Few days back I was searching for alternative open source solutions for enterprise and I found quite a few options and of them FreeNAS seemed quite interesting. I immediately downloaded an .iso and within 10 minutes FreeNAS was installed and running.
FreeNAS® 8.2.0 is an Open Source Storage Platform which supports sharing across Windows, Apple, and UNIX-like systems. It includes ZFS (Zettabyte File System), which supports high storage capacities (256 quadrillion zettabytes) and integrates file systems and volume management.
To deploy we need a server with atleast 4 GB RAM & 2 HDDs, smaller HDD as a dedicated boot drive for installing OS & larger capacity HDD for storing Data. FreeNAS OS can also be installed on USB flash drive or SATA DOM with 2 GB or more space.
Follow below mentioned steps to proceed with basic server deployment.
1) Boot the system using FreeNAS CD
2) In 'Console Setup' screen select option 'Install/Upgrade'
3) In 'Choose destination media' screen select smaller HDD to install OS
4) In 'Upgrade this FreeNAS installation' screen select 'No' to do fresh installation
5) In "FreeNAS installation" screen select 'Yes' to proceed with installation
6) Once installation is done, system will ask to remove CD & proceed to reboot the system, click on 'Ok'.
7) This will go back to 'Console Setup' screen, now select 'Reboot System' option and remove CD while system boots.
8) While booting, server picks up IP address from DHCP and once server is ready, the consoles displays system menu & URL to access FreeNAS Admin Interface over the network. Now we are ready to proceed with server configuration.
9) Open a browser on any desktop from the same network and open FreeNAS URL to access Admin Console. The very first thing you do is the set Admin / root password.
- Click on [+] Account -> Admin Account -> Change Password & now provide password for Admin Interface. Ensure 'Change root password as well' is checked. Click on 'Change Admin Password' to save new password. With saving of password, the red 'Alert' button on right hand side of screen will stop blinking and turn to green.
10) Change basic server details & set fixed IP address for the server
- Click on [+] 'Network' -> 'Global Configuration'
Provide details as required for these fields
- Enter Hostname
- Enter Domain name
- Enter gateway address for IPv4 Default Gateway
- Enter DNS server IPs for Nameserver
- Click on 'Save' at the bottom of the screen
- Click on [+] 'Network' -> 'Interfaces', in this screen click on 'Add Interface' button and fill in details as mentioned below
- Select NIC from dropdown box
- Enter 'nic1' Interface Name
- Do not check DHCP as we are configuring fixed IP address
- Enter server ip address for 'IPv4 Address'
- Select valid subnet mask for 'IPv4 Netmask'
Rest of the information can be left blank and at the bottom of the page click on 'Ok' button to save changes. Now restart the server.
11) In the browser, enter new FreeNAS URL and login to access Admin Console
12) Before we proceed lets increase the default space allocated for /etc partition, as we would need additional space for our deployment
- Click on 'Shell' and run following command
[root@freenas ~]# mount -uw /
[root@freenas ~]# vi /conf/base/etc/md_size
and update 10204 to 20480 or more depending upon the requirement and save the file
[root@freenas ~]# mount -ur /
and restart the server.
13) Configure NTP server for FreeNAS server to sync & also enable it to be a NTP server for our network
- Click on [+] 'Systems' -> 'NTP Servers' -> 'Add NTP Server'
- Enter '1.in.pool.ntp.org' for Address and keeping rest as default click on 'Ok' button to save
- Again click on 'Add NTP Server' & enter '2.asia.pool.ntp.org' for Address & click on 'Ok' button to save
We can safely remove few other NTP servers
- Click on [+] 'Systems' -> 'NTP Servers' -> 'View NTP Server' and delete '1.freebsd.pool.ntp.org' & '2.freebsd.pool.ntp.org' by clicking on 'Delete' button next to it.
14) Configure correct timezone
- Click on [+] 'Systems' -> 'Settings' -> 'General'
- Select 'Asia/Kolkata' for TimeZone and click on 'Save' button
15) Configure 'System Log Status Window'
- Click on [+] 'Systems' -> 'Settings' -> 'Advance'
- Select checkbox next to 'Show console messages in the footer'
And click on 'Save' to save.
16) Now lets proceed to configure ZFS Volume for storage
- Click on [+] 'Storage' -> 'Volumes' -> 'Volume Manager'
- In 'Volume Manager' screen, enter 'Volume name' for e.g. 'DATA'
- In Member Disk, select displayed HDD(s) for eg ada1
- For 'Filesystem type ' select 'ZFS' radio button
- Click on 'Add Volume' to create ZFS volume
17) Prepare data storage directory
- Click on 'Shell' and run following command
[root@freenas ~]# zfs list
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
DATA 364K 913G 112K /mnt/DATA
Lets make a directory to store all users data for e.g 'individual'
[root@freenas ~]# mkdir /mnt/DATA/individual
[root@freenas ~]# ls -l /mnt/DATA
total 17
drwxrwxr-x 2 root wheel 2 Aug 22 18:45 individual
And the output should be similar as above
18) Proceed to create common user group for e.g 'usergrp'
- Click on [+] 'Account' -> 'Groups' -> 'Add Group'
- In 'Add Group' screen, provide 'usergrp' for 'Group Name' & click on 'Ok' to create
19) Proceed to create users
- Click on 'Shell' and run following command, for eg to create user joel
[root@freenas ~]# mkdir /mnt/DATA/individual/joel
- close 'Shell' window
- Click on [+] 'Account' -> 'User' -> 'Add User'
- Enter username for eg 'joel'
- Uncheck checkbox for 'Create a new primary group for the user'
- From 'Primary Group' dropdown list box select 'usergrp'
- For 'Home Directory', browse and select /etc/DATA/individual/joel
- For 'Home Directory Mode', select all checkboxes under 'Owner' and uncheck all checkboxes under 'Group' & 'Other'
- For 'Shell' select 'nologin'
- Provide Full Name, Email & Password and then click 'Ok' button at the end of the page
There is a bug in GUI as it is not able to set user permission correctly while user creation so Click on [+] 'Account' -> 'Users' -> 'View Users' and on right hand side section click on 'Modify User' for the newly created user
- In the 'Modify User' screen goto 'Home Directory Mode' and select all checkboxes under 'Owner' and uncheck all checkboxes under 'Group' & 'Other'. This should correct all user permissions.
20) Now configure CIFS services
- Click on [+] 'Services' -> 'CIFS'
- For 'Authentication Model' select 'Local User'
- For 'NetBIOS name' should be same as hostname
- For 'Workgroup' provide workgroup name
- For 'Description' provide description
- Keep 'DOS charset', 'Unix charset' & 'Log level' as default
- Uncheck for 'Local Master'
- Check for 'Time Server for Domain'
- Uncheck for 'Large RW support'
- Check for 'Send files with sendfile(2)'
- Uncheck for 'EA Support'
- Check for 'Support DOS File Attributes'
- Uncheck for 'Allow Empty Password'
- For 'Auxiliary parameters' leave blank
- Uncheck for 'Enable home directories' & 'Enable home directories browsing'
- Leave blank for 'Home directories' & 'Homes auxiliary parameters'
- Check 'Unix Extensions'
- Check 'Enable AIO' and leave default values for 'Minimum AIO read size' & 'Minimum AIO write size'
- Uncheck for 'Zeroconf share discovery'
And click on 'Ok' to save.
Now click on [+] 'Sharing' -> 'Windows (CIFS) Shares' -> 'Add Windows (CIFS) Share'
- For 'Name' provide share name example 'data'
- For 'Comment' leave blank
- For 'Path' provide data directory path for eg '/mnt/DATA/individual'
- Check for 'Browsable to Network Clients'
Rest leave as unchecked and click on 'Ok', once clicked it will ask to enable service, click on 'Yes' to start CIFS services
21) Now lets ensure directories are created with proper rights
- Click on 'Shell' and run following commands to check
[root@freenas ~]# ls -l /mnt/DATA/individual/
total 34
drwx------ 2 abhijit wheel 10 Aug 23 18:30 abhijit
drwxrwx--- 2 joel usergrp 11 Aug 23 18:26 joel
if a directory is found with incorrect permission i.e 700 then run following command for those directories
[root@freenas ~]# chmod 700 /mnt/DATA/individual/joel
and check again
[root@freenas ~]# ls -l /mnt/DATA/individual/
total 34
drwx------ 2 abhijit wheel 10 Aug 23 18:30 abhijit
drwx------ 2 joel usergrp 11 Aug 23 18:26 joel
if a directory is found with incorrect group i.e 'usergrp' then run following command for those directories
[root@freenas ~]# chgrp usergrp /mnt/DATA/individual/abhijit
and check again
[root@freenas ~]# ls -l /mnt/DATA/individual/
total 34
drwx------ 2 abhijit usergrp 10 Aug 23 18:30 abhijit
drwx------ 2 joel usergrp 11 Aug 23 18:26 joel
22) Lets create a common folder for users to share data amongst users
- Click on 'Shell' and run following commands
[root@freenas ~]# mkdir /mnt/DATA/individual/common
[root@freenas ~]# chgrp usergrp /mnt/DATA/individual/common
[root@freenas ~]# chmod 770 /mnt/DATA/individual/common
23) Configure Periodic Snapshot Task for data backup. For example configure snapshot once a day & set its lifetime to 1 week or more depending upon the storage space & requirement
- Click on [+] 'Storage' -> 'Periodic Snapshot Tasks' -> 'Add Periodic Snapshot'
- For 'Filesystem/Volume' select 'DATA' i.e ZFS Volume Name
- Check for 'Recursive'
- For 'Lifetime' set 1 Week
- For 'Interval' select '1 day'
- Check all weekdays for 'Weekdays'
And click on 'Ok' to save.
24) Configure ZFS Scrub to proactively check data integrity. For example configure scrub to happen once every 7 days i.e every Saturday at 12:00 am. This activity is going to be bit heavy on server so plan when there are no or negligible data access
- Click on [+] 'Storage' -> 'ZFS Scrub' -> 'View ZFS Scrub' and click on 'Edit' button for default rule
- For 'Threshold days' change to '7'
- For 'Day of week', select checkbox next to 'Saturday'
- Uncheck checkbox next to 'Sunday'
And click on 'Ok' to save.
And you should be ready to start using FreeNAS over the network. Mount samba share on your windows / linux client desktop and and start storing your data.
