Trouble installing OmniOS on X11SSL-F

[grogthegreat]

Hi,
I'm in need of some help installing OmniOS 151018 onto a new server I've just put together. This is my first time ever trying OmniOS as I want to see how it plus NappIT compares with FreeNAS.
First the build:
Supermicro X11SSL-F motherboard (bios updated to latest: 1.0b)
Intel i3 6100 CPU
32GB Crucial ECC UDIMM DDR4
LSI 9212-4i4e (updated to P19)
Supermicro 826E1-R800 chassis with SAS-826EL1 backplane (3Gb SAS expander)

I'm trying to install OmniOS to a 32GB SATA DOM. The problem is that I can't get the installer to boot correctly. I've tried mounting "OmniOS_Text_r151018.iso" over IPMI and booting to it. I've also tried writing "OmniOS_Text_r151018.usb-dd" to a spare laptop SATA hard drive and booting to it.

In both cases the motherboard sees the bootable device, I get the OmniOS splash screen, followed by the following:
SunOS Release 5.11 Version omnios-r151018-ae3141d 64-bit
Copyright (c) 1983, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Remounting root read/write
Probing for device nodes ...
Preparing image for use
Requesting System Maintenance Mode
(See /lib/svc/share/README for more information.)
Console login service(s) cannot run

Enter user name for system maintenance (control-d to bypass): _


At this point I am stuck. control-d results in the same prompt. This shouldn't be related to the USB booting issue on these X11 boards since I'm booting from a sata drive. In the bios, I've set the boot mode to Legacy and enabled the "Install Windows 7 USB support".

Any suggestions?

 

[gea]

The problem is that OmniOS currently does not fully support the new USB controller on this board
SuperMicro X11SSH-CT with 10G nic, 12G SAS and G4400 CPU

Your options:
- use an real Sata CD or DVD drive with the iso to setup (this worked for me together with the bios settings)
- use my system images that you can clone ready to use (preferred Kingston 60G Sata or the enterprise class Intel S3510-80)
http://www.napp-it.org/doc/downloads/napp-in-one.pdf

 

[grogthegreat]

Thanks for the reply.
I didn't think I would get affected by the usb issue since I was booting the installer from a sata hard drive. I'll try a sata CD/DVD drive latter today and see how that goes.
Would I be able to use your image on my 32GB sata dom or do I need something at least 60GB? Your image would obviously save a lot of setup work.
Thanks!
Greg

 

[gea]

I offer two images, one for a 60G Kingston (may work with other 512n disks > 60G)
and an image for the Intel S3510-80G (512e)

I have tried the image with a SuperMicro 64G Sata DOM- does not work.
The DOM seems to behave different so this would require an image created on the DOM.

 

[grogthegreat]

Thanks for suggesting using the SATA DVD drive. I was able to properly boot to the installer, install onto the SATA DOM, and successfully boot to OmniOS. Now I just need to configure it and install Napp-it! Hopefully by the time I do another installer, the USB3.0 driver will be in the OS.

Is there a reason for choosing larger SSDs for your napp-it ToGo images? Put another way, is my 32GB SATA DOM not a good choice? I assumed I wouldn't need anything bigger/faster since everything would be stored on the ZFS pool.

Thanks again!

 

[gea]

Even OmniOS, one of the tiniest full feature storage distributions at all get bigger.
A default setup requires around 20GB.

If you add some boot environments you are 80% filrate what gives you a warning.
Also on problems you are not able to save a crashdump.

This and the small price difference between 32GB and 64GB let me use 60GB now as default
(40GB on the new napp-it ToGo VM)

 

[grogthegreat]

That reasoning makes a lot of sense. I already bought the 32GB version but if I ever need a replacement or build a 2nd system to ZFS send/receive between, I'll upgrade. I love the simplicity and size of the SATA DOMs but the price per GB is still a little high compared to a regular SSD. Prices will hopefully drop over the next couple of years.

I've been having fun playing with Napp-it over the last couple of days. It was amazingly simple to get going which is amazing considering its capabilities.