Scale x520 SFP+ will not work

TrueNAS General
1

I have been wanting to use scale but unable too migrate due to network issues.
I have been stuck on core 13.3 because scale doesn’t work with intel x520 SFP+.

Is there a fix or instructions to get them to work.
On spec everything should be fine but I need the SFP+ ports to work.
Should I just put Scale in dev mode and install/update driver.

I really need help here since core support was removed I have had endless problems.

My current server hardware.

TrueNAS Core 13.3
Motherboard …
512Gb Nvme SSD
Intel 9th Gen 9900K 8-core Desktop Processor [Coffee Lake S] (rev 0d)
Intel Corporation CoffeeLake-S GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] (rev 02)
DDR4 64Gb RAM memory
Intel Corporation Z390 Chipset LPC/eSPI Controller (rev 10)
Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V (rev 10)
Cisco CBS350 Layer3 Switch

PCIE …
Intel X520 Dual 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
TP-Link 3832MPP Managed Switch SFP+
NVIDIA Corporation GV100GL [Tesla V100 SXM2 32GB] (rev a1)
Broadcom / LSI SAS3008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3 (rev 02)
2x SAS Enclosure 32Hdd
SSD Controller MAP1202 (rev 01)
240Gb NVME installed
SSD Controller MAP1202 (rev 01)
240Gb NVME installed

TrueNAS 25.10.0.1 is Now Available!
2

I am fairly certain that one of my NAS’s uses an Intel x520 without an issue

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3

My motherboard has that 10GbE adapter built in also. Intel NICs, broadly speaking, are among the best supported NICs in the NAS universe.

If there is an issue, I reckon it’s either a broken hardware issue (which seems very unlikely given that the NIC has worked in 13.3) or a software misconfiguration (which seems much more likely).

I’d consider dropping down into the serial console via ipmi or by attaching a keyboard and monitor, followed by nuking any all network configurations, followed by starting over.

I have had issues in the past with auto-negotiated speeds, handshakes, etc. so as a fallback, manually specify EVERY aspect of the connection - speed, duplex, MTU, and so on.

4

The drivers are already there in Scale. I have that same card working with 10Gtek Intel coded transceivers on my Scale 25.10.1 - Goldeye system.
How are you connecting your optical network? Did you set Core to use ‘unsupported sfp’ transceivers? Are you using genuine Intel trans?

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5

x520 Gbe works but X520 spf+ does not work.

Drivers find the x520 sfp+ but when I look in log it is unable to start the ports.
So testing with a X520 Gbe will not show the issue.
Problem is I have only Fibre to the other building/office to a fibre switch so I cannot use Gbe ethernet wiring.

6

I have genuine Intel Transceivers .
I have tried reinstalling scale from scratch.
I though of that and tested the trancivers on my Cisco SFP as well as TP-Link SFP+ switch and they work every time.
There is nothing wrong with any of the hardware and I have reinstalled both scale and core from scratch and Scale failed to bring up the SFP+ Ports.
Again I checked with the Logs and Scale reports and error unable to initialise port. Issue is I cannot update the driver as scale is locked.

7

You shouldn’t need any other driver. I have had mine working under TrueNAS Core 13, and Scale 25.04 and now, 25.10.1 - Goldeye

truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ lspci | grep Ethernet
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries NetLink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
08:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ 

truenas_admin@truenas[~]$ sudo ethtool -i enp8s0f1
driver: ixgbe
version: 6.12.33-production+truenas
firmware-version: 0x00015e0b
expansion-rom-version: 
bus-info: 0000:08:00.1
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: yes
truenas_admin@truenas[~]$
8

Will try to migrate to scale again.

Then try to do the upgrade from migrate and cross fingers and hope it works.

will post if it works or not but TBH losing hope on truenas working.

9

Is there a different NIC you can try?

I ask since there is an ever so slight possibility that your NIC Is either not genuine (unlikely) or weirdly vendor-locked where stuff that freeBSD ignored is biting in Linux. Swapping NICs should be relatively cheap.

10

He said he was using Genuine Intel Transceivers in post 6. I thought it was the sfp_unsupported was bypassed on TrueNAS Core / FreeBSD but not on TrueNAS Scale / Linux before he said that.

I was going to request looking at dmesg | grep ixgbe to see the status as it comes up and ethtool -m <network_device_name> to see the details of the SFP+

11

I don’t want to discount the very slight possibility that a faked transceiver or NIC is in play here.

A known-good NIC / transceiver from a system where vendor locks are enforced would be helpful. Or even if we can establish that the transceiver is genuine by putting it into a switch that cares, verify it enumerates, etc.

12

OK it works but I had to use the latest **TrueNAS-SCALE-25.10.1 ISO install.
for some unknown reason there is an issue on 24.10 which is when I last tried and failed again.

Anyway seems the latest version works.
TY for your patience.**

1 Like
13

The good news is that the issue could be solved by software. Maybe @awalkerix can opine on why your card might work in 25.10 but not in earlier SCALE editions?

The whole thing seems really odd, as the Intel NICs are so well supported.

14

I think we would just be guessing. I was hoping we would get dmesg& ethtool data from a failed attempt and get some clues. I was going to compare info with my working system with the same NIC but 10GTek Intel coded transceiver. I have recollections of hot plugging a transceiver but that may have been trying with a previous Avago brand in attempting it to work or it was under Core

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