boot pool and another data pool are both mirror. I used to have a hot spare in pool-m requiring 6 ports. Total 10 disks. Motherboard has only 8 and the previous MoBo has only 6.
I can gradulately reduce the SATA port requirement by increasing individual disk capacity. That would be a long process (budget, lol). Adding a cheap SATA adapter ($30) is fast and I don’t need high performance parts.
I do remember the mainboard can’t post without a gpu (or maybe it was the old motherboard). I move it already and it is working fine. To me, it is kind of nice to be able to see the console output on a monitor, 
I will find a suitalbe HBA card as soon as I could. I have enough parts to do the change for now. I like to make my pool healthy first.
Thank you for all the advice. My pool is healthy and pool scrub is ongoing.
Move boot to a single NVMe drive (x1 slot on adapter would be fine), and then 5-wide Z1, data mirror and one possibly spare all fit on the motherboard.
Otherwise a used SAS HBA is not more expensive that a “SATA card”, but is more reliable, provided it is well cooled.
I hear you and I could do that too. It is just time and money.
The pool is being scrub now and there is 10 more hours to go.
I am fighting another abnormally right now. I lost access to all my samba shares. I can’t get to the any pool from my Windows PC.
I migth have to redo all the shares after scrub is done (tomorrow). This is the first time I lost access to the share. And it is after I move the disks from the m.2 to the PCIe x4 card. Any idea what is the best way to attack this?
Check the status of the pool again, and if the SMB service is running.
All pools are online without error with green check mark on dashboard. zpool status -v shows the same. smb service is running. shares are ready to my best knowledge. I mapped the shares in Windows. Windows keep saying I don’t have access to the share with the correct user name and password. I just disconnected them; will do a reboot next and see if I can map the shares afterward.
fire up my LinuxMint labtop, didn’t complain about access. It looks like is connected but shown no content.
I might know why and I hope it is the cause - the m.2 adapter still in the system. Could I pause the scrub (never don this since all auto scrub are done when I am sleeping) and remove the m.2 adapter?
update - smb share issue gone after m.2 adapter removed. how interesting TrueNAS got confused.
Hi - can I suggest check your disk temperatures. My scrubs were showing errors and it turned out my system was running too hot so I installed a better fan. All sorted. No need to replace disks
found this in eBay, 9300-8I 12Gbps HBA IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID+2*SFF-8643 SATA Cable US; for $47 and free shipping. It must be a clone. I might buy it and try it since the seller accept return. Any thoughts, @Fleshmauler ?
Thanks. I did check disk temperature and Smart test results before I ask for advice.
With everyone’s help, I determined a correpted file caused the problem. Deleted it, and scrub ran clean. Everything is running fine right now.
They also recommend I replace my SATA control card to a HBA. I bought a cheap one from eBay and waiting it to arrive.
Thanks
If i didn’t already have an hba, I’d buy that. Looks good imo. Do check the firmware when it arrives, incase needs to be flashed.
Edit; didn’t forget to slap a fan on it
yes, I already have a fan sit right infront of the PCIe slots cooling all the cards. I will slap a fan on it if necessary.
How do you check the firmware and flash it? I’m cueless in this area.
Run the following and post the results back using Preformatted Text (</>) or Ctrl+e. This is for the 9300 series you mentioned. Documents say 200 linear feet per minute cooling airflow over the HBA heat sink.
sudo sas3flash -list
sorry, I just don’t kow, would you please explain “preformatted text (</>) or Ctrl+e”.
It is a text mode in the forum reply box. Look at the toolbar, (</>) icon, where you are typing your replies. I used Preformatted text to post sudo sas3flash -list It makes it more readable and keeps formatting from the commands you run.
I should be able to just copy and paste the output here using </>. Is my understanding correct?
That’s the Preformatted text box. That’s good
HBA came in, installed, booted up normally, pools are all online and health. Below is the output of “sas3flash -list”. I can’t copy anything from the TrueNAS shell screen. It is a screen capture.
I could be wrong, but isn’t the latest sas300x firmware like 16.xxxx? Might be worth updating
