NAS won't boot after upgrade

[Juvx]

Usually if you don't know you need l2arc then you don't need it. Wait until you have more ram before looking down that path.

Im maxed out on RAM..... 32GB for 1150 is max.. would have to switch to x99 and ddr4 to get more.

 

[Juvx]

No need for ZIL or L2ARC in a home network. Put that SSD in your workstation and use it as a fast drive for working with Lightroom or scratch space.

Install FreeNAS to a good USB thumb drive and boot from that. No need to waste a HDD or SATA connection on a disk as FreeNAS loads to ram once it's booted up.

What would be an example of a situation where ZIL or L2ARC would be needed? or where performance gains would be seen? I'm planning to move a lot of 4K video as well eventually. Maybe one day even try to transcode 4k. Not sure thats possible yet.

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, the RAM is known-good (defects aside, obviously). Two bad DIMMs are unlikely.

Honestly, I wouldn't rule out a bad PSU so quickly. Just the other day, I had a PSU die overnight. It passes all sorts of cursory inspections, except powering a computer successfully. Replaced it with a different one and the system booted without a hitch.

It could also be a bad CPU - major pain to diagnose.

 

[TXAG26]

I had two different sets of SATA break-out cables fail this past weekend when swapping hardware. Certain drives started to get flaky and were kicking errors. I don't recall having a cable go bad like that before, but re-setting the cables didn't help. I replaced both break-out cables and sure enough, problem resolved.

I have, however, had multiple PSU's fail over the years. I did have one pop with smoke, but most just ride off into the sunset with a leaky/dried out cap or some other internal failure.

 

[Juvx]

Update.
The Asrock c226 WS came in. I installed the CPU, Mem and PSU, Monitor and network cable and keyboard (all outside case) And what do you know... It booted and posted on my first try. I updated the BIOS to fully support my CPU and the all the memory is seen and recognized as ECC in bios. I installed freeNAS on a usb 2.0 stick and its been running solid since last night. Tonight ill put it all together in the case and hook up some of the HDDs. Waiting to move data off my current WD mymirror NAS before i hook up the 5 x 4TB raid z1 array. I know z1 isn't great and z2 is recommended but I'm already over budget.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I know z1 isn't great and z2 is recommended but I'm already over budget.

After all this trouble, why dig yourself a hole made of RAIDZ1 at this stage? You can do RAIDZ2 with as few as 4 drives, and you have 5.

 

[Juvx]

After all this trouble, why dig yourself a hole made of RAIDZ1 at this stage? You can do RAIDZ2 with as few as 4 drives, and you have 5.

Yeah I might, still haven't decided. Isn't raidz2 really slow vs raid z1 however? All my data is also backed up online so i'm not really concerned about data loss. This is more of a PLEX server and easy fast access to files not necessarily backup.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Isn't raidz2 really slow vs raid z1 however?

RAIDZ2 is slower than RAIDZ1, but in almost all cases, the network will be the bottleneck, not the storage.

All my data is also backed up online so i'm not really concerned about data loss.

Consider how long it would take to restore, then consider how much that time is worth vs the cost of a drive. For me, online backup is a last resort in case of disaster/fire/theft, not a primary backup. I'm not saying your decision is wrong, just want you to consider all factors. Once you've built your pool, you'll have to jump through a lot more hoops if you change your mind. I've done it more than once myself and with a small dataset (< 1TB), it's not that big a deal, but as the volume of data grows, so will the level of pain.

 

[Juvx]

RAIDZ2 is slower than RAIDZ1, but in almost all cases, the network will be the bottleneck, not the storage.

Consider how long it would take to restore, then consider how much that time is worth vs the cost of a drive. For me, online backup is a last resort in case of disaster/fire/theft, not a primary backup. I'm not saying your decision is wrong, just want you to consider all factors. Once you've built your pool, you'll have to jump through a lot more hoops if you change your mind. I've done it more than once myself and with a small dataset (< 1TB), it's not that big a deal, but as the volume of data grows, so will the level of pain.

Ok you've convinced me to buy another 4tb WD red and go z2. lol Good point about the 1GbE.. is pretty slow and and it gets worse as i dont have hardwired ethernet other than to my main PC all the laptops and other desktop xbox etc are all wifi..... Wish 10GbE was a standard by now.. its been around for over 10 years in enterprise solutions... It actually wouldn't be that expensive for them to build vs 1GbE the demand just isnt there to mass produce i guess.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Ok you've convinced me to buy another 4tb WD red and go z2.

I'm sure you won't regret it.

 

[Juvx]

Yeah after checking some benchmarks of 5 or 6 drive z1 vs z2 there isn't a huge difference in speed and like you said, they are both well in excess of the capabilities of GbE. You'd probably need to aggregate 3 or even 4 GbE connections to get the full speed for a modern z2 raid. Or 10GbE.

 

[Ericloewe]

I estimate the performance penalty of something like 5 disk RAIDZ1 vs 6 disk RAIDZ2 somewhere between "Nope." and "Heck no." on any reasonably modern hardware, as long as no weird bottlenecks arise.

 

[engmsf]

Yeah I might, still haven't decided. Isn't raidz2 really slow vs raid z1 however? All my data is also backed up online so i'm not really concerned about data loss. This is more of a PLEX server and easy fast access to files not necessarily backup.

Gigabyte H87N-WIFI
Intel G3220 and 8GB RAM (Non-ECC)
3 x 3TB WD Red in RaidZ1

Headless system for Plex that supports two televisions. Typically only one television is running a 1080P stream.

We really abuse the system. Someone hits the power on button in the morning. I hit the power button at night to shut it down. I do not even bother getting in the GUI to properly shutdown the system. It has been this way for the past 2 or 3 years, ticking along with no issues. The RaidZ1 started at 8.3.1 and have been upgraded incrementally with each new software release, to where it is today 9.2.1.9.

So where I am getting at is you make the decision and live with it. I've read so many post about needing ECC and RaidZ2. While I do not argue that fact, I know what I need and the risk associated with it. I am not worried about loosing any of the data as everything is sync and backup every few days. This has been the perfect Plex system setup for me!

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I hit the power button at night to shut it down. I do not even bother getting in the GUI to properly shutdown the system.

Don't know about your specific system, but on most systems these days, hitting the power button actually does a graceful shutdown (ACPI).

 

[sremick]

With that ASRock board you WILL need a monitor and keyboard hooked up to it to get it set up.

An unfortunate chance. My ASRock C226 board (different model than his though) has IPMI and works fine without a discrete video card (or Xeon w/ integrated video).

 

[Juvx]

An unfortunate chance. My ASRock C226 board (different model than his though) has IPMI and works fine without a discrete video card (or Xeon w/ integrated video).

Pretty sure ASRock C226 WS does have IPMI.. doesn't mean i know how to use it. lol