Help with motherboard and CPU for new FreeNAS build

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zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
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Can confirm p3605 works on Esxi 7.0. Something is not adding up. ESXI is clearing seeing the disk and it can be partitioned.
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
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Nope. The p3605 came with latest oracle firmware from the seller.

I googled the NVMEMGMT code but could find nothing. Point to note though, I'm not on ESXI 7.0 U1 c.
 

itronin

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
What should I do? Reinstall ESXI? Reinstall Proxmox?
my 2 cents. Install the p3605 in a windoze box (if you have one and are comfortable with windows) and see if you can repartition/format it there first. Ie. give it a bit of a test drive, copy some files etc. etc. If it works there you've ruled out the P3605 has issues. If you are more comfortable with Linux give that a go instead.

edit - sorry hit return and it posted.

Once you have confirmation the drive is behaving then go to ESXI so you know you aren't fighting two things at the same time...
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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my 2 cents. Install the p3605 in a windoze box (if you have one and are comfortable with windows) and see if you can repartition/format it there first. Ie. give it a bit of a test drive, copy some files etc. etc. If it works there you've ruled out the P3605 has issues. If you are more comfortable with Linux give that a go instead.
Only Macs in the house and none have PCI-E slots.
 

itronin

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
ARRGHGHGH posted too early again...

you might also try a Ubuntu live usb stick and boot the box with that. It will be a little easier to find devices, use nvme commands etc.
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
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What should I do? Reinstall ESXI? Reinstall Proxmox?
Are any of your other drives populated with data? If not try using one of them as a data store.

We can install a VM on the datastore, passthru the p3605 and troubleshoot from there.
 
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Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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I also would suggest to take a step back and lets have a look where we are at.

Please correct me where I am wrong:

You have installed ESXi on M.2 device (256G was the plan I think)?
-> good since that leaves the sata+sas controller for passthrough
-> you can create VMs on this and simply move them to another datastore in the future, thats no issue, it should provide enough space for a TNC VM + a couple of others

If so than you can continue with your TNC installation with a new VM, pass through your disks & slog and play around a bit

Debugging the P3605 indeed will be easier with a win/linux VM (full blown installation, live boot disk, whatever suits you). After finishing with it you remove the passthrough config, reboot the box and retry to create the datastore. Easy as pie:) If its not working, rinse and repeat.
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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Are any of your other drives populated with data? If not try using one of them as a data store.

We can install a VM on the datastore, passthru the p3605 and troubleshoot from there.
I like this idea. There are currently 4 spinning hard drives, fresh out of the box.

I did a fresh install this morning. Doubt it did any good but I had nothing invested in the last install except a day of my life. So here we are, fresh 7.0b.

If I look on the ESXi screen under Storage->Devices, I see all 6 drives: the 256GB boot, the 1.4TB trouble, and the 4 12TB spinners. If I click on the 1.4TB (the P3605), it shows a single partition, #2, VMFS, 1.46TB. So this is what we have to work with right now.

Going back to Storage in the left hand navigator panel, and on the Datastores tab, I see two entries: datastore1 has capacity of 110.25GB, Provisioned 1.41GB, Free 108.84GB. And datastore P3605 has capacity 1.75GB, Provisioned 1.41GB, andf 353MB free.

Why does P3605 not have any free space? There shouldn't be anything on it. There sure isn't room for an ubuntu iso.

I uploaded ubuntu_server iso to datastore1. I'm in the process of making a VM from the iso, and I'm on the customize settings page. What do you guys want me to enter here? There was talk of passthrough. What do you want passed through? Is there where I do it?

I'll put my hands back in my lap.
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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1610790715534.png

Will look sightly different for you due to version differences, but basically you have to add a New PCIE device
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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well then you have none that you can pass through... need to config that
Got to manage, click on your P3605, click toggle passthrough, reboot

1610791581446.png
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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well then you have none that you can pass through... need to config that
Got to manage, click on your P3605, click toggle passthrough, reboot

View attachment 17149
This is just messed up. Install was going along until I got to the put in a user name and password and I can't input anything. If I type, an area of my screen opens and takes my keystrokes. Clicking, tabbing, arrow keys - nothing works on this screen. Opened console in new tab, opened in a new window, same thing. Keystrokes are not getting to this screen.
 

gb00s

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2018
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Poland
Yes, there is a 1.46TB VMFS partition on that drive. If I click on that drive under Storage, and select New datastore, I give it a name, click next, and the next screen is to Select partitioning options. I can only select use the entire disk. When I click on Finish I get the error Failed to create VMFS datastore - see vmkernel log, and we're back to where we were a dozen messages ago.
I'm not a VMWare enthusiast and specialist, but this sounds like something doesn't like the partition. Did you, maybe with PartedMagic or other tools, delete the current partition, erased the drive completely and go from there? Maybe the part table is messed up badly.
 
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rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
126
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I'm not a VMWare enthusiast and specialist, but this sounds like something doesn't like the partition. Did you, maybe with PartedMagic or other tools, delete the current partition, erased the drive completely and go from there? Maybe the part table is messed up badly.
I would like nothing more than to get this drive back to factory defaults. PartedMagic looks like it might be a good tool to use here. Let me see where I stand after ubuntu boots.
 

gb00s

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2018
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Poland
I hope I was not to quick with my suggestion regarding PartedMagic because of PCIe NVME vs M.2 NVME ... But if Ubuntu works with nvme-cli then you should be fine. Don't pay for PartedMagic, let me know if needed.