Help with motherboard and CPU for new FreeNAS build

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Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
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Northern California
I think I had issues with FF too. Have not dled anything in a while but I think I remember frustration;)
Well I'm on Linux, but Chrome and FF posed no issues for me in the last couple months. The issue if finding the right page...and the website is a rats nest of concentric circular links and products who's download names bear no resemblance to what people actually call them.

But, I sure like the hypervisor once its installed!
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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For ESXi download. Here's how I get there: After logging in, I select "Downloads" from the horizontal menu bar. From there, I select:

"Free Product Downloads"-->"Vsphere Hypervisor"---> click "Register" in the product description field--> Complete the registration page (you need to register for each free product, even version changes)--->following registration it takes you back to the "Vsphere Hypervisor" page you just left, but now your downloads will appear at the bottom of the page for "manual download".

Since I hadn't tried Version 7.0, I just did it myself to make sure it still works .

I mention this because if you enter the menu system via "Products" instead of "Downloads" on the menu bar you can't easily get to download the free product you want (at least I can't) on a free account. The way I describe, you can just get into the system to download free ESXi without checking out trial software. At least that works for me.
Hold my hand, because I am not seeing what you are telling me. This is now the third browser I'm using.

Log into my.vmware.com. Check.

There is not a "Downloads" on the horizontal menu bar. The horizontal menu bar has: Products, Support, Accounts, and Knowledge. Strike one.

But there is a "Product Downloads" icon 1/3 of the way down the page so I click on that. I get a list of all of the products.

Nowhere do I see any text that says "Free Product Downloads". Strike two.

I see a link in the right side column of that page that says "Trial and Free Products". I'll click on that.

I see VMware vSphere. I click on the "Download Free Trial" link. It takes me to the same Product Evaluation Center for VNMware vSphere 7.0 Update 1c page that I have a 60 day evaluation for. I click on "Manually Download" and once again, NOTHING HAPPENS. Strike 3.

I think there's a force in the universe that is more powerful than you guys telling me not to use this thing.
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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Oh heck @rskoss ...I think if you click that link above, it will take you to the page you need directly, and you can just log in in the box on the right hand side! Then "register" and download. Try it!
Okay, clicked on that link. Logged in. It shows that I have registered for this product and that my downloads are now available below.

I click on "Manually Download" AND NOTHING HAPPENS.
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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Hm, just tried too, with current FF. Only thing weird was that I had to register for it twice, but then...
1610653310343.png
 

Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
1,146
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Northern California
I can see how that top menu bar was different for you @rskoss , I tried re-logging-in (I’d timed out) to look and it put me into the portal through a different route than my initial log-in...to the screen you describe, and one which I've never seen before. Stupid VMware website. But, honestly once you did get to the right download page (at least it seems like its the right one) I have no idea why the download link is dead for you.
 
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rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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Hm, just tried too, with current FF. Only thing weird was that I had to register for it twice, but then...
View attachment 17139
Are you doing this on Linux too?

I'm wondering if the website detects I'm doing this on a Mac. That would be messed up, but their entire website is messed up.

Just for giggles, I'm going to install a Linux VM and try that.
 
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rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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Son of a b.....

It worked. I had Manjaro installed as a VM on my laptop and was able to download the iso file, get it to a usb, and ESXi is now up and running - and seeing the 4 hard drives.

It says that I'm running this in evaluation mode and the evaluation will expire in 60 days. What's up with that?
 
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Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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Interesting. Maybe Apple does not like VMWare?;)

you now run the Enterprise version of ESXi with all features, that will expire in 60d, on the download page you received a license key for the free version that you need to apply whenever you want to activate 'Free' and all its limitations.
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
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You can register a free licence (which comes with less functionality), purchase a licence or simply "renew" your evaluation period.

PM me for details on the last ;)
 

rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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You can register a free licence (which comes with less functionality), purchase a licence or simply "renew" your evaluation period.
I actually knew that <slapping my forehead>. I got a license key when I registered.

I can't seem to create a datastore on the P3605. The new datastore wizard only shows me the 4 hard drives. The P3605 was where I was planning on keeping VM's - and seemed like a logical place to keep ISO's.

If I go to Storage->Devices, I see both SSD's as well as the HD's. That's good.

But if I try to create a datastore or a VM, the only location presented is the M.2.
 
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zack$

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Aug 16, 2018
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Try going into the device tab, select the p3605 (it will be named something else but you should be able to figure which it is) and clear partition table. You will lose all the data on the p3605 of course.
 

zack$

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Aug 16, 2018
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Hmmm..... no replies. Everybody is busy, or I made brilliant choices and there's nothing more to say, or my choices are so stupid that nobody can figure out how to say so politely.
I run my more important VMs off a NFS share from TrueNAS. Given sync writes, your gonna want a "robust" pool for your VM shares. I use mirrored sas3 drives with an Optane 900p for SLOG. My backups of the VMs are my backups for that pool.

I also mannually copy some of my VMs from my p3605 to the NFS share.

On the plex issue, are you doing any transcoding? If not, not likely to need a GPU.

Edit: 2x6Z2 is fine.
 
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rskoss

Active Member
Oct 9, 2020
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Try going into the device tab, select the p3605 (it will be named something else but you should be able to figure which it is) and clear partition table. You will lose all the data on the p3605 of course.
Trying to clear it from the device tab gave errors. Some googling led me to ssh'ing and partedUtil. But now I'm only seeing 350GB of free storage on the p3605 instead of 1.5TB.

Going in circles. One problem at a time - here is where I am currently:

From the Devices tab, selecting the disk and clearing the partition table "works".

Now I go to Storage, New Datastore, give it a name, get to "Select partitioning option", and I'm stuck. Clicking on the before, either with custom or full disk from the dropdown, selects nothing, i.e., a partition can not be selected. Clicking next and it yells at me for not selecting a partition.
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
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Download your TrueNAS settings and upload them on a fresh install of TrueNAS in the event of hardware failure (not pool disks of course) or migration. It couldn't be easier.

Some people even do a bare-metal install on a system (just to make sure everything is running fine), save the settings and then upload to a fresh install on a VM.

Given that it was once fine to run a FreeNAS boot drive off of usb (it never really was), your p3605 (in terms of reliability) is gonna be fine for ages.
 

zack$

Well-Known Member
Aug 16, 2018
701
315
63
Trying to clear it from the device tab gave errors. Some googling led me to ssh'ing and partedUtil. But now I'm only seeing 350GB of free storage on the p3605 instead of 1.5TB.

Going in circles. One problem at a time - here is where I am currently:

From the Devices tab, selecting the disk and clearing the partition table "works".

Now I go to Storage, New Datastore, give it a name, get to "Select partitioning option", and I'm stuck. Clicking on the before, either with custom or full disk from the dropdown, selects nothing, i.e., a partition can not be selected. Clicking next and it yells at me for not selecting a partition.
What did you do on the CLI?