| 1 |
On 27/08/2013 14:05, Tanstaafl wrote: |
| 2 |
> On 2013-08-27 7:42 AM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote: |
| 3 |
>> On 27/08/2013 13:36, Tanstaafl wrote: |
| 4 |
>>> I'm wondering what the best way would be to get something set up for ZFS |
| 5 |
>>> file storage. I have some older servers that I can use, so was leaning |
| 6 |
>>> toward FreeNAS... |
| 7 |
> |
| 8 |
>> Mine are HP mini-servers (the cube shaped ones) with 4 SATA bays running |
| 9 |
>> FreeNAS 8.0.something. |
| 10 |
>> |
| 11 |
>> Dunno if you've worked with FreeNAS before, but it's literally a case of |
| 12 |
>> write the image to USB or flash storage and boot off it. Then play. |
| 13 |
>> |
| 14 |
>> You will need to be able to boot off a USB stick, CF card or similar, |
| 15 |
>> FreeNAS uses an entire drive for it's system partition and it's a shame |
| 16 |
>> to waste a whole high-capacity disk just for a 2G system image |
| 17 |
> |
| 18 |
> I haven't worked with it before, but this comment of yours means I soon |
| 19 |
> will be - thanks... :) |
| 20 |
> |
| 21 |
> So, once I have something up and running and fully configured, it is |
| 22 |
> relatively easy to backup the new/running system image, in case the |
| 23 |
> flash drive ever crashes and burns? |
| 24 |
|
| 25 |
It's a small image (<100M compressed), so just keep a copy handy |
| 26 |
somewhere and reflash. The GUI has a function where you can backup the |
| 27 |
running config, a restore is a simple matter of click restore in the GUI |
| 28 |
|
| 29 |
The USBstick/CF card you boot off will keep a copy of the current image |
| 30 |
and one version back (i.e. the one the current one replaced), so you can |
| 31 |
boot the old system by pressing F2 if the new one fails for some weird |
| 32 |
reason. |
| 33 |
|
| 34 |
Most of the config is GUI-driven in a browser, a lot but not all options |
| 35 |
can be set on the CLI. But honestly, it's a file server and you will |
| 36 |
find that once you set your shares up the way you like you will seldom |
| 37 |
change stuff. Your main interaction will probably be watching the pretty |
| 38 |
connectd graphs in a browser |
| 39 |
|
| 40 |
For shares you get everything you could possibly need - cifs, nfs (2,3 |
| 41 |
and 4), iSCSI, FTP, scp, some Apple thing, and tftp and a few more. And |
| 42 |
rsync! |
| 43 |
|
| 44 |
> Thanks Alan, starting to get excited about playing with ZFS. |
| 45 |
> |
| 46 |
> How would you rate their docs and support community (for the free version)? |
| 47 |
|
| 48 |
Support is top-notch, on par with what you find around here if that |
| 49 |
helps ;-) |
| 50 |
|
| 51 |
Each major.minor version has a .pdf manual published, while the next |
| 52 |
version is in development, the docs get updated on a wiki and the final |
| 53 |
version is an export of that. There's a forum with knowledgeable users |
| 54 |
and the devs hang around just in case regular users can't help with a |
| 55 |
question. |
| 56 |
|
| 57 |
No mailing list though :-( |
| 58 |
And the forum does have a lot of noise from n00bs, but that's common |
| 59 |
with web forums. Like on Gentoo, you quickly learn to spot those posts |
| 60 |
and scan over them. |
| 61 |
|
| 62 |
> |
| 63 |
> Thanks again Alan |
| 64 |
> |
| 65 |
> Charles |
| 66 |
> |
| 67 |
|
| 68 |
|
| 69 |
-- |
| 70 |
Alan McKinnon |
| 71 |
alan.mckinnon@×××××.com |
Archives