Purpose: To assist people posting clear and informative requests for help and to define the absolute minimum information required in order to provide the helper what is needed and to reduce assumptions.
EDIT: I have moved the specific areas of interest to separate entries below.
Please read Joes Rules before posting anything
Drive Failures
Drive Speed Tests
Network Issues
Software Issues
Build Advice
Joes Rules
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Be considerate. This rule applies to both the person asking a question as well as the person providing the answer.
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Do not âassumeâ we understand what you are talking about. We may be good with a lot of things but mind reading is not one of them. Be detailed in your question so we can minimize assumptions. All the steps below are presented to assist in minimizing the time we waste sending messages back and forth to pull data out of a user. This also leads to more accurate and faster diagnosis.
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Do not link to external sources where you might have a photo or image, instead include images in our forum. No one likes to click on an unknown link these days.
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IMPORTANT: When posting the output of TrueNAS (one of the commands listed here), ensure you including the resulting output in the code â</>â format to maintain the proper character spacing, which can be critical.
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When asking a question, ensure you provide the bare minimum system information as well:
The absolute minimum is: Include any error messages, TrueNAS Version, Motherboard, RAM Qty, CPU Make/Model, NIC - RealTek, Intel, etc. If you know, Hard Drive(s) Make/Model. This gives us a general idea what we are dealing with.Note: Depending on the problem, some of the information requested may actually not be needed but it is better to include it and not need it, than need it and not have it.)
Provide additional information for the given error and while it may not be all inclusive, the items below are generally some of the first things asked, and you may be asked to provide more specific information.
Examples of bad postings
âYo, my TrueNAS system just died. I think my data is gone. HELP, PLEASE!â
What are we missing?, well all the minimum data required. Is this CORE, SCALE, what version number, do you have enough RAM, is the CPU proper for the use case or maybe problematic, and the NIC if an add-on card. Oh yea, not very specific with âmy TrueNAS system just diedâ. This can be interpreted many ways, so reduce the ability for us to make too many assumptions. What is clear in your head will not necessarily be clear to us, this is so very true.
Another bad example:
âIâve been running FreeNAS 12 for a few years and now I have a hard drive failure. How do I know which drive to replace and how do I do that?â
What are we missing?, most of the minimum requested data but also the data from step 6 above. And you didnât bother to read the User Guide which tells you how to replace a drive.
Summary:
If you havenât done any legwork on your own, search for the specific problem you have, Google can find a lot that can help you. Read the User Guide (you should do that now anyway). When you post a problem, include all the minimum data. And above all, do not let us assume anything. My crystal ball broke a few years ago and I was unable to fix it.
I missed one item⌠Make the thread title something accurate. âSystem diedâ is not a very good one or âHelp Meâ (yes we have seen those), however âSystem died with hard drive errorsâ or âSystem died after puff of magic smoke escapedâ.
Joes Rules to Answering a question, any question. (This is a long read)
Why do we need rules for those folks offering help to the others? To keep the peace and a friendly forum.
Many of us who have been here for a long time tend to see the same questions over and over. We may feel like a person is being lazy, or stupid, or whatever, and that may or maynot be the case. Sometimes when I feel frustrated, I just reduce my visiting time on the forum or stop for a while until Iâm ready to continue. My only exception is Multi-Report as I enjoy supporting that for as long as it is needed. There are a lot of language barriers here and that can also lead to confusion which leads to frustration.
Do your best to curb answering a question while you feel frustrated. You do not have to answer a question just because you know the answer. We are all volunteers here and originally came to this forum for help as well, but migrated to helping others out. If you are not enjoying it then my advice is to take a break. Some people have taken extended breaks or just left the forum all together and I understand it. The three rules here are very short and simple.
- Be considerate.
- If you feel frustrated, donât answer the question as your frustration will likely come across and you will say something that we all want to say however it is not appropriate. I have done this myself.
- Assume the person you are helping knows nothing at all when answering the question, anything less is an assumption.
This thread is closed and I will update as I can, make it formatted nicer, but the goal of this posting is to simply have people post better data when asking for help.
If you have a suggestion to modify this posting, please send me a message. I would be fine in making this more inclusive as I feel this will actually help the people who need to troubleshoot a problem.
TESTS (If you have a specific test you want added for troubleshooting purposes, send me a message, I will need specific instructions and if it is for CORE, SCALE, or both)
This section is on basic tests you should run before posting your question and post the results. When posting results, include the âExactâ commands you used to produce those results. Why? Because people may âtyposâ, I know I do and I"m not the only one. This goes to the rule of âAssumptionâ, donât allow it.
These tests are not to groom your system, these are used to troubleshoot a real problem. This posting is only to provide you with commands that generate a result that you might be asked to provide. And you should provide it even before asked if you can.
Unless otherwise stated, the commands should work on both CORE and SCALE.
EDIT: I invite any moderator to edit this posting/thread as needed. This is meant to help the group and Joe is not all knowing, in spite of what you have heard .
You know my goal is to just get the ball rolling in the right direction. Including additional ânice to haveâ data is great, provided it is marked as extra stuff that may speed up the troubleshooting process and not a minimum requirement. I really hope this helps the community.
By the way, I was unaware of this resource which posted a few days before my posting. Great minds think alike, or at least along the same lines.