Network Connectivity Issues

TrueNAS General
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Hi everyone,

I am brand new into this community, on the DIY side of home built NAS units.

I ended up buying a ASRock Z690M-ITX/ax board, paired with a i5-12400, as it seemed to be a reasonable setup for an entry level home use, file storage.
This board has 1gb, and 2.5gb ethernet. I cannot figure out how to the 2.5gb port to capture an IP to use it.

I’ve scoured the internet for information, and came up empty handed. The product description says it used Dragon 2.5G LAN, Intel 1G LAN. From what I’ve gathered so far is not every LAN is going to be supported, which is fine. Some users have recommended finding a 10gb card, but there’s debate on what will work, with some saying it’ll have to be scaled down to 2.5gb.

As this is all new, the learning curve has already been a challenge, with several issues encountered along the way. From m.2 sata adaptors not working, install not loading, the 2.5 ethernet not working, to figuring out how to access the storage through file explorer.

I am possibly looking at swapping out the board all together in favor of something else. I have my eye on GIGABYTE B550I AORUS PRO AX AM4 AMD B550 Mini-ITX. Tho I am worried I might have the same issue with LAN. I believe its using a realtek chip, which I believe isn’t the best.
A more ideal board would be ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax, as it uses an intel chip, and it was listed dirt cheap on pcpartspicker. Though I can’t find stock at that price.
To keep the sme CPU, I am thinking: Gigabyte B760I AORUS PRO, it too has intel 2.5gbe

I am limited to m-itx boards, I have no preference on AMD or Intel. (If I go AMD, I’d like to go Ryzen 5 5500GT). Everything is returnable at the moment. Ideally I’d like two M.2 slots so I can run sata adapter board as I have more than 4 drives, and I like the convenience of m.2 storage. I’m looking for the simplest solution for the time being, the simplicity of having everything built into the motherboard is ideal (hence why I opted for a board with dual LAN ports in the beginning…)

Any input is greatly appreciated.

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Welcome to TrueNAS!

The more detailed specifications list this for the 2.5Gbit/ps Ethernet;

1 x 2.5 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000/2500 Mb/s (Dragon RTL8125BG)

So you are correct, it is a RealTek chip and generally not as performant as Intel or other vendors like Chelsio.

Further, 2.5Gbit/ps Ethernet generally is not as well supported at 1Gbit/ps and 10Gbit/ps Ethernet.

You may try TrueNAS SCALE, as Core may have less driver support for the Dragon RTL8125BG chip. (You have Core listed as a tag for your post, thus assumption you are trying TrueNAS Core.)

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Not quite. It is “too new”, too consumerish (Realtek NIC, and Intel 2.5G is not much better), and somewhat lacks in SATA ports. What’s your case? Or, plainly, how many drives?

Wrong information. A refurbished Intel X520/X540, Chelsio T520 or Solarflare SF x122 (all under $50 on eBay) is the way to go… if you have any use for faster-than-Gigabit Ethernet.

Make that a SAS HBA in a PCIe slot. M.2 to SATA adapters are a bag of trouble with ZFS.

In mini-ITX size, textbook recommendartions are X10SDV boards (Xeon D-1500, 6 SATA, x16 slot, bifurcatable to 4x4 for some NVMe storage) or A2SDi (Atom C3000, 8 or 12 SATA, x4 slot); both may come with 10GbE onboard.
If 1GbE is enough (and you’re in Europe), you may have a go at Gigabyte MJ11-EC1 (8 SATA).

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Thank you all for some very helpful replies!

I definitely could have added a bit more information regarding my setup, location, etc…

  • Yes I am using TrueNAS core. I’m not familiar with the differences, the bit of research done edges entry level consumers to go the core route
  • A little too consumerish, definitely. It’s a place to start. I’d love to do more server grade as I learn more.
  • I have 5 drives for network storage, wd red plus. (I had bought some 6tb drives a while back)
  • I went with consumer grade parts as I know/understand them a little better than server parts. SAS controllers, racks and Xeon chips weren’t/aren’t something I have the time and budget to learn at the moment. (I was looking at a rack mounted system but the person didn’t get back to me on marketplace and it would be an even bigger learning curve)
  • I went Jonsbo N1, space is at a premium, so the smaller the better.
  • I am located in Canada. Price and availability are significantly different then rest of world. (Cost for many of these parts were double than what guides mentioned they would be, even when looking on second hand marketplace)
  • forums mentioned to look at 10gbe cards, which I’ve been able to come across x520-da2 and x549-ta, I believe these both to be 10gne. I’m unsure how this would work on a consumer grade mesh wifi setup. Im also unsure if the connectors/cables are cat6 or something different. (new sights for me)

Like a lot of people, YouTube is a primary source of reference material and guids. LTT and NAS Conpare were the two channels pronator primary used. It’s hard not knowing where to source good information. All I knew is I wanted something DIY, something I could run TrueNAS on, ability to run raid 6 (raid z2), something with a 2.5gbe port.

There is a lot that’s not mentioned. Compatibility is one. LTT did show an m.2 adapter that added 2 SATA ports, the replacement card I found says it works with raid and TrueNAS. It’s something I’ll try.
Ideally I’d like to keep the one PCIe open for expanding to 10gbe down the line.

I really appreciate everyone’s replies! It’s been a very warming welcome.

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Ouch!
Better browse the new and old forum here.

See if you can find a X10SDV, or the Gigabyte/Datto equivalent MB10, from a US seller on eBay who’s willing to ship North of the border. Mini-ITX, 6 SATA ports for your 5 drives (and possibly some boot drive), 1xM.2 (boot or other), x16 PCIe slot that can bifurcate to 4x4 for some NVMe storage on a riser (at least Supermicro v.2 boards: Just avoid early versions with a D-1520 or D-1540; 1521, 1541 and all other numbers should be fine). Takes cheap second-hand DDR4 RDIMM, and generally comes with on-board X550 10 GbE networking which can do 2.5G if that’s what your home network uses.
@Davvo is building a similar NAS in a Jonsbo N1.

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I’m in a bit of the same boat of starting on consumer parts and then shifting slowly over to more server grade parts (albeit very slowly)… I’ve been running the Linux based Scale version of TrueNAS (as opposed to Core), and that’s been working really well for me in terms of being able to throw in whatever marketplace deals in & just having it work.

I think the starter guides tilt you towards Core (BSD based) because it’s what the intense server grade builds use and have insane amounts of test time on them and with that flow back to the vendors of those server grade parts to incorporate in oddball corner cases into their drivers. Everything here is geared towards extreme minimization of chances of data loss, hence that recommendation.

I personally view it as fine going off the beaten path as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into… In this case, you’re forgoing the insane amounts of test time on server grade parts with pristine driver handling, in exchange for Linux Kernel drivers which have a larger breadth of support. I hesitate to say those drivers don’t have depth that’s unfair to the Linux Kernel devs that pour their heart and souls into that code. But it’s just a matter of #s, it’s the difference between rooting out 99.9999% of bugs compared to 99.999999% is all.

I’d recommend going w Scale and just ensuring you have a solid backup strategy as earliest into the process as you can possibly get.

Also welcome :blush:

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I really appreciate your response. Lots of helpful information I’ll keep in mind for going forward. I remember trying to find some information on what the difference was, and I was told just go core. I’m going to do some more digging to find out what the major differences are, especially because I don’t have a backup solution for the time being. I need to rely solely on raidz2 for data backup until I can work out a backup solution, and fit that into the budget.

On the topic of installation, not sure if anyone has experienced this before: both TrueNAS and Ubuntu ISO will not load the installation page on the current setup.

  • For TrueNAS, I’ve tried selecting option 1, and option 2, only to be left with a blank screen.
  • For Ubuntu, I can select “Try Ubuntu” or “install Ubuntu” and get the same blank screen until the disk auto ejects itself.
  • I’ve tried with secure boot on, secure boot off, only have EUFI option available. Both of these images work on other devices, with me having to use my laptop with m.2 capabilities to install TrueNAS on. I’ve contacted ASRock, but their useless.

I’ll download and install TrueNAS scale and see how that compares, maybe the 2.5gbe port will work. I did place an order for a Gigabyte B760i Aorus Pro DDR4. This has an intel 2.5gbe port, and I can keep the same intel platform I have. However, if scale works better and the 2.5gbe realtek port works out of the box, then I will probably just cancel the order before it gets shipped out.
(update: scale supported the port, found out my network is limited to 1gbe)

I’d like to do a bit more research and learn more about the intel 10gbe cards, this may pan to be a better future proofing solution depending on what my future needs are. As right now I don’t need anything crazy.

There’s a lot to learn, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to do. I refuse to purchase a off-the-shelf prebuilt system. Everyone here has been amazing so far, and there looks to be a lot of good information out there once I learn a bit more and come to understand what is being said. The technical jargon is new to me.

I think with enough time, I’ll come to understand things a bit more, working my way towards a proper server grade NAS storage option with quality backup. The cost of entry is the hardest, next to space.

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That is not iX’ recommendation. CORE is terminal; they’re recommending any new deployments use SCALE as the release of CORE next month is likely to be the last.

Edit: See also this page from Fester’s Guide:

LTT is an excellent authority for the opposite of whatever he says.

This forum, the old forum, and the docs would be good places to start. Moreover, they’d seem like much more obvious choices than some rando on YT.

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Try disabling the serial port in bios, if you are not using it.