Linux Server-FreeNAS Server

Article Title: A Preliminary Study on linux Server-FreeNAS server. Linux is a technology channel of the IT lab in China. Includes basic categories such as desktop applications, Linux system management, kernel research, embedded systems, and open source.

(Original article: http://hardware.newsforge.com/hardw.pdf ...... 06. shtml? Tid = 69)

FreeNAS is an open-source NAS server that converts a common PC to network storage (http://www.webopedia.com/term/n/net ...... Ed_storage.html) server. Based on FreeBSD, Samba, and PHP, the software includes an operating system and webpage User Interface Supporting Multiple soft RAID modes. Users can access storage servers through Windows, Macs, FTP, SSH, and Network File System (NFS). FreeNAS can be installed on hard disks or mobile media, with less than 16 MB of space.

FreeNAS is free and easy to install. It is an open-source Project released based on the BSD license. The software is very popular, with more than 20 thousand downloads last month alone.

I download (http://www.freenas.org/index.php? Op ...... Id = 20 & Itemid = 32) The FreeNAS 0.66 ISO image file is burned into a CD. The host that installs FreeNAS must have at least 96 MB of memory, one Nic and one hard disk. I am using an old computer with four hard disks. I want to install FreeNAS on one of the hard disks, and the remaining three hard disks constitute RAID 5. since my computer only supports four IDE hard disks, I temporarily replace one of them with a CD-ROM. After FreeNAS is installed, I will call the hard disk back and start the related configuration.

Start the computer with the newly installed CD to run FreeNAS, but some configuration work is still required. For more information, see FreeNAS installation and user manual.

(Http://www.freenas.org/downloads/dow ...... FreeNAS-SUG.pdf ).

Note that the FreeNAS server does not automatically assign an IP address to the NIC during initial configuration. at first, I thought that the machine had only one Nic and it would be automatically regarded as the NIC of the system. because it could not be connected, I checked the network connection for an hour and found that I was wrong. You must follow the instructions in the "Nic and IP configuration" chapter in the user manual to set the NIC.

After the configuration is complete, enter the FreeNAS Server IP address in the address bar of the web browser, and enter the default username admin and password freenas to log on to the system. The start page displays some system information, such as the version number and memory usage. There is a menu on the left.

The first thing I want to do is to make the RAID hard disk work. Once again, the user manual is a friend of yours. The instructions in the manual are clear and provide guidance to you step by step.

The entire hard disk is required for RAID. Therefore, if FreeNAS is installed on one of the hard disks (instead of the U disk), the hard disk cannot be part of the RAID. At the same time, to maximize the use of RAID hard disk space, please use the same size or similar hard disk. Due to design defects, FreeNAS must use hard disks of the same size.

Another important thing to note is that when creating a RAID loading point, you must change the partition type to soft RAID. I didn't do this when I started to set the RAID, causing the RAID to not work and almost scratched the scalp.

In order to allow RAID to be accessed through the network, the last step is to configure network services, such as CIFS and Windows "> FTP. Windows uses the CIFS protocol to access files on the network. CIFS is configured on the CIFS page of the Service Section. Check the Enable box and enter the name of the workgroup to Enable it. The anonymous authentication method is the easiest to use. You can find options for local user authentication and domain user authentication. Click Save to access the FreeNAS server. Try copying some files and you will see the hard disk indicator flashing together quickly, proving that the RAID hard disk is working together.

FreeNAS provides complete web page management functions. Therefore, you do not need to use command lines to manage the server. In fact, a complete Shell can be obtained through SSH, but I don't think that is necessary. From the freenas.org technical support forum, we can see that some special configuration work is indeed performed using the command prompt line. However, the web page management interface is sufficient for general users.

During the test, I found that the FreeNAS master system was stable. However, if the problem persists, the system configuration may become messy. For example, when creating the first local user, I ignored the prompt to create a group first and tried to create the user blindly. The result resulted in some internal errors, all subsequent local user verification fails. The only way to correct the error is to restore the FreeNAS server to the factory status and configure it again from the beginning. If you follow the related warning prompt, the problem should not occur.

To protect the server security, you must change the default password on the webpage management interface. If the permission to log on to the system directly from the server is not restricted, it is necessary to disable the console menu.

What is unsatisfactory about the software is that the read and write permissions of shared directories cannot be set hierarchically. In local user authentication mode, the user can completely read/write or completely prohibit read/write. Administrators cannot set read-only permissions for users or grant users the permission to read and write certain shared directories. Once the user passes the verification, he can completely read and write all the shared directories.

The FreeNAS server is promising; it is very active in development. 11 revised versions were released four months before June 1, 2006. It is an excellent choice for setting up a simple network storage server, saving you from the trouble of installing a whole set of Linux or FreeBSD. Moreover, it is a good way to make good use of old hardware. After all, under today's standards, its system requirements are relatively low.