Troubleshooting TrueNAS Core Drive Issues

Software & Applications
1

Hello!
I recieved my fully built and burned-in HL-15 with the Supermicro X11SPH-NCTPF motherboard and stock components (Xeon Bronze 3204, 16BG of memory) about two months ago, and have enjoyed the experience for the most part. However, there has been a recurring issue that I can’t seem to resolve, and which I was looking for help in focusing my troubleshooting.

Before I go further, here are the details of my setup:
-HL-15 with 80GB of ECC memory, Supermicro X11SPH-NCTPF motherboard and Xeon Bronze 3204 (memory was all purchased directly from 45HomeLab).
-14 Seagate Exos X16 14TB HDDs
-TrueNAS Core 13.0-U6.1, installed on the internal SSD.

The issue:
Periodically I will receive notifications that one or more drives have "failed to read SMART data. It will look like this:
“CRITICAL: Device: /dev/da2 [SAT], failed to read SMART Attribute Data.”
This has happened to almost all of my drives at this point, it doesn’t seem to track with individual drives or individual drive bays. Eventually, I’ll get a second notice, usually after a few hours:
"CRITICAL: Pool one state is DEGRADED: One or more devices are faulted in response to persistent errors. Sufficient replicas exist for the pool to continue functioning in a degraded state.
The following devices are not healthy:

  • Disk ATA ST14000NM001G-2K ZL25WARK is FAULTED
  • Disk ATA ST14000NM001G-2K ZTM06TWD is FAULTED"

Whichever disks are faulted usually show both read and write errors.

When this first started happening, I freaked out and bought new drives, resilvered the array and figured I was okay, but it happened again within two days. Extended offline SMART tests have indicated that all the drives, including the ones which threw errors, are healthy.

In summary, I’ve troubleshooted the drives by changing which drive bay they’re in; by swapping out seemingly bad drives with fresh drives; by running SMART tests on all the drives; and by running badblocks (which took ages) on two of the drives, both of which showed no bad sectors, and both of which later showed errors. I’ve also checked the SAS and SATA cable connections, and have scrubbed the pool multiple times (none of which have found any errors). I’ve run ‘zpool clear’ and rebooted the server after each of these steps, which will clear the errors for a time, but they always come back.

What do I try next? I’m not sure whether it is an issue with the backplane, the cables, or possibly TrueNAS’s interactions with the motherboard. I figured I’d check here to see if anyone else has had this issue, and maybe get some advice.

Thanks again, have a great Thursday!

1 Like
2

Are they SAS or SATA drives? There is a thread on the forums that resolved to a bad batch of cables. But that presented only when the drives were SAS drives running at 12 Gbps.

Does it really affect all of the drive slots … both the ones connected to the mobo SFF 8087 ports and the ones connected to the SFF 8643 ports?

3

They’re all SATA drives.
I went back and checked the logs, and it looks like you’re right, it hasn’t actually affected all the drive bays: it seems like its so far only from Bay 7 to Bay 15. I had swapped disks between drive bays, but mostly just with the drives next to them. I hadn’t thought about the different connections (I’m still learning about the hardware stuff, sorry!).
I’m not sure which bays connect into which slots, I looked through the manual and couldn’t find that information. I think that the affected bays are attached to the mobo SFF 8087 ports? If so, probably not a cable issue (I assume)? I’m out of my depth as you can see.

Thanks for the insight!

4

Sorry to double post, but a new error has cropped up, one which I haven’t seen in a while. Might be relevant so I’ll post it here:
“CRITICAL: Pool one state is ONLINE: One or more devices has experienced an unrecoverable error. An attempt was made to correct the error. Applications are unaffected.”
It looks like two drives have checksum errors. This has happened in the past, about two weeks ago, but a scrub cleared the warning and found no errors, oddly. The drives are in bays 12 and 13.
Not sure if this is related.

5

I didn’t buy the full build, so I can’t confirm the default for which slots are connected to the SFF8087 and which to the SFF8643. I think the case is clean enough where you should be able to follow the cables? The ones that go under the backplane to the right will be for 1 to 8 and to the left will be 9 to 15. You can also tell from the BIOS. The SFF8087 connectors go to the chipset SATA controller and the SFF8643 connectors go to the onboard SAS3008 HBA. I’m sure there’s also a linux command, but I don’t know it off the top of my head. My expectation would be that 1 to 8 are connected to SFF8643 (SAS3008) and 9 to 15 to the SATA chipset controller, but can’t confirm.

If you are seeing the issue on slots 7 to 15 then that doesn’t narrow it down to either the SATA chipset of the SAS3008 onboard HBA.

I’d try reseating the cable connectors on the motherboard.

Unfortunately to get to the backplane connectors to check them or mess with them you have to take off the faceplate, take out the drives and unscrew the backplane because the connectors are underneath the board. It’s not that hard but I’m not sure if you are the tinkering type or just wanted this as an appliance you never had to open except to put the drives in. If the latter, you might want to send a note to info@45homelab.com for support and see what they want you to do.

It’s unlikely to be the mobo or backplane, but to rule them out you probably need some sort of replacement part.

I don’t think 45HL responded publicly about the bad cables, so one thing I might do is send an email to info@45homelab.com and see if they can help you identify by serial number or something if your cables might be from the affected bad batch.

It doesn’t sound like you have extra hardware like a 92xx or 93xx HBA lying around you could test with?

1 Like
6

@Friction What does the SMART data look like for those disks? EG, from smartctl at the linux command line for from the SMART utilities within TrueNAS? Particularly

197 Current_Pending_Sector
198 Offline_Uncorrectable

That error sounds more like those disks may be dying. Although you say they are new? It may just be a different error but the same root cause as your first one.

7

I’ll second @DigitalGarden suggestion. Check SMART command line output via the console by running smartctl -x /dev/adaX where adaX is the drive device name found under “Storage > Disks” in TrueNAS Core. You can post the result in this forum for better help from myself or others in community.

It’s possible the SMART might need some extra parameters to read your drives SMART data correctly. I have several drives where I need to do this in TrueNAS. For instance, some drives will not clear the 198 value after a bad sector is found. SMART will then keep alerting because the value isn’t 0. The extra parameters tell SMART to only alert you when 198 increases in value.

Example:
S.M.A.R.T. extra options: -v 198,increasing

Now, we don’t want to set this option until we know for sure you don’t have tons of bad sectors or other problems with your drives. A bad sector here or there will happen but it should be rare. The SMART output can also give us clues if there are any other hardware concerns such as bad/marginal cables.

I can also confirm that the HL15 Full Build comes from 45HomeLab configured with drive bays 1-8 connected to the SATA controller and bays 9-15 connected to the onboard SAS. Cables should also be labeled A-D if you want to double check this with the diagram below.

                    Motherboard
------------------------------------------------------
| 15 14 13 | 12 11 10 09 | 08 07 06 05 | 04 03 02 01 |
|     D    |      C      |      B      |      A      |
------------------------------------------------------
                 Front Fans / Panel
2 Likes
8

@DigitalGarden I am a tinkerer, but honestly I did buy this server so that I wouldn’t need to have a ton of downtime, so the more non-invasive the better if possible.
I’ll reach out to 45HomeLab tomorrow!

Current Pending Sector and Offline Uncorrectable are both 0 for both drives after offline long SMART tests.

I’ll post the SMART Data in this hidden dropdown:

Summary

smartctl 7.2 2021-09-14 r5236 [FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p9 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Exos X16
Device Model: ST14000NM001G-2KJ103
Serial Number: ZL25WARK
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0c87e2789
Firmware Version: SN04
User Capacity: 14,000,519,643,136 bytes [14.0 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Form Factor: 3.5 inches
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ACS-4 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is: SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Thu Apr 18 19:52:42 2024 CDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
AAM feature is: Unavailable
APM feature is: Unavailable
Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
Write cache is: Enabled
DSN feature is: Disabled
ATA Security is: Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]
Write SCT (Get) Feature Control Command failed: scsi error aborted command
Wt Cache Reorder: Unknown (SCT Feature Control command failed)

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 575) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: (1268) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x70bd) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-- 079 064 044 - 83921720
3 Spin_Up_Time PO---- 093 093 000 - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count -O–CK 100 100 020 - 6
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO–CK 100 100 010 - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate POSR-- 078 060 045 - 62339524
9 Power_On_Hours -O–CK 100 100 000 - 453
10 Spin_Retry_Count PO–C- 100 100 097 - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count -O–CK 100 100 020 - 6
18 Head_Health PO-R-- 100 100 050 - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect -O–CK 100 100 000 - 0
188 Command_Timeout -O–CK 100 100 000 - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O—K 068 050 040 - 32 (Min/Max 28/32)
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O–CK 100 100 000 - 2
193 Load_Cycle_Count -O–CK 100 100 000 - 40
194 Temperature_Celsius -O—K 032 050 000 - 32 (0 25 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector -O–C- 100 100 000 - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----C- 100 100 000 - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -OSRCK 200 200 000 - 0
200 Pressure_Limit PO—K 100 100 001 - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours ------ 100 253 000 - 372h+04m+47.025s
241 Total_LBAs_Written ------ 100 253 000 - 12212921314
242 Total_LBAs_Read ------ 100 253 000 - 30121932944
||||||_ K auto-keep
|||||__ C event count
||||___ R error rate
|||____ S speed/performance
||_____ O updated online
|______ P prefailure warning

General Purpose Log Directory Version 1
SMART Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]
Address Access R/W Size Description
0x00 GPL,SL R/O 1 Log Directory
0x01 SL R/O 1 Summary SMART error log
0x02 SL R/O 5 Comprehensive SMART error log
0x03 GPL R/O 5 Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log
0x04 GPL R/O 256 Device Statistics log
0x04 SL R/O 8 Device Statistics log
0x06 SL R/O 1 SMART self-test log
0x07 GPL R/O 1 Extended self-test log
0x08 GPL R/O 2 Power Conditions log
0x09 SL R/W 1 Selective self-test log
0x0a GPL R/W 8 Device Statistics Notification
0x0c GPL R/O 2048 Pending Defects log
0x10 GPL R/O 1 NCQ Command Error log
0x11 GPL R/O 1 SATA Phy Event Counters log
0x13 GPL R/O 1 SATA NCQ Send and Receive log
0x21 GPL R/O 1 Write stream error log
0x22 GPL R/O 1 Read stream error log
0x24 GPL R/O 768 Current Device Internal Status Data log
0x2f GPL - 1 Set Sector Configuration
0x30 GPL,SL R/O 9 IDENTIFY DEVICE data log
0x80-0x9f GPL,SL R/W 16 Host vendor specific log
0xa1 GPL,SL VS 160 Device vendor specific log
0xa2 GPL VS 16320 Device vendor specific log
0xa4 GPL,SL VS 160 Device vendor specific log
0xa6 GPL VS 192 Device vendor specific log
0xa8-0xa9 GPL,SL VS 136 Device vendor specific log
0xab GPL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
0xad GPL VS 16 Device vendor specific log
0xbe-0xbf GPL VS 65535 Device vendor specific log
0xc1 GPL,SL VS 8 Device vendor specific log
0xc3 GPL,SL VS 56 Device vendor specific log
0xc7 GPL,SL VS 8 Device vendor specific log
0xc9 GPL,SL VS 8 Device vendor specific log
0xca GPL,SL VS 16 Device vendor specific log
0xcd GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
0xce GPL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
0xcf GPL VS 512 Device vendor specific log
0xd1 GPL VS 656 Device vendor specific log
0xd2 GPL VS 10000 Device vendor specific log
0xd4 GPL VS 2048 Device vendor specific log
0xda GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
0xe0 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Command/Status
0xe1 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Data Transfer
0xe2 GPL,SL - 160 Reserved

SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (5 sectors)
No Errors Logged

SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error

1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 435 -

2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 411 -

3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 387 -

4 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 368 -

5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 315 -

6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 291 -

7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 267 -

8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 243 -

9 Short offline Completed without error 00% 219 -

#10 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 204 -
#11 Short offline Completed without error 00% 147 -
#12 Short offline Completed without error 00% 123 -
#13 Short offline Completed without error 00% 2 -
#14 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

SCT Status Version: 3
SCT Version (vendor specific): 522 (0x020a)
Device State: Active (0)
Current Temperature: 32 Celsius
Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature: 28/32 Celsius
Lifetime Min/Max Temperature: 25/50 Celsius
Under/Over Temperature Limit Count: 0/0
SMART Status: 0xc24f (PASSED)
Vendor specific:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

SCT Temperature History Version: 2
Temperature Sampling Period: 4 minutes
Temperature Logging Interval: 59 minutes
Min/Max recommended Temperature: 10/40 Celsius
Min/Max Temperature Limit: 5/60 Celsius
Temperature History Size (Index): 128 (8)

Index Estimated Time Temperature Celsius
9 2024-04-13 14:51 32 *************
10 2024-04-13 15:50 32 *************
11 2024-04-13 16:49 32 *************
12 2024-04-13 17:48 31 ************
13 2024-04-13 18:47 32 *************
14 2024-04-13 19:46 32 *************
15 2024-04-13 20:45 32 *************
16 2024-04-13 21:44 31 ************
17 2024-04-13 22:43 28 *********
18 2024-04-13 23:42 27 ********
19 2024-04-14 00:41 27 ********
20 2024-04-14 01:40 28 *********
21 2024-04-14 02:39 29 **********
22 2024-04-14 03:38 30 ***********
23 2024-04-14 04:37 31 ************
24 2024-04-14 05:36 30 ***********
25 2024-04-14 06:35 32 *************
26 2024-04-14 07:34 31 ************
27 2024-04-14 08:33 31 ************
28 2024-04-14 09:32 32 *************
29 2024-04-14 10:31 32 *************
30 2024-04-14 11:30 33 **************
31 2024-04-14 12:29 34 ***************
32 2024-04-14 13:28 34 ***************
33 2024-04-14 14:27 33 **************
34 2024-04-14 15:26 34 ***************
35 2024-04-14 16:25 32 *************
36 2024-04-14 17:24 34 ***************
37 2024-04-14 18:23 33 **************
38 2024-04-14 19:22 31 ************
39 2024-04-14 20:21 32 *************
40 2024-04-14 21:20 29 **********
41 2024-04-14 22:19 28 *********
42 2024-04-14 23:18 28 *********
43 2024-04-15 00:17 28 *********
44 2024-04-15 01:16 29 **********
45 2024-04-15 02:15 29 **********
46 2024-04-15 03:14 30 ***********
47 2024-04-15 04:13 30 ***********
48 2024-04-15 05:12 29 **********
49 2024-04-15 06:11 31 ************
50 2024-04-15 07:10 30 ***********
51 2024-04-15 08:09 30 ***********
52 2024-04-15 09:08 30 ***********
53 2024-04-15 10:07 31 ************
54 2024-04-15 11:06 31 ************
55 2024-04-15 12:05 33 **************
56 2024-04-15 13:04 32 *************
57 2024-04-15 14:03 32 *************
58 2024-04-15 15:02 30 ***********
59 2024-04-15 16:01 32 *************
60 2024-04-15 17:00 31 ************
61 2024-04-15 17:59 31 ************
62 2024-04-15 18:58 30 ***********
63 2024-04-15 19:57 31 ************
64 2024-04-15 20:56 28 *********
65 2024-04-15 21:55 27 ********
66 2024-04-15 22:54 28 *********
67 2024-04-15 23:53 28 *********
68 2024-04-16 00:52 27 ********
69 2024-04-16 01:51 28 *********
70 2024-04-16 02:50 29 **********
71 2024-04-16 03:49 29 **********
72 2024-04-16 04:48 29 **********
73 2024-04-16 05:47 27 ********
74 2024-04-16 06:46 27 ********
75 2024-04-16 07:45 29 **********
76 2024-04-16 08:44 ? -
77 2024-04-16 09:43 30 ***********
78 2024-04-16 10:42 33 **************
79 2024-04-16 11:41 30 ***********
80 2024-04-16 12:40 31 ************
… …( 2 skipped). … ************
83 2024-04-16 15:37 31 ************
84 2024-04-16 16:36 32 *************
85 2024-04-16 17:35 33 **************
86 2024-04-16 18:34 30 ***********
87 2024-04-16 19:33 32 *************
88 2024-04-16 20:32 32 *************
89 2024-04-16 21:31 30 ***********
90 2024-04-16 22:30 28 *********
91 2024-04-16 23:29 27 ********
92 2024-04-17 00:28 28 *********
93 2024-04-17 01:27 28 *********
94 2024-04-17 02:26 27 ********
… …( 3 skipped). … ********
98 2024-04-17 06:22 27 ********
99 2024-04-17 07:21 28 *********
100 2024-04-17 08:20 29 **********
101 2024-04-17 09:19 30 ***********
102 2024-04-17 10:18 32 *************
103 2024-04-17 11:17 30 ***********
104 2024-04-17 12:16 31 ************
105 2024-04-17 13:15 32 *************
106 2024-04-17 14:14 31 ************
107 2024-04-17 15:13 30 ***********
108 2024-04-17 16:12 32 *************
109 2024-04-17 17:11 33 **************
110 2024-04-17 18:10 33 **************
111 2024-04-17 19:09 33 **************
112 2024-04-17 20:08 32 *************
113 2024-04-17 21:07 31 ************
114 2024-04-17 22:06 29 **********
115 2024-04-17 23:05 26 *******
116 2024-04-18 00:04 25 ******
117 2024-04-18 01:03 25 ******
118 2024-04-18 02:02 26 *******
119 2024-04-18 03:01 27 ********
… …( 2 skipped). … ********
122 2024-04-18 05:58 27 ********
123 2024-04-18 06:57 25 ******
124 2024-04-18 07:56 27 ********
125 2024-04-18 08:55 ? -
126 2024-04-18 09:54 28 *********
127 2024-04-18 10:53 32 *************
0 2024-04-18 11:52 31 ************
1 2024-04-18 12:51 31 ************
2 2024-04-18 13:50 30 ***********
3 2024-04-18 14:49 29 **********
… …( 2 skipped). … **********
6 2024-04-18 17:46 29 **********
7 2024-04-18 18:45 30 ***********
8 2024-04-18 19:44 31 ************

SCT Error Recovery Control:
Read: 100 (10.0 seconds)
Write: 100 (10.0 seconds)

Device Statistics (GP Log 0x04)
Page Offset Size Value Flags Description
0x01 ===== = = === == General Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x01 0x008 4 6 — Lifetime Power-On Resets
0x01 0x010 4 453 — Power-on Hours
0x01 0x018 6 12212668994 — Logical Sectors Written
0x01 0x020 6 72994309 — Number of Write Commands
0x01 0x028 6 30121865744 — Logical Sectors Read
0x01 0x030 6 138433212 — Number of Read Commands
0x01 0x038 6 - — Date and Time TimeStamp
0x03 ===== = = === == Rotating Media Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x03 0x008 4 382 — Spindle Motor Power-on Hours
0x03 0x010 4 372 — Head Flying Hours
0x03 0x018 4 40 — Head Load Events
0x03 0x020 4 0 — Number of Reallocated Logical Sectors
0x03 0x028 4 0 — Read Recovery Attempts
0x03 0x030 4 0 — Number of Mechanical Start Failures
0x03 0x038 4 0 — Number of Realloc. Candidate Logical Sectors
0x03 0x040 4 2 — Number of High Priority Unload Events
0x04 ===== = = === == General Errors Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x04 0x008 4 0 — Number of Reported Uncorrectable Errors
0x04 0x010 4 0 — Resets Between Cmd Acceptance and Completion
0x04 0x018 4 0 -D- Physical Element Status Changed
0x05 ===== = = === == Temperature Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x05 0x008 1 32 — Current Temperature
0x05 0x010 1 29 — Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x018 1 - — Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x020 1 50 — Highest Temperature
0x05 0x028 1 25 — Lowest Temperature
0x05 0x030 1 46 — Highest Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x038 1 28 — Lowest Average Short Term Temperature
0x05 0x040 1 - — Highest Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x048 1 - — Lowest Average Long Term Temperature
0x05 0x050 4 0 — Time in Over-Temperature
0x05 0x058 1 60 — Specified Maximum Operating Temperature
0x05 0x060 4 0 — Time in Under-Temperature
0x05 0x068 1 5 — Specified Minimum Operating Temperature
0x06 ===== = = === == Transport Statistics (rev 1) ==
0x06 0x008 4 12 — Number of Hardware Resets
0x06 0x010 4 3 — Number of ASR Events
0x06 0x018 4 0 — Number of Interface CRC Errors
0xff ===== = = === == Vendor Specific Statistics (rev 1) ==
0xff 0x008 7 0 — Vendor Specific
0xff 0x010 7 0 — Vendor Specific
0xff 0x018 7 0 — Vendor Specific
|||_ C monitored condition met
||__ D supports DSN
|___ N normalized value

Pending Defects log (GP Log 0x0c)
No Defects Logged

SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)
ID Size Value Description

9

Thanks for that helpful diagram, that’ll be really useful if I need to get into the backplane.
I’m going to go back through and make double sure that what I said about the problem being drive bays 7-15 is accurate: if its 8-15, then that seems like it might indicate an issue with the onboard SAS controller, so I’d better be sure. I’m going off the drive device names, which (I think) are variable in TrueNAS, and not necessarily tied to a fixed drive serial number.

SMART Tests for all the drives I’ve had issues with all pass, much like the one I posted: its a confusing problem. I really appreciate your help.

10

If 9-15 go to SAS then it seems like the majority of errors are happening over the SAS (SFF8643) cables and controller. I can’t remember from the other thread if there were any BIOS updates available, but if there are applying that would be one thing to try. I think you said in the other thread you applied some updates and they helped but didn’t fix the problem.

Even though this is with SATA drives it’s sounding suspiciously like the other thread and besides your tests, I’d be preparing to try to rule out the cables. Depending on immediacy and response from 45HL support, @Friction can get a set of SFF8643 cables to try to rule that out. Even though the 45HL cables seem to be 10Gtek, the 10Gtek cables sourced elsewhere seemed to fix the problem;

https://www.amazon.com/10Gtek-Internal-SFF-8643-Sideband-0-5-Meter/dp/B01AOS4NE6/ref=sr_1_3

If we think it might be a motherboard issue, you might want to get the Supermicro branded cables. Potentially twice the price, but would help ensure support from Supermicro if it comes to that.

https://store.supermicro.com/supermicro-internal-minisas-hd-50cm-cable-cbl-sast-0532.html

You can always return the cables after testing and RMA’ing the bad ones back to 45HL.

This is the other thread we are referring to;

https://forum.45homelab.com/t/resolved-zfs-write-errors-with-hl15-full-build-and-sas-drives/827

1 Like
11

I didn’t go through it with a fine tooth comb but you’re right the SMART results look generally good (at least for this drive) with regards to bad sectors. I do see you have some hardware resets which could be indicator of controller or cable but resets sometimes just happen with normal operations. If this drive errors again then definitely check to see if these increase.

There is a TrueNAS forum which deals with SATA drive errors on LSI cards using the SAS3008 controller like the one onboard the HL15. There’s a specific firmware release from broadcom to address it. I provided this information in another post so check that out. if you feel comfortable updating firmware, I don’t think it would hurt. The firmware on my HL15 was quite a bit behind.

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Also, if you remember the approxmiate date/time of some of these events, check for system messages in dmesg. You might find additional error messages there - especially if the issue is controller or cable related.

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It seems like your drives are fine then and the two different errors aren’t pointing to two different problems.

Re: “then that seems like it might indicate an issue with the onboard SAS controller”

Yes and no. The controller implementation on the motherboard seems particularly sensitive to bad or marginal cables.

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Okay! I’m going to try and follow this LSI flashing guide I found after doing some more research: Detailed newcomers' guide to crossflashing LSI 9211/9300/9305/9311/9400/94xx HBA and variants | TrueNAS Community
However, its late where I am, and one of my hard-learned rules is “no messing with the servers late at night”. I’ll give this process the time and attention it deserves tomorrow and report back.

@DigitalGarden I’ll reach out and see whether I might have gotten bad cables.

Thank you both.

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I haven’t read through all of your link vs @rymandle05 's, but based on the titles, I’d suggest following his. They might both lead to the same process, I don’t know, but technically you aren’t trying to crossflash–you want to stay in IT mode–all you want to do is upgrade to a more current version of the firmware.

I think @rymandle05 says he did the upgrade on his HL15, so I’d follow his lead. He may not be running TrueNAS, though that shouldn’t matter.

Are you familiar with the Linux shell? How to get to it from TrueNAS? What sudo is if you need it?

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Yeah I updated all the firmware on my HL15 when I was having issues early on that turned out to be marginally bad SAS cables. I ended up flashing several different firmware versions to the SAS controller including the one from the TrueNAS forums.

Here is the link to the latest version on Supermicro’s website: www.supermicro.com - /wdl/driver/SAS/Broadcom/3008/Firmware/. The rar file also has instructions for both DOS and UEFI update methods that @Friction might find useful. I did all my updates via UEFI.

@Friction, if you forget to write down the SAS Address before updating, there should be a sticker on the motherboard near the controller chip that has it documented.

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And yes - I am running TrueNAS on my HL15 but it’s Scale Cobia. Having Linux as a base does help with more options as nearly all the vendors support Linux these days. That said, my second older NAS that’s a Dell R520 is running TrueNAS Core 13 and I didn’t have many issues. I often used a live distro or UEFI shell to get the job done.

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I successfully updated the sas controller firmware yesterday, no errors yet. I’ll let you both know if they come back but so far, nothing.
Thanks again for your help, hopefully you won’t hear from me again in this thread! :slight_smile:

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Nice job! I’m pulling for you. We are all in this together. :grin:

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Considering it has been 5 days since I updated the SAS controller firmware and I have had ZERO errors or issues since then, I’m going to optimistically say this has been “solved”! Thank you for all your help, both of you.

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