What M.2 NVME SSD is Supported for Boot?

[amack794]

Hello All,

I'm trying to build a bare metal Dell PowerEdge R710 NAS; I have a PCIe B-Key M.2 adapter, and a M+B key M.2 NVMe SSD that I was able to install TrueNAS Core onto.

The issue I'm running into is that the web portal to manage the host is not available. I'm thrown a " The web interface could not be accessed.
Please check network configuration" after looking up this error it looks like it's pointing to the brand of SSD I'm using Vaseky brand M.2

Is there a list of supported manufacturers I should be using?

*Note: I am getting a link light on my primary NIC
As for system specs it 99% OEM Dell PowerEdge R710 the only new component is the m.2 adapter.

 

[Arwen]

In general, booting on NVMe PCIe drives is BIOS / EFI related and not the manufacturer. If you saw it with the install process, that means it's working as storage. So back to BIOS / EFI.

Where is that "The web interface could be accessed. ..." message coming from?
Your browser?

Get on the console and see what is really happening.

 

[amack794]

In general, booting on NVMe PCIe drives is BIOS / EFI related and not the manufacturer. If you saw it with the install process, that means it's working as storage. So back to BIOS / EFI.

Where is that "The web interface could be accessed. ..." message coming from?
Your browser?

Get on the console and see what is really happening.

It's displayed on the console. I can set my static routes and setup DNS configs. But, no dice on the web UI.

 

[Arwen]

If you get the TrueNAS TUI, (Text User Interface), on the console, and get to the OS SHELL, then the problem has nothing to do with booting your NVMe drive.

Sorry, I can't help further with your network problem. Perhaps someone else can step in.

 

[amack794]

If you get the TrueNAS TUI, (Text User Interface), on the console, and get to the OS SHELL, then the problem has nothing to do with booting your NVMe drive.

Sorry, I can't help further with your network problem. Perhaps someone else can step in.

No worries thank you for the second pair of eyes. I've been looking more into this and it seems like the full OS wasn't loaded during initial installation. I'll try reimagining the drive and see if that works.

 

[Ericloewe]

How did you get NVMe booting on an R710? Some intermediate bootloader?

 

[amack794]

How did you get NVMe booting on an R710? Some intermediate bootloader?

I had to get a B Key PCIe M.2 adapter. R710 requires a SATA connection to see M.2s. After that you set the m.2 to be the primary boot device.

 

[blanchet]

Have you tried to upgrade to the latest BIOS version ?

Support for PowerEdge R710 | Drivers & Downloads | Dell US

 

[Ericloewe]

If you're using SATA that is absolutely not NVMe. NVMe is a driver specification for PCIe non-volatile storage. M.2 is a family of connectors that support many things, from PCIe (in various widths) to SATA, USB, SMBus/I2C, etc.

So, you seem to be booting from a somewhat-dubious SSD attached either to the PCH SATA controller via a cable to a motherboard port (fine) or a probably-crappy SATA controller embedded in the adapter card you're using (less good).

Now, since you made it - from your description - all the way to the boot process until the mini-CLI shows up, I think we can assume this is not a boot device issue for now, but a networking issue.
So, please share a screenshot (or serial console capture, if you can, since that's more lightweight) so we can see if that's indeed what's going on.
In the meantime, what NIC are you using? Onboard 1GbE Broadcom?

 

[amack794]

If you're using SATA that is absolutely not NVMe. NVMe is a driver specification for PCIe non-volatile storage. M.2 is a family of connectors that support many things, from PCIe (in various widths) to SATA, USB, SMBus/I2C, etc.

So, you seem to be booting from a somewhat-dubious SSD attached either to the PCH SATA controller via a cable to a motherboard port (fine) or a probably-crappy SATA controller embedded in the adapter card you're using (less good).

Now, since you made it - from your description - all the way to the boot process until the mini-CLI shows up, I think we can assume this is not a boot device issue for now, but a networking issue.
So, please share a screenshot (or serial console capture, if you can, since that's more lightweight) so we can see if that's indeed what's going on.
In the meantime, what NIC are you using? Onboard 1GbE Broadcom?

I'll grab a screenshot, and post it. I tried a quick ping test to my gateway from the onboard 1GB port no dice can't even leave host. I haven't tried updating bios tbh. It should be fine this was a decommissioned host from my job,and has been fully wiped drives and all.