Learning FreeNAS

Table of Contents

Learning FreeNAS

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

Preface

What This Book Covers

What You Need for This Book

Conventions

Reader Feedback

Customer Support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. All About NAS and FreeNAS

Network Attached Storage

What is FreeNAS?

Features

What Does FreeNAS Do for Me and My Business?

How FreeNAS Meet These Needs

Practical Uses for the FreeNAS Server

Consolidation

Summary

2. Preparing to Add FreeNAS to Your Network

Planning Your NAS

Capacity Planning

Choosing Your Hardware

CPU

Disks

Buses

Drives

Multiple Disk Drives

Memory, Network Card, PCI, and USB

Planning for Backup

What is RAID? And, Do I Need It?

Hardware or Software RAID

Network Considerations

Switch or Hub?

What About Wireless?

Summary

3. Exploring FreeNAS

Downloading FreeNAS

What Hardware Do I Need?

Warning

Quick Start Guide For the Impatient

Burning and Booting

Configuring

Sharing with Windows Machines

Testing the Share

Detailed Overview of Installation

Making the FreeNAS CD

Booting from CD

Phoenix BIOS

Phoenix-Award BIOS

AMI BIOS

First Look at FreeNAS

Configuring the Network

What is a LAN IP Address?

Basic Configuration

FreeNAS Web Interface

System

Interfaces

Disks

Services

Access

Status

Diagnostics

Advanced

Adding a Disk

Accessing the Disk via CIFS

Testing the Share

Accessing via FTP

Testing FTP Access

Installing to Hard Disk

Embedded versus Full

Upgrading FreeNAS from a Previous Version

Summary

4. Connecting to the FreeNAS

Introduction

Connecting via CIFS

Configure CIFS on the FreeNAS Server

CIFS Settings Explained

CIFS Advanced Settings

Options when Adding Shares

What does It Mean to Map a Network Drive?

Connecting with CIFS via Windows Millennium

Using CIFS with Windows XP

FreeNAS, CIFS, and Windows Vista

Accessing the FreeNAS via CIFS from Linux

A CIFS Connection from OS X

FTP

Using the Command Line FTP Client

Using a Web Browser for FTP

NFS

Using NFS from OS X

Mount FreeNAS via NFS on Linux

RSYNCD, Unison, AFP, and UPnP

Using RSYNC for Backups

Using Unison for Backups and Synchronization

Connecting to FreeNAS via AFP

Streaming Media with UPnP

iSCSI Target

Testing the iSCSI Target with Another FreeNAS Server

Testing the iSCSI Target with Windows Vista

Accessing Your Files Using HTTP and the Built-In Web Server

Summary

5. User and System Administration

Introduction

Local User Management

Using CIFS with Local Users

FTP and User Login

Authenticating AFP Users

Connect to the FreeNAS Server via SSH

Services that Don't Use Local User Accounts

Using FreeNAS with the Microsoft Active Directory

System Admin

How to Change the Web GUI User Name and Password

Rebooting and Shutting Down

How to Set the Hostname of the Server

Configuring the Web Interface to use HTTPS

Changing the Web Interface Port

How to Set a DNS Server

How to Set the Language for the Web Interface

Date and Time Configuration

How to Disable Console Menu

How to Stop the Startup and Shutdown Beeps

Adding Predefined Network Hosts

Reset the Server to the Factory Defaults

Simple Network Administration

Disabling Bonjour/ZeroConf

Getting Status Information About the Server

Sending Status Report by Email

Summary

6. Configuring Storage

Introduction

How FreeNAS Handles Data Disks

UNIX Device Names

Adding the Disk

Formatting a Newly Added Disk

Mounting Your Newly Formatted Disks

Making the New Disk Available on the Network

Configuring Software RAID on FreeNAS

RAID All Starts with Adding the Disks

Configuring RAID 1

Configuring RAID 5

Configuring JBOD or RAID 0

Nested RAID Configurations

Configuring RAID 1+0

Configuring RAID 0+1

Configuring RAID 5+0

Configuring RAID 5+1

RAID 10+0 and Beyond

iSCSI Initiator

Summary

7. Backup Strategies

Backup Your FreeNAS Using Windows XP's Built-In Backup Utility

Setting Scheduled Backups with XP's Built-In Backup Utility

Restoring a FreeNAS Backup Made with XP's Built-In Backup Utility

Backing Up the FreeNAS Configuration Files

Backup Configuration

What is XML?

Restore Configuration

Using Another FreeNAS Server as a Backup Server

Debugging Your RSYNC Setup

RSYNC Internal Backup

Debugging Your Internal RSYNC Setup

Mirroring vs Conventional Backups

Summary

8. Advanced System Configuration

Disk Encryption

Encrypting a Disk in FreeNAS

Entering the Password When You Reboot

Encryption Tools

How to Unlock an Encrypted Disk—Attach and Detach

How to Change the Password on an Encrypted Disk—setkey

Checking the Status of an Encrypted Disk—list and status

Advanced Hard Drive Parameters (S.M.A.R.T)

Enabling and using S.M.A.R.T of the FreeNAS

File System Consistency Check—FSCK

Advanced OS Tweaking

Tweaking the Network Settings

MTU, Device Polling, Speed, and Duplex

Adding a Static Route

Using Wireless

Adding a Swap File

Enabling Secure Shell Connections (SSH)

Allow Root Login

Types of SSH Authentication

Summary

9. General Troubleshooting

Where to Look for Log Information

Diagnostics: Logs

Understanding Diagnostics—Logs: System

Converting between Device Names and the Real World

Networking Problems

General Connection Problems

Using Ping

Using Ping from within the Web Interfaces

Using ARP Tables to Solve Network Problems

Gigabit Transfers are Slow

Problems Connecting to Shares (via CIFS)

Windows Vista Asks for My Username and Password for Anonymous Shares

There are Two FreeNAS Servers on the Network, but Windows Can only See One

Turning On Logging to Help Solve Windows Networking Problems

Diagnostics: Information

Replacing a Failed Hard Drive in a RAID Set

Rebuilding a RAID 1 Array After Disk Failure

Rebuilding a RAID 5 Array After Disk Failure

Where to Go for More Help

Summary

10. FreeBSD and Command Line Tools

Introduction to FreeBSD

Your First FreeBSD Commands

Print the Working Directory with pwd

Directory Listings (ls)

Change Directory with cd

Copy a File and Change Its Permissions (cp and chmod)

Connecting to FreeBSD Using Putty

Monitoring your FreeNAS Server from the Command Line

See Which Disks are Mounted with mount

Check Disk Space Usage with df

Discover the Size of Directories Using du

Process Monitoring Using ps and top

Advanced FreeBSD Commands for FreeNAS

Starting and Stopping Services

Getting Drastic with kill and killall

RAID Command Line Tools

Warning

List and Status Commands

JBOD and gconcat

RAID 0 and gstripe

RAID 1 and gmirror

RAID 5 and graid5

Where the FreeNAS Stores Things

Miscellaneous & Sundries

Using ping and arp from the Command Line

Creating Directories and Deleting Things

Editing Files Using nano

Shutting Down Using the Command Line

Summary

Index

Learning FreeNAS

Gary Sims

Learning FreeNAS

Copyright © 2008 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: August 2008

Production Reference: 1130808

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-847194-68-8

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Michelle O'Kane (<michelle@kofe.ie>)

Credits

Author

Gary Sims

Reviewers

Dan Merschi

Nathan Yocom

Robert La Gesse

Senior Acquisition Editor

David Barnes

Development Editor

Nikhil Bangera

Technical Editor

Ajay Shanker

Editorial Team Leader

Mithil Kulkarni

Project Manager

Abhijeet Deobhakta

Project Coordinator

Neelkanth Mehta

Indexer

Rekha Nair

Proofreader

Camille Guy

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Gary Sims is a freelance Linux/FreeBSD consultant and writer from the UK and has been working with open-source software since the mid 1990s. He first saw Linux while completing his degree in Business Information Systems at Portsmouth University. Then while working for Digital Equipment Corp he came in to contact with DEC's Ultrix and later Digital UNIX (formerly OSF/1). While developing enterprise software for DEC on its UNIX platforms he became more and convinced of the benefits of open source and open-source Unix-like operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD. After leaving DEC he became a software contractor and after moving to Romania in 2003 he became a freelance Linux/FreeBSD consultant and writer and started publishing articles for the Open Source Technology Group (owners of Linux.com and SourceForge.net). This then led to him writing his first book with Packt

I would like to thank my Mum and Dad for their support and enthusiasm while I was writing this book. I would also like to thank my wife for her patience and encouragement and my children for their frequent, but yet, welcome interruptions. I would also like to thank the FreeNAS community, specifically, Olivier Cochard-Labbé, Volker Theile, and Dan Merschi, without them FreeNAS wouldn't exist. I also owe a debt of gratitude to David Barnes (and all the people at Packt) for making this book possible.

About the Reviewer

Nathan Yocom is an accomplished software engineer with a focus on network security, identity, access control, and data integrity applications. With years of experience working at the system level, his involvement in the industry has ranged from creation of software like the open source Windows authentication project pGina (http://www.pgina.org), to Bynari Inc's Linux/Outlook integration suite (http://www.bynari.net), to working on Centrify Corporation's ground breaking Active Directory integration and auditing products (http://www.centrify.com).

Nathan's own publications have included several articles in trade journals such as SysAdmin Magazine, and co-authoring the Apress book The Definitive Guide to Linux Network Programming (ISBN: 1590593227).

When not hacking at code, Nathan enjoys spending time at home in the Seattle, WA area with his wife Katie, daughter Sydney, and son Ethan. Nathan can be contacted via email at: <nate@yocom.org>.

Preface

FreeNAS is a free piece of software that turns a PC into Network Attached Storage (NAS). It supports connections from Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. It supports RAID, has a simple web GUI, and modest system requirements. Since FreeNAS is an embedded operating system, it is compact, efficient, and dedicated to just one task.

This book shows system administrators, as well as home network users, how to quickly install and configure FreeNAS.

FreeNAS has a full range of advanced features including support for Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), Microsoft Active Directory, and iSCSI. The goal of this book is to show administrators how to use these advanced features and exploit the full potential of the FreeNAS software.

The FreeNAS software is suitable for home use as well as enterprise deployment and as such this book also covers the planning and administration tasks for both types of environment. This book also has a chapter dedicated to problem solving, and much more...

What This Book Covers

Chapter 1 is a high level look at Network Attached Storage (NAS), and more specifically, the FreeNAS software. We will cover the basic idea behind NAS and the philosophy of the FreeNAS server. This chapter is less hands-on than the others in this book, but it is important to understand the concepts of Network Attached Storage and where the FreeNAS server fits into your business.

Chapter 2 will look at the basic planning points including: Capacity planning, Hardware requirements, Planning for backup, Redundancy needs, and Network infrastructure.

Chapter 3 will install the FreeNAS server, and we'll start looking at the basic configuration.

Chapter 4 shall look at the different services and protocols supported by FreeNAS, and we'll also see examples of how various platforms like Windows, OS X, and Linux can use the FreeNAS server for file sharing, backup, and streaming multimedia.

Chapter 5 will look at the different system administration tasks for the FreeNAS server as well as user administration.

Chapter 6 will look at how to manage hard disks in the FreeNAS server and how to configure them to form RAID sets that improve fault tolerance and increase drive performance.

Chapter 7 shall explore the different options that exist to back up the data on the FreeNAS server including using RSYNC to a second local disk as well as to a remote machine.

Chapter 8 looks at Advanced System Configuration like disk encryption, adding a swap space, and tweaking FreeBSD.

Chapter 9 is a guide on how to solve problems with your FreeNAS server. It covers where to look for information about the problem as well as how to hunt down problems by being methodical. It also looks at the common problems people have with their FreeNAS servers including networking problems and problems with RAID.

Chapter 10 will look at some simple FreeBSD commands and also some fundamental FreeBSD administration tasks, including stop and starting different services as well as controlling RAID from the command line.

What You Need for This Book

To get the most from this book you will need a copy of the FreeNAS server software and one or more PCs on which to install it. You will need the ability to burn a CDROM and you will possibly need a USB flash disk. You will need a network and a separate client PC with a web browser. The client PC can use Windows, OS X, Linux or any other OS that support web browsing. FreeNAS can be administered using almost any web browser including Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer.

Since the FreeNAS server is configured via a web interface, it is assumed that the reader has a basic knowledge of using browser software.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive.

A block of code will be set as follows:

        192.168.1.251

        24

        192.168.1.254

Any command-line input and output is written as follows:

Apr 1 11:06:00    kernel: real memory = 268435456 (256 MB)

Apr 1 11:06:00    kernel: avail memory = 252907520 (241 MB)

New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen.

Note

Important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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Errata

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Chapter 1. All About NAS and FreeNAS

The first chapter is a high level look at Network Attached Storage (NAS), and more specifically, the FreeNAS software. We will cover the basic idea behind NAS and the philosophy of the FreeNAS server. This chapter is less hands-on than the others in this book, but it is important to understand the concepts of Network Attached Storage and where the FreeNAS server fits into your business. The main topics for this chapter include:

What is Network Attached Storage?

What is FreeNAS?

What are the features of FreeNAS?

What does FreeNAS do for me and my business?

Network Attached Storage

In the mid 80s, two popular computer companies independently started to work on ways to access files, over the network, on another computer as if the hard drive of that remote computer was attached to the local machine. These two companies were Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. The Sun Microsystems method, which was for their UNIX operating system, is known as the Network File System (NFS) and was subsequently implemented in almost all versions of the UNIX operating system including Linux. The Microsoft solution (which they actually joint developed with IBM in the initial stages) became known as SMB (Server Message Block) but in later years was renamed as the Common Internet File System (CIFS).

The general functionality of NFS and CIFS are very similar, and with either installed on a networked computer, it can read and write to the file system on another networked computer. Windows users are most used to this concept via the Network Neighborhood (Windows 95/98) or My Network Places (Windows ME, 2000 and XP) or more recently Network and Sharing Center (Vista). Here, you can browse the local network for other PCs and read and write files on that machine as long as the owner shared it with you.

This ability to use a remote computer (a fileserver) to store files led to many companies deploying large centralized NFS Servers or Windows Servers that were accessed by hundreds and maybe thousands of UNIX workstations or PC clients. Users would then be encouraged to store all important files on these servers as the IT staff would back up the servers regularly and so back up the important user files.

Storage space has always been an important aspect of computer systems. Today, more than ever, hard disk space is in demand. Back in the 1960s, storage was measured in bytes (8 binary digits, taking a value of either 0 or 1) and kilobytes. Then, as computers advanced, storage (including hard disks) grew to the size of megabytes (1024 kilobytes) and then gigabytes (1024 megabytes) and today with the 21st century well underway, computer storage is into the realm of terabytes (1024 gigabytes).

With modern needs for video and audio, combined with high speed local networks and the access protocols of CIFS and NFS, a new kind of storage solution has appeared: Network Attached Storage or NAS for short. A NAS server is similar to a traditional file server in many ways, especially in respects to the hardware side of the server. But a NAS server is much more specialized than a traditional office or departmental server in that it only provides access to storage via the network. It is not designed to run other applications such as databases or email servers, which other types of server might. Normally, NAS servers don't require a keyboard, mouse or monitor permanently connected to them and for day-to-day administration, a web interface is used instead.

Here is an example of the FreeNAS web interface:

To access the data on the server, a typical NAS will support multiples access protocols and so allow Microsoft Windows clients, Apple OS X clients, and UNIX (including Linux) clients to connect and use the data on the server.

NAS servers normally contain one or more hard disks, and these hard disks can be combined to create large contiguous areas of storage or used in a way to create redundancy. In a redundancy set-up, if a hard disk fails then the system keeps working and your data isn't lost.

NAS servers come in all shapes and sizes. There are several companies that offer compact NAS servers with an embedded operating system and space for maybe two hard drives. These units are relatively cheap but offer limited room for expansion. At the other end of the scale, are dedicated NAS servers that look more like traditional file servers with good processing power and space for several hard disks (which can make the NAS capable of hosting several terabytes of data).

Here is how a NAS might fit into your network environment:

Network Attached Storage has several advantages over a traditional file server in that:

NAS offers better security. As the server is only running a dedicated operating system for providing the access to your data, there