Error Creating Pool | FreeNAS

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

Ok, I'm a little new to freenas and such. So, I'm having problems

 

I have 8 x 1 TB seagate Constellation drives hooked up to an LSI SAS 3081E-R HBA on an Intel s5000PSL with two L5420s and 24GB of ECC RAM

 

When I try to create a pool I get an error

 

Error creating pool

 

Command '('dd', 'if=/dev/zero', 'of=/dev/da0', 'bs=1m', 'count=32')' returned non-zero exit status 1.

I've tried with different combinations of drives and I get the same error but with "daX" X = to first drive in list(0-7). It's the same for all

I have unplugged and re-plugged all drive connections and tried the card in a different slot. 

 

 

[AbydosOne]

@KingTdiGGiTTy Are you trying to create the pool through the GUI? If not, why not?

 

Could you paste the output of...

ls /dev

... here?

[Windows7ge]

I'll need a second opinion but it looks like it's trying to write zeros to /dev/da0 but there's an error. Have you checked which disk da0 is and remove it? See if forming the pool works with the other seven.

 

ZFS can be very picky. Even if one File System like NTFS or ReFS lets an array run without notifying you of problems ZFS will take any little error or excuse to let you know something isn't right.

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/tastypie/resources.py", line 219, in wrapper
    response = callback(request, *args, **kwargs)

  File "./freenasUI/api/resources.py", line 1450, in dispatch_list
    request, **kwargs

  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/tastypie/resources.py", line 450, in dispatch_list
    return self.dispatch('list', request, **kwargs)

  File "./freenasUI/api/utils.py", line 252, in dispatch
    request_type, request, *args, **kwargs

  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/tastypie/resources.py", line 482, in dispatch
    response = method(request, **kwargs)

  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/tastypie/resources.py", line 1384, in post_list
    updated_bundle = self.obj_create(bundle, **self.remove_api_resource_names(kwargs))

  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/tastypie/resources.py", line 2175, in obj_create
    return self.save(bundle)

  File "./freenasUI/api/utils.py", line 491, in save
    form.save()

  File "./freenasUI/storage/forms.py", line 316, in save
    raise e

  File "./freenasUI/storage/forms.py", line 310, in save
    c.call("alert.unblock_source", lock)

  File "./freenasUI/storage/forms.py", line 303, in save
    notifier().create_volume(volume, groups=grouped, init_rand=init_rand)

  File "./freenasUI/middleware/notifier.py", line 763, in create_volume
    vdevs = self.__prepare_zfs_vdev(vgrp['disks'], vdev_swapsize, encrypt, volume)

  File "./freenasUI/middleware/notifier.py", line 698, in __prepare_zfs_vdev
    sync=False)

  File "./freenasUI/middleware/notifier.py", line 341, in __gpt_labeldisk
    c.call('disk.wipe', devname, 'QUICK', False, job=True)

  File "./freenasUI/middleware/notifier.py", line 341, in __gpt_labeldisk
    c.call('disk.wipe', devname, 'QUICK', False, job=True)

  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/middlewared/client/client.py", line 477, in call
    raise ClientException(job['error'], trace=job['exception'])

middlewared.client.client.ClientException: Command '('dd', 'if=/dev/zero', 'of=/dev/da0', 'bs=1m', 'count=32')' returned non-zero exit status 1.

15 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

@KingTdiGGiTTy Are you trying to create the pool through the GUI? If not, why not?

 

Could you paste the output of...

ls /dev

... here?

Yes, I am trying to do it through the GUI

 

Let, me say yet again, I really don't know what I'm doing.

 I don't know how to paste out of a shell, but to me it looks like I don't have partitions on my drives except for boot.

 

... and here's the rest of my error if it helps

 

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

11 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I'll need a second opinion but it looks like it's trying to write zeros to /dev/da0 but there's an error. Have you checked which disk da0 is and remove it? See if forming the pool works with the other seven.

 

ZFS can be very picky. Even if one File System like NTFS or ReFS lets an array run without notifying you of problems ZFS will take any little error or excuse to let you know something isn't right.

I have tried creating the pool with each drive, getting the same error for each. I'm unfamiliar with command line troubleshooting, I've tried some but obviously failed.

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

I get the same error when I attempt to wipe a drive aswell

[AbydosOne]

4 minutes ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

I don't know how to paste out of a shell

Screenshot would be good enough, just so I can see the list

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

1 minute ago, AbydosOne said:

Screenshot would be good enough, just so I can see the list

 

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

when I wipe drive "Full with Zeros" or "Full with Random Data" I don't get an error but a progress bar doesn't go past zero before dropping me back at the Disk management screen.

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

I have tried creating the pool with each drive, getting the same error for each. I'm unfamiliar with command line troubleshooting, I've tried some but obviously failed.

When it comes to FreeNAS you really don't want to fool around too much in the CLI. It has it's uses but I've broken FreeNAS all too many times doing that. It's really a tool meant to be used using the WebUI.

 

Have you tried attaching a drive to the motherboard directly? I have had similar errors before with FreeNAS. It's been a while though so I don't exactly remember what I did to fix it.

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

When it comes to FreeNAS you really don't want to fool around too much in the CLI. It has it's uses but I've broken FreeNAS all too many times doing that. It's really a tool meant to be used using the WebUI.

 

Have you tried attaching a drive to the motherboard directly? I have had similar errors before with FreeNAS. It's been a while though so I don't exactly remember what I did to fix it.

I can't connect it directly because its a SAS drive, and it's a crappy motherboard. 

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

I can't connect it directly because its a SAS drive, and it's a crappy motherboard. 

Google Images lied to me then when I tried to lookup the drive. Thought the name was a SAS drive. Should have stuck with my gut.

 

Is this a brand new setup (to you) or have you successfully made pools with this hardware before?

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

Just now, Windows7ge said:

Google Images lied to me then when I tried to lookup the drive. Thought the name was a SAS drive. Should have stuck with my gut.

 

Is this a brand new setup (to you) or have you successfully made pools with this hardware before?

This is new, off of eBay obviously. But, the first time I've really tried using it other that making sure it booted with Linux running off a USB drive. I had the array connected then, but I didn't think I formatted anything. 

[AbydosOne]

@KingTdiGGiTTy Do you know what mode the LSI card is in? (IT or IR)

[Windows7ge]

AbydosOne brings up a good point. That's not an HBA it's a RAID controller. Have you flashed it to IT mode? If not that could very well be the cause of the problems.

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

I haven't flashed it to IT mode. I shows drives individually. I have no idea how to flash it to IT mode.

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

I found an IT bios for the card somewhere, but I can't find a flash utility that supports the card.

[Windows7ge]

8 minutes ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

I haven't flashed it to IT mode. I shows drives individually. I have no idea how to flash it to IT mode.

Personally I would just pick up an HBA. You can find them on eBay pretty inexpensively (I recommend the LSI 9207-8i or 9201-16i). Weather it fixes the problem or not you really should not use a RAID controller with ZFS unless it has been flashed to IT mode.

[Windows7ge]

Just now, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

I found an IT bios for the card somewhere, but I can't find a flash utility that supports the card.

If you go the BIOS flashing route the usual method is booting DOS. Rufus has the ability to install FreeDOS to a thumb drive. I've used this method to flash the BIOS on some server motherboard and an old Dell PERC H310 to IT mode.

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

If you go the BIOS flashing route the usual method is booting DOS. Rufus has the ability to install FreeDOS to a thumb drive. I've used this method to flash the BIOS on some server motherboard and an old Dell PERC H310 to IT mode.

What ways are their to do this, I can't find any information about my specific card

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

I'm currently booting into debian because I had a USB with it around

[Windows7ge]

6 minutes ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

What ways are their to do this, I can't find any information about my specific card

It's been a long time since I flashed that H310. Beyond that I just bought HBA's. From what I can recall you would download the cards BIOS. Save it to the DOS USB. Boot the USB and...my memory gives out about there. I can't remember if there was a specific utility or if all you had to was execute the BIOS file and if it found the card on it's own. I'll have to lookup how to do this again.

 

5 minutes ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

I'm currently booting into debian because I had a USB with it around

I mean...for shits'n'giggles you could try to see if you can form a ZFS pool on there. Kind of running with the idea that the main issue is still something software related.

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

Debian wouldn't let me format the drive, so time to brush up on DOS

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, KingTdiGGiTTy said:

Debian wouldn't let me format the drive, so time to brush up on DOS

This is not the exact procedure for your card but the process will be similar so it should still help:

PERC H310 to IT Mode

[KingTdiGGiTTy]

OK, I have got my NAS setup and working.

I never successfully flashed my card into IT mode, I didn't need to. The problem was reformatting my HDDs from 520b to 512b.

I used sg_format from the shell in FreeNAS and then I was able to create Pools

sg_format --format --size=512 --six da0