Build Your Own Open Source NAS Device Using FreeNAS

NAS stands for Network Attached Storage, and is basically a box full of hard disk space that attaches to a data network. Its sole job is to be a file server to as many protocols as you want to configure. If you’re anything like me, you have multiple computers in your house of all types and ages running a variety of applications and OS’s. This doesn’t even take into account the rest of my family, of which even my 6 year old has her own desktop AND laptop.

One of the things I really wanted to do was consolidate my storage space so that a variety of devices can access them. Also I wanted to start using ISCSI in a few demos so it made sense to look at getting a NAS into the family.

Now the cost of these devices really depends on configuration and manufacturer, but there are other options that not only give you more control but can give you a lot more bang for your buck.

In this demo I am going to walk you through setting up one of those alternatives, called FreeNAS.FreeNAS, as you might have been able to garner from its name, is free open source NAS software that is pretty robust.

It supports CIFS/SB, FTP, NFS, RSYNC SSH, AFP, Unison, UPnP, ISCSI, local and Microsoft Active Directory authentication, SoftRAID, disk encryption, and has a WebGUI interface. FreeNAS can also be configured to run off a USB Key to keep all that hard drive space for storage. It is built on the FreeBSD platform but you won’t need to know any Linux to get it up and running.

For this demo I am going to setup a RAID 1 drive and make it so I can access it from Windows Vista. I am actually going to use a virtual machine so I can capture screenshots easily and I am using the following configuration:

• 512MB RAM (96MB RAM is the min necessary to run base FreeNAS functions)
• 3 Virtual Drives, 1 for FreeNAS installation, and 2 for data (not formatted at this time)

Download FreeNAS

You can get the current version FreeNAS from: http://www.freenas.org/index.php?option=com_versions&Itemid=51

For this demo I am going to use the LiveCD ISO option with the current build which is 0.69RC1.

Install FreeNAS

Ok to get started you will need to burn the ISO file to a CD/DVD, or in the case of a virtual machine, mount the ISO. Once that is done go ahead and boot the machine from the CD/DVD that you are going to use for FreeNAS.

1. When it boots up you will see the FreeBSD kernel loading up and after seeing a lot of text flying by you will get to the Console setup menu.

2. From the console menu I am going to select 9) Install/Upgrade to hard drive/flash device, etc. so we won’t have to boot from CD/DVD anymore.

The first screen that comes up asks what type of install you want to do. From this menu I am going to choose 1 Install ‘embedded OS on HDD/Flash/USB, then select Ok.

3. You will get a quick overview of the limitations of what this type of install does. Go ahead and read through this then select Ok.

4. In this screen you will choose your installation drive, if you only have one CD/DVD drive it will be highlighted for you. If you have more than one choose the one that has the installation media and then select Ok to move on.

5. Next we are going to choose the target HDD. As you can see I have 3 drives attached to this machine, I am going to choose the one I dedicated specifically for this task which is ad0. Choose the disk you want to install to and then select Ok.

6. You will now see the system image copy over to the HDD from the CD/DVD drive. Once it is finished it will tell you to remove the installation media and press Enter. Go ahead and do both of these steps.

7. This takes you back to the Install menu, choose Exit.

8. Now from the Console setup menu select 7 Reboot System.

9. Confirm that you want to reboot the system by selecting Yes.

10. After the reboot you will go back to Console Setup and see the current networking configuration. I only have one NIC setup for this computer, but note that you can configure different adapters by going into the Assign Interfaces menu.

11. As you can see it grabbed an IP address by DHCP, so the first thing I am going to do is assign it a static IP address by selecting 2 and hitting Enter. The first screen you will see will ask you if you want to use DHCP for this interface. Select NO and hit Enter.

12. Type in the static IP address you want to use and then select OK.

13. Next you will enter your subnet mask in CIDR notation or bit counts. For 90% of you this will be 24 which is equivalent to 255.255.255.0, if you have a different subnet make there are some hints on the screen or you can convert it using a subnet calculator. After entering your notation select OK.

14. Enter your default gateway and then select OK.

15. You now will enter the DNS server you want the FreeNAS installation to use. After entering the IP choose OK.

16. Now it will ask if you want to configure IPv6 for this interface, but in this instance I do not, so I will choose No.

17. After a few seconds it will configure itself and you will see a screen showing the IP address you configured and how to access the WebGUI interface. After noting down the URL go ahead and hitENTER.

18. This now sets us up for getting into the WebGUI, go ahead and open your browser and enter the URL you got in step 8. You will be prompted for a user name and password. The defaults are:

username: admin
password: freenas

19. Once you authenticate you will be brought to the main status screen of FreeNAS where you can get some quick status info, which as you can tell is that no disks are configured. Seeing that this is a NAS, this is something we should remedy!

20. First let’s go in and do some general setup tasks to get us started on the right foot. SelectSystem, then General from the top menus.

21. On the General Setup page you can set some standard things for the server such as:

Hostname – Hostname and Domain
DNS – For both IPv4 and IPv6
WebGUI – Username, Protocol (http/https), Port, Language
Time – Timezone, Current Time, NTP Options

After setting your choice of options click on Save.

Note: You can also change the default password by choosing the Password tab.

Stay Tuned!

In Part 2 of Build Your Own Open Source NAS Device Using FreeNAS we’ll get the disks setup so our NAS can fulfill its big role. We’ll also test the FreeNAS installation to make sure that everything is working correctly.

As we learned last week, NAS provides hard disk space that attaches to a data network and works as a file server

We took a closer look at FreeNAS — a free open source NAS software that supports CIFS/SB, FTP, NFS, RSYNC SSH, AFP, Unison, UPnP, ISCSI, local and Microsoft Active Directory authentication, SoftRAID, disk encryption, and has a WebGUI interface.

Now let’s get to the good stuff!

Setup Disks in FreeNAS

Now that the installation is complete and we have the general server settings done, we need to get disks setup so our NAS can fulfill its primary purpose in life.

1. Select Disks and then Management from the top menu.

2. From the Management tab you can see all the disks that are currently configured and add a new one by click on the plus sign in the lower right corner

3. In the dropdown next to Disk you can choose the hard drive you want to work with. I am going to setup both of the disks I have.

I am going to leave the rest of the options at default, but I want to mention the last one which is thePreformatted File System. If you have disks that are already formatted you can choose that format here. If they are unformatted just leave the default as you can format them later.

When done with your setting click Add. I am going to repeat this for the other hard drive I have on this virtual machine also.

4. Now select Disks and then Format from the top menu.

5. I am going to create a Mirror 1 Raid pairing with these drives, so I am going to choose the first disk in the Disk dropdown, and then in the File System dropdown I am going to chooseSoftwareRaid.

Click on Format Disk to start the setup. After clicking Format you will get a warning that all data will be lost. If you are good with that click Ok. I am going to repeat this same process for the second drive.

6. From the top menu choose Disks, and then choose SoftwareRaid.

7. The RAID 1 tab should be selected, click on the plus sign in the lower right corner.

8. Put a name for your new RAID 1 drive next to Raid name, choose the Balance algorithm you want to use, and select the disks you want to add to the array. Then place a check in the box that says Create and initialize RAID and click on Add.

9. You will be taken back to the main RAID 1 tab now and have to click on Apply changes.

10. On the top menu choose Disks, and then Format.

11. In the Disk dropdown select the RAID drive we just created and depending on what you are going to use this for you might want to change the File System, but in our case where we are just using this for extra storage leave the default UFS in place.

If you want, give your volume a name and then click on Format disk. After clicking you will get a warning about erasing all data, click Ok to start the format.

12. From the top menu now select Disks, then Mount Point.

13. Click on the Plus sign to mount the RAID disk.

14. For the Disk dropdown choose the RAID drive you created, in the Partition dropdown we will leave the default; enter a name next to Share name. I will leave the rest of the settings as is and click Add.

15. You will be taken back to the Mount Point page where you are asked to Apply changes to confirm mounting of the disk. Click on Apply changes.

16. Now that we have the drive setup and mounted, let’s turn on the CIFS/SMB service so our Windows clients can access the drive. In the top menu click on Services, and then CIFS/SMB.

17. On the Settings tab click the box that says Enable then click Save and Restart at the bottom. I am going to leave all the other settings at their default. You can always come back at a later time and tweak for performance.

18. Click on the Shares tab and then click on the Plus sign.

19. To setup the share you need to enter a Name, Comment, and Path. The path is easily set by hitting the … button and choosing the top level path.

I am going to leave the other settings default, but there are some options there that might be of use so make sure you look through them. When you are done click Add.

20. You are then taken back to the Shares tab to confirm your selection. Click on Apply changes.

You have now successfully setup the drives as a RAID 1 drive and also setup a service/share to allow Windows clients to access the drive. Let’s test it out.

Testing Your FreeNAS Installation

We can quickly and easily test this from a Windows Vista machine. I am going to go to Start and then Network. As you can see, the FreeNAS server is in my network browsing.

If I click on the FreeNAS server I can see the Data share that was setup.

From here I could map a drive or just setup a shortcut to access this drive.

Summary

This demo walked you through creating a RAID 1 shared NAS using the open source FreeNAS software.

FreeNAS is a very powerful software package and I only scratched the surface of what it can do with it. I will be using this server in some upcoming tutorials focusing on ISCSI and open source backup solutions.

I strongly encourage you to download and take a look at the feature set to see where you could use this low cost NAS solution.

FreeNAS Server on VMware Workstation with iSCSI Disks

VMware is one of the coolest virtualization software. It supports most of the operating systems as guest operating system. Microsoft Server operating systems such as windows 2008 and windows 2008 R2 also can be installed in VMware workstation. Here I’m going to show how you can install FreeNAS server onVMware Workstation with iSCSI disks which can be used for your host and guest operating systems. This method will be used to install and configure MS Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2 cluster in VMware workstation.

What is NAS (Network Access Storage)?

Physically NAS is a hardware device with hard drives, and its accessible via network port.  In production environment there are famous NAS brands, such as,

HP
Synology
iomega

These NAS devices support iSCSI, which is required for cluster and high availability setup for servers.  But for the testing purpose in VMware we can’t have expensing physical NAS devices to configure cluster ot high availability servers in VMware. So, there is some free open source NAS software where you can use a computer as NAS. These free storage virtualization software make your computer hard disk as network access storage and allow other clients to access the disk directly through network.

I found these two free NAS softwares can be installed in computer and make NAS.

Openfiler
FreeNAS

This article explains how you can install FreeNAS on VMware workstation virtual machine to enable iSCSI target disks. Why I avoided Openfiler is, because of we will be using this NAS for Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2 server clusters. Openfiler doesn’t support SCSI-3 persistent reservation disks which is required for Windows 2008 and windows 2008 R2 server clusters but FreeNAS supports SCSI-3 persistent reservation disks.

How to Install FreeNAS Server on VMware workstation?

1)      Download the stable FreeNAS live CD ISO file here. It’s just 75MB ISO file.

2)      Create a virtual machine in VMware workstation, with following configuration.

Guest Operating System – Other – FreeBSD
Maximum disk size – 2GB

Memory – 2GB

Processor – 1 or 2 ( it doesn’t matter)
Network Adapter – Which ever work with your client computers.

3)      Select the downloaded FreeNAS ISO file under ISO image file in CD/DVD settings, and boot  the virtual machine with CD drive as first boot device.

4)      Boot the system with first option ( default)

5)      If the virtual machine settings and downloaded file is correct, then you next screen will the below one. That’s it, NAS operating is loaded and ready to use.

You can see the network address on NAS which will be given by VMware DHCP. Since this is Live CD version, its running from CD and RAM only. When you boot the NAS operating next time, it will disappear. So we have install it permanently on the virtual machine hard disk. It can be installed on external devices also, including flash device and USB drives.

6)      To install FreeNAS permanently on hard drive, type number 9 and press enter in above screen.

7)      Select the first option in first screen and press OK.

8)      Press OK for warning/instruction message.

9)      Installation media will be your virtual machine CD drive where we mounted the ISO file. Press OK in the next screen.

10)   Select the 2GB hard disk we created during the virtual machine setup. Once we installed FreeNAS on this hard disk, then it cannot be used for create volumes or share data. So how to create disks for cluster or as iSCSI targets. Do not worry; we will add hard disks later to virtual machine in live.

11)   Confirmation message will be shown as below after the installation succeeded.

12)   Shutdown the system by pressing number 8. Then un mount the installation ISO file under CD/DVD drive, then start the FreeNAS virtual machine.

13)   Now you can’t see the number 9 option. Type number 2 and press enter to change the IP address of FreeNAS network virtualization software.

14)   Select ‘No’ for DHCP option, give IPv4 address, you can select the Subnet mask by typing 24 or 16 or 8 in the next screen. Gateway, DNS and IPv6 are optional setup as per your requirements.

15)   One network settings confirmation message will be shown as below with accessible address.

Installation of NAS on VMware workstation and network setups is done. Now, interesting part; configuring disks, volumes and LUNs in your Network Access Storage (NAS).

16)   Access the above address in internet explorer from other client computer. You will be getting login screen for FreeNAS.

User Name is – admin

Password is – freenas

FreeNAS user name and password can be reset in console setup by selecting number 3.

17)   Welcome screen will give the information of NAS. Still no disks configured in your NAS.

18)   Let’s add the disks to FreeNAS now.  Just for example we will add two disks. One with 512MB for quorum disk and other one 10GB for data share.

19)   Add the above hard disks to FreeBSD virtual machine where we installed FreeNAS. You do not need to shutdown the FreeNAS. It can be added when it’s working. I’m assuming you know how to add additional hard disks to a virtual machine is VMware. (Select SCSI disk type, better select ‘Allocate disk space now’ to improve the performance.)

20)   To add a disk in NAS, Click on Disks on the menu and select management. Click + sign at right side in next screen.

21)   Select the newly added disk to virtual machine from drop down box. Lets add our quorum disk 512MB.

You can give any description also for your reference. Since we are preparing NAS on VMware workstation as iSCSI target for Windows 2008 server cluster, select ZFS Storage pool device in file system as shown above. Press Add.

22)   Every time after any changes in FreeNAS you have press Apply changes button. Press the button in next screen.

23)   Once the disk added successfully, the below screen can be seen.

24)   Go to Disks in main menu and select ZFS.

25)   Click on Virtual devices in next screen menu and Press + sign at right side. Give a name, leave the type as Stripe, and select the disk under devices. Then apply changes.

26)   Click on Management tab next to Virtual Device in same screen. Give a name; leave others options blanks (you can add description). Press Add and Apply.

27)   Now go to iSCSI Targets in Services (main menu)

28)   Enable the check box at right side and press save and restart button. It will start the iSCSI service in your FreeNAS virtual machine.

29)   Click on portals tab. It will pick up your FreeNAS IP address with 3260 port number. Do not change anything here.  Just press add and apply changes buttons.

(I’m writing this article from two computers, so IP address of my FreeNAS is different than installation and configuration, ignore it)

30)   Now click on initiators tab and leave the all settings as it is and press add, apply changes.

31)   No go back to Targets tab and press + at right side under Extend. Press browse button as shown below.

32)   It will bring the pool you created as a directory. Click on it and press OK button at top right side.

33)   You have to type a name for the extending disk. In this example I have typed ‘ quorum’ after the selection. It better to give slightly lesser the actual size. That’s why I have given 500 MB.

Press add and apply changes.

34)   To add the iSCSI target and LUNs in NAS, click on + mark at the right side under target in targets. Give a name for target, make sure Read/Write is selected under flags. Under LUNs, select the extended disk you created in earlier step. Leave the other settings and press add, apply changes.

35)   iSCSI target in your NAS VMware workstation settings will be appeared as below if all setup are correct.

Other clients including Windows 2008 server and windows 2008 R2 servers looking for iSCSI disks will be finding the disks in the name mentioned above.

Repeat the same steps to add disks to FreeNAS and configure NAS  iSCSI targets in VMware workstation.

I will be updating soon about how to do windows 2008 R2 cluster in VMware workstation using this iSCSI targets.

Which is best to pursue Solaris, AIX or HP UNIX?

It depends on where you plan to spend your career. If you plan to work in the small to mid-tier type organizations, then the suggestion to develop expertise in RedHat is good advice. If you plan to go after larger organizations, then learning UNIX on the larger systems would be beneficial. I started out in NCR, moved to Solaris, and ended up in AIX, by what seemed to be a natural flow of market needs. Until Oracle decides it is going to go after the market that Sun once dominated, I wouldn't waste my time there. Don't get me wrong, of all the UNIXes, I love Solaris the best, but we are talking market forces here. HP just doesn't seem to have the presence it once had, but it seems to be hanging in there. AIX seems to be where the growth in UNIX lies. Solid AIX administration skills seem to be the most sought after, and its not really the expertise in the operating system, although I don't discount it, but the hardware. Knowing how to do the most with the least amount of hardware possible is a pSeries skill that is very sparse. People love throwing large amounts of hardware at large projects, and usually overbuy on one side (CPU), and shorten on another(Memory). Learning how to eek every last bit of worth out of a pSeries system is an art, and those who can master that can almost write their own ticket. 

When you talk storage, you have many players, in different segments of the storage market. Large storage is dominated by EMC, although Hitachi, IBM, and NEC all play in this space as well. Mid size storage has the same players, with NetApp playing in the NAS space of that market. 

All in all, nothing is going to replace solid experience. I haven't had a certification since Solaris 9. The last 2 organizations that looked at my resume` were only interested in verifying that I could do exactly what I said I could do. I never let them down. 

Meh, this is too much overload for a simple query. Don't paralyze yourself with the paper learning and certifications. They may be good to get your foot in the door, but eventually the time will come for you to put up or shut-up.


I agree that depends on many things. Redhat Linux will be find in small 
and mid-level enterprises true . But will be also found anywhere else. 
On large enterprises there is always a small tasks where they don't want to 
spend a hundred $$. 

So No. 1 .. You DO need some Linux background. 

AIX is showing more grow and market and a system administrator on Unix 
(AIX/HPUx) have a better salary than a Linux/Solaris. 

I work in a company where we hundreds of costumers using all flavors ... and 
can tell that at least 80% have AIX as main OS ... all of them have some 
Linux for task as (DNS, DHCP, Fileservers, SFTP) ... a few clients have pure 
linux... and the rest of the 20% is mostly HPUX for SAP and oracle... or 
solaris for oracle or avaya. 

Big middleware can give you a clue. 
websphere goes on AIX mostly 
db2 AIX.. 
oracle ... AIX... 
Avaya .. Sun 
RPM/BPM AIX .. 
SAP ... AIX or HPux 

This are just some example I know of. And you cannot consider middleware 
such apache... or mysql because even when they are widely used... they are 
mostly in small/mid level companies. 

VMware Server Overview

Virtualization allows multiple, resource-intensive applications to be run on one physical system. VMware ESX and VMware ESXi are bare-metal hypervisors, which can install directly on top of a physical server, sharing their resources with the host, and with each other. VMware Server is a hosted virtualization platform that can be installed like an application onto an existing server, allowing the creation of multiple virtual machines.

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