Won't Install on PowerEdge R730

[fakebizprez]

Cannot get OPNsense to install on a Dell PowerEdge R730. I have tried every solution I can find other than purchasing an HBA card. Reason for failure is something to do with the PERC H730P mini controller.

Every driver is updated.
I have tried HBA mode.
I have tried leaving only one drive in.
I have tried version 24.1 & 24.7
etc etc etc

In fact, the more adjustments I try to make, the less father I can get into the installation. At this point, as soon as I see the OPNsesnse boot screen, this is the next screen ( https://ibb.co/2ZPm2Xc ).....fatal error.

I'm assuming not a lot of people are installing OPNsense on a machine as powerful as the PowerEdge R730 due to it being overkill, and because I cannot find much material online. ZFS + Dell raid controllers is an issue that is very concerning to me considering I have eight Dell Servers (R730 & R740) that will all be running ZFS.

If anyone with a PowerEdge 730 would like to chime in, I am all ears.

[bartjsmit]

Have you tried installing Proxmox and running OPNsense as a qemu VM? Don't forget the qemu agent plugin.

[fakebizprez]

Hi, thank you for your response.

Running this on Proxmox vs bare metal crossed my mind, but I figured I wouldn't overcomplicate the situation.

This is the only machine that I have not been able to get OPNsense to install on. I have ran it on a Zimaboard, PowerEdge R900,  NUC, and OptiPlex, but installing on this R730 is somehow becoming one of the most challenging technical tasks I have ever encountered. It doesn't make sense.

I will Proxmox now and try that way. Aside from QEMU, should I enable SR-IOV?

[dan786]

Is it required to run raid ?  I have a r620  that has the other card but i disabled it so not using raid. Is it only on the one server or all them does it ?  With out opnsense installed have you tried linux just see if that installs ?

[bartjsmit]

Have you tried disabling the X2APIC setting for the CPU's?

[fakebizprez]

Just checked, it was never enabled.

[fakebizprez]

Have you tried installing Proxmox and running OPNsense as a qemu VM? Don't forget the qemu agent plugin.

I can confirm that OPNsense works on the same machine, with the same configuration I previously attempted, using Proxmox with OPNsense as a qemu VM.

The only difference that was made is I used the .iso with Proxmox vs the .img file on bare metal (there is no reason for this, I didn't realize I was booting with .img), but I don't know if that makes a difference??

[bartjsmit]

It may be worth installing FreeBSD on the machine. If that doesn't work then there is a kernel module issue with the hardware, likely the PERC.

Proxmox has benefits, such as snapshots before updates, live migration, etc.

Bart...

[fakebizprez]

I appreciate the response.

I've given up on this server and installed OPNsense on a Cisco C240 M3 that I had laying around. It's older and uses more power, but I guess I can repurpose the R730 for handling more demanding tasks.