My first DIY NAS build attempt - HELP!

[calgarychris]

Chris, glad you were able to resolve the issue. I do find it handy to have a usb DVD drive around just for occasions like this ( and for fixing folk's netbooks, etc )



The old rule of thumb is 2x RAM size, the current recommendation is, if memory is greater than 2GB, then 1x size of ram.

My rule is, what the hell, if I have the disk space to spare 2xRAM, if I don't I go with 1xRAM.

No it isn't required, and most modern OS's are very comfortable inside 8GB of main memory and the swap won't be used, but my feeling is better to have some swap and not use it, then need it, and not have it be there.

I forget, do you have a separate system disk ( this I do strongly recommend )

Hmmm, what do you mean by a separate system disk? I have the 4 data drives, all to be used for data and then I was going to run the OS off of the 4GB USB stick.

When doing the installation, I used ~380MB for the OS and set the swap to 3,400 (I previously had a problem with the partitions being too large). That doesn't leave much space for the "Data" portion that is partitioned on the USB stick, but I wasn't sure what that was for. For example, where do my files for things such as SABnzbd go, onto the data portion? If that's the case, I might need a larger USB...something like a 16GB split as follows:

400MB for OS
8GB for swap file
~7.5GB for "Data" (whatever that's used for) ?

How difficult would it be to run a system and then swap to a different USB later (I'm assuming there's config files to copy etc to keep the zfs config data intact?)

Thanks
Chris

 

[GregN]

Hmmm, what do you mean by a separate system disk? I have the 4 data drives, all to be used for data and then I was going to run the OS off of the 4GB USB stick.

When doing the installation, I used ~380MB for the OS and set the swap to 3,400 (I previously had a problem with the partitions being too large). That doesn't leave much space for the "Data" portion that is partitioned on the USB stick, but I wasn't sure what that was for. For example, where do my files for things such as SABnzbd go, onto the data portion? If that's the case, I might need a larger USB...something like a 16GB split as follows:

400MB for OS
8GB for swap file
~7.5GB for "Data" (whatever that's used for) ?

How difficult would it be to run a system and then swap to a different USB later (I'm assuming there's config files to copy etc to keep the zfs config data intact?)

Thanks
Chris

In your case, I'd run a 2GB swap, and dedicate the rest to the data segment. I thought (for some reason) you had something like 150GB system disk (this is what I recommend).

Data is for everything else running on you box, also called the Usr/Local area. Binaries, Log files, and other Config files like SABnzbd (some of which will be on the os partition). All of this is dependent on what you are running.

My pfSense box runs in about a gig of disk space, with alot of packages installed, you should be fine.

 

[calgarychris]

In your case, I'd run a 2GB swap, and dedicate the rest to the data segment. I thought (for some reason) you had something like 150GB system disk (this is what I recommend).

Data is for everything else running on you box, also called the Usr/Local area. Binaries, Log files, and other Config files like SABnzbd (some of which will be on the os partition). All of this is dependent on what you are running.

My pfSense box runs in about a gig of disk space, with alot of packages installed, you should be fine.

Thanks for all that - I've remade my USB stick and got it working on the laptop, so I've now tried it on the actual box, with some unfortunate challenges:

1. My motherboard doesn't appear to want to load from the USB stick automatically, even when choosing the boot priority. I can get around this temporarily by forcing it to boot from the USB...I'm hoping this is something that can be fixed via a firmware update? Anyone have the Asus e35m1 deluxe board able to confirm?

2. I appear to get some sort of message that warns me that one of my cables is ATA33...I bought a couple of cables from a local shop, so I guess I can replace that one at a later date

3. The biggest issue (and the request for help at the moment!) is that it doesn't appear that Freenas 0.7 supports the Realtek 8111e NIC card (although 0.8 does apparently). I have lights on in the back, but when I go into the Interface section, it doesn't show anything (as it did with the laptop) and it doesn't pick up an IP address from the router. I have a 64bit driver that apparently works from here but I get the following message when I follow the mount_msdosfs instructions:

dmesg | grep umass

gives:

umass1: <Imation ImationFlashDrv, class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 4> on uhub1

a bunch of probe0: umass-sim1:1:0:0 msgs

then
da1 at umass-sim1 bus 1 target 0 lun 0

when I follow the instructions to mount the usb I get
mount_msdosfs /dev/da1s1 /mnt/usb
mount_msdosfs /dev/da1s1 : No file or directory

Being a total newb, I know da1 is my device, but I don't know if the s1 should be s2 or s10 or what...Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks very much guys

Chris

 

[GregN]

Thanks for all that - I've remade my USB stick and got it working on the laptop, so I've now tried it on the actual box, with some unfortunate challenges:

1. My motherboard doesn't appear to want to load from the USB stick automatically, even when choosing the boot priority. I can get around this temporarily by forcing it to boot from the USB...I'm hoping this is something that can be fixed via a firmware update? Anyone have the Asus e35m1 deluxe board able to confirm?

2. I appear to get some sort of message that warns me that one of my cables is ATA33...I bought a couple of cables from a local shop, so I guess I can replace that one at a later date

3. The biggest issue (and the request for help at the moment!) is that it doesn't appear that Freenas 0.7 supports the Realtek 8111e NIC card (although 0.8 does apparently). I have lights on in the back, but when I go into the Interface section, it doesn't show anything (as it did with the laptop) and it doesn't pick up an IP address from the router. I have a 64bit driver that apparently works from here but I get the following message when I follow the mount_msdosfs instructions:

dmesg | grep umass

gives:

umass1: <Imation ImationFlashDrv, class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 4> on uhub1

a bunch of probe0: umass-sim1:1:0:0 msgs

then
da1 at umass-sim1 bus 1 target 0 lun 0

when I follow the instructions to mount the usb I get
mount_msdosfs /dev/da1s1 /mnt/usb
mount_msdosfs /dev/da1s1 : No file or directory

Being a total newb, I know da1 is my device, but I don't know if the s1 should be s2 or s10 or what...Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks very much guys

Chris

Sounds like you are making progress.

On the USB device, you've got the syntax right. A couple things, first make sure the device exists:

ls /dev/da1*

Is da1s1 listed? If not, which are?

The stick itself, is it formatted FAT (not FAT32)?

 

[calgarychris]

Sounds like you are making progress.

On the USB device, you've got the syntax right. A couple things, first make sure the device exists:

ls /dev/da1*

Is da1s1 listed? If not, which are?

The stick itself, is it formatted FAT (not FAT32)?

My gosh, this is progress?!? Feels like two steps forward, three steps back! Thanks for your help thus far, I *am* making progress I know.

I will check - the device I thought was formatted FAT, but I will try it both ways - easy enough to do I guess...I will check the device as well.

Thanks!

 

[calgarychris]

It's alive...

It's alive!

...I need to fix the adapter to always load, the BIOS to load from USB automatically and then set it all up, but I'm into the webgui at least!

Thank you, thank you!

The problem was that my USB was FAT not FAT32 and/or when I tried typing ls da1* I only had /dev/da1 listed. I simply amended my command to be mount_msdosfs /dev/da1 /mnt/usb and simply dropped the s1 part.

I'm assuming s1 etc are partitions?

Thanks again, here's hoping it's smoother sailing!

 

[GregN]

My gosh, this is progress?!? Feels like two steps forward, three steps back! Thanks for your help thus far, I *am* making progress I know.

I will check - the device I thought was formatted FAT, but I will try it both ways - easy enough to do I guess...I will check the device as well.

Thanks!

Not a problem, your da devices are usb, the s is the subunit ( bus position ).

You should be able to get device data from the device using usbconfig.

usbconfig -u 1 -a 1 dump_info

That will give you the lowdown on Bus/Hub 1, Position 1. ( which is what 1:1 means )

 

[calgarychris]

As update, I've given up on the dream of getting 0.7 to work...too many issues for a newb such as myself to handle:

1. 0.7 didn't find the Realtek LAN port, unless I specifically loaded a driver - didn't know how to have that happen automatically, as the instructions given didn't seem to work

2. 0.7 only seemed to find 1 HDD in the GUI even though all of them appeared in the BIOS and during the initial boot into the system

3. It didn't find the wireless driver on the motherboard, not that I really care

4. The BIOS won't boot my USB stick unless I go through and manually select it.

I am now testing out Freenas 0.8 which appears to resolve all the issues above except #4 unfortunately. I've posted to the Asus website and sent a note to tech support, but it looks like that's not going to give me any love...If I can't resolve that, I might, on a lark, try Ubuntu server, otherwise I guess I have a less than ideal scenario where I have to re-connect my keyboard, mouse and monitor whenever I need to reboot the server...sucks...

Thanks for all your help thus far, especially GregN...if you have any further insights, please let me know!

 

[GregN]

As update, I've given up on the dream of getting 0.7 to work...too many issues for a newb such as myself to handle:

1. 0.7 didn't find the Realtek LAN port, unless I specifically loaded a driver - didn't know how to have that happen automatically, as the instructions given didn't seem to work

2. 0.7 only seemed to find 1 HDD in the GUI even though all of them appeared in the BIOS and during the initial boot into the system

3. It didn't find the wireless driver on the motherboard, not that I really care

4. The BIOS won't boot my USB stick unless I go through and manually select it.

I am now testing out Freenas 0.8 which appears to resolve all the issues above except #4 unfortunately. I've posted to the Asus website and sent a note to tech support, but it looks like that's not going to give me any love...If I can't resolve that, I might, on a lark, try Ubuntu server, otherwise I guess I have a less than ideal scenario where I have to re-connect my keyboard, mouse and monitor whenever I need to reboot the server...sucks...

Thanks for all your help thus far, especially GregN...if you have any further insights, please let me know!

Setting the BIOS on the Asus to boot first off of USB is a no go?

The Asus has an e-sata port, yousa got an extra SATA drive?

 

[calgarychris]

Setting the BIOS on the Asus to boot first off of USB is a no go?

The Asus has an e-sata port, yousa got an extra SATA drive?

Had a devil of a time getting the Asus 35M1-I Deluxe to boot from USB. It's user error. Finally got someone to figure it out...

You have to select the USB as HDD under the USB configuration options (which I had done), then on the boot menu scroll down onto the second page of options (which I didn't realise existed!) and under BBS something or other, select the boot priority so that the USB is #1 and then scroll up and back on the first page under boot priority, select the USB to boot from. The problem I had is that without finding the second page, the USB didn't appear on the list of options to boot from....

Anyway, should anyone else be as foolish as I, hopefully this will appear in a Google search

Thanks for all your help - Freenas 8 appears to be up and running and now with the above sorted I can look at power saving options and WOL.