SOLVED Multiple FreeNAS servers

[tstorzuk]

A little help please,

I recently upgraded 2 of my FreeNAS servers to version 9.3, set up the users, drives, shares, etc.... and I have no problem getting into the GUI or browsing to the shares when only one server is on at a time.

The problems start happening when I have 2 or more running at the same time. All connections are instantly lost. Can't ping, get into the GUI, or browse the shares.

The 3rd older FreeNAS server is running version 8.3.1 release p2-x64.

I'm not really sure where to turn as I haven't found any other relevant information when I searched the forums. So all help would be appreciated.

The servers all have the same hardware;
MOBO - Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-B
CPU - Intel 4 Core Xeon E-1230v2 3.3GHz 5.0GT/s 8MB LGA 1155
MEMORY - Kingston KVR16E11K4/32 DDR3-1600 32GB(4x8GB)/1Gx72 ECC CL11 Server Memory Kit
VIDEO - Onboard ATI Rage XL SVGA 8MB
RAID 1 - IBM ServeRAID M1015 8 Channel PCI-e x8 SAS/SATA RAID Controller (46M0861 Aka 9220-8i) Flashed in IT Mode (straight passthru)
RAID 2 - IBM ServeRAID M1015 8 Channel PCI-e x8 SAS/SATA RAID Controller (46M0861 Aka 9220-8i) Flashed in IT Mode (straight passthru)
RAID 3 - IBM ServeRAID M1015 8 Channel PCI-e x8 SAS/SATA RAID Controller (46M0861 Aka 9220-8i) Flashed in IT Mode (straight passthru)
NIC - Onboard Intel 82579LM & 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controller, 1x Realtek RTL8201N PHY (dedicated IPMI-not used)

The network has the following hardware;
Cisco - Linksys E4200 Dual-Band N Router
Netgear JGS500 - 24 port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

Now, within the router for some reason it's listing the two new servers LAGG interfaces as being on the same server. So that right there is obviously a problem, not sure yet as to how to get the router to identify them as separate devices yet. Help would be appreciated on this too.

Even so, if I have only one of the new servers on, and the old one at the same time, they both have the same problems.

So, if anyone has any suggestions on where to start and what to check, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[pirateghost]

Make sure they have completely different netbios names.

 

[tstorzuk]

Make sure they have completely different netbios names.

Yes, they all have unique netbios names. As well, the servers have different host names too.

An example;

Server 1
Host name: trinity.matrix
Share netbios name 01: TRINITY_RAID-01
Share netbios name 02: TRINITY_RAID-02
Share netbios name 03: TRINITY_RAID-03

Server 2
Host name: morphius.matrix
Share netbios name 01: MORPHIUS_RAID-01
Share netbios name 02: MORPHIUS_RAID-02
Share netbios name 03: MORPHIUS_RAID-03

When I had the other 2 servers set up using FreeNAS 8.3.1, there was never a problem with them "disappearing" over the network. It's just since I upgraded them to version 9.3 that I'm now having this issue.

 

[dlavigne]

Are the hostnames registered in DNS? Anything related in /var/log/messages on the FreeNAS systems or in the logs of the clients? I'm assuming these are CIFS shares?

 

[tstorzuk]

Are the hostnames registered in DNS? Anything related in /var/log/messages on the FreeNAS systems or in the logs of the clients? I'm assuming these are CIFS shares?

No, they aren't registered in DNS. Also, nothing that I can find that has anything relevant in the /var/log/ messages or on the client machines.

Yes, you are correct to assume that these are all CIFS shares.

 

[dlavigne]

Name resolution may be the culprit then. If the network doesn't have a DNS server, try adding entries to the hosts file of each system.

 

[tstorzuk]

I found this bug, and tried changing my network interface to use DHCP, but it still does the same......only one server can be on at a time.

https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/7335

I was able finally to get the router to recognize the two new servers as being separate (ie. DNS). But once more than one is turned on, they aren't visible on the network.......UGH!

 

[tstorzuk]

This is really making it impossible to back up the information on my servers to each other!!! My critical files, I like to keep on all servers in case any one of them craters. Or if I loose one of the drives on a share.

 

[pirateghost]

I havent updated to 9.3 and don't plan on it until I build my new server in a couple of months, but I currently have 3 Freenas boxes all running on the same subnet and they have been running just fine for over a year.

 

[tstorzuk]

I havent updated to 9.3 and don't plan on it until I build my new server in a couple of months, but I currently have 3 Freenas boxes all running on the same subnet and they have been running just fine for over a year.

It seems to be a glitch with 9.3. I'm going to keep it for the time being, as rolling it back to a different version requires I pull out my server rack and move way too much stuff around. I'll have to wait a while to try out a newer version.

My solution, remove the lagg interfaces. Create a single interface using only one NIC, and set it as DHCP. Set the IP address in the Router DHCP table. Problem with this set up, only one NIC is being used. So I won't be able to use the new servers for video media.

 

[pirateghost]

It seems to be a glitch with 9.3. I'm going to keep it for the time being, as rolling it back to a different version requires I pull out my server rack and move way too much stuff around. I'll have to wait a while to try out a newer version.

My solution, remove the lagg interfaces. Create a single interface using only one NIC, and set it as DHCP. Set the IP address in the Router DHCP table. Problem with this set up, only one NIC is being used. So I won't be able to use the new servers for video media.

How many clients?

If only a few, your LAGG isn't being of any use at all.

 

[tstorzuk]

Up to 10 clients at a time.....

 

[jgreco]

Netgear JGS500 - 24 port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

Switch doesn't support LACP. Nightmares result.

 

[tstorzuk]

Hmmm,

That's weird, since it used to have no problem with LACP on the older version of FreeNAS.

Well, thanks for confirming what my issue is jgreco. I'll have to start looking for a different Switch.

Any suggestions for a 24 port (or more) gigabit unmanaged switch that does support LACP? Or do I have to get a managed one for LACP support?

 

[pirateghost]

I don't know of any unmanaged switches that can do that since you have to configure the protocols

 

[tstorzuk]

Just found one now that I have some time to look for a new switch;

http://www.netgear.com/business/products/switches/unmanaged-plus/JGS524Ev2.aspx#tab-techspecs

It's unmanaged, allows for 8 LAGG's, has 24 ports and is Gigabit.......seems to cover everything that I'm going to need. And it looks like it's less that $200;


Or am I missing something?

 

[jgreco]

Just found one now that I have some time to look for a new switch;

http://www.netgear.com/business/products/switches/unmanaged-plus/JGS524Ev2.aspx#tab-techspecs

It's unmanaged, allows for 8 LAGG's, has 24 ports and is Gigabit.......seems to cover everything that I'm going to need. And it looks like it's less that $200;


Or am I missing something?

It's "unmanaged" in that Netgear has managed to warp the meaning of the term beyond recognition. An unmanaged switch ships with a configuration and you plug your stuff in and hope for the best; there's no chatting with the switch to set up more complicated features. Managed used to mean anything where you could talk to the switch, but eventually got broken up into two classifications of "web-managed" (Netgear's smart switches) and CLI-managed, which is what most people mean these days by a managed switch.

Netgear has now created a feature-stripped web-managed switch and they are calling it "unmanaged plus" rather than "webmanaged lobotomized", so, yay Netgear Marketing, you all suck.

For $200, I'd suggest that you might want to reconsider and cherry-pick eBay to see if you can pick up something like a Dell 5524 for $300 (sold out), it's a full managed layer 2 switch that also has two 10 gigabit SFP+ slots. There are some for $400 now. That's quite a bit more expensive, I realize, but it gives you some future expandability to go to 10GbE. If you're not familiar with 10GbE, feel free to read up.

I just don't feel very good about the prospect of someone buying last decade's technology for that much money without making them aware of more current options.

 

[tstorzuk]

jgreco,

Thanks for the information. I will steer clear of the lobotomized Netgear switch, and start looking into a more professional and managed switch. Which name brands do you recommend?

Since I have 3 servers, I want something that has 10GbE ports for all of them. And the possibility of another server in the future (so at least 4 ports for 10GbE). I just finished reading the link you gave to me, but since you already have knowledge about it, I figure I should ask and get your opinion about a few makes/models that you would recommend for the switch and the network interface cards for the servers.

BTW, my entire place is hard wired with CAT-6. I have at least 8 computers/printers/devices that run off those connections throughout the house. Then, at the server rack itself, I also have 4 computers that connect to the switch......and it's always expanding for some reason!!! UGH!!! So the switch would also need to have connections for at least that many devices, and if it has 24, even better.

I don't buy anything from eBay anymore since they had their security breach. Thanks for the link though, I did take a look. I can go considerably higher in price if necessary. Probably up to $1200 or higher if necessary. I don't want to end up paying around $2500 though, that just seems to be a bit too extravagent. I was just looking for cheap and unmanaged first, when I made my suggestion.

Either way it's quite the pain in the arse to roll out my server rack and work on anything;

The network switch is at the back of the rack (first image), screwed in at the highest point. This is it when I rolled it out last month to change out 2 of the server motherboards, CPU's, RAM, and RAID cards. They all have the same hardware now. My KVM is starting to go too, so the next time I roll this out, I'll be switching that too to make it worthwhile. Cable management is not my forte as you can see.

I'm not going to be looking forward to figuring out how to use a managed switch. I wish there was someone local that knew FreeNAS and networking as well as you that could come over and set it all up after I upgrade.........right now I deleted all of my link aggregations on my servers, but I still keep getting errors like this;

+arp: 00:35:92:ac:98:23 is using my IP address 192.128.1.107 on em1!
+arp: 00:35:92:ac:98:22 is using my IP address 192.128.1.107 on em0!

And I'm just pissed off that everything I try isn't fixing this problem. I still can only run one server at a time due to errors like these.

 

[pirateghost]

You say you removed the LAGG but did you unplug all but one nic? You can't have the same IP on more than one nic.

 

[tstorzuk]

No, I didn't unplug all but one NIC. I set them up so that they were running on different IP addresses.