Trouble Booting Freenas Server

[bigdawg86]

So long story short I have a freenas server which usually runs like a charm. Today I went to add some stuff to the freenas server and it was offline. I went through the connections and tried booting it and it would cycle on off incessantly. No beeps. I poked around and figured it was the PSU, it smelled like smoke and well... Didn't seem to work. No problem I have a spare. I put the spare in and the computer fans start, no beeps, hard drives spin, the monitor shows "green" as if there is some input signal, but there is never any post. I went through all the connections. Reset the bios via manual methods. Still no luck.

It's an older system. Asus p8h61-m with a Intel i3, two sticks of 4gb pny ram.

Normally I have seen similar symptoms with poorly seated ram, but have already played with that to no avail...

I'm all out of ideas. Any ideas are appreciated.

[bruce381]

video card?

[psyrex]

No beeps can mean no POST. Maybe a fried mobo? If you set up your server is with ZFS, you should be able to build out a new system and zpool import the existing pool.

[the86d]

Plug in another p/s (without dealing with screws) to the board, and don't forget the 12v 4/8 pin set... see if it is the P/S.
Especially with multiple drives (spinning platter, in my case) it was the power supply.

We had a bunch of 1x4 12v connector supplies fail, but a newer model, same wattage listed on the boxes had 2x4 12v connectors and that newer model had less failures...

[bigdawg86]

Plug in another p/s (without dealing with screws) to the board, and don't forget the 12v 4/8 pin set... see if it is the P/S.
Especially with multiple drives (spinning platter, in my case) it was the power supply.

We had a bunch of 1x4 12v connector supplies fail, but a newer model, same wattage listed on the boxes had 2x4 12v connectors and that newer model had less failures...

I did install a known good 500W PSU (reputable brand thermaltake) and didn't get the on off cycling, but that's when I started with the symptoms in the OP.

My dilemma kinda seems to be beyond the MOBO when it actually comes to fixing it. Currently it's running a Intel Core i3 2120 3.3GHZ and 8GHZ of RAM. My freenas server pretty much gets occasional data dumps (pictures, video, etc), but is 90% used for PLEX which streams to 4 different households not including myself. So far I haven't ran into much streaming issues, but I am wondering if I should upgrade to a quad core i5 while I am at it.

I dunno. I don't want to drop a ton of money, but reviving a circa 2012 mobo / CPU combo may be a waste in the longer run.

[stilly]

Just for the heck of it, you MIGHT want to give a shot to NAS4FREE as well if you have to start all over with it.

It is HELLA more granular, but I have been using it without issues as a headless NAS in a lawyer's office now for the past 5+ years.

I apologize for not solving your FREENAS issue, but I am just saying you should give this one a shot if you have not done so already.

I had issues with shares on Nas4Free so I went to FREENAS but it had about half as many features so instead I went back to NAS4Free and I am just always happy that I did.

This issue you are having though does sound like a HW issue. You have a NAS, you have a computer? Start swapping out parts and see what works in another computer...

[bigdawg86]

Just for the heck of it, you MIGHT want to give a shot to NAS4FREE as well if you have to start all over with it.

It is HELLA more granular, but I have been using it without issues as a headless NAS in a lawyer's office now for the past 5+ years.

I apologize for not solving your FREENAS issue, but I am just saying you should give this one a shot if you have not done so already.

I had issues with shares on Nas4Free so I went to FREENAS but it had about half as many features so instead I went back to NAS4Free and I am just always happy that I did.

This issue you are having though does sound like a HW issue. You have a NAS, you have a computer? Start swapping out parts and see what works in another computer...

Well currently every picture I have ever taken and every movie I own is on those ZFS shares... one RAID 1 array for personal, and another Raid 1 for media. Priority one is to get those share back online.

I purchased a new MOBO and upgraded to a quad core i5. Should be arriving today. If all goes well and the boot USB is not corrupt, I should be able to get things back online without any hassle. I will research that NAS4Free once I at least secure my data.

[bigdawg86]

Well that was easy. New MOBO and new i5 processor. I just plugged in the old boot drive wondering if it would work because freenas doesn't require drivers like windows. It turned on and loaded freenas like nothing ever happened. Pictures and movies right where I left them.

/thread

[stilly]

Heh. Good to hear. Examine that old mobo now, look for burned areas, maybe a blown capacitor...

I believe Nas4Free also supports ZFS. I ever only had 1 hd in it, Hmm, maybe 2, but it was a budget build.

Glad to hear it is back online.

[the86d]

Are you running a UPS on that box?

[bigdawg86]

Are you running a UPS on that box?

No, but I should. Although in this case my PSU went out, and I think that fried my MOBO

[jeremyy]

Well that was easy. New MOBO and new i5 processor. I just plugged in the old boot drive wondering if it would work because freenas doesn't require drivers like windows. It turned on and loaded freenas like nothing ever happened. Pictures and movies right where I left them.

/thread

FreeBSD needs drivers.... all OSs need drivers all built into the OS/Kernel to work a bit better in that regard to Windows OS.