FreeBSD. This will bring up a template to work with.
6. Name your VM, and choose which cores you want to use. In my case I have 14 cores 28 threads. The way my cores and hyper threaded cores line up is 0&14, 1&15, 2&16, and so on. I would suggest choosing the base core and the hyper threaded core that corresponds with your system.
7. Choose how much RAM you are using (this can be changed later as well). I chose 16GB to start out with.
8. IMPORTANT: Machine is where the "BIOS" comes in to play. To my knowledge the VM imitates a different BIOS than what your system has to make this work. I chose "i440fx-2.7" as mine. I left BIOS to the default setting.
9. I changed my OS Install ISO to FreeNAS Corral which I added to the isos folder. (I may have forgot to mention this step: in the settings tab under VM manager you need to select the "isos" folder under "default ISO Storage Path" if it isn't already selected). I changed OS install CDRom BUS to USB.
10. Under Primary vDisk Location, I left this auto, you could choose if you wanted to. Next, I changed VirtiO to USB for primary vDisk Bus
11. Choose a network adapter. I left Virbr0 for right now. All this can be changed later on. I'm actually going to run a 10GbE card in this machine via passthrough
12. Leave everything else the same, and at this point you can get it to install. If you want to get an HBA to pass-through, there is a little bit of work to do, and this article is a good explanation on how to do it:
http://www.smsprojects.co.uk/video-unraid-pass-through-hardware-3-ways-to-do-it/
I would stick to the "Editing the VM's XML file" section of the article. The video is helpful, but slightly outdated. UNRAID has actually updated their interface to make the text layout of the devices much easier to read together.
Using this article I was able to pass through my 10GbE NIC and my LSI 9300 HBA.
I intend to passthrough a USB controller for Windows Server 2012 R2, here's a post to help with that as well:
https://forums.lime-technology.com/topic/35112-guide-passthrough-entire-pci-usb-controller/
13. OK, so you have everything installed, choose the "Shutdown" option and then wait for the VM to stop.
Now edit your VM and erase the field for the ISO image. This will prevent it from trying to install every time you start up your VM.
The next step is to start your VM again, and then open VNC remote. You'll notice some Shell command prompt. type "Exit"
This will bring you to a BIOS screen. Go to Boot Manger, and choose Miscelaneous Device (I foudn when I switched the Primary vDisk Bus to USB, that this option showed up and booted like it should) Follow the prompts and off to the races with FreeNAS!
