Trouble installing FreeNAS on Cisco UCS C240

[jcornelius]

Hello all. I have spent days searching through this forum reading everything that i can and i just cant find my issue. I am booting FreeNAS from a usb, i get 2 options to install FreeNAS, one with and one w/o serial. I choose the option without serial and it starts to load, then no matter what version of FreeNAS 9 or 11 i get this same screen. any help would be great.

 

[m0nkey_]

Please provide hardware specifications, such as CPU, RAM and any other devices, such as a HBA, etc.

 

[SweetAndLow]

The Cisco Raid card looks very suspicious. The hardware looks like normal intel stuff but there is probably some proprietary nonsense built in you will have to fight with.

 

[jcornelius]

it is a dual xeon @ 2.4 ghz
368 gigs memory

 

[m0nkey_]

it is a dual xeon @ 2.4 ghz
368 gigs memory

I'll be honest. That's very generic and not a lot to go on.

Please also include what HBA (if any) you're using, NIC, etc. There may be known compatibility issues with your selected hardware.

 

[SweetAndLow]

You need to try and boot normal bad and see if that works. If that doesn't work then work with the bad project to support your driver. If that does work than something is missing in freenas and should probably be fixed or reported.

 

[jcornelius]

Inventory from CIMC...
CPU1 Xeon 2400 status enabled
CPU2 Xeon 2400 status enabled

Memory is all cisco memory 376832 MB dimm status is good

Dual PSU both UCSC-PSU2-1200

PCI Adapters
Intel I350 1 GBPS Network Controller
Intel x520-DA2 10 GBPS 2 port NIC
LSI mass storage controller
LSI mass storage controller

 

[jcornelius]

current Bios C240M3.3.0.3a.0 (Build Date: 03/15/17)

 

[SweetAndLow]

sas2flash --listall output?

 

[jcornelius]

I have formatted the sd cards, swapped out the pc riser 2 card, restarted everything and it ended up in the same spot. i will get the sas2flash - listall here in a sec, different usb.

 

[jcornelius]

here is a listall screen shot

 

[SweetAndLow]

What is a PC riser 2 card?

Your sas2flash looks good with the correct firmware. I was thinking there was a proprietary raid card.

Can you boot a different system using your freenas install? Maybe it's a bad install.

You could also try just removing stuff until it boots. That will tell you the problem piece.

 

[jcornelius]

in the Cisco UCS C240 there are riser cards, #1 will run on 1 CPU, #2 only runs when 2nd CPU is present, this one contains the SD cards where i want freenas installed. I downloaded freenas 11 from website and used Rufus to convert the iso to a bootable USB. I get the first prompt were i can choose which freenas to install with or without serial. Then it hangs here everytime. It even did the same thing when i download version 9.

 

[SweetAndLow]

This serial choice thing you keep mentioning does not exist. Can you take a photo or screenshot of it. I have no clue what you are talking about and have never selected something like that when installing freenas.

 

[jcornelius]

Ok now the serial option isnt available. There used to be a second line here that had (Serial) after it. I dont get the console setup screen, which should be the next step.

 

[jcornelius]

and sorry its the PCI Riser 2 that i swapped.

 

[SweetAndLow]

That is the normal screen. I wonder if your sd card reader is the problem. Can you try to install from a USB stick?

SD cards are not there correct way to run freenas. They are unreliable.

 

[jcornelius]

I actually am trying to load from a USB. I download v11 and used Rufus to write the ISO to bootable USB. Am i doing something wrong here?

 

[m0nkey_]

LSI mass storage controller

Do you happen to know what model? Is it flashed to IT mode?

 

[jcornelius]

The LSI mass storage I dont know about, but we download the flash package to make it IT mode.