Truenas not recognizing new 2.5gb NIC

[EnigmaNas]

Hello,
I have an issue with upgrading my Truenas network card. I have installed a new TPLink 2.5gb NIC, but Truenas does not see it (it does not appear in the GUI when attempting to add a network interface. Is there are way to bring this NIC online? Do I need drivers, and if so, how would I install them?
Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

 

[jgreco]

I have an issue with upgrading my Truenas network card. I have installed a new TPLink 2.5gb NIC, but Truenas does not see it (it does not appear in the GUI when attempting to add a network interface. Is there are way to bring this NIC online? Do I need drivers, and if so, how would I install them?

TrueNAS is an appliance OS. There is no "installing drivers" as TrueNAS does not have the tools onboard to do so; further, lots of PC gear is not meant to work with FreeBSD or Linux, and may not even offer drivers. Assuming that's the problem, the solution is to return the card and then to order a card that is known to work with TrueNAS, which is a somewhat limited selection (I believe the Aquantia and Intel cards, check the forums for specific models). It's much less hassle to buy something that's known to work, as buying something and then hoping there's some way to make it work has generally worked poorly for people in the past.

 

[EnigmaNas]

Good advice. Thank you. Do you know where I can find a list of NICs that work with Truenas? And specifically, the 2.5gb ones.

 

[LarsR]

My guess is that this nic ueses a realtek chip, whose drivers are disabled by default on core due to a severe bug that could cause data corruption with certain workloads. If you don't plan on using ISCSI you could try to load the driver and see how it goes. Personally i would just jump straight to used 10gig cards which are dirt cheap on ebay, are more reliable then the cheap 2.5gig stuff and if you only need one connection from your nas to your pc the overall better option.

 

[jgreco]

Good advice. Thank you. Do you know where I can find a list of NICs that work with Truenas? And specifically, the 2.5gb ones.

No, no one's really willing to do this. There are reports that the Intel i225-v "works fine" and also that the i226-v works, but also reports that the i226-v has "hardware issues" that may have been resolved by a software fix. The Aquantia and Realtek are both crap. I don't generally make recommendations unless I am confident in what is recommended, and that simply isn't true for any 2.5G cards. 2.5G is a grift by the ethernet silicon manufacturers to squeeze new cash out of a formerly dry market. They thought they could just etch new silicon and bap together a quickie driver, but even Intel seems to have forgotten the sheer number of man-hours put into development for the 1G silicon.

A much smarter move is to follow the 10 Gig Networking Primer and buy something like a used Intel X520-DA2 or Chelsio T520-CR, then hook it up to some cheap breakout switch like the ones semi-regularly posted on ServeTheHome.

YuanLey YS25-0801 8-port 2.5GbE 1-port 10GbE Switch Review

In our YuanLey YS25-0801 review, we see how this Realtek-based 8-port 2.5GbE and 1-port SFP+ 10GbE switch performs and how much power it uses

www.servethehome.com

That means you get full 2.5G on more than just one port, using a card that is known to work awesomely well with TrueNAS.

 

[Slee]

As a single data point, I have been successful with a 226-V NIC installed on my TrueNAS core box. It was not recognized under TrueNAS Core 12, but is under TrueNAS Core 13 U6.

I can maintain consistent 280Mbps transfer speed to and from my 225-V(3) PC. Considering my former gigabit transfer speed was 111Mbps, I appear to be getting full speed.

I only use my NAS for local storage and as a Plex server, so there are only ever a couple of active data transfer connections. I have no idea if its stable for a large number of connections (such as hardcore server use, torrent, etc).