BASIC FreeNAS Guide

[L.E.D]

So I thought because well... I am bored and in reality I have nothing better to do. That I would make a FreeNAS guide covering the basics and showing how to setup a server for home use. First things first, I am not an expert nor do I claim to be. I am just bored. So lets begin with this quick and dirty FreeNAS setup.

 

Things you will need:

• Installation media
• PC your are willing to spare
• A USB drive for the OS
• Drives for the storage
• Network connection
• An hour or so of free time

So to start you can get a copy of FreeNAS from http://www.freenas.org/download-freenas-release.html You can burn it to a disk or load it onto a USB drive. Here are a couple tools to help with that, http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ http://www.imgburn.com/ Once you have loaded the OS onto some form of media, insert it into your PC and boot from it. Be a little patient and let it boot, until you reach the install screen. Once there select Install/Upgrade.

 

 

 

 

Then select your USB drive or hard drive depending on your setup.

 

 

 

 

Let the installation process continue and once it is done, reboot the system. Remember to remove the installation media. It is also important to have a network cable plugged into the system. Once the system has rebooted you should see a screen similar to this, with an IP address already assigned by the DHCP server in your router. This IP address is how we are going to configure the server.

 

 

 

 

So on another computer, open a web browser of your choice and type in the IP address of the server into the address bar and press enter. At this point, if you're using a new version of FreeNAS you will be asked to set a root password that you will use to access the server.

 

 

 

 

Once you have done that, and you are in the main screen we will setup the storage for the server. To do this we need to import the volume, this is found in the tree to the left under Storage > Volumes > Import Volume. Once that opens give the volume a name, choose the hard drive, and make sure you select UFS.

 

 

 

 

Now we will create a Guest account to access the drive, we need to allow it access to the Volume, and also make sure the volumes permissions allow it.  Accounts can be made under, Account > Users > Add User, and volume permission can be found under Storage > Volumes > /mnt/"storagename" > Change Permissions

 

 

 

 

 

Next we have to enable the CIFS service. It can be found under Services > CIFS This is what 'hosts' the drive on the network and allows users to connect to it. Be sure to choose the guest account and make sure allow empty passwords is checked.

 

 

 

 

Next we add the Share. This can be found under Sharing > Windows (CIFS) Shares > Add Windows (CIFS) Share. Name it, add the path to the volume, allow guest access. Make sure you add your IP address of the machine you wish to connect to the share, You need to have an IP address of the system you wish to connect there, if their IP address is not allowed, the user cannot connect to it.

 

 

 

 

You can then access the share by using any explorer in Windows and typing \\Freenas in the address bar. You can also Map the network drive to have it in the side bar under my computer all the time. So this has been a quick and dirty setup of FreeNAS to help kill some time. I hope it was actually useful any feedback negative or positive is appreciated. If I messed up anywhere or need to change some stuff let me know. Also if anyone wants me to go into it with more detail I'll do my best to.

 

 

 

 

 

So as I was asked before how to use raid in FreeNAS I figured I would add it below, even though I wanted this to be a simple FreeNAS guide. How ever, lets begin.

 

UFS Raid

 

You need to open up UFS Volume Manager (legacy) It is located under Storage > Volumes > UFS Volume Manager (legacy). Then choose your two disks, you then have the option to go mirrored (raid 1) or Stripe (raid 0). Stripe yields better speed, how even mirrored provides redundancy. You can then use the volume as if it is a single drive. Just so you know, I used UFS assuming you guys don't have a lot of memory available. At the time of doing this I didn't so I went with UFS.

 

 

ZFS Raid (More Memory Recommended)

 

You need to open up ZFS Volume Manager It is located under Storage > Volumes > ZFS Volume Manager. Then choose your disks, in this case I used the same two from the UFS array, then an additional hard drive as a cache. Also, make sure you format the drives in the array before setting it up.

 

 

Also, if you are having issues setting up the ZFS raid, I say ZFS because UFS worked fine, make sure you format the drives individually before making the array. If tried to create the array, then had it fail, then gone to format the drives and you get an error then, you need to deactivate the mirror. I did this from the console at the actual machine. To get to it press 9 then enter. Next use the series of commands to remove it.

 

1. [root@nas01] ~# gmirror status
2.       Name    Status  Components
3. mirror/gm1  DEGRADED  ada0 (ACTIVE)
4. [root@nas01] ~# gmirror deactivate -v gm1 /dev/ada0
5.  

Make sure you use the correct information, gm1 is the name if the actual Volume you created and ada0 is the drive designation, you get that from beside 'DEGRADED' you may have a different message there in place of that. Once you have done that you can use the 'gmirror status' command again, in my experience if nothing comes up, and it loads another line, it worked. At this point make sure you go and format all the drives you wish to use and it should work.

 

 

 

[Redportal]

Nice tutorial, I am sure this will be most helpfull for anyone new to FreeNAS.

[Sharif]

10 out of 10 would recommend to myself in the future 

[flibberdipper]

This actually helps me out quite a bit.

 

Do you need a separate drive just for the OS itself? I haven't read through this yet, so I don't know.

[L.E.D]

This actually helps me out quite a bit.

 

Do you need a separate drive just for the OS itself? I haven't read through this yet, so I don't know.

 

Yes, any drive that is used for the OS can only be used for the OS. That is why a USB drive is recommended.

[flibberdipper]

Yes, any drive that is used for the OS can only be used for the OS. That is why a USB drive is recommended.

Okey dokey.

[Epitome]

Brilliant guide, will refer to it when I decide to build a nas.

[L.E.D]

Brilliant guide, will refer to it when I decide to build a nas.

 

Awesome, its good to know that I wrote something understandable haha

[lutewan]

this is great i plan on useing this soon 

when my dad gets his laptop

[lutewan]

a few ???

 

how would you set up a raid?  and i plan on using an old pc but it only has two sata ports is that problem ?

[L.E.D]

a few ???

 

how would you set up a raid?  and i plan on using an old pc but it only has two sata ports is that problem ?

 

Sorry that my response is so late...

 

 

By 'a few' I assume that you mean drives? You can run as many as you want in reality. But if the PC you're using only has 2 sata ports then you can only run two drives. The only two raid configuration you can do with two drives is Raid 1, and 0. Raid 0 provides better speed, and raid 1 provides a backup. With raid 1 the data is mirrored across both drives, so in the even that one fails, you still have your data. Raid 0 puts bits of each file across two drives to improve the speed. You can run either software raid, or hardware raid. Seeing as my virtual system took a crap on my and a system I was building also took a crap on me. I can't really make a good guide at the moment. However I am going to try again. 

[lutewan]

 

Sorry that my response is so late...

 

 

By 'a few' I assume that you mean drives? You can run as many as you want in reality. But if the PC you're using only has 2 sata ports then you can only run two drives. The only two raid configuration you can do with two drives is Raid 1, and 0. Raid 0 provides better speed, and raid 1 provides a backup. With raid 1 the data is mirrored across both drives, so in the even that one fails, you still have your data. Raid 0 puts bits of each file across two drives to improve the speed. You can run either software raid, or hardware raid. Seeing as my virtual system took a crap on my and a system I was building also took a crap on me. I can't really make a good guide at the moment. However I am going to try again. 

 

no problem i was on vacation anyway 

 

 

alright thx for the reply 

[NeatSquidYT]

Could you do a guide on how to make a mirror disk?

[Commander_Z]

awesome stuff

[L.E.D]

no problem i was on vacation anyway 

 

 

alright thx for the reply 

 

 

Could you do a guide on how to make a mirror disk?

 

Sorry for the late response guys, but here it is finally. You need to open up UFS Volume Manager (legacy) It is located under Storage > Volumes > UFS... Then choose your two disks, you then have the option to go mirrored (raid 1) or Stripe (raid 0). Stripe yields better speed, how even mirrored provides redundancy. You can then use the volume as if it is a single drive. Just so you know, I used UFS assuming you guys don't have a lot of memory available. At the time of doing this I didn't so I went with UFS.

 

Enjoy! 

 

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