IP Issues

[Eli Singer]

Woke up today to find my shared CIFS offline.
WebGUI couldn't connect either.
Restarted FreeNAS machine and saw a new ip for it: 192.168.10.103.
The previous one was 192.168.10.104.
Googled for similar problem (spontaneous ip changes) and come up with this thread: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-set-up-a-static-ip-for-freenas-gui.15825/
Very informative, tried it myself, only now i can't gey in with the WebGUI on all ip addresses i tried. Further more, it seems to insist throwing back at me 192.168.10.103 as the up even though i changed it through Configure Network Interfaces to several other ip addresses.

Kinda stuck now, any ideas?

Eli

 

[nojohnny101]

Have you set up a static IP address reservation on your router for your FreeNAS box?

Further more, it seems to insist throwing back at me 192.168.10.103 as the up even though i changed it through Configure Network Interfaces to several other ip addresses.

Not really sure what you mean by this, can you clarify?

 

[Eli Singer]

Here's the Router screen:

192.168.10.100 is my main machine.
The other 2 are the NAS box, one is connected to the 10gb controller and the other one to the ipmi port.
For some reason i can't get into the Web GUI no matter what ip i try.

 

[nojohnny101]

Can you access the IPMI tools? What does the console say is the IP address of the FreeNAS box?

 

[Eli Singer]

Can you access the IPMI tools? What does the console say is the IP address of the FreeNAS box?

FreeNAS shows 192.168.10.103 as the address but i can't get it to communicate via web GUI.
Didn't try any ipmi stuff yet, one step at a time.

Worth mentioning that i was able to get in yesterday and i had the CIFS online...

 

[Eli Singer]

Well i tried remapping the ip in the console to 192.168.10.109. It worked when i rebooted in the sense that i could get in to the Web GUI with that ip.
It shows 192.168.10.109 in the interface tab and 192.168.10.101 in the ipmi tab.
Wanting to bind this ip to the router i went to the router GUI but the listed active ip addresses are different!
192.168.10.100 is my main machine, the other 2 are probably the ipmi and the freenas NIC but i don't understand why it's the wrong ip addresses?
Here's a screenshot of it all to make it clear:

Is there a way i can know which MAC address belongs to which ip address?
And how is it possible that it shows different ip addresses than the ones I'm actualy using?
Would love some advice...
Thanks :)

Eli

 

[FreeNASftw]

I vaguely remember having a similar issue with confusion of LAN IP with IPMI IP. I think I sorted it out by only having the LAN connected for a while until I was happy that everything was working as it should.

 

[Jailer]

Assign your freenas server an IP address outside the DHCP range. You can put whatever you want in the freenas GUI and it doesn't mean a hoot to the router. Fix it in your router.

 

[pschatz100]

First of all, it is not strictly required to set a static IP for FreeNAS in order to share your CIFS folders - but it does make administration of everything a little easier.

I would suggest the following steps:

1) On your router, determine what the assigned range for DHCP is. This would be set in the LAN settings of the router. Since your main machine is 192.168.10.100, I would assume the range is set to something like 192.168.10.100 through 192.168.10.250 (or thereabouts.) This is OK. Also, while you are at the LAN settings page, set the lease time for allocated IP's to 24 hours (or 86400 seconds, if the setting is in seconds.) What this means is that, when the router automatically allocates an IP address to a specific device, it will hold that assignment active for 24 hours. It is not a critical parameter for a home network, but it helps make things more stable.

2) If you can access the FreeNAS console or the WebGUI, set a static IP address that is outside the router's DHCP range. It does not matter what you choose as long as it is outside the range. For sake of argument, let's use 192.168.10.21. After you change the IP address of FreeNAS, reboot FreeNAS. You should now see the new IP address in the router's LAN screen. Point your browser to this new address and you should be able to log in to the Web GUI.

3) For IPMI, you can follow the same steps. Assuming it is currently set to DHCP, you can log in to IPMI using whatever IP has been assigned, then reassign it to a static IP. For sake of argument, it could be reassigned to 192.168.10.20. It doesn't really matter what the IP address is as long as 1) it is outside the DHCP range of the router, and 2) it is different from the IP assigned to FreeNAS. You will have to shutdown and reboot the machine after resetting the IPMI IP settings.

Note: I have Supermicro x9 generation boards. If the x11 generation board is similar, then it is not necessary to connect a second network cable to the dedicated IPMI port. You can connect a single cable to LAN1 and the network will see both FreeNAS and the IPMI controller (check your manual for confirmation.)

After this, you would have IPMI set to 192.168.10.20, and FreeNAS set to 192.168.10.21. Make sense?

Don't worry if the router still shows the old IP assignments. They will not affect anything. Just make certain that the new IP assignments show up and work properly. I am not familiar with TP-Link devices, but you may want to reboot the router after you have everything set the way you want.

 

[Eli Singer]

Assign your freenas server an IP address outside the DHCP range. You can put whatever you want in the freenas GUI and it doesn't mean a hoot to the router. Fix it in your router.

I don't understand, what should i fix in the router and how?

 

[Eli Singer]

First of all, it is not strictly required to set a static IP for FreeNAS in order to share your CIFS folders - but it does make administration of everything a little easier.

I would suggest the following steps:

1) On your router, determine what the assigned range for DHCP is. This would be set in the LAN settings of the router. Since your main machine is 192.168.10.100, I would assume the range is set to something like 192.168.10.100 through 192.168.10.250 (or thereabouts.) This is OK. Also, while you are at the LAN settings page, set the lease time for allocated IP's to 24 hours (or 86400 seconds, if the setting is in seconds.) What this means is that, when the router automatically allocates an IP address to a specific device, it will hold that assignment active for 24 hours. It is not a critical parameter for a home network, but it helps make things more stable.

2) If you can access the FreeNAS console or the WebGUI, set a static IP address that is outside the router's DHCP range. It does not matter what you choose as long as it is outside the range. For sake of argument, let's use 192.168.10.21. After you change the IP address of FreeNAS, reboot FreeNAS. You should now see the new IP address in the router's LAN screen. Point your browser to this new address and you should be able to log in to the Web GUI.

3) For IPMI, you can follow the same steps. Assuming it is currently set to DHCP, you can log in to IPMI using whatever IP has been assigned, then reassign it to a static IP. For sake of argument, it could be reassigned to 192.168.10.20. It doesn't really matter what the IP address is as long as 1) it is outside the DHCP range of the router, and 2) it is different from the IP assigned to FreeNAS. You will have to shutdown and reboot the machine after resetting the IPMI IP settings.

Note: I have Supermicro x9 generation boards. If the x11 generation board is similar, then it is not necessary to connect a second network cable to the dedicated IPMI port. You can connect a single cable to LAN1 and the network will see both FreeNAS and the IPMI controller (check your manual for confirmation.)

After this, you would have IPMI set to 192.168.10.20, and FreeNAS set to 192.168.10.21. Make sense?

Don't worry if the router still shows the old IP assignments. They will not affect anything. Just make certain that the new IP assignments show up and work properly. I am not familiar with TP-Link devices, but you may want to reboot the router after you have everything set the way you want.

Thank you, very informative.
My DHCP is set to 192.168.10.100 - 192.168.10.199.
Because currently i am able to get in to the WebGUI i don't want to mess things up without understanding what am i doing, so, before i go ahead and do as you suggested, i want to understand why i actually need to assign ip addresses outside of the DHCP range? My reasoning was that it needs to be in the range so the router can communicate with it since it's on the network, what am i missing?

Oh, and how do i log into the IPMI ? never done that before.

Thanks again,

Eli

 

[Jailer]

The DHCP server in your router hands out IP addresses when a device connects to your network and requests one. The IP address it hands out is one that is not in use in the range specified in the settings. In your case it will assign one between .100 and .199. If you manually assign a static IP it must be outside that set range so that your DHCP server doesn't assign the same IP as a static designation and cause an IP conflict. In your case a prudent one would be from .2 to .99 (your routers management interface is likely .1).

There is likely some place in your routers UI to assign static IP's. Assign the static IP in your router based off the MAC address of your FreeNAS NIC(s) and when you boot or reboot your server it will always have the same IP. Once you've established your static IP mapping in your router you can set IP in the FreeNAS GUI and life will be good.

If you are running jails don't forget to configure the network settings in the jails configuration tab to DHCP or a static range outside your DHCP range so the same thing doesn't happen all over again if you create a jail or install a plugin.

 

[Eli Singer]

The DHCP server in your router hands out IP addresses when a device connects to your network and requests one. The IP address it hands out is one that is not in use in the range specified in the settings. In your case it will assign one between .100 and .199. If you manually assign a static IP it must be outside that set range so that your DHCP server doesn't assign the same IP as a static designation and cause an IP conflict. In your case a prudent one would be from .2 to .99 (your routers management interface is likely .1).

There is likely some place in your routers UI to assign static IP's. Assign the static IP in your router based off the MAC address of your FreeNAS NIC(s) and when you boot or reboot your server it will always have the same IP. Once you've established your static IP mapping in your router you can set IP in the FreeNAS GUI and life will be good.

If you are running jails don't forget to configure the network settings in the jails configuration tab to DHCP or a static range outside your DHCP range so the same thing doesn't happen all over again if you create a jail or install a plugin.

How can i identify MAC addresses of the NICs?

 

[Jailer]

Check your router DHCP lease page. Every device on your network should be listed by IP and MAC address.

 

[Eli Singer]

Check your router DHCP lease page. Every device on your network should be listed by IP and MAC address.

I see the list but if the ip doesn't match what i entered in Freenas how will i know what the MAC address refers to?

 

[Jailer]

Ok what you need to do has been explained in detail by me and @pschatz100 and you're still not getting it. You need to do some research on basic networking so you can get a grip on this before anyone here can help you.

 

[pschatz100]

Thank you, very informative.
My DHCP is set to 192.168.10.100 - 192.168.10.199.
Because currently i am able to get in to the WebGUI i don't want to mess things up without understanding what am i doing, so, before i go ahead and do as you suggested, i want to understand why i actually need to assign ip addresses outside of the DHCP range? My reasoning was that it needs to be in the range so the router can communicate with it since it's on the network, what am i missing?

Oh, and how do i log into the IPMI ? never done that before.

Thanks again,

Eli

Generally speaking from your earlier posts, I would say that you don't have a problem with your software, per se, but need some help configuring your network. You need to learn more about networking (it would be a good investment of your time.) Other than basic advice, teaching networking is really beyond the scope of this forum.

Follow the steps from my earlier post. Do not try to assign a static IP address that is within the router's DHCP range (which you identified as 192.168.10.100 - 192.168.10.199.) Use my suggestion...

You can skip the part about setting up IPMI. It is a nice feature of your motherboard, but not required for the operation of your FreeNAS. You can always come back to it later. Also, don't worry about MAC addresses - it is not necessary to dive into this for what you want to do.

 

[Eli Singer]

Ok, so i gave it my best shot and it kinda flipped on me.

Using ifconfig i got the MAC address of the NIC:

I designated the MAC Addresses to the IP addresses in the router as seen here:

For whatever reason, now i am only able to communicate with the FreeNAS machine using IPMI on 192.168.10.30.
I can't get into the WebGUI using 192.168.10.20 and 192.168.10.21.
Here's what i got in the IPMI screen:

I know I'm far from being an expert like you guys, I am learning a lot and trying whatever i can and i would really appreciate your time and answers, i already know a whole lot more than just a few days ago.
Hopefully, with your help I'll get the hang of it. Sorry if my questions seem uncounted for, that's the nature of newbies i suppose... :)

So if you could help me understand why i can't get into the WebGUI that would really help.
Thank you!

Eli

 

[pirateghost]

Stop messing with your router.

Stop messing with multiple NICs.

Plug ONE NIC in for the LAN.

From the ipmi console, give it a static IP that doesn't exist in your DHCP scope. Period. That's it. Done.

You're making this way more complicated than it is

 

[Eli Singer]

Ok so now i have only one cable connected to LAN1 and I'm able to get into the WebGUI.
Can't get into IPMI ip though.
One more thing i noticed is that i can't communicate with the internet (something i could have done previously when my ip was inside DHCP range). Tried checking for updates just to see i can get a connection and got this:

Eli