Dell R720 Can't boot to Unraid -- Failed to allocate memory

[Dovi]

I've been stuck on this error for 3 nights now, ESXi and FreeNAS both boot fine under the same thumb drive, server and options. As well as Parted Magic, so I don't think there's anything going on with that. The error that's coming up is the same as this thread: 

 

Hardware configuration:

• Dell R720xd (24x 2.5" in the front, 2x 2.5" in the rear)
• 2x Xeon E5-2680v2
• 128GB DDR3 ECC Registered RAM (MT36KSF1G72PZ-1G6K1LG)
• MD1200 enclosure
• Pulled the PERC out entirely
• Recabled the backplanes to the 9207-8i
• LSI SAS 9207-8i for the 26x 2.5" drives 
• LSI SAS9207-8e for the MD1200 
• All drives recognized by Parted Magic and validated good/healthy

 

Things I've tried:

• Installing a GPU (not a good one, but something)
• Different thumb drives
• Different Unraid versions
• Used both the USB creator and the manual method
• BIOS and UEFI Boot modes  (can only get it to this point in UEFI)
• I just threw in a NIC and moved the cable I'm using from the integrated daughter card to that -- no change. NIC removed and we're plugged back into the daughter card.
• Removing all but two RAM DIMMS (1 for each CPU) -- Currently booting with this config
• Swapping those single remaining with another to validate the RAM
• Currently trying a different server alltogether, same hardware config (moved over the HBAs) No change, same error. Something going on with the config of these boxes or this image provided by UnRAID.
• Tried a different RAM (Samsung DDR3) and no change. I'm completely at a loss.
• Ran Memtest86+ against the 8GB in there, no errors.
• Tried the front USB port and a different thumb drive. Made it to the same point and same error. Will try different thumb drives and the rear ports.
• Tried other thumb drives in the rear ports -- one doesn't like to boot with this server so I tried the other that does boot in both rear ports. No change. Still erroring
• For kicks, disabled the PCI-E ports in the BIOS (can't get to the server right now) to remove the LSI HBAs from the system -- no change.

 

Next to try:

• I'm out of ideas

 

 

I don't think it's going to be RAM related, as ESXi and FreeNAS haven't had an issue booting to this server. I REALLY don't want to use FreeNAS, and having massive datastores carved out in ESXi isn't really what I had intended for this project, either. I'd like to jump into the Unraid ecosystem if at all possible.

 

If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears! I'm gonna keep poking in the meantime.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2018 by Dovi

[trurl]

I don't think you mentioned actually doing memtest. You did talk about swapping memory, but it's possible a memtest would detect something such as a bad slot.

[Dovi]

It would have to be one of the slot 1 (A and B) of the chassis, I removed all but two DIMMs and even swapped the brand/speed/size. I'll get that run on the 8GB in there in a little bit and get back to you here shortly.

[trurl]

Also, have you tried a different USB port to boot from?

[Dovi]

1 minute ago, trurl said:

Also, have you tried a different USB port to boot from?

It's the internal one, I'll try the others with the same thumb drive and get back on that.

[Dovi]

6 hours ago, trurl said:

Also, have you tried a different USB port to boot from?

 

No errors after over 6hrs. Will try different USB ports when this is done.

[Dovi]

 

No errors on the memtest. will try different USB ports next.

[Dovi]

I've been updating the main post with what I've tried and my next ideas. Tried all the USB drive shenanigans/shuffling and no change from the same error/point it halts before.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, seems like this is a persistent one. Any other ideas?

[Spazhead]

just want to know if you just tried booting up UNraid with no cards installed and no drives installed and disabled all internal ports in bios (nic, serial) except USB.

 

Also i saw this video on youtube about Dell HBA controllers, don't know if it applies to your issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBnNaheYmdA

 

 

[j44rs4]

Hi!

 

I know this topic is more than 1 years old, but did you find a way to boot into UR.

 

I have a R720xd, and no problem booting into UR with latest stable version.

[DrDirtyDevil]

i also just got a R720XD and cant get it to boot to unraid, i have tried anything listed in the forums around here nothing works untill now. the only thing i have yet to try is a USB 2.0 usb stick which will be delivered tomorrow. Any other ideas?

[trurl]

1 hour ago, DrDirtyDevil said:

USB 2.0 usb stick

USB2 port more often makes a difference, don't know if it would help here. 

[DrDirtyDevil]

I just managed to get it working, for some reason it appears that after running the unraid usb creation tool once it breaks something. heres is my experience:

1. every new usb i created through my own computer didn't boot ( except for the very first one a couple of months ago. )

i got a usb 2.0 usb drive and it still didn't work.

 

2. a friend of mine came over to have a good time with lan games this weekend and just for the sake of trying we created the unraid usb drive on his PC after which it immediatly worked no strange configs or anything through legacy bios not uefi. worked like a charm. so we switched back to the original usb 3.0 drive that i intended to use and made it bootable on his pc ( this was the second time using the unraid installer on his pc ) it hung on " syncing file system" 

 

so we downloaded the unraid installer again and formatted the drive. still the same problem with syncing file system.

 

3. i tried a different pc which i had lying around and tried to make the usb 3.0 drive bootable on that machine and it again worked like a charm just like we tried it the first time on the pc of above mentioned friend. server boots whithout an issue and it is nou parity syncing. 

 

 

conclusion:

i have read over 10 forum pages with possible solutions this weekend and in the end it appears to have been an issue with my pc or the program which creates unraid usbs and nothing with the server itself...?

i have no better explanation tor this strange situation but i am glad it is finally working after 3 days of trying.

 

[shuaichao]

On 2020/9/14 at AM4点34分, DrDirtyDevil said:

我只是设法使其工作，由于某种原因，运行unraid usb创建工具后，一旦出现问题，它似乎就会消失。这是我的经验：

1.我通过自己的计算机创建的每个新USB都无法启动（几个月前的第一个USB除外）。

我有一个USB 2.0 USB驱动器，但仍然无法正常工作。

 

2.我的一个朋友本周末过来玩了局域网游戏，并且只是为了尝试我们在他的PC上创建了unraid USB驱动器，此后，该驱动器没有任何奇怪的配置，也没有通过传统bios uefi进行的操作。像魅力一样运作。因此我们切换回了我打算使用的原始USB 3.0驱动器，并使其可在他的PC上启动（这是他的PC上第二次使用unraid安装程序），它挂在“同步文件系统”上 

 

因此我们再次下载了unraid安装程序并格式化了驱动器。同步文件系统仍然是同样的问题。

 

3.我尝试了另一台PC，并试图使USB 3.0驱动器可在该计算机上启动，并且它再次像魅力一样工作，就像我们第一次在上述朋友的PC上尝试过一样。服务器在没有问题的情况下启动，这是同步校验。 

 

 

结论：

我这个周末已经阅读了10多个论坛页面，并提供了可能的解决方案，但最终似乎与我的PC或程序产生了问题，而该问题会导致产生未经袭击的USB，而服务器本身却什么也没有...？

对于这种奇怪的情况，我没有更好的解释，但是很高兴经过3天的尝试，终于可以正常工作了。

 

Hello, how did you solve it? thank you

[DrDirtyDevil]

32 minutes ago, shuaichao said:

Hello, how did you solve it? thank you

I created a Bootable Unraid USB drive on a different Computer, it worked instantly. it was as if my own computer had a corrupted unraid installer or something. 

[shuaichao]

I also finished, the original use of traditional mode boot, not UEFI

[shuaichao]

40 minutes ago, shuaichao said:

Hello, how did you solve it? thank you

I also finished, the original use of traditional mode boot, not UEFI

[anetworkca]

i have the same problem with my dell r720 the legacy boot and not UEFI boot worked for me, have to switch it in bios and it should boot like normal

Edited December 22, 2021 by anetworkca