Pool Offline TrueNAS

[Decess]

No, sorry, I can't help further. Perhaps someone else can.

Well, except if you are using any over-clocking, disable it. Servers run better as stock parts.

Thank you for your reply. No OC. It's all on default on BIOS. I did a reset CMOS just in case. Same problem happens.

Looking into this there are a few hardware things that will probably cause a few issues (though they are easily rectified by adding two inexpensive cards, an LSI HBA and a better network card):

ASUS M5A78L-M Motherboard

Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s connectors (7-pin SATA3G_1~6)
These connectors connect to Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s hard disk drives via Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s signal cables. If you install Serial ATA hard disk drives, you can create a RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 and JBOD configuration through the onboard controller.

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

Realtek 8111H Gigabit LAN Controller

Is my Realtek ethernet really that bad?

One of the longest running issues faced here in the forums may be people who come to these forums, wanting to recycle an old PC into a NAS. In general, this is a bad idea because typical PC hardware isn't optimized towards the task. However...

www.truenas.com

Thanks for answering. 1) Could you please elaborate why you think those would help? I'd like to be certain before I spend money on those. I mean, the network adapter for example, how would it help if I don't even get the chance to use my network at all? If you watch the video closely, pausing to read stuff just before it crashes and reset, it seems to bug while mounting my pool. Why would getting a new network card help?



2) Also, I tried booting with all HDDs unplugged, with only the SSD with the OS in it running. It worked. I managed to boot and could connect to truenas through the web interface. Is this behavior expected? Does it indicate what could be going wrong? I tried unplugging HDDs one by one (supposedly one could break and my system would still run because of raid redundancy), but with only 4 out of 5 HDDs plugged in, no matter which 4, the bootloop happened again.

3) Couldn't I fresh install TrueNAS on my SSD and then try to remount my pool?

Reposting video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZMAawOgh2I

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

1. The Realtek network adapter will possibly be an upcoming issue; if you have odd network related problems don't give up, know there's an easy fix.
2. I've detailed some (there's more) of the odd things that happened in my system when using RAID in JBOD mode throughout various posts. If you do a search they all go back to thanking @jgreco for saving my bacon with a LSI HBA card flashed to IT mode, because that saved what would have been probably 30+ hours of chasing ghosts.
3. Sure. Go for it. Sometimes people flash their RAID to IT mode and it works. The nagging question is: how long will it work? Let's be honest: If it doesn't work I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Don't get me wrong, myself and other members want your system to work and work flawlessly until you want to upgrade it years down the road, but we're not going to force you into it. There are members that have spent 60+ hours hammering out a solution so they could use their particular onboard RAID, and sometimes it works great, sometimes a software upgrade breaks their setup, but to them it's a reasonable thing to do and they got it done. Many of us could probably spend the time on it, but is it worth it? When that mainboard's filter capacitors age-out are you going to replace them? If not, are you going to put the time into getting onboard RAID working on the replacement mainboard? These are questions only you can answer, but for me it was and is totally worth it to use the Resources many members wrote and update so many other members can build reliable systems.

I'll note iXsystems builds really stable systems from everything I've read. You could, for instance, build a system similar to what they build, or perhaps it's worth it to you to buy a system from them and know none of the components are new, not eBay clones of real hardware, everything will work together, you don't have to spent hours sourcing components and building a system, etc. I like building systems, so I try to give back to iXsystems by supporting others like yourself--supporting you, not telling you what to do.

 

[Decess]

1. The Realtek network adapter will possibly be an upcoming issue; if you have odd network related problems don't give up, know there's an easy fix.
2. I've detailed some (there's more) of the odd things that happened in my system when using RAID in JBOD mode throughout various posts. If you do a search they all go back to thanking @jgreco for saving my bacon with a LSI HBA card flashed to IT mode, because that saved what would have been probably 30+ hours of chasing ghosts.
3. Sure. Go for it. Sometimes people flash their RAID to IT mode and it works. The nagging question is: how long will it work? Let's be honest: If it doesn't work I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Don't get me wrong, myself and other members want your system to work and work flawlessly until you want to upgrade it years down the road, but we're not going to force you into it. There are members that have spent 60+ hours hammering out a solution so they could use their particular onboard RAID, and sometimes it works great, sometimes a software upgrade breaks their setup, but to them it's a reasonable thing to do and they got it done. Many of us could probably spend the time on it, but is it worth it? When that mainboard's filter capacitors age-out are you going to replace them? If not, are you going to put the time into getting onboard RAID working on the replacement mainboard? These are questions only you can answer, but for me it was and is totally worth it to use the Resources many members wrote and update so many other members can build reliable systems.

I'll note iXsystems builds really stable systems from everything I've read. You could, for instance, build a system similar to what they build, or perhaps it's worth it to you to buy a system from them and know none of the components are new, not eBay clones of real hardware, everything will work together, you don't have to spent hours sourcing components and building a system, etc. I like building systems, so I try to give back to iXsystems by supporting others like yourself--supporting you, not telling you what to do.

Hey! Thanks again for answering.

I asked those questions before because I'm just trying to get some data out of my pool and then I'm just gonna put those HDDs inside a Synology NAS or just stick all HDDs to my main computer and live with it, so I'm not sure if spending money for long-term solutions is smart. I'm not savvy enough keep running into problems with TrueNAS.

1) For example, even after googling, I'm still not sure what's the difference between having a PCI to SATA card (which is what the LSI HBA card seems to be) and just plugin everything in my mobo and how that card may help.

2) I'm also not sure what you meant when you said "using RAID in JBOD" mode. RAID and JBOD seemed to me to be different things when I googled them.

3) I couldn't even figure out what "IT mode" is after googling it.

4) My main computer is an AMD 3900x CPU on an Asus TUF Gaming X570-PLUS with 32gbs of ram. Do you think I could just remove all my HDDs and SSDs from it, put the ones from my NAS into it and see if my bootloop/boot problems are because of my old hardware on the NAS computer and get somehow fixed just so that I can grab a few files from my NAS? Does the TrueNAS OS/boot sequence handle well changes in hardware?

I thank you once again for your time and patience.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

In simple and not-exacting terms:

1. A LSI (purchased by Avago (purchased by Broadcom)) PCIe Host Bus Adapter is very mature, stable, reliable. Other hardware tends to be built for eeking out every ounce of speed (at the cost of reliability) or low price (at the cost of reliability and speed).
2. A RAID firmware acts as an "interpreter" between the mainboard and drives, even in Just a Bunch Of Disks mode; anything it doesn't understand doesn't get interpreted so is lost in translation.
   IT mode stands for "initiator target" and basically stays out of the line of communication. Anything TrueNAS and the drive want to discuss is discussed directly. (how to check)
3. See the first link in #2.
4. It will possibly work as you described, though on gaming systems the SATA controller is usually optimized for speed so there's a strong chance you'll get different issues. But it may work.

For $30 on eBay you can get an 8-port LSI HBA in IT mode and possibly save hours of testing/frustration/not knowing what's going on and having to guess. You would have to watch for Chinese knock-offs as fake boards don't work with ZFS, though they often work with Windows.

"The guy" on eBay is "The Art Of Server." This board "should" probably work for you:
Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9211-8i P20 IT Mode for ZFS FreeNAS unRAID B-STOCK

You'd need cables that:

1. Plug into the connector on whatever HBA you get.
2. Plug into your WD Red NAS 6TB WD60EFAX SATA drives. With my cards and drives this cable works:
   CableCreation Internal Mini SAS SFF-8643 to (4) 29pin SFF-8482 connectors with SATA Power, 1M / 3.3FT

Mind you, I'm not trying to spend your money; this investment worked so well for me and is so reliable my whole system is based on it (thank you @jgreco and other members!!!)

 

[Decess]

In simple and not-exacting terms:

1. A LSI (purchased by Avago (purchased by Broadcom)) PCIe Host Bus Adapter is very mature, stable, reliable. Other hardware tends to be built for eeking out every ounce of speed (at the cost of reliability) or low price (at the cost of reliability and speed).
2. A RAID firmware acts as an "interpreter" between the mainboard and drives, even in Just a Bunch Of Disks mode; anything it doesn't understand doesn't get interpreted so is lost in translation.
   IT mode stands for "initiator target" and basically stays out of the line of communication. Anything TrueNAS and the drive want to discuss is discussed directly. (how to check)
3. See the first link in #2.
4. It will possibly work as you described, though on gaming systems the SATA controller is usually optimized for speed so there's a strong chance you'll get different issues. But it may work.

For $30 on eBay you can get an 8-port LSI HBA in IT mode and possibly save hours of testing/frustration/not knowing what's going on and having to guess. You would have to watch for Chinese knock-offs as fake boards don't work with ZFS, though they often work with Windows.

"The guy" on eBay is "The Art Of Server." This board "should" probably work for you:
Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9211-8i P20 IT Mode for ZFS FreeNAS unRAID B-STOCK

You'd need cables that:

1. Plug into the connector on whatever HBA you get.
2. Plug into your WD Red NAS 6TB WD60EFAX SATA drives. With my cards and drives this cable works:
   CableCreation Internal Mini SAS SFF-8643 to (4) 29pin SFF-8482 connectors with SATA Power, 1M / 3.3FT

Mind you, I'm not trying to spend your money; this investment worked so well for me and is so reliable my whole system is based on it (thank you @jgreco and other members!!!)

Thank you for your patience!

I'm not sure I'm able to get a board that isn't fake where I live though. I live in a third world country where almost everything we find on our version of e-bay comes from China, so it's hard to filter what's good and what isn't.

The one you recommended from "The guy" with shipping and customs/import fees would cost me ~145USD. Not counting whatever the cables would cost me. If I were to buy in my country's "e-bay", I'd be paying about the same without know if the card is good or not. Listings range from 140USD-400USD.

I have lots of files on my NAS, but most are completely redownloadable. Will take some time, but not a big deal. There are very few more important files, but it wouldn't be the end of the world losing them. I'd like to try and salvage them if possible and then find another storage solution. So I'm not sure spending that money is adequate. Maybe as a last resort, IDK.

Am I sure atm that this is a hardware problem? Me disconnecting all HDDs and being able to boot TrueNAS should be an indicator of that, right?

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Thank you for your patience!

I'm not sure I'm able to get a board that isn't fake where I live though. I live in a third world country where almost everything we find on our version of e-bay comes from China, so it's hard to filter what's good and what isn't.

The one you recommended from "The guy" with shipping and customs/import fees would cost me ~145USD. Not counting whatever the cables would cost me. If I were to buy in my country's "e-bay", I'd be paying about the same without know if the card is good or not. Listings range from 140USD-400USD.

I have lots of files on my NAS, but most are completely redownloadable. Will take some time, but not a big deal. There are very few more important files, but it wouldn't be the end of the world losing them. I'd like to try and salvage them if possible and then find another storage solution. So I'm not sure spending that money is adequate. Maybe as a last resort, IDK.

Am I sure atm that this is a hardware problem? Me disconnecting all HDDs and being able to boot TrueNAS should be an indicator of that, right?

That's a great question. TrueNAS isn't the only OS that runs ZFS, so something else might be a solution.

TrueNAS, given the hardware requirements and thereby related cost, may not be an ideal solution for you...mainly ZFS which is uses may not be an ideal solution...

Using a more system-friendly OS and Logical Volume Manager with ext3 or ext4 might work as a better RAID system. At most any point another drive can be added to a system, regardless of capacity, LVM figures out how to balance things. That does not negate the need for backups, and TrueNAS might work on your current system, however it's good to have a backup plan.