Setup: Nothing but ###############'s so far...

[Jack Rogers]

We're installing FreeNas (latest stable version) on a Dell 4-core server. I don't have the specs to provide here, but I'm hoping I can get a couple of very general questions answered. We have two 1-Tb drives, and I think we set them up in RAID 1 configuration. It took a few days to initialize the drives, then we began the FreeNas setup from a USB stick. It has been just writing #'s to the screen for a couple of days.

1. What's it doing?
2. Is this normal?

Thanks.
Jack

 

[cyberjock]

It's normal for hardware that isn't compatible or isn't properly setup in the BIOS.

You say it took a few days to initialize the drives... considering they shouldn't require initializing at all that sounds like you have a hardware RAID, which is a no-no and discussed no less than about 10 times in the manual.

So maybe you should read our documentation before going further?

 

[Jack Rogers]

Great, I managed to get slapped around for my first question. But if nothing else, I have thick skin.

Yes, hardware raid. I'll go look at the manual.

Thanks.
Jack

 

[Nick2253]

According to the most prominent mention in the manual:

NOTE: instead of mixing ZFS RAID with hardware RAID, it is recommended that you place your hardware RAID controller in JBOD mode and let ZFS handle the RAID. According to Wikipedia: "ZFS can not fully protect the user's data when using a hardware RAID controller, as it is not able to perform the automatic self-healing unless it controls the redundancy of the disks and data. ZFS prefers direct, exclusive access to the disks, with nothing in between that interferes. If the user insists on using hardware-level RAID, the controller should be configured as JBOD mode (i.e. turn off RAID-functionality) for ZFS to be able to guarantee data integrity. Note that hardware RAID configured as JBOD may still detach disks that do not respond in time; and as such may require TLER/CCTL/ERC-enabled disks to prevent drive dropouts. These limitations do not apply when using a non-RAID controller, which is the preferred method of supplying disks to ZFS."

 

[Jack Rogers]

Yes, that's the very same page that I've been looking at. Thanks for the tip.

Jack