FreeNas Setup

[cookie_monster]

Anyone here running FreeNAS? I've run up the live CD for a play on two boxes, one with a SCSI disc and one with an IDE disk. On each unit it hunts at finding a disk but I can't seem to mount it or set any options. Everything i've read suggests that it's very straight forward to setup.

[sidnuts]

I'm running 1 pc with freenas installled...been running great since October 2008, never switched off.

 

I had trouble setting it up at first, then by coincidence Pcpro published an article on how to set 1 up...found a link to there web site, had a quick glance, seems almost the same 1 I followed last..but 1-2 years older.

 

PC Pro: Blogs & Analysis: Real World Computing: NAS for free

 

If thats no good, I could scan the article for you and send it...It is quite detailed

[cookie_monster]

Thanks i'll take a look, the documentation here is awfull there must be some better info somewhere.

 

FreeNAS Knowledgebase / Installation & configuration

 

 

EDIT

 

Ahh found some better info, i'll follow the pc pro one as well.

 

http://www.freenas.org/downloads/docs/user-docs/FreeNAS-SUG.pdf

Edited May 14, 2009 by cookie_monster

[cookie_monster]

Do you use it as a live CD with a USB or floppy holding the config or is it installed on the disk?

[gotenks1321]

I use it at home with 2 RAID5 arrays, one for media and the other for ESX storing virtual machines. Took 5 minutes to install and setup on a HDD and once you get used to the basics it's pretty easy to configure any arrays, extra shares etc.

 

All the info I've ever needed was direct from their site

[cookie_monster]

Starting to get the hang now.

[mattx]

Learn FreeNAS

 

I have just finished building our 5th Freenas box for video content - this time I've got it working alongside AD for authentication - that and now QuiXplorer is now embedded into it, it makes adjusting file permissions a great deal easier.

[ranj]

I am unable to resolve a issue with FreeNAS from LiveCD 0.691 (latest x86 version)

 

I am currently building a freenas box with an integrated Realtek RTL8111c NIC. When I run the console to assign my network card ("Assign Interface"), auto detection doesn't recognize the card.

 

Can anyone help?

[mattx]

I am unable to resolve a issue with FreeNAS from LiveCD 0.691 (latest x86 version)

 

I am currently building a freenas box with an integrated Realtek RTL8111c NIC. When I run the console to assign my network card ("Assign Interface"), auto detection doesn't recognize the card.

 

Can anyone help?

 

I would check first to see if the card is supported by FreeBSD,

 

http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.4R/hardware-i386.html#ETHERNET

 

Take a look at:

 

http://www.sebsgarage.com/2009/01/realtek-rtl8111c-freenas-0-69

 

but before that before you auto detect the card remove the RJ45 lead first. The setup should then ask you to insert the cable again.

FYI - I had a problem with a realtek gigabit nic on .691 and in the end just put in an old Kingston 100 meg card in.

Also may be worth checking to see if you don't have duplex mis-match between the nic and your switch. Maybe set the switch to force the duplex [ if your switch can ]

And to be honest 100meg full duplex I find on my FreeNAS boxes [ and I have built around 10 of them !! ] is fine for me.....Of course your requirements may be different.

Edited June 10, 2009 by mattx

[ranj]

Hi

 

i'm afraid I am back. I am still having major issues with setting up the FreeNas box.

 

I was in luck with the network issue as Freenas just released a new release a few days ago and that resolved the problem for the network issue I was having.

 

Now I have run into another problem. This time to do with setting up the disk storage and for freenas to see it.

 

This is the setup

 

Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L Motherboard Intel Core 2 Extreme Socket 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Gigabit Ethernet

Intel Core 2 Duo (E7400) 2.8GHz Processor 3072KB L2 Cache 1066MHz FSB

Antec - PSU/Basiq Power 500W ATX 12V PSU - £45.30ex

1232613 Kingston - Memory/2GB 800MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 DIMM

Adaptec 4-Port SATA/SAS PCI-Express 128MB RAID 3405 Card (RoHS) – Kit -

4x ST31500341AS Seagate HD Barracuda 7200.11/1.5TB SATA 7200rpm 32MB for data

1 X 40gb Sata drive for boot purposes only

 

So the Freenas server has the latest release on there. Its booting fine, I can access through web and all is well except I am having problems creating the disk.

 

Now I did setup the disks via RAID5 through the Adaptec hardware controller, was this the right thing to do? or would I be better erasing the RAID structure from the controller and letting freenas manage this? I suspect the option I have chosen is better because the hardware is dealing with any possible HD failure but does freenas have an issue with this?

 

So basically all 4 1.5tb disks are configured as 1 big raid5 volume to give me 4tb usable storage. Freenas see's this through the console but can anyone offer advice on how to get it working. The only part I have got working is adding the disk through disk management using ufs file system and the disk is 'online'

 

In disk mount option i get the following message

 

•Wrong partition type or partition number through disk mount

 

If I try to format the RAID5 volume I get

 

•Can't format the OS origin disk!

 

In the command output it says:

 

Deleting MBR and partition table...

dd: /dev/aacd0: Operation not permitted

Creating partition...

gpt create: unable to open device '/dev/aacd0': No such file or directory

gpt add: unable to open device '/dev/aacd0': No such file or directory

Creating filesystem with 'Soft Updates'...

newfs: /dev/aacd0p1: could not find special device

Done!

 

It seems like its half doing it and then failing but I just cant see the drive when creating a afp share for example as I am going to use it to backup our Mac server data.

 

Any help would be really appreciated and guaranteed thank you. I am at a loss with this one.

 

I'm tempted to look at openfiler if I cant get it working through freenas.

[ranj]

Sorry I also checked that the RAID controller was compatible with the latest edition of freebsd and it was.

 

thanks

[mac_shinobi]

what about openfiler instead ?

 

 

Openfiler — Openfiler - Open Source Storage Management Appliance

[mattx]

If you have already created the RAID using the hardware RAID controller then FreeNAS should see that as a logical drive - [ just like setting up any other RAID ] It sounds like it has which is all fine and dandy.

Now its just a case of adding the disk using the disk management menu, formatting it [ making sure its status is set to online ] and then mounting it making also sure the CIFS service is running and you have setup a share.

Now you are trying to setup a AFP server using FreeNAS which is something I have never done - so check this out - it may offer some help for you:

 

signius: FreeNAS AFP server with OS X client

 

You are almost there, don't give up now !!

[ranj]

Hi

 

Just to let you know I got this working, I found an article at the freenas knowledge base which had the answer:

 

FreeNAS Knowledgebase / 303. How can I mount a partition, drive or RAID over 2TB?

 

If you have storage which is over 2tb it needs to be setup in the following way:

 

►WebGUI ►Disks ► Management:select your disk(raid ) and on “Preformated FS” select “UFS (EFI/GPT) with Soft Updates (use 8% space disk)”

 

►WebGUI ►Disks ► Management ► Format : select your disk(raid) on “File system” select “UFS(EFI/GPT) with Soft Updates (use 8% space disk)”

 

►WebGUI ► Disks ► Mount Point: Mount your disk(raid) on "Partition" select GPT

 

tryed this and it works. Finally got it working!! Thanks for the suggestions.