TrueNAS recognizes at most one drive per bay when there are four bays available.
TrueNAS recognizes at most one drive per bay when there are four bays available.
Hello! I just set up TrueNAS SCALE on my Intel NUC after switching from Ryzen because of power usage. The NUC only has one SATA port, which I use for my boot drive, and I filled the dock with four drives from Sabrent. When I tried to install TrueNAS in Windows, it recognized all four at once, but the software didn’t agree. I’m not sure what to do next and would appreciate any advice. Thanks!
ZFS is designed for large data centers, requiring complete access and management of storage devices. It doesn't integrate well with RAID controllers unless they're specifically configured as basic HBA units, which explains its dislike for USB hubs. Check if your NUC includes an M.2 NVMe port; according to recent reports, it typically has 4 or 6 SATA connections available.
It seems you're examining a second M.2 connector near the slot. The documentation mentions it's a "High-Speed Custom Solutions Connector (PCIe x4)." This appears to be suitable for x4 PCIe devices. I initially thought it might be a SATA M.2, but upon closer inspection, it looks like the M.2 slot for a Wi-Fi card—possibly integrated onto the board. The custom PCIe port could be on the opposite side. You'd likely need a separate power supply for these drives. I’d try a USB 2.0 thumb drive and test Unraid. If you don’t require the high speed of ZFS, Unraid should suffice for basic NAS tasks. It’s built for consumer drives, supports mismatched arrays, works with USB hubs, and can manage sleep modes to reduce power consumption. ZFS keeps drives spinning continuously; stopping it could cause array issues and drive failures. Assuming you’re using HDDs, the power usage would likely be around 40W total for four spinning drives.
Thanks for the assistance. Unraid didn't seem to mind the unusual dock and correctly interpreted all the devices. I'm starting the array setup now; I need to adjust my approach because I've never used Unraid before, but I'm confident I can handle it. Also, I didn't mention having two 5400 RPM disks and two 7200 RPM ones, but Unraid is quite understanding in that situation.
I just want to let anyone who read this know how to recreate it. USB docks/hubs aren’t the best choice for UnRAID—they can cause issues where drives get recognized differently after a reboot, making the system think it’s using old devices. This has been a recurring problem for years with no simple solution, as reported on UnRAID forums. For me, I’m planning to use an M2 HBA and hope it works well since it’s a direct SATA connection.