There are a few options out there for the home lab, but over the years I’ve tried many and default to FreeNAS due to its low overhead for resources and fast setup. This walk-though is based on build 8.2.0 and is a step by step process to get your NAS array up and running in any lab. My setup consists of VMware Workstation 9 with FreeNAS 8.2.0, ESXi 5.1 and Windows 2008 R2 64-bit. 1) First start out by obtaining the bits for FreeNAS from – the downloads are located on the right-hand side of the page. 2) Create your virtual machine with VMware Workstation with the following parameters ( you don’t need a 20GB primary disk, but I used one for other functions). I have setup two (private guest only virtual networks) to use for this configuration. VMnet2 is the management network and VMnet9 is the storage network.
FreeNAS ® Certified Servers. REQUEST A QUOTE. FreeNAS is the world’s most popular storage operating system. We mirror the boot devices so if one device goes down, each FreeNAS appliance stays up seamlessly. IX is committed to providing the best hardware and the very best level of service. FreeNAS Storage Setup for the Home VMware Lab. September 25, 2012 September 25. My setup consists of VMware Workstation 9 with FreeNAS 8.2.0, ESXi 5.1 and Windows 2008 R2 64-bit. Log into the appliance from a machine on your network. 7) One of the first things I do from here is change the admin password from this location.
Also, notice the low overhead of RAM. 3) Next step is to attach the ISO to the VM and boot it. Go through the setup, restart and you will be prompted with this menu on boot: 4) Select Configure Network Interface #1 and setup EM0. As you probably saw in my screenshot of the vm configuration, I have two virtual NIC’s setup. This is because I keep the management and storage traffic separate.
So, when you select #1 from this menu, you will see EM0 and Em1. 5) After you configure em0 for management traffic, move on to the configuration of em1 for the actual storage path. I used the 10.10.10.0 for my “storage” network. The next few steps will outline the configuration from the GUI.
6) Log into the appliance from a machine on your network 7) One of the first things I do from here is change the admin password from this location. 8) Since time is critical part of any service, I added my local DC to the list of NTP servers (I’ve also noted the add NTP server dialog box to the right). My internal time service is 10.0.0.2 listed on the left. This is after all a “fenced off” environment (to borrow a term from vCloud). 9) I didn’t use any VLAN’s or static routes but this depicts how the interfaces are used in my FreeNAS environment.
I’ve setup labels on the interfaces just to be clear what is used for what. 10) When we added that second disk, we are now able to add it into the volume manager and create a new NFS mount point off it by going into the volume manager and creating the path indicated in the following screenshot. Also note the permissions assigned to the volume. 11) Now that we have the volume and path setup we need to share it out the “storage” path. Note that you select the allowed network IP (or as I have listed here) range of IP’s that are allowed to get to the share. Remember, EM1 is on VMNET9 which is on a separate virtual network segment that allows for isolated storage traffic in my lab. 12) Double-check to make sure the NFS service is running on your device You are now ready to start connecting your vSphere ESXi nodes to the storage and setup HA, DRS, FT, etc!
Scott Alan Miller wrote: Scotch1337 wrote: Is appliance really the correct term? That is asking for what good free hardware for NAS? I think it would be better stated what is a good APP or OS for a NAS? Don't mind me nitpicking FreeNAS is an appliance. NAS means appliance. This is just a software appliance rather than the physical thing. Like asking for a free server and meaning the free server software.
FreeNAS is an appliancization of FreeBSD. I have always thought of an appliance to be a piece of hardware designed with a specific intent. Like a barracuda spam filter. Good to now though:D. Scotch1337 wrote: I have always thought of an appliance to be a piece of hardware designed with a specific intent. Like a barracuda spam filter.
Good to now though:D It's that there are two things. The physical appliance and the logical appliance. Just like you have a physical server (the metal device in the rack) and the logical one (the host on the network.) For example, if I was to take FreeNAS and install it on a VMware, as an end user you would see a NAS appliance on the network for you to use. That it didn't have a physical chassis would be unknown to you.
The physical appliance is the all inclusive device. The logical one is the one that end users see. Scott Alan Miller wrote: Scotch1337 wrote: I have always thought of an appliance to be a piece of hardware designed with a specific intent. Like a barracuda spam filter. Good to now though:D It's that there are two things. The physical appliance and the logical appliance. Just like you have a physical server (the metal device in the rack) and the logical one (the host on the network.) For example, if I was to take FreeNAS and install it on a VMware, as an end user you would see a NAS appliance on the network for you to use.
That it didn't have a physical chassis would be unknown to you. The physical appliance is the all inclusive device. The logical one is the one that end users see. Jeffrey1704 wrote: That mostly applies to people that try to use commodity hard ware to run esxi or don't configure it properly.
It all has to do with ZFS wanting direct control of the disks. If it doesn't then it offers no protection. You would have to use VMware to monitor the disks.
I have a post pending that has the relevant links. Oh, more of the 'cult of ZFS' problems coming through. I swear everything about FreeNAS is colored by people pushing a ZFS agenda in ways that make no sense in the overall industry sense. Jeffrey1704 wrote: ZFS is the only reason I've heard of that freeNAS isn't recommended to be virtualized.
But that was mostly aimed at home users that didn't know what they were doing and ended up losing data. If you got a good RAID card handling the disks it's a non issue.It's more of a marketing ploy because people are selling FreeNAS solely based on ZFS and ZFS based solely on 'magic software RAID' features and if those features aren't there the logic that led people to FreeNAS evaporates. So it is a reverse recommendation based on their marketing needs.