FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide

FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 1 of 164
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 2 of 164
FreeNAS™ is © 2011, 2012 iXsystems
FreeNAS™ is a trademark of iXsystems
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of the FreeBSD Foundation
Cover art by Jenny Rosenberg
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 3 of 164
Table of Contents
Section 1: Introduction and Installation
1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8
1.1 Hardware Requirements……………………………………………………………………………………………….9
1.1.1 Architecture………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9
1.1.2 RAM…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..9
1.1.3 Compact or USB Flash………………………………………………………………………………………..10
1.1.4 Storage Disks and Controllers………………………………………………………………………………10
1.1.5 Network Interfaces………………………………………………………………………………………………11
1.1.6 RAID Overview………………………………………………………………………………………………….11
1.1.7 ZFS Overview…………………………………………………………………………………………………….13
1.2 What’s New ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………14
1.3 Features…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….15
1.4 Known Issues…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….16
1.5 Roadmap for 8.2………………………………………………………………………………………………………..16
2 Installing FreeNAS™………………………………………………………………………………………………………..17
2.1 Getting FreeNAS™……………………………………………………………………………………………………18
2.2 Installing from CDROM……………………………………………………………………………………………..19
2.3 Installing from the Image…………………………………………………………………………………………….21
2.3.1 Using xzcat and dd on a FreeBSD or Linux System………………………………………………..21
2.3.2 Using Keka and dd on an OS X System…………………………………………………………………22
2.3.3 Using physdiskwrite on Windows…………………………………………………………………………22
2.4 Initial Setup……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….23
2.5 Upgrading FreeNAS™……………………………………………………………………………………………….25
2.5.1 Using the ISO……………………………………………………………………………………………………..26
2.5.2 From the GUI …………………………………………………………………………………………………….28
2.5.2.1If Something Goes Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Section 2: Using the Graphical Interface
3 Account Configuration………………………………………………………………………………………………………30
3.1 My Account………………………………………………………………………………………………………………31
3.2 Groups……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..32
3.3 Users………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..34
4 System Configuration………………………………………………………………………………………………………..36
4.1 Reporting………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….37
4.2 Settings…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….37
4.2.1 General Tab………………………………………………………………………………………………………..38
4.2.2 Advanced Tab…………………………………………………………………………………………………….39
4.2.3 Email Tab…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..41
4.2.4 SSL Tab……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..42
4.3 System Information……………………………………………………………………………………………………43
4.4 Cron Jobs………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….44
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 4 of 164
4.5 Loaders…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….45
4.5.1 Recovering From Incorrect Loaders………………………………………………………………………47
4.6 Rsync Tasks………………………………………………………………………………………………………………48
4.6.1 Creating an Rsync Task………………………………………………………………………………………..48
4.6.2 Configuring Rsync Between Two FreeNAS™ Systems……………………………………………50
4.7 S.M.A.R.T. Tests………………………………………………………………………………………………………..51
4.8 Sysctls………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………53
5 Network Configuration………………………………………………………………………………………………………54
5.1 Global Configuration………………………………………………………………………………………………….54
5.2 Network Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………………..55
5.3 Interfaces…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..56
5.4 Link Aggregations……………………………………………………………………………………………………..57
5.5 Static Routes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..61
5.6 VLANs……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..61
6 Storage Configuration……………………………………………………………………………………………………….62
6.1 Periodic Snapshot Tasks……………………………………………………………………………………………..62
6.2 Replication Tasks……………………………………………………………………………………………………….65
6.2.1 Configuring SSH Key Based Authentication…………………………………………………………..66
6.2.2 Creating the Replication Task……………………………………………………………………………….68
6.2.3 Testing Replication……………………………………………………………………………………………..69
6.2.4 Troubleshooting………………………………………………………………………………………………….70
6.3 Volumes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………71
6.3.1 Auto Importing Volumes………………………………………………………………………………………71
6.3.2 Importing Volumes………………………………………………………………………………………………72
6.3.3 Creating Volumes………………………………………………………………………………………………..73
6.3.4 Adding to an Existing Volume………………………………………………………………………………75
6.3.5 Creating ZFS Datasets…………………………………………………………………………………………75
6.3.6 Creating a zvol……………………………………………………………………………………………………77
6.3.7 Setting Permissions……………………………………………………………………………………………..78
6.3.8 Viewing Volumes………………………………………………………………………………………………..79
6.3.9 Replacing a Failed Drive……………………………………………………………………………………..82
6.3.10 Hot Swapping a ZFS Failed Drive……………………………………………………………………….84
7 Sharing Configuration……………………………………………………………………………………………………….84
7.1 AFP Shares………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..85
7.1.1 Creating AFP Shares……………………………………………………………………………………………85
7.1.2 Connecting to AFP Shares As Guest………………………………………………………………………87
7.1.3 Using Time Machine……………………………………………………………………………………………90
7.2 CIFS Shares………………………………………………………………………………………………………………91
7.2.1 Creating CIFS Shares…………………………………………………………………………………………..92
7.2.2 Configuring Anonymous Access……………………………………………………………………………93
7.2.3 Configuring Local User Access…………………………………………………………………………….98
7.3 NFS Shares……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..102
7.3.1 Creating NFS Shares………………………………………………………………………………………….102
7.3.2 Sample NFS Share Configuration………………………………………………………………………..103
7.3.3 Connecting to the NFS Share………………………………………………………………………………104
7.3.3.1From BSD or Linux Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.3.3.2From Microsoft Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 5 of 164
7.3.3.3From Mac OS X Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7.3.4 Troubleshooting………………………………………………………………………………………………..106
8 Services Configuration…………………………………………………………………………………………………….107
8.1 Control Services……………………………………………………………………………………………………….107
8.2 AFP………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..108
8.3 Active Directory……………………………………………………………………………………………………….109
8.3.1 Troubleshooting Tips………………………………………………………………………………………….112
8.4 CIFS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….112
8.4.1 Troubleshooting Tips………………………………………………………………………………………….115
8.5 Dynamic DNS………………………………………………………………………………………………………….115
8.6 FTP………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..117
8.6.1 Anonymous FTP……………………………………………………………………………………………….119
8.6.2 Specified User Access in chroot………………………………………………………………………….120
8.6.3 Encrypting FTP…………………………………………………………………………………………………123
8.6.4 Troubleshooting………………………………………………………………………………………………..123
8.7 LDAP……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..124
8.8 NFS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..125
8.9 S.M.A.R.T………………………………………………………………………………………………………………126
8.10 SNMP…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..127
8.11 SSH………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………128
8.11.1 Chrooting SFTP users ……………………………………………………………………………………..130
8.11.2 Troubleshooting SSH Connections…………………………………………………………………….134
8.12 TFTP…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….134
8.13 UPS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………135
8.14 iSCSI…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….136
8.14.1 Target Global Configuration……………………………………………………………………………..137
8.14.2 Authorized Accesses………………………………………………………………………………………..140
8.14.3 Device Extents………………………………………………………………………………………………..141
8.14.4 Extents……………………………………………………………………………………………………………143
8.14.5 Initiators…………………………………………………………………………………………………………143
8.14.6 Portals……………………………………………………………………………………………………………145
8.14.7 Targets……………………………………………………………………………………………………………145
8.14.8 Target/Extents………………………………………………………………………………………………..147
8.14.9 Connecting to iSCSI Share……………………………………………………………………………….147
8.15 Rsync……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………148
8.15.1 Rsync Modules………………………………………………………………………………………………..148
9 Additional Options………………………………………………………………………………………………………….150
9.1 Display System Processes………………………………………………………………………………………….150
9.2 Reboot…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….150
9.3 Shutdown………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..151
9.4 Log Out…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..151
9.5 Help……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….152
9.6 Alert……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….152
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 6 of 164
Section 3: Getting Help
10 FreeNAS™ Support Resources……………………………………………………………………………………….152
10.1 Website and Social Media………………………………………………………………………………………..153
10.2 Trac Database…………………………………………………………………………………………………………153
10.3 IRC……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….153
10.4 Mailing Lists………………………………………………………………………………………………………….154
10.5 Forums………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….154
10.6 Instructional Videos………………………………………………………………………………………………..156
10.7 Professional Support……………………………………………………………………………………………….156
10.8 FAQs…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….156
10.8.1 Can a RAID-Z array be expanded? For example, if I start off with a 8x2TB RAID-Z2
array can I add more drives to it in the future? ……………………………………………………………..156
10.8.2 Is there a command to force FreeBSD to scan for new disks? I’m trying to add some
disks to my array using the hot-swappable bays and a 3ware SATA card. The drives go in fine
and light up, but the operating system can’t see them. ……………………………………………………157
10.8.3 If my hardware/motherboard dies, can I rebuild with new/different hardware and still
import/read the data from my disks? What about my datasets?……………………………………….157
10.8.4 How do I replace a bad drive?…………………………………………………………………………..157
10.8.5 Can I share files from my external USB drive?……………………………………………………158
10.8.6 Can I mount my MAC formatted drive?……………………………………………………………..158
10.8.7 How do I get to the command line /CLI/shell?…………………………………………………….158
10.8.8 Does FreeNAS support 4k sector drives? How do I check if it is configured?…………158
10.8.9 My network transfer speeds are very slow, what is wrong?…………………………………..158
10.8.10 Why do changes I make at the command line to config files or settings disappear after
a reboot?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..159
Section 4: Contributing to FreeNAS™
11 How to Get Involved……………………………………………………………………………………………………..159
11.1 Assist with Localization ………………………………………………………………………………………….159
11.2 Submit Bug Reports………………………………………………………………………………………………..161
11.3 Test Upcoming Versions………………………………………………………………………………………….163
11.3.1 Upcoming Version 8.2………………………………………………………………………………………163
11.3.2 Testing a Nightly Snapshot……………………………………………………………………………….163
11.3.3 Rolling Your Own Testing Snapshot…………………………………………………………………..163
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 7 of 164
Section 1: Introduction and Installation
Preface
Written by users of the FreeNAS™ network-attached storage operating system.
Version 8.0.3
Published January 17, 2012
Copyright © 2011, 2012 iXsystems.
This Guide covers the installation and use of FreeNAS™ 8.0.3. If you are running a version of
FreeNAS™ 8.x that is earlier than FreeNAS™ 8.0.3, it is strongly recommended that you upgrade to or
install FreeNAS™ 8.0.3. This version fixes many bugs from previous 8.x versions and several features
mentioned in this Guide were not available or did not work as documented in earlier versions of
FreeNAS™ 8.x.
The FreeNAS™ Users Guide is a work in progress and relies on the contributions of many individuals.
If you are interested in helping us to improve the Guide, visit doc.freenas.org and create a wiki login
account. If you use IRC Freenode, you are welcome to join the #freenas channel where you will find
other FreeNAS™ users.
The FreeNAS™ Users Guide is freely available for sharing and redistribution under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License. This means that you have permission to copy, distribute,
translate, and adapt the work as long as you attribute iXsystems as the original source of the Guide.
FreeNAS™ is a trademark of iXsystems.
FreeBSD and the FreeBSD logo are registered trademarks of the FreeBSD Foundation.
Typographic Conventions
The FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide uses the following typographic conventions:
bold text: represents a command written at the command line. In usage examples, the font is changed
to Courier 10 with any command output displayed in unbolded text.
italic text: used to represent device names or file name paths.
bold italic text: used to emphasize an important point.
1 Introduction
FreeNAS™ is an embedded open source network-attached storage (NAS) system based on FreeBSD
and released under a BSD license. A NAS provides an operating system that has been optimized for file
storage and sharing.
The FreeNAS™ Project was originally founded by Olivier Cochard-Labbé in 2005 and was based on
m0n0wall, an embedded firewall based on FreeBSD. It was PHP based, easy-to-use, and had lots of
features. In December of 2009, Olivier announced that the .7 branch would be placed in maintenanceonly
mode as he no longer had time to devote to further FreeNAS™ development. Volker Theile, a
FreeNAS™ developer who also develops on Debian in his day job, decided to start the
OpenMediaVault project, which would be a rewrite of FreeNAS™ based on Debian Linux and released
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 8 of 164
under the terms of the GpLv3 license. Many FreeNAS™ users were not pleased about the change of
license and the loss of kernel-based ZFS support due to GPL incompatibilities with the CDDL license.
iXsystems, a provider of FreeBSD-based hardware solutions and professional support, took the
initiative to continue the development of a BSD licensed FreeNAS™ solution based on FreeBSD. They
took the opportunity to analyze the positives (lots of cool features) and negatives (monolithic,
everything-but-the-kitchen-sink design that was difficult to maintain and support). It was decided that
the next version would be rewritten from scratch using a modular design that would support plugins.
This would allow FreeNAS™ to have a small footprint that was easy to support while allowing users to
just install the plugins for the features they desired. It would have the added benefit of allowing users to
create and contribute plugins for niche features, allowing its usage cases to grow with users’ needs.
Work on the new design began in 2010 and the initial redesigned version, FreeNAS™ 8.0, was released
on May 2, 2011. Working with the community to fix the bugs and add the features needed within the
core portion of the NAS resulted in FreeNAS™ 8.0.1 which was released on September 30, 2011.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.2 was released on October 13, 2011 and provided additional bug fixes. FreeNAS™
8.0.3 was released on January 3, 2012. This latest release provides full NAS functionality suited for
both home use and production environments. It does not contain all of the features provided by
FreeNAS .7–the upcoming 8.2 release and its plugin architecture will allow the creation of plugins so
that missing features can be installed by the users that require them.
1.1 Hardware Requirements
Since FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 is based on FreeBSD 8.2, it supports the same hardware found in the amd64
and i386 sections of the FreeBSD 8.2 Hardware Compatibility List .
Actual hardware requirements will vary depending upon what you are using your FreeNAS™ system
for. This section provides some guidelines to get you started. You should also skim through the
FreeNAS™ Hardware Forum for performance tips from other FreeNAS™ users. The Hardware Forum
is also an excellent place to post questions regarding your hardware setup or the hardware best suited to
meet your requirements.
1.1.1 Architecture
While FreeNAS™ is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, you should use 64-bit hardware
if you care about speed or performance. A 32-bit system can only address up to 4GB of RAM, making
it poorly suited to the RAM requirements of ZFS. If you only have access to a 32-bit system, consider
using UFS instead of ZFS.
1.1.2 RAM
The best way to get the most out of your FreeNAS™ system is to install as much RAM as possible. If
your RAM is limited, consider using UFS until you can afford better hardware. ZFS typically requires a
minimum of 6 GB of RAM in order to provide good performance; in practical terms (what you can
actually install), this means that the minimum is really 8 GB. The more RAM, the better the
performance, and the Forums provide anecdotal evidence from users on how much performance is
gained by adding more RAM. For systems with large disk capacity (greater than 6 TB), a general rule
of thumb is 1GB of RAM for every 1TB of storage.
NOTE: by default, ZFS disables pre-fetching (caching) for systems containing less than 4 GB of
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 9 of 164
usable RAM. Not using pre-fetching can really slow down performance. 4 GB of usable RAM is not
the same thing as 4 GB of installed RAM as the operating system resides in RAM. This means that the
practical pre-fetching threshold is 6 GB, or 8 GB of installed RAM. You can still use ZFS with less
RAM, but performance will be effected.
If you are installing FreeNAS™ on a headless system, disable the shared memory settings for the video
card in the BIOS.
1.1.3 Compact or USB Flash
The FreeNAS™ operating system is a running image that needs to be installed onto a USB or compact
flash device that is at least 2 GB in size. A list of compact flash drives known to work with FreeNAS™
can be found on the .7 wiki. If you don’t have compact flash, you can instead use a USB thumb drive
that is dedicated to the running image and which stays inserted in the USB slot. While technically you
can install FreeNAS™ onto a hard drive, this is discouraged as you will lose the storage capacity of the
drive. In other words, the operating system will take over the drive and will not allow you to store data
on it, regardless of the size of the drive.
The FreeNAS™ installation will partition the operating system drive into two ~1GB partitions. One
partition holds the current operating system and the other partition is used when you upgrade. This
allows you to safely upgrade to a new image or to revert to an older image should you encounter
problems.
1.1.4 Storage Disks and Controllers
The Disk section of the FreeBSD Hardware List lists the supported disk controllers. In addition,
support for 3ware 6gbps RAID controllers has been added along with the CLI utility tw_cli for
managing 3ware RAID controllers.
FreeNAS™ supports hot pluggable drives. Make sure that AHCI is enabled in the BIOS and that you
have read Hot Swapping a ZFS Failed Drive before implementing this feature.
If you have some money to spend and wish to optimize your disk subsystem, consider your read/write
needs, your budget, and your RAID requirements.
For example, moving the the ZIL (ZFS Intent Log) to a dedicated SSD only helps performance if you
have synchronous writes, like a database server. SSD cache devices only help if your working set is
larger than system RAM, but small enough that a significant percentage of it will fit on the SSD.
If you have steady, non-contiguous writes, use disks with low seek times. Examples are 10K or 15K
SAS drives which cost about $1/GB. An example configuration would be six 15K SAS drives in a
RAID 10 which would yield 1.8 TB of usable space or eight 15K SAS drives in a RAID 10 which
would yield 2.4 TB of usable space.
7200 RPM SATA disks are designed for single-user sequential I/O and are not a good choice for multiuser
writes.
If you have the budget and high performance is a key requirement, consider a Fusion-I/O card which is
optimized for massive random access. These cards are expensive and are suited for high end systems
that demand performance. A Fusion-I/O can be formatted with a filesystem and used as direct storage;
when used this way, it does not have the write issues typically associated with a flash device. A Fusion-
I/O can also be used as a cache device when your ZFS dataset size is bigger than your RAM. Due to the
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 10 of 164
increased throughput, systems running these cards typically use multiple 10 GigE network interfaces.
If you will be using ZFS, Disk Space Requirements for ZFS Storage Pools recommends a minimum of
16 GB of disk space. Due to the way that ZFS creates swap, you can not format less than 3GB of space
with ZFS. However, on a drive that is below the minimum recommended size you lose a fair amount of
storage space to swap: for example, on a 4 GB drive, 2GB will be reserved for swap.
If you are new to ZFS and are purchasing hardware, read through ZFS Storage Pools
Recommendations first.
1.1.5 Network Interfaces
The FreeBSD Ethernet section of the Hardware Notes indicates which interfaces are supported by each
driver. While many interfaces are supported, FreeNAS™ users have seen the best performance from
Intel and Chelsio interfaces, so consider these brands if you are purchasing a new interface.
At a minimum you will want to use a GigE interface. While GigE interfaces and switches are
affordable for home use, it should be noted that modern disks can easily saturate 110 MB/s. If you
require a higher network throughput, you can “bond” multiple GigE cards together using the LACP
type of Link Aggregation. However, any switches will need to support LACP which means you will
need a more expensive managed switch rather than a home user grade switch.
If network performance is a requirement and you have some money to spend, use 10 GigE interfaces
and a managed switch. If you are purchasing a managed switch, consider one that supports LACP and
jumbo frames as both can be used to increase network throughput.
NOTE: at this time the following are not supported: InfiniBand, FibreChannel over Ethernet, or
wireless interfaces.
If network speed is a requirement, consider both your hardware and the type of shares that you create.
On the same hardware, CIFS will be slower than FTP or NFS as Samba is single-threaded. If you will
be using CIFS, use a fast CPU.
1.1.6 RAID Overview
Data redundancy and speed are important considerations for any network attached storage system.
Most NAS systems use multiple disks to store data, meaning you should decide what type of RAID to
use before installing FreeNAS™. This section provides an overview of RAID types to assist you in
deciding which type best suits your requirements.
RAID 0: uses data striping to store data across multiple disks. It provides zero fault tolerance, meaning
if one disk fails, all of the data on all of the disks is lost. The more disks in the RAID 0, the more likely
the chance of a failure.
RAID 1: all data is mirrored onto two disks, creating a redundant copy should one disk fail. If the disks
are on separate controllers, this form of RAID is also called duplexing.
RAID 5: requires a minimum of 3 disks and can tolerate the loss of one disk without losing data. Disk
reads are fast but write speed can be reduced by as much as 50%. If a disk fails, it is marked as
degraded but the system will continue to operate until the drive is replaced and the RAID is rebuilt.
However, should another disk fail before the RAID is rebuilt, all data will be lost. If your FreeNAS™
system will be used for steady writes, RAID 5 is a poor choice due to the slow write speed.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 11 of 164
RAID 6: requires a minimum of 4 disks and can tolerate the loss of 2 disks without losing data.
Benefits from having many disks as performance, fault tolerance, and cost efficiency are all improved
relatively with more disks. The larger the failed drive, the longer it takes to rebuild the array. Reads are
very fast but writes are slower than a RAID 5.
RAID 10: requires a minimum of 4 disks and number of disks is always even as this type of RAID
mirrors striped sets. Offers faster writes than RAID 5. Can tolerate multiple disk loss without losing
data, as long as both disks in a mirror are not lost.
RAID 60: requires a minimum of 8 disks. Combines RAID 0 striping with the distributed double parity
of RAID 6 by striping 2 4-disk RAID 6 arrays. RAID 60 rebuild times are half that of RAID 6.
RAIDZ1: ZFS software solution that is equivalent to RAID5. Its advantage over RAID 5 is that it
avoids the write-hole and doesn’t require any special hardware, meaning it can be used on commodity
disks. If your FreeNAS™ system will be used for steady writes, RAIDZ is a poor choice due to the
slow write speed. Requires a minimum of 3 disks though 5 disks is recommended (over 3, 4, or 6
disks). It should be noted that you cannot add additional drives to expand the size of a RAIDZ1 after
you have created it. The only way to increase the size of a RAIDZ1 is to replace each drive with a
larger drive one by one while allowing time for restriping between each drive swap out. However, you
can combine two existing RAIDZ1’s to increase the size of a ZFS volume (pool).
RAIDZ2: double-parity ZFS software solution that is similar to RAID-6. Its advantage over RAID 5 is
that it avoids the write-hole and doesn’t require any special hardware, meaning it can be used on
commodity disks. Requires a minimum of 3 disks. RAIDZ2 allows you to lose 1 drive without any
degradation as it basically becomes a RAIDZ1 until you replace the failed drive and restripe. At this
time, RAIDZ2 on FreeBSD is slower than RAIDZ1.
NOTE: It isn’t recommended to mix ZFS RAID with hardware RAID. It is recommended that you
place your hardware RAID controller in JBOD mode and let ZFS handle the RAID. According to
Wikipedia: ZFS can not fully protect the user’s data when using a hardware RAID controller, as it is
not able to perform the automatic self-healing unless it controls the redundancy of the disks and
data. ZFS prefers direct, exclusive access to the disks, with nothing in between that interferes. If the
user insists on using hardware-level RAID, the controller should be configured as JBOD mode (i.e.
turn off RAID-functionality) for ZFS to be able to guarantee data integrity. Note that hardware
RAID configured as JBOD may still detach disks that do not respond in time; and as such may
require TLER/CCTL/ERC-enabled disks to prevent drive dropouts. These limitations do not apply
when using a non-RAID controller, which is the preferred method of supplying disks to ZFS.
When comparing hardware RAID types conventional wisdom recommends the following in order of
preference: Raid6, Raid10, Raid5, then Raid0. If using ZFS, the recommended preference changes to
RAIDZ2. These forum posts are also worth reading:
• What is the Best RAIDZ Configuration
• Getting the Most out of ZFS Pools
• RAIDZ Configuration Requirements and Recommendations
NOTE: NO RAID SOLUTION PROVIDES A REPLACEMENT FOR A RELIABLE BACKUP
STRATEGY. BAD STUFF CAN STILL HAPPEN AND YOU WILL BE GLAD THAT YOU
BACKED UP YOUR DATA WHEN IT DOES. See section 6.1 Periodic Snapshot Tasks and section
6.2 Replication Tasks if you would like to use ZFS snapshots and rsync as part of your backup strategy.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 12 of 164
1.1.7 ZFS Overview
While ZFS isn’t hardware (it is a filesystem), an overview is included in this section as the decision to
use ZFS may impact on your hardware choices and whether or not to use hardware RAID.
If you’re new to ZFS, the Wikipedia entry on ZFS provides an excellent starting point to learn about its
features. These resources are also useful to bookmark and refer to as needed:
• ZFS Evil Tuning Guide
• FreeBSD ZFS Tuning Guide
• ZFS Best Practices Guide
• ZFS Administration Guide
• Becoming a ZFS Ninja (video)
ZFS version numbers change as features are introduced and are incremental, meaning that a version
includes all of the features introduced by previous versions. Table 1.1a summarizes various ZFS
versions, the features which were added by that ZFS version, and in which version of FreeNAS™ that
ZFS version was introduced. Recent versions of FreeNAS™ .7.x use ZFS version 13 which is why you
can’t downgrade a ZFS volume from FreeNAS™ 8.x to FreeNAS™ .7.x. FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 uses ZFS
version 15, meaning that it includes all of the features that were introduced between versions 13 to 15.
Table 1.1a: Summary of ZFS Versions
ZFS Version Features Added FreeNAS™ Version
10 cache devices .7.x
11 improved scrub performance .7.x
12 snapshot properties .7.x
13 snapused property .7.x
14 passthrough-x aclinherit property 8.0
15 user and group space accounting 8.0
16 STMF property support on roadmap
17 RAIDZ3 on roadmap
18 snapshot user holds on roadmap
19 log device removal on roadmap
20 compression using zle (zero-length encoding) on roadmap
21 deduplication on roadmap
22 received properties on roadmap
23 deferred update (slim ZIL) on roadmap
24 system attributes on roadmap
25 improved scrub stats on roadmap
26 improved snapshot deletion performance on roadmap
27 improved snapshot creation performance on roadmap
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 13 of 164
ZFS Version Features Added FreeNAS™ Version
28 multiple vdev replacements on roadmap
30 encryption Oracle has not released as open source
ZFS uses the ZIL (ZFS Intent Log) to manage writes. If you are using VMWare, the speed of the ZIL
device is essentially the write performance bottleneck when using NFS. In this scenario, iSCSI will
perform better than NFS. If you decide to create a dedicated cache device to speed up NFS writes, it
can be half the size of system RAM as anything larger than that is unused capacity. Mirroring the ZIL
device won’t increase the speed, but it will help performance and reliability if one of the drives fails.
1.2 What’s New
The FreeNAS™ 8 series represents an entire rewrite from the .7 series of FreeNAS™. In other words,
FreeNAS™ was rewritten from scratch and features were added as the new base stabilized. This means
that not every feature in the .7 series was re-implemented and some features that are not available in
FreeNAS™ .7 are available in FreeNAS™ 8.x. Notable differences between the two implementations
are as follows:
• versioning numbers have changed with the intent to have the version number reflect the base
version of FreeBSD. FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 is based on FreeBSD 8.2; as the 8 branch of FreeNAS™
becomes feature complete, its version number will increment to 8.2.
• based on NanoBSD rather than m0n0wall
• design was changed from monolithic to modularized to allow for the creation of plugins so that
users can install and configure only the modules they need
• GUI rewritten in Django to allow for future expansion
• new GUI is the default with the original GUI still available by entering the appname after the
FreeNAS™ system’s URL (e.g. http://192.168.1.1/services)
• improved management of ownership/group/permissions of volumes and datasets
• ZFS parameters per dataset, such as quotas, were added
• LSI 6 gbps HBAs are now supported
• migrated to rc.d init system
• ports updated to FreeBSD 8.2
• iSCSI support added
• support for 3ware 6bps RAID controllers has been added along with the CLI utility tw_cli for
managing 3ware RAID controllers
• added the ability to create periodic snapshot jobs, create one-time snapshots, clone snapshots
which can then be exported as shares like any other dataset, and rollback to a previous snapshot
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 14 of 164
1.3 Features
Notable features in FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 include:
• supports AFP, CIFS, FTP, NFS, SSH (including SFTP), and TFTP as file sharing mechanisms
• supports exporting file or device extents via iSCSI
• supports Active Directory or LDAP for user authentication
• supports UFS2 based volumes, including gmirror, gstripe, and graid3
• supports ZFS as the primary filesystem, enabling many features not available in UFS2 such as
quotas, snapshots, compression, replication, and datasets for sharing subsets of volumes
• upgrade procedure takes advantage of NanoBSD by writing the operating system to an inactive
partition, allowing for an easy reversal of an undesirable upgrade
• automatic system notifications about LSI RAID controller events (requires email service to be
configured)
• Django-driven graphical user interface
• rsync configuration through the graphical interface
• cron management through the graphical interface
• menu localization
• the SCSI serial number can be set on a per target basis, fixing an issue where MMIO was seeing
different FreeNAS™ servers as the same device
• multiple IPs can now be specified per iSCSI portal
• ssh daemon now logs to /var/log/auth.log
• CIFS now defaults to AIO enabled
• ZFS hot spare cutover helper application within GUI
• SMART monitoring in GUI
• UPS management in GUI
• USB 3.0 support
• ACLs and UNIX file system permissions work properly on both UFS and ZFS volumes
• periodic ZFS snapshots are now exported to CIFS shares and are visible in Windows as shadow
copies
• read-only is enabled on creation of remote filesystem to prevent accidental writes to the replica
which would break replication
• added tmux, a BSD-licensed utility similar to GNU screen
• added dmidecode which can provide very useful hardware diagnostic information
• updated the version of Intel NIC drivers to handle Intel’s latest round of hardware
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 15 of 164
• added support for Marvell MX2 SATA controllers, sold with some WD 3TB drives
• netatalk (AFP) is now compatible with OS X 10.7
1.4 Known Issues
Before installing FreeNAS™ you should be aware of the following known issues:
• UPGRADES FROM FreeNAS™ 0.7x ARE UNSUPPORTED. The system has no way to
import configuration settings from 0.7x versions of FreeNAS™, but the volume importer
should be able to handle volumes created with FreeNAS™ 0.7x. Please note that zpool upgrade
is a one way street and upgraded volumes will not be usable with FreeNAS™ 0.7x.
• The ZFS upgrade procedure is non-reversible and must be run manually. Please do not upgrade
your pools unless you are absolutely sure that you’ll never want to go back to other systems. For
clarity, zpool upgrade is a ONE-WAY street. There is no reversing it, and there is no way for a
system with an older version of ZFS to access pools that have been upgraded.
• The iSCSI target does not support a configuration reload meaning that changes to the
configuration restart the daemon.
• Disks with certain configurations can get probed by GEOM and become essentially unwritable
without manual intervention. For instance, if you use disks that previously had a gmirror on
them, the system may pick that up and the disks will be unavailable until the existing gmirror is
stopped and destroyed.
• In a departure from FreeNAS™ 0.7x, the operating system drive can not be used as a
component for a volume, nor can it be partitioned for sharing.
• Some Atom-based systems with Realtek GigE interfaces have network performance issues with
FreeBSD 8.2.
1.5 Roadmap for 8.2
8.2 is expected to be released by the end of the first quarter of 2012. Originally, this release was to be
named 8.1, but it was decided to change the upcoming release name to 8.2 to better reflect the FreeBSD
version it is based upon.
Table 1.7 lists the features which are currently being worked on and should be implemented for the 8.2
release:
Table 1.7: 8.2 Features Roadmap
Feature Status Notes
migration utility from .7 to 8.x
rsync over SSH committed
plugin system which will allow the
installation of additional applications
through the PBI system
in-progress
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 16 of 164
Feature Status Notes
UPS client
Wake on LAN support
split NTP server and options into several
fields in the GUI committed
SNMP connection to UPS
committed (and
available to
some degree via
nut in 8.0.3)
transmission support committed GUI and plugin support still not enabled
uPnP/DAAP/DLNA support
firefly support committed; GUI / plugin
support still not enabled
minidlna support committed; GUI / plugin
support still not enabled
The following features will not make it into 8.2 and are being considered for a later version of
FreeNAS™:
• encryption (with GELI?)
• automated mechanism for error reporting and user feedback
• more detailed system information
• network bandwidth reporting
• Unison
2 Installing FreeNAS™
Before installing, it is important to remember that the FreeNAS™ operating system must be installed
on a separate device from the drive(s) that will hold the storage data. In other words, if you only have
one disk drive you will be able to use the FreeNAS™ graphical interface but won’t be able to store any
data, which after all, is the whole point of a NAS system. If you are a home user who is experimenting
with FreeNAS™, you can install FreeNAS™ on an inexpensive USB thumb drive and use the
computer’s disk(s) for storage.
This section describes how to:
• Getting FreeNAS™
• Installing from CDROM
• Installing from the Image
• Initial Setup
• Upgrading FreeNAS™
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 17 of 164
If you are installing FreeNAS™ into a VirtualBox as a testing environment, you will need to configure
the vbox interface for bridging in order to access the FreeNAS™ GUI through a web browser. To do
this in VirtualBox, go to Settings -> Network. In the Attached to drop-down menu select Bridged
Adapter and select the name of the physical interface from the Name drop-down menu. In the example
shown in Figure 2a, the Intel Pro/1000 Ethernet card is attached to the network and has a device name
of re0.
Figure 2a: Configuring a Bridged Adapter in VirtualBox
You will also need to create at least 2 virtual disks: the primary master should be at least 4 GB in size
to hold the operating system and swap and the other virtual disk(s) can be used as data storage.
2.1 Getting FreeNAS™
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 can be downloaded from the FreeNAS-8 Sourceforge page. FreeNAS™ is available
for 32-bit (x386) and 64-bit (x64) architectures. You should download the architecture type that
matches your CPU’s capabilities..
The download page contains the following types of files:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 18 of 164
• GUI_upgrade.xz: this is a compressed firmware upgrade image and requires a previous
installation of FreeNAS™ 8.x. If your intent is to upgrade FreeNAS™, download the correct
.xz file for your architecture and see section 2.5 Upgrading FreeNAS™.
• Full_Install.xz: this is a compressed image of the full image disk that needs to be written to a
USB or compact flash device. Section 2.3 Installing from the Image describes how to use this
image.
• .iso: this is a bootable image that can be written to CDROM. Installing from the CDROM is
described in more detail in the next section.
The download directory also contains a ReleaseNotes for that version of FreeNAS™. This file contains
the changes introduced by that release, any known issues, and the SHA256 checksums of the files in
the download directory. The command you use to verify the checksum varies by operating system:
• on a BSD system use the command sha256 name_of_file
• on a Linux system use the command sha256sum name_of_file
• on a Mac system use the command shasum -a 256 name_of_file
• on a Windows system install a utility such as HashCalc or HashTab (which is also available for
Mac)
2.2 Installing from CDROM
If you prefer to install FreeNAS™ using a menu-driven installer, download the ISO image that matches
the architecture of the system you will install onto (32 or 64 bit) and burn it to a CDROM.
NOTE: the installer on the CDROM will recognize if a previous version of FreeNAS™ 8.x is already
installed, meaning the CDROM can also be used to upgrade FreeNAS™. However, the installer can not
perform an upgrade from a FreeNAS™ 7.x system.
Insert the CDROM into the system and boot from it. Once the media has finished booting, you will be
presented with the console setup menu seen in Figure 2.2a.
NOTE: if the installer does not boot, check that the CD drive is listed first in the boot order in the
BIOS. Some motherboards may require you to connect the CD-ROM to SATA0 (the first connector) in
order to boot from CD-ROM. If it stalls during boot, check the SHA256 hash of your ISO against that
listed in the README file; if the hash does not match, re-download the file. If the hash is correct, try
reburning the CD at a lower speed.
Press enter to select the default option of “1 Install/Upgrade to hard drive/flash device, etc.”. The next
menu, seen in Figure 2.2b, will list all available drives, including any inserted USB thumb drives which
will begin with “da”. In this example, the user is installing into VirtualBox and has created a 4GB
virtual disk to hold the operating system.
Use your arrow keys to highlight the USB or compact flash device then tab to OK and press enter.
FreeNAS™ will issue the warning seen in Figure 2.2c, reminding you not to install on a hard drive.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 19 of 164
Figure 2.2a: FreeNAS™ Console Setup
Figure 2.2b: Selecting Which Drive to Install Into
Figure 2.2c: FreeNAS™ Warning on Why You Should Install onto USB Flash Drive
Press enter and FreeNAS™ will extract the running image from the ISO and transfer it to the device.
Once the installation is complete, you should see the message in Figure 2.2d.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 20 of 164
Figure 2.2d: FreeNAS™ Installation Complete
Press enter and you’ll return to the first menu, seen in Figure 2.2a. Highlight “3 Reboot System” and
press enter. Remove the CDROM. If you installed onto a USB thumb drive, leave the thumb drive
inserted. Make sure that the device you installed to is listed as the first boot entry in the BIOS so that
the system will boot from it. FreeNAS™ should now be able to boot into the Console setup menu
described in section 2.4 Initial Setup .
2.3 Installing from the Image
If your system does not have a CDROM or you prefer to manually write the running image, download
the Full_Install.xz file. This file will need to be uncompressed and then written to a CF card or USB
thumbdrive that is 2GB or larger.
NOTE: any data currently saved on the flash device will be erased. If you are writing the image to a
CF card, make sure that it is MSDOS formatted.
DANGER! The dd command is very powerful and can destroy any existing data on the specified
device. Be very sure that you know the device name representing the USB thumb drive and make sure
you do not typo the device name when using dd!
2.3.1 Using xzcat and dd on a FreeBSD or Linux System
On a FreeBSD or Linux system, the xzcat and dd commands can be used to uncompress and write
the .xz image to an inserted USB thumb drive or compact flash device. Example 2.3a demonstrates
writing the image to the first USB device (/dev/da0) on a FreeBSD system. Substitute the filename of
your ISO and the device name representing the device to write to on your system.
Example 2.3a: Writing the Full_Install Image to a USB Thumb Drive
xzcat FreeNAS-8.0.3-RELEASE-x64-Full_Install.xz | dd of=/dev/da0 bs=64k
0+244141 records in
0+244141 records out
2000000000 bytes transferred in 326.345666 secs (6128471 bytes/sec)
When using the dd command:
• of= refers to the output file; in our case, the device name of the flash card or removable USB
drive. You may have to increment the number in the name if it is not the first USB device. On
Linux, use /dev/sda to refer to the first USB device.
• bs= refers to the block size
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 21 of 164
2.3.2 Using Keka and dd on an OS X System
On an OS X system, you can download and install Keka to uncompress the image. In FINDER,
navigate to the location where you saved the downloaded .xz file. Shift+Click (or right-click) on the .xz
file and select ‘Open With Keka’. After a few minutes you’ll have a large file with the same name, but
no extension.
Insert the USB thumb drive and go to Launchpad -> Utilities -> Disk Utility. Unmount any mounted
partitions on the USB thumb drive. Check that the USB thumb drive has only one partition (if not you
will get GPT partition table errors on boot). Use Disk Utility to setup one partition on the USB drive;
“free space” works fine.
Next, determine the device name of the inserted USB thumb drive. From TERMINAL, navigate to your
Desktop then type this command:
diskutil – list
This will show you what devices are available to the system. Locate your USB stick and record the
path. If you are not sure which path is the correct one for the USB stick, remove the device, run the
command again, and compare the difference. Once you are sure of the device name, navigate to the
Desktop from TERMINAL and use the dd command with the USB stick inserted. In Example 2.3b, the
USB thumb drive is /dev/disk8. Substitute the name of your uncompressed file and the correct path to
your USB thumb drive.
Example 2.3b: Using dd on an OS X System
dd if=FreeNAS-8.0.3-RELEASE-x64-Full_Install of=/dev/disk8 bs=64k
NOTE: If you get the error “Resource busy” when you run the dd command, go to Applications ->
Utilities -> Disk Utility, find your USB thumb drive, and click on its partitions to make sure all of them
are unmounted.
The dd command will take some minutes to complete. Wait until you get a prompt back and a message
that displays how long it took to write the image to the USB drive.
Once you have a running image, make sure the boot order in the BIOS is set to boot from the device
containing the image and boot the system. It should boot into the Console setup menu described in
section 2.4 Initial Setup.
NOTE: if the image does not boot, check the BIOS and change the USB emulation from
CD/DVD/floppy to hard drive. If it still will not boot, check to see if the card/drive is UDMA
compliant. Some users have also found that some cheap 2GB USB sticks don’t work as they are not
really 2GB in size, but changing to a 4GB stick fixes the problem.
2.3.3 Using physdiskwrite on Windows
Windows users will need to download a utility that can uncompress xz files and a utility that can create
a USB bootable image. A detailed how-to for using 7zip and physdiskwrite can be found in the forum
post How to write the embedded FreeNAS 8 image under Windows.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 22 of 164
2.4 Initial Setup
The first time you reboot into FreeNAS™, you will be presented with the Console Setup screen shown
in Figure 2.4a.
NOTE: if you receive a boot error, check your BIOS settings to make sure that the device you installed
FreeNAS™ to is listed first in the boot order. Also check the settings for that device. For example, a
BIOS may require you to change from floppy emulation mode to hard disk mode. If your BIOS is too
old to support a USB boot device, see if a BIOS update is available. If you receive a “primary GPT is
corrupt” error, you will need to use the dd command to remove both partition tables as described in this
forum post. You should then be able to reinstall FreeNAS™ and successfully boot into the new
installation.
FreeNAS™ will automatically try to connect to a DHCP server on any live interfaces. If it successfully
receives an IP address, it will display what IP address can be used to access the graphical console. In
the example seen in Figure 2.4a, the FreeNAS™ system is accessible from http://10.0.2.15.
Figure 2.4a: FreeNAS™ Console Setup Menu
If your FreeNAS™ server is not connected to a network with a DHCP server, you will need to
manually configure the interface as seen in Example 2.4a. In this example, the FreeNAS™ system has
one network interface (em0).
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 23 of 164
Example 2.4a: Manually Setting an IP Address from the Console Menu
Enter an option from 1-11: 1
1) em0
Select an interface (q to quit): 1
Delete existing config? (y/n) n
Configure interface for DHCP? (y/n) n
Configure IPv4? (y/n) y
Interface name: (press enter as can be blank)
Several input formats are supported
Example 1 CIDR Notation:
192.168.1.1/24
Example 2 IP and Netmask separate:
IP: 192.168.1.1
Netmask: 255.255.255.0, or /24 or 24
IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.108/24
Saving interface configuration: Ok
Configure IPv6? (y/n) n
Restarting network: ok
You may try the following URLs to access the web user interface:
http://192.168.1.108
From another system with a graphical web browser, input the IP address for your FreeNAS™
installation. The administrative GUI, shown in Figure 2.4b should be displayed. If it does not appear,
check that your browser configuration does not have any proxy settings enabled. If it does, disable
them and try again. Also, IE9 has known issues. If you can’t login using Internet Explorer, use Firefox
instead.
NOTE: earlier versions of FreeNAS™ 8 required you to login using the default credentials of admin
for the username and freenas for the password.
If you click the flashing Alert icon in the upper right corner, it will alert you that you should
immediately change the password for the admin user as currently no password is required to login. You
can do so in Account -> My Account -> Change Password. Once you do so, the Alert icon will change
to a solid green.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 24 of 164
Figure 2.4b: FreeNAS™ Graphical Configuration Menu
2.5 Upgrading FreeNAS™
NOTE: Before performing an upgrade you must always backup your configuration file, system disk,
and all of your data.
UPGRADES FROM FreeNAS™ 0.7x ARE NOT SUPPORTED: the system has no way to import
configuration settings from 0.7 versions of FreeNAS™, nor is there any sort of volume importer yet
that will preserve data on existing volumes. Attempting to upgrade from 0.7 will result in the loss of
your configuration and data.
The image size was increased from 1GB to 2GB between 8.01-BETA2 and 8.0.1-BETA3. THIS
MEANS THAT A GUI UPGRADE FROM AN EARLIER 8.X VERSION TO AN 8.0.1-BETA3 OR
HIGHER VERSION WILL FAIL. However, a CD upgrade will succeed and will save all of your
configuration settings. If you are unable to perform a CD upgrade, you will need to: 1) backup your
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 25 of 164
configuration using System -> Settings -> General -> Save Config; 2) perform a full install; and 3)
restore your configuration using System -> Settings -> General -> Upload Config. The GUI upgrade
can be used to upgrade a system from BETA3 to BETA4.
Beginning with FreeNAS™ 8.0, FreeNAS™ supports two operating systems on the operating system
device: the current “running” operating system and, if you have performed an upgrade, your previous
version of the operating system. When you upgrade, FreeNAS™ automatically backs up your
configuration and preserves the initial operating system. This means that it is easy to rollback to the
previous version and its configuration should you experience a problem with the upgraded version. The
upgrade automatically configures the system to boot from the new operating system; a rollback
configures the system to boot from the previous operating system. Should you ever be unable to boot
into a newly upgraded operating system, simply select F2 at the FREENAS™ console when you see
this screen at the very beginning of the boot process:
F1 FreeBSD
F2 FreeBSD
Boot: F1
There are 2 ways to upgrade a FreeNAS™ 8.x system: from the ISO or from the xz file. Both methods
are described below.
2.5.1 Using the ISO
To upgrade from the CDROM, download the latest version of the ISO image that matches the
architecture of the system (32 or 64 bit) and burn it to a CDROM.
NOTE: the installer on the CDROM will recognize if a previous version of FreeNAS™ 8.x is already
installed, meaning the CDROM can also be used to upgrade FreeNAS™. However, the installer can not
perform an upgrade from a FreeNAS™ 7.x system.
Insert the CDROM into the system and boot from it. Once the media has finished booting into the
installation menu, press enter to select the default option of “1 Install/Upgrade to hard drive/flash
device, etc.” As with a fresh install, the installer will present a screen showing all available drives (see
Figure 2.2b); select the drive FreeNAS™ is installed into and press enter.
The installer will recognize that an earlier version of FreeNAS™ is installed on the drive and will
present the message shown in Figure 2.5a.
If you select NO at this screen, the installer will do a fresh install of the version on the CD rather than
upgrading the previous version. To upgrade, press enter to accept the default of Yes. Again, the
installer will remind you that the operating system should be installed on a thumb drive (seen in Figure
2.2c). Press enter to start the upgrade. Once the installer has finished unpacking the new image, you
will see the menu shown in Figure 2.5b.
The database file that is preserved and migrated contains your FreeNAS™ configuration settings. Press
enter and FreeNAS™ will indicate that the upgrade is complete and that you should reboot, as seen in
Figure 2.5c.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 26 of 164
Figure 2.5a: Upgrading a FreeNAS™ Installation
Figure 2.5b: FreeNAS™ will Preserve and Migrate Settings
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 27 of 164
Figure 2.5c: Upgrade is Complete
2.5.2 From the GUI
Before upgrading FreeNAS™:
1. Download the *.GUI_upgrade.xz image file that matches your architecture; download this file
to the computer that you use to access the FreeNAS™ system.
2. Download the ReleaseNotes for that version; towards the bottom you will find the SHA256
hash for the *.GUI_upgrade.xz image file.
3. Backup the FreeNAS™ configuration in System -> Settings -> General -> Upload Config.
4. Warn all network users that the FreeNAS™ shares will be unavailable during the upgrade; you
should schedule the upgrade for a time that will least impact users.
5. Stop all services in Services -> Control Services.
6. Go to System -> Settings -> Advanced, check the box “Show console messages in the footer
(Requires UI reload)”, and refresh your browser. This way you can watch the progress of the
upgrade until the first reboot.
To perform the upgrade, go to System -> Settings -> Advanced -> Firmware Update as shown in Figure
2.5d.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 28 of 164
Figure 2.5d: Upgrading FreeNAS™ From the GUI
Use the drop-down menu to select a volume to temporarily place the firmware file during the upgrade,
then click the Update button. You will be prompted to browse to the location of the downloaded .xz file
and to paste the SHA256 sum. The SHA256 sum in the ReleaseNotes will look similar to this:
Filename:
FreeNAS-8.0.3-RELEASE-x64-GUI_Upgrade.xz
SHA256 Hash:
cdcd02b2bc4cbd0b2bc92153ddc2f0f73780572f877789b21d6ef32135c7e3722b224
When finished, click the Apply Update button which will change to “please Wait…”. Behind the scenes,
the following steps are occurring:
• the SHA256 hash is confirmed and an error will display if it does not match; if you get this
error, double-check that you pasted the correct checksum and try pasting again
• the new image is uncompressed and written to the USB compact or flash drive; this can take 10
to 15 minutes so be patient
• once the new image is written, you will momentarily lose your connection as the FreeNAS™
system will automatically reboot into the new version of the operating system
• FreeNAS™ will actually reboot twice: once the new operating system loads the upgrade
process applies the new database schema and reboots again
• assuming all went well, the FreeNAS™ system will receive the same IP from the DHCP server;
refresh your browser after a moment to see if you access the system
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 29 of 164
2.5.2.1 If Something Goes Wrong
If the FreeNAS™ system does not become available after the upgrade, you will need physical access to
the system to find out what went wrong. From the console menu you can determine if it received an IP
address and use option “1) Configure Network Interfaces” if it did not.
If this does not fix the problem, go into option “9) Shell” and read the system log with this command:
more /var/log/messages
If the problem is not obvious or you are unsure how to fix it, see section 10 FreeNAS Support
Resources.
If the system remains inaccessible and you wish to revert back to the previous installation, type reboot
from the shell or select “10) Reboot” from the console menu. Watch the boot screens and press F2
when you see this menu:
F1 FreeBSD
F2 FreeBSD
Boot: F1
Section 2: Using the Graphical Interface
This section of the Guide describes all of the configuration screens available within the FreeNAS™
graphical administrative interface. The screens are listed in the order that they appear within the tree, or
the left frame of the GUI.
NOTE: It is important to use the GUI (or the console) for all configuration changes. FreeNAS™ uses a
configuration database to store its settings. While you can use the command line to modify your
configuration, changes made at the command line are not written to the configuration database. This
means that any changes made at the command line will not persist after a reboot and will be
overwritten by the values in the configuration database during an upgrade.
3 Account Configuration
The account section of the GUI allows you to change the administrative password and manage users
and groups.
FreeNAS™ supports users, groups, and permissions, allowing great flexibility in configuring which
users have access to the data stored on FreeNAS.™ Before you can assign permissions which will be
used by shares, you will need to do one of the following:
1. Create one guest account that all users will use. OR
2. Create a user account for every user in the network where the name of each account is the same
as a logon name used on a computer. For example, if a Windows system has a login name of
bobsmith, you should create a user account with the name bobsmith on FreeNAS™. If your
intent is to assign groups of users different permissions to shares, you will need to also create
groups and assign users to the groups. OR
3. If your network uses Active Directory to manage user accounts and permissions, enable the
Active Directory service.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 30 of 164
This section describes how to manage the administrative account, users, and groups using the
FreeNAS™ GUI.
3.1 My Account
By default no password is required to access the FreeNAS™ administrative interface using the built-in
admin account. For security reasons, you should immediately change the default administrative account
name and set a password for that account. To change the administrative account name, go to Account ->
My Account -> Change Admin User. This will open the screen shown in Figure 3.1a.
Figure 3.1a: Changing the FreeNAS™ Administrative Account
Replace admin with the name of the account that will be used to login to the FreeNAS™ system. The
First and Last name fields are optional. Click the Change Admin User to save your changes.
NOTE: in FreeNAS™ the administrative account is not the same as the root user account. The
administrative account is used to access the graphical administrative interface. This separation makes it
possible to disable root logins while maintaining the ability of logging into the graphical administrative
interface.
To change the password of the administrative account, click on Account -> My Account -> Change
Password. This will open the screen shown in Figure 3.1b.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 31 of 164
Figure 3.1b: Setting the FreeNAS™ Administrative Password
Since there is no default password, leave the old password field blank. Type in and confirm the
password which will be used when accessing the graphical administrative interface. If you wish to
allow root logins using the same password, leave the “Change root password as well” box checked. If
you wish to use a different root password, uncheck this box and set the root password in Account ->
Users -> View All Users -> root -> Change Password.
3.2 Groups
The Groups interface allows you to manage UNIX-style groups on the FreeNAS™ system. Creating a
share that will be accessed by some users but not others is a three step process:
1. Create a user account for each user in Account -> Users -> Add User.
2. Add the user accounts to a group that you create in Account -> Groups -> Add Group.
3. In Storage -> create a volume or ZFS dataset and assign permission to the group for that
volume or dataset.
This section describes step 2 or how to create the group and assign it user accounts. The next section
will describe step 1 or how to create user accounts. Section 6.3 Volumes describes step 3 or how to
create volumes/datasets and set their permissions.
If you click Groups -> View All Groups, you will see a screen similar to Figure 3.2a.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 32 of 164
Figure 3.2a: FreeNAS™ Groups Management
All groups that came with the operating system will be listed and the screen will indicate if any
additional groups have been defined by the administrator. Each group has an entry indicating the group
ID and group name; click the group’s Members button to view and modify that group’s membership.
If you click the Add New Group button, you will be prompted to enter the group’s name. The next
available group ID will be suggested for you, though you can change it to another value. By
convention, UNIX groups containing user accounts have an ID greater than 1000 and groups required
by a service have an ID equal to the default port number used by the service (e.g. the sshd group has an
ID of 22).
Once the group and users are created, assign the users as members to the group. In the example shown
in Figure 3.2b, a group called data1 has been created and a user account named user1 has also been
created. Click on View All Groups then the Members button for the group you wish to assign users to.
Highlight the user in the Member users list (which shows all user accounts on the system) and click the
>> to move that user to the right frame. Whatever user accounts appear in the right frame will be
members of that group.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 33 of 164
Figure 3.2b: Assigning a User as a Member of a Group
3.3 Users
If you wish to set permissions on your volumes or datasets, you will need to create at least one user
account and assign that user account the required permissions. If you also wish to create groups to
manage permissions, you should create the user accounts first, then assign the accounts as members of
the groups. This section demonstrates how to create a user account.
If you click Account -> Users -> View All Users, you will see a listing of all of the user accounts that
were created with the FreeNAS™ system, as shown in Figure 3.3a:
Figure 3.3a: Managing User Accounts
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 34 of 164
Each account entry indicates the user ID, account name, default group, home directory, default shell,
and offers buttons to change the user’s password, the user’s account settings, and email address. Every
user account, except for the root user, that came with the FreeNAS™ system is a system account. This
means that it is used by a service and should not be available for use as a login account. For this reason,
the default shell is nologin(8). For security reasons (and to prevent breakage of system services) you
should not modify the system accounts.
TIP: for security reasons, you should change the root password from the default value.
To create a user account, click the Add New User button to open the screen shown in Figure 3.3b. Table
3.3a summarizes the options available in this screen.
Figure 3.3b: Adding a User Account
Table 3.3a: User Account Configuration
Setting Value Description
User ID integer
can accept default; by convention, user accounts have an ID greater than
1000 and system accounts have an ID equal to the default port number
used by the service
Username string
maximum 30 characters, can include numerals, can not include a space;
due to a limitation in FreeBSD, usernames that exceed 17 characters are
unable to create cron jobs or be used in rsync tasks
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 35 of 164
Setting Value Description
Primary Group drop-down
menu
if left empty this will create a group with the same name; don’t add to
wheel group unless you mean to give superuser access; don’t add to a
system group unless you are creating a system account required by that
group
Home Directory string needs to be changed to the name of an existing volume or dataset that the
user will be assigned permission to access
Shell drop-down
menu
if creating a system account, choose nologin; if creating a user account,
select shell of choice
Full Name string mandatory, may contain spaces
Password string mandatory unless check box to disable logins
Password
confirmation string must match Password
Disable logins checkbox check this box for system accounts and for user accounts who aren’t
allowed to login to the FreeNAS™ system
SSH Public Key string paste the user’s public key which can be used for SSH authentication (do
not paste the private key!)
Lock user checkbox a checked box prevents user from logging in until the account is unlocked
(box is unchecked)
4 System Configuration
The System icon contains the following tabs:
• Reporting: provides reports and graphs monitoring the system’s CPU, disk capacity and other
metrics.
• Settings: used to configure system wide settings such as timezone, email setup, HTTPS access
and firmware upgrades.
• System information: provides general FreeNAS™ system information such as hostname,
operating system version, platform and uptime.
• CronJobs: provides a graphical front-end to crontab(5).
• Rsync Tasks: allows you to schedule rsync tasks.
• S.M.A.R.T. Tests: allows you to schedule which S.M.A.R.T. tests to run on a per-disk basis.
Each of these is described in more detail in this section.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 36 of 164
4.1 Reporting
If you click the Reporting tab, several graphs will load as seen in the example in Figure 4.1a.
Figure 4.1a: Reporting Graphs Showing the Load on the System
The graphs will display the current interface traffic (for each configured interface), CPU usage,
physical memory utilization, system load, processes, swap utilization, and disk space (for each
configured volume). Reporting data is saved, allowing you to view and monitor usage trends hourly,
daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.
4.2 Settings
The Settings tab, shown in Figure 4.2a, contains 4 tabs: General, Advanced, Email, and SSL.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 37 of 164
Figure 4.2a: General Tab of Settings
4.2.1 General Tab
Table 4.2a summarizes the settings that can be configured using the General tab:
Table 4.2a: General Tab’s Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Protocol drop-down
menu protocol to use when connecting to the administrative GUI from a browser
WebGUI
Address
drop-down
menu
choose from a list of recent IP addresses for the one to use when accessing the
administrative GUI; the built-in HTTP server will automatically bind to the
wildcard address of 0.0.0.0 (any address) if the configured address becomes
unavailable and issue an alert
WebGUI
Port integer allows you to configure a non-standard port for accessing the administrative
GUI
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 38 of 164
Setting Value Description
Language drop-down
menu
select the localization from the drop-down menu; requires a browser reload;
you can view the status of localization at pootle.freenas.org
Timezone drop-down
menu select the timezone from the drop-down menu
NTP server string input the IP address or name of up to 3 NTP servers; options from ntp.conf(5)
such as “iburst maxpoll 9” can be included
Syslog
server IP address allows you to send FreeNAS™ logs to specified remote syslog server
If you make any changes, click the Save button.
This tab also contains the following three buttons:
Factory Restore: replaces current configuration with the factory default. This means that all of your
customizations will be erased, but can be handy if you mess up your system or wish to return a test
system to the original configuration.
Save Config: allows you to browse to location to make a backup copy of the current configuration in
the format hostname-YYYYMMDDhhmmss.db. You should always do this before upgrading your
system.
Upload Config: allows you to browse to location of saved configuration file in order to restore that
configuration.
NOTE: If you intend to recreate volumes and restore the default configuration, delete the volumes first
in Storage -> Volumes.
4.2.2 Advanced Tab
The Advanced tab, shown in Figure 4.2b, allows you to set some miscellaneous settings on the
FreeNAS™ system. The configurable settings are summarized in Table 4.2b.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 39 of 164
Figure 4.2b: Advanced Tab
Table 4.2b: Advanced Tab’s Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Enable Console Menu checkbox unchecking this box removes the console menu
shown in Figure 2.4a
Use Serial Console checkbox do not check this box if your serial port is disabled
Enable screen saver checkbox enables/disables the console screen saver (see ticket
566)
Enable powerd (Power
Saving Daemon) checkbox
used to spin down disks, see powerd(8); this forum
post demonstrates how to determine if a drive has
spun down
Swap size non-zero integer
representing GB effects new disks only
Show console messages in
the footer checkbox requires you to refresh browser; will display console
messages in real time at bottom of browser
Show tracebacks in case of
fatal errors checkbox
enable this when troubleshooting to get more
diagnostic information to display in a GUI error
message
MOTD banner string input the message you wish to be seen when user logs
in via SSH
If you make any changes, click the Save button.
This tab also contains the following buttons:
Rebuild LDAP/AD Cache: click if you add a user to AD who needs immediate access to FreeNAS™;
otherwise this occurs automatically once a day as a cron job.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 40 of 164
Save Debug: creates a text file of diagnostic information which includes the FreeNAS™ version, the
status of all services and their settings, the contents of all *.conf files, the debug log, and hardware
information.
Firmware Update: used to Upgrade FreeNAS™. See section 2.5.2 Upgrading FreeNAS™ From the
GUI for details.
Apply Service Pack: future versions of FreeNAS™ will provide service packs to address bugs and
security fixes.
4.2.3 Email Tab
The Email tab, shown in Figure 4.2c, is used to configure the email settings on the FreeNAS™ system.
Table 4.2c summarizes the settings that can be configured using the Email tab.
Figure 4.2c: Email Tab
Table 4.2c: Email Tab’s Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
From email string
the From email address to be used when sending email
notifications; the To email address is sent to the root user
account and you can set that email address by clicking the
Change E-mail button for the root account in Accounts -> Users
-> View All Users
Outgoing mail
server string or IP address hostname or IP address of SMTP server
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 41 of 164
Setting Value Description
Port to connect
to integer SMTP port number, typically 25, 465 (secure SMTP), or 587
(submission)
TLS/SSL drop-down menu encryption type; choices are plain, SSL, or TLS
Use SMTP
Authentication checkbox enables/disables SMTP AUTH using PLAIN SASL
Username string used to authenticate with SMTP server
Password string used to authenticate with SMTP server
Send Test Mail button click to check that configured email settings are working; this
will fail if you do not set the To email address first
4.2.4 SSL Tab
During installation, an unsigned RSA certificate and key are auto-generated for you. You can view
these in System -> Settings -> SSL, as seen in Figure 4.2d. If you already have your own signed
certificate that you wish to use for SSL/TLS connections, replace the values in the SSL certificate field
with a copy/paste of your own key and certificate. The certificate can be used to secure the HTTP
connection (enabled in the Settings -> General Tab) to the FreeNAS™ system, as well as to secure FTP
connections (described in section 8.6.4 Encrypting FTP). Table 4.2d summarizes the settings that can
be configured using the SSL tab. This howto shows how to generate a certificate using OpenSSL and
provides some examples for the values shown in Table 4.2d.
Figure 4.2d: SSL Tab
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 42 of 164
Table 4.2d: SSL Tab’s Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Organization string optional
Organizational Unit string optional
Email Address string optional
Locality string optional
State string optional
Country string optional
Common Name string optional
SSL Certificate string paste the RSA private key and
certificate into the box
4.3 System Information
The system information tab will display general information about the FreeNAS™ system. The
information includes the hostname, underlying FreeBSD version, type of CPU (platform), the amount
of memory, the current system time, the system’s uptime, the current load average, and the FreeNAS™
build version. An example is seen in Figure 4.3a:
Figure 4.3a: System Information Tab
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 43 of 164
4.4 Cron Jobs
cron(8) is a daemon that runs a command or script on a regular schedule as a specified user. Typically,
the user who wishes to schedule a task manually creates a crontab(5) using syntax that can be
perplexing to new Unix users. The FreeNAS™ GUI makes it easy to schedule when you would like the
task to occur.
NOTE: due to a limitation in FreeBSD, users with account names that exceed 17 characters are unable
to create cron jobs.
Figure 4.4a shows the screen that opens when you click System -> Cron Jobs -> Add Cron Job.
Figure 4.4a: Creating a Cron Job
Table 4.4a summarizes the configurable options when creating a cron job.
Table 4.4a: Cron Job Options
Setting Value Description
User drop-down menu make sure the selected user has permission to run the specified
command or script
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 44 of 164
Setting Value Description
Command string the full path to the command or script to be run; if it is a script, test it at
the command line first to make sure that it works as expected
Description string optional
Minute slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, cron job occurs every N minutes; if use check boxes,
cron job occurs at the selected moments
Hour slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, cron job occurs every N hours; if use check boxes,
cron job occurs at the selected hours
Day of
month
slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, cron job occurs every N days; if use check boxes, cron
job occurs on the selected days of the selected months
Month slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, cron job occurs every N months; if use check boxes,
cron job occurs on the selected months
Day of week slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, cron job occurs every N days; if use check boxes, cron
job occurs on the selected days
Enabled checkbox uncheck if you would like to disable the cron job without deleting it
4.5 Loaders
When a FreeBSD-based system boots, loader.conf(5) is read to determine if any parameters should be
passed to the kernel or if any additional kernel modules (such as drivers) should be loaded. Since loader
values are specific to the kernel parameter or driver to be loaded, descriptions can be found in the man
page for the specified driver and in many sections of the FreeBSD Handbook.
Beginning with version 8.0.3, FreeNAS™ provides a graphical interface for managing loader values.
This advanced functionality is intended to make it easier to load additional kernel modules at boot time.
A typical usage would be to load a FreeBSD hardware driver that does not automatically load after a
FreeNAS™ installation. The default FreeNAS™ image does not load every possible hardware driver.
This is a necessary evil as some drivers conflict with one another or cause stability issues, some are
rarely used, and some drivers just don’t belong on a standard NAS system. If you need a driver that is
not automatically loaded, you need to add a loader.
DANGER: changing the value of a loader is an advanced feature that could adversely effect the ability
of the FreeNAS™ system to successfully boot. It is very important that you do not have a typo when
adding a loader value as this could halt the boot process. Fixing this problem requires physical access
to the FreeNAS™ system and knowledge of how to use the boot loader prompt as described in section
4.5.1 Recovering From Incorrect Loaders. This means that you should always test the impact of any
changes on a test system first.
Additionally, certain changes could make your system unsupportable by the FreeNAS™ team and can
break assumptions made by the software. Some examples include:
• setting kernel tunables to arbitrarily low or high limits, e.g. kern.hz=1 or kern.hz=100000
• disabling or enabling certain features such as vfs.zfs.zil_disable=1
• overriding default loader values, unless directed to do so by an developer affiliated with the
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 45 of 164
FreeNAS™ project
To add a loader value, go to System -> Loaders -> Add Loader, as seen in Figure 4.5a.
Figure 4.5a: Adding a Loader Value
Table 4.5a summarizes the options when adding a loader.
Table 4.5a: Adding a Loader
Setting Value Description
Variable string typically the name of the driver to load, as indicated by its man page
Value integer or
string
value to associate with variable; typically this is set to YES to enable the
driver specifed by the variable
Comment string optional, but a useful reminder for the reason behind adding this loader
The changes you make will not take effect until the system is rebooted as loader settings are only read
when the kernel is loaded at boot time. As long as the loader exists, your changes will persist at each
boot and across upgrades.
Any loaders that you add will be listed in System -> Loaders -> View Loaders. To change the value of a
loader, click its Edit button. To remove a loader, click its Delete button.
At this time, the GUI does not display the loaderss that are pre-set in the installation image.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 ships with the following loaders set:
autoboot_delay=”2″
loader_logo=”freenas”
kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
fuse_load=”YES”
geom_mirror_load=”YES”
geom_stripe_load=”YES”
geom_raid3_load=”YES”
geom_gate_load=”YES”
debug.debugger_on_panic=1
hw.hptrr.attach_generic=0
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 46 of 164
You should not add or edit the default loaders in the GUI as doing so will overwrite the default values
which may render the system unusable.
4.5.1 Recovering From Incorrect Loaders
If a loader is preventing the system from booting, you will need physical access to the FreeNAS™
system. Watch the boot messages and press the number 6 key to select “6. Escape to loader prompt”
when you see the FreeNAS™ boot menu shown in Figure 4.5b.
Figure 4.5b: FreeNAS™ Boot Menu
The boot loader prompt provides a minimal set of commands described in loader(8). Once at the
prompt, use the unset command to disable a problematic value, the set command to modify the
problematic value, or the unload command to prevent the problematic driver from loading.
Example 4.5a demonstrates several examples using these commands at the boot loader prompt. The
first command disables the current value associated with the kern.ipc.nmbclusters MIB and will fail
with a “no such file or directory” error message if a current loader does not exist to set this value. The
second command disables ACPI. The third command instructs the system not to load the fuse driver.
When finished, type boot to continue the boot process.
Example 4.5a: Sample Commands at the Boot Loader Prompt
Type ‘?’ for a list of commands, ‘help’ for more detailed help.
OK unset kern.ipc.nmbclusters
OK set hint.acpi.0.disabled=1
OK unload fuse
OK boot
Any changes made at the boot loader prompt only effect the current boot. This means that you need to
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 47 of 164
edit or remove the problematic loader in System -> Loaders -> View Loaders to make your change
permanent and to prevent future boot errors.
4.6 Rsync Tasks
Rsync is a utility that automatically copies specified data from one system to another over a network.
Once the initial data is copied, rsync reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only
the differences between the source and destination files. Rsync can be used for backups, mirroring data
on multiple systems, or for copying files between systems.
To configure rsync, you need to configure both ends of the connection:
• the rsync server: this system pulls (receives) the data. In the FreeNAS™ GUI, the server is
configured in Services -> Rsync.
• the rsync client: this system pushes (sends) the data. In the FreeNAS™ GUI, the client is
configured in System -> Rsync Tasks.
This section summarizes the options when creating an Rsync Task. It then provides a configuration
example for setting up rsync between two FreeNAS™ systems.
4.6.1 Creating an Rsync Task
Figure 4.6a shows the screen that appears when you click System -> Rsync Tasks -> Add Rsync Task.
Table 4.6a summarizes the options that can be configured when creating an rsync task.
Figure 4.6a: Adding an Rsync Task
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 48 of 164
Table 4.6a: Rsync Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Path Browse button select the volume/dataset/directory that you wish to copy
Remote Host string IP address or hostname of the remote system that will store the copy
Remote Module
Name string name must be defined in rsyncd.conf(5) of rsync server or in Rsync
Module of another FreeNAS™ system
Short
Description string optional
Minute slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, sync occurs every N minutes; if use check boxes,
sync occurs at the selected moments
Hour slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, sync occurs every N hours; if use check boxes, sync
occurs at the selected hours
Day of month slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, sync occurs every N days; if use check boxes, sync
occurs on the selected days
Month checkboxes task occurs on the selected months
Day of week checkboxes task occurs on the selected days of the week
User drop-down
menu
specified user must have permission to write to the specified directory
on the remote system; due to a limitation in FreeBSD, the user name
can not exceed 17 characters
Recursive checkbox if checked, copy will include all subdirectories of the specified
volume
Times checkbox preserve modification times of files
Compress checkbox recommended on slow connections as reduces size of data to be
transmitted
Archive checkbox
equivalent to -rlptgoD (recursive, copy symlinks as symlinks,
preserve permissions, preserve modification times, preserve group,
preserve owner (super-user only), and preserve device files (superuser
only) and special files)
Delete checkbox delete extraneous files from destination directory
Quiet checkbox suppresses information messages from the remote server
Preserve
permissions checkbox preserves file permissions
Preserve
extended
attributes
checkbox both systems must support extended attributes
Extra options string rsync(1) options not covered by the GUI
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 49 of 164
4.6.2 Configuring Rsync Between Two FreeNAS™ Systems
This configuration example will configure rsync between the two following FreeNAS™ systems:
• 192.168.2.2 has existing data in /mnt/local/images. It will be the rsync client, meaning that an
rsync task needs to be defined.
• 192.168.2.6 has an existing volume named /mnt/remote. It will be the rsync server, meaning that
it will receive the contents of /mnt/local/images. An rsync module needs to be defined on this
system and the rsyncd service needs to be started.
On the client system (192.168.2.2), an rsync task is defined in System -> Rsync Tasks -> Add Rsync
Task as shown in Figure 4.6b. In this example:
• the Path points to /usr/local/images, the directory to be copied
• the Remote Host points to 192.168.2.6, the IP address of the rsync server
• the Remote Module Name is backups; this will need to be defined on the rsync server
• the rsync is scheduled to occur every 15 minutes
• the User is set to root so it has permission to write anywhere
• the Preserve Permissions checkbox is checked so that the original permissions are not
overwritten by the root user
Figure 4.6b: Configuring the Rsync Client
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 50 of 164
On the server system (192.168.2.6), an rsync module is defined in Services -> Rsync Modules -> Add
Rsync Module as shown in Figure 4.6c. In this example:
• the Module Name is backups; this needs to match the setting on the rsync client
• the Path is /mnt/remote; a directory called images will be created to hold the contents of
/usr/local/images
• the User is set to root so it has permission to write anywhere
• Hosts allow is set to 192.168.2.2, the IP address of the rsync client
Descriptions of the configurable options can be found in section 8.15.2 Rsync Modules.
To finish the configuration, start the rsync service on the server in Services -> Control Services.
Figure 4.6c: Configuring the Rsync Server
4.7 S.M.A.R.T. Tests
S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a monitoring system for
computer hard disk drives to detect and report on various indicators of reliability. When a failure is
anticipated by S.M.A.R.T., the drive should be replaced. Most modern ATA, IDE and SCSI-3 hard
drives support S.M.A.R.T.–refer to your drive’s documentation if you are unsure.
Figure 4.7a shows the configuration screen that appears when you click System -> S.M.A.R.T. Tests ->
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 51 of 164
Add S.M.A.R.T. Test. You should create a test for each drive that you wish to monitor. After creating
your tests, check the configuration in Services -> S.M.A.R.T, then click the slider to ON for the
S.M.A.R.T service in Services -> Control Services.
NOTE: the S.M.A.R.T service will not start if you have not created any volumes.
Figure 4.7a: Adding a S.M.A.R.T Test
Table 4.7a summarizes the configurable options when creating a S.M.A.R.T test.
Table 4.7a: S.M.A.R.T Test Options
Setting Value Description
Disk drop-down menu select disk to monitor
Type drop-down menu select type of list to run; see smartctl(8) for a description of each
type of test
Short
description string optional
Hour slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, test occurs every N hours; if use check boxes, test
occurs at the selected hours
Day of month slider or
checkboxes
if use the slider, test occurs every N days; if use check boxes, test
occurs on the selected days
Month checkboxes select the months when you wish the test to occur
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 52 of 164
Setting Value Description
Day of week checkboxes select the days of the week when you wish the test to occur
4.8 Sysctls
sysctl(8) is an interface that is used to make changes to the underlying FreeBSD kernel running on a
FreeNAS™ system. It can be used to tune the system in order to meet the specific needs of a network.
Over five hundred system variables can be set using sysctl(8). Each variable is known as a MIB as it is
comprised of a dotted set of components. Since these MIBs are specific to the kernel feature that is
being tuned, descriptions can be found in many FreeBSD man pages (e.g. sysctl(3), tcp(4) and
tuning(7)) and in many sections of the FreeBSD Handbook.
DANGER: changing the value of a sysctl MIB is an advanced feature that immediately effects the
kernel of the FreeNAS™ system. Do not change a MIB on a production system unless you understand
the caveats associated with that change. A badly configured MIB could cause the system to become
unbootable, unreachable via the network, or can cause the system to panic under load. Certain changes
may make your system unsupportable by the FreeNAS™ team and can break assumptions made by the
software. This means that you should always test the impact of any changes on a test system first.
Beginning with version 8.0.3, FreeNAS™ provides a graphical interface for managing sysctl MIBs. To
add a sysctl, go to System -> Sysctls -> Add Sysctl, shown in Figure 4.8a.
Figure 4.8a: Adding a Sysctl
Table 4.8a summarizes the options when adding a sysctl.
Table 4.8a: Adding a Sysctl
Setting Value Description
Variable string must be in dotted format e.g. kern.ipc.shmmax
Value integer or
string
value to associate with MIB; do not make this up, refer to the suggested
values in a man page, FreeBSD Handbook page, or tutorial
Comment string optional, but a useful reminder for the reason behind using this MIB/value
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 53 of 164
As soon as you add or edit a sysctl, the running kernel will change that variable to the value you
specify. As long as the sysctl exists, that value will persist across reboots and upgrades.
Any MIBs that you add will be listed in System -> Sysctls -> View Sysctls. To change the value of a
MIB, click its Edit button. To remove a MIB, click its Delete button.
At this time, the GUI does not display the sysctl MIBs that are pre-set in the installation image.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 ships with the following MIBs set:
debug.debugger_on_panic=0
kern.metadelay=3
kern.dirdelay=4
kern.filedelay=5
kern.coredump=0
You should not add the default MIBs as sysctls as doing so will overwrite the default values which may
render the system unusable.
5 Network Configuration
The Network section of the administrative GUI contains the following components for viewing and
configuring the FreeNAS™ system’s network settings:
• Global Configuration
• Network Summary
• Interfaces
• Link Aggregations
• Static Routes
• VLANs
Each of these is described in more detail below.
5.1 Global Configuration
The global configuration tab, shown in Figure 5.1a, allows you to set non-interface specific network
settings.
Table 5.1a summarizes the settings that can be configured using the Global Configuration tab. The
hostname and domain will be pre-filled for you, as seen in Figure 5.1a, but can be changed to meet the
local network’s requirements. The other settings are optional and can reduce the security of the
FreeNAS™ system (by making it Internet accessible) if it is not properly protected by a firewall.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 54 of 164
Figure 5.1a: Sample Global Configuration
Table 5.1a: Global Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Hostname string system host name
Domain string system domain name
IPv4 Default Gateway IP address typically not set to prevent NAS from being accessible from the
Internet
IPv6 Default Gateway IP address Typically not set
Nameserver 1 IP address primary DNS server (typically in Windows domain)
Nameserver 2 IP address secondary DNS server
Nameserver 3 IP address tertiary DNS server
5.2 Network Summary
The Network Summary tab allows you to quickly view the addressing information of every configured
interface. It will show the interface name, IP address, DNS server(s), and default gateway.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 55 of 164
5.3 Interfaces
The interfaces tab allows you to view which interfaces have been configured, to add an interface to
configure, and to edit an interface’s current configuration. Figure 5.3a shows the screen that opens
when you click Interfaces -> Add Interface.
Table 5.3a summarizes the configuration options when you Add an interface or Edit an already
configured interface.
Figure 5.3a: Editing an Interfaces Configuration
Table 5.3a: Interface Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
NIC drop-down menu select the FreeBSD device name; will be read-only field when edit
an interface
Interface Name string description of interface
DHCP checkbox requires manual IPv4 or IPv6 configuration if unchecked
IPv4 Address IP address set if DHCP unchecked
IPv4 Netmask drop-down menu set if DHCP unchecked
Auto configure
IPv6 checkbox if checked, use rtsol(8) to configure the interface; requires manual
configuration if unchecked and wish to use IPv6
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 56 of 164
Setting Value Description
IPv6 Address IPv6 address must be unique on network
IPv6 Prefix
Length drop-down menu match the prefix used on network
Options string
additional parameters from ifconfig(8), one per line; for example:
mtu 9000 will increase the MTU for interfaces that support jumbo
frames
This screen also allows you to configure an alias for the interface. If you wish to set multiple aliases,
click the “Add extra alias” link for each alias you wish to configure.
5.4 Link Aggregations
FreeNAS™ uses FreeBSD’s lagg(4) interface to provide link aggregation and link failover. The lagg
interface allows aggregation of multiple network interfaces into a single virtual lagg interface,
providing fault-tolerance and high-speed multi-link throughput. The aggregation protocols supported
by lagg determine which ports are used for outgoing traffic and whether a specific port accepts
incoming traffic. Lagg’s interface link state is used to validate if the port is active or not.
Aggregation works best on switches supporting LACP, which distributes traffic bi-directionally while
responding to failure of individual links. FreeNAS™ also supports active/passive failover between
pairs of links.
Important notice regarding aggregation performance: the LACP, FEC and load-balance modes
select the output interface using a hash that includes the Ethernet source and destination address,
VLAN tag (if available), IP source and destination address, and flow label (IPv6 only). The benefit can
only be observed when multiple clients are transfering files from your NAS. The flow entering into
your NAS depends on the Ethernet switch load-balance algorithm.
NOTE: LACP and other forms of link aggregation generally do not work well with virtualization
solutions. In a virtualized environment, consider the use of iSCSI MPIO through the creation of an
iSCSI Portal as demonstrated in section 8.14.6. This allows an iSCSI initiator to recognize multiple
links to a target, utilizing them for increased bandwidth or redundancy. This how-to contains
instructions for configuring MPIO on ESXi.
The lagg driver currently supports the following aggregation protocols:
Failover: the default protocol. Sends traffic only through the active port. If the master port becomes
unavailable, the next active port is used. The first interface added is the master port; any interfaces
added after that are used as failover devices. By default, received traffic is only accepted when received
through the active port. This constraint can be relaxed by setting the net.link.lagg.failover_rx_all
sysctl(8) variable to a nonzero value, which is useful for certain bridged network setups.
FEC: supports Cisco EtherChannel. This is a static setup and does not negotiate aggregation with the
peer or exchange frames to monitor the link.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 57 of 164
LACP: supports the IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) and the Marker
Protocol. LACP will negotiate a set of aggregable links with the peer into one or more link aggregated
groups (LAG). Each LAG is composed of ports of the same speed, set to full-duplex operation. The
traffic will be balanced across the ports in the LAG with the greatest total speed; in most cases there
will only be one LAG which contains all ports. In the event of changes in physical connectivity, link
aggregation will quickly converge to a new configuration. LACP must be configured on the switch as
well.
Load Balance: balances outgoing traffic across the active ports based on hashed protocol header
information and accepts incoming traffic from any active port. This is a static setup and does not
negotiate aggregation with the peer or exchange frames to monitor the link. The hash includes the
Ethernet source and destination address, VLAN tag (if available), and IP source and destination
address.
Round Robin: distributes outgoing traffic using a round-robin scheduler through all active ports and
accepts incoming traffic from any active port.
None: this protocol is intended to do nothing: it disables any traffic without disabling the lagg interface
itself.
NOTE: The FreeNAS™ system must be rebooted after configuring the lagg device, which requires
console access to the FreeNAS™ system. TCP access will be lost during reboot. The interfaces used in
the lagg device should not be configured before creating the lagg device.
Figure 5.4a shows the configuration options when adding a lagg interface.
Figure 5.4a: Creating a lagg Interface
NOTE: if interfaces are installed but do not appear in the Physical NICs in the LAGG list, check that a
FreeBSD driver for the interface exists here.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 58 of 164
Select the desired aggregation protocol, highlight the interface(s) to associate with the lagg device, and
click the OK button.
Once the lagg device has been created, it will appear in View All Link Aggregations. Click its Edit
Interface button to open the screen shown in Figure 5.4b.
Figure 5.4b: Edit lagg Interface
Table 5.4a describes the options in this screen:
Table 5.4a: Configurable Options for a lagg Interface
Setting Value Description
NIC string read-only as automatically assigned next available numeric ID
Interface Name string by default same as device (NIC) name, can be changed to a more
descriptive value
DHCP checkbox check if the lagg device gets its IP address info from DHCP server
IPv4 Address string mandatory if DHCP is left unchecked
IPv4 Netmask drop-down
menu mandatory if DHCP is left unchecked
Auto configure
IPv6 checkbox check only if DHCP server available to provide IPv6 address info
IPv6 Address string optional
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 59 of 164
Setting Value Description
IPv6 Prefix
Length
drop-down
menu required if input IPv6 address
Options string additional ifconfig(8) options
This screen also allows you to configure an alias for the lagg interface. If you wish to set multiple
aliases, click the “Add extra alias” link for each alias you wish to configure.
If you click a lagg device’s Edit Members button, then the Edit button under the Action column, you
will see the screen shown in Figure 5.4c. This screen allows you to configure the individual physical
(parent) interface that you specified. The configurable options are summarized in Table 4.4b.
Figure 5.4c: Editing a Member Interface
Table 5.4b: Configuring a Member Interface
Setting Value Description
LAGG Interface group drop-down menu select the member interface to configure
LAGG Priority Number integer order of selected interface within the lagg
Physical NIC drop-down menu physical interface of the selected member
Options string additional parameters from ifconfig(8)
NOTE: you can set options such as the MTU (to enable jumbo frames) at either the lagg level or the
individual parent interface level. You do not have to set the option at both levels as each level will
automatically inherit its options from the other. However, it makes sense to set it at the lagg level
(Figure 5.4b) as each interface member will inherit from the lagg. If you set it at the interface level
(Figure 5.4c), you will have to repeat for each interface within the lagg. It is important to not set
differing options at the lagg and the interface level as this will confuse the lagg device. Also, do not set
jumbo frames if the attached switch does not support jumbo frames.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 60 of 164
5.5 Static Routes
For security reasons, no static routes are defined on the FreeNAS™ system. Should you need a static
route to reach portions of your network, you can add and view all static routes using Network -> Static
Routes. If you click “Add Static Route” you will see the screen shown in Figure 5.5a.
Figure 5.5a: Adding a Static Route
The destination network and gateway fields are mandatory; the description field is optional.
If you add any static routes, they will show in “View All Static Routes”. Each route will have an action
of Edit or Delete.
5.6 VLANs
FreeNAS™ uses FreeBSD’s vlan(4) interface to demultiplex frames with IEEE 802.1q tags. This
allows nodes on different VLANs to communicate through a layer 3 switch or router. A vlan interface
must be assigned a parent interface and a numeric VLAN tag. A single parent can be assigned to
multiple vlan interfaces provided they have different tags. If you click Network -> VLANs -> Add
VLAN, you will see the screen shown in Figure 5.6a.
NOTE: VLAN tagging is the only 802.1Q feature that is implemented. Additionally, not all Ethernet
interfaces support full VLAN processing–see the HARDWARE section of vlan(4) for details.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 61 of 164
Figure 5.6a: Adding a VLAN
Table 5.6a describes the various fields.
Table 5.6a: Adding a VLAN
Setting Value Description
Virtual
Interface string Use the format vlanX where X is a number representing the
vlan interface
Parent Interface select from drop-down
menu
usually an Ethernet card connected to a properly configured
switch port
VLAN Tag integer should match a numeric tag set up in the switched network
Description string optional
.
6 Storage Configuration
The Storage section of the graphical interface allows you to configure the following:
• Periodic Snapshot Tasks
• Replication Tasks
• Volumes
These configurations are described in more detail in this section.
6.1 Periodic Snapshot Tasks
FreeNAS™ ZFS volumes support snapshots, a read-only version of a ZFS volume or dataset at a given
point in time. Snapshots can be created quickly and, if little data changes, new snapshots take up very
little space. For example, a snapshot where no files have changed takes 0MB of storage, but if you
change a 10GB file it will keep a copy of both the old and the new 10GB version. Snapshots provide a
clever way of keeping a history of files, should you need to recover an older copy or even a deleted file.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 62 of 164
For this reason, many administrators take snapshots often (e.g. every 15 minutes), store them for a
period of time (e.g. for a month), and store them on another system (e.g. using Replication Tasks). Such
a strategy allows the administrator to roll the system back to a specific time or, if there is a catastrophic
loss, an off-site snapshot can restore the system up to the last snapshot interval (e.g. within 15 minutes
of the data loss). Snapshots can be cloned or rolled back, but the files on the snapshot cannot be
accessed independently.
Before you can create a snapshot, you need to have an existing ZFS volume. How to do this is
described in section 6.3.3 Creating Volumes.
To create a ZFS snapshot, click Storage -> Periodic Snapshot Tasks -> Add Periodic Snapshot which
will open the screen shown in Figure 6.1a.
Figure 6.1a: Creating a ZFS Periodic Snapshot
Table 6.1a summarizes the fields in this screen:
Table 6.1a: Options When Creating a Periodic Snapshot
Setting Value Description
Mount
Point drop-down menu select the mount point of an existing ZFS volume or dataset
Recursive checkbox
recursive snapshots are created as one atomic operation
across descendent file systems, meaning that the snapshot
data is taken at one consistent time
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 63 of 164
Setting Value Description
Lifetime integer and drop-down menu how long to keep the snapshot
Begin drop-down menu time of first snapshot
End drop-down menu time of last snapshot
Interval drop-down menu how often to take snapshot between Begin and End times
Weekday checkboxes which days of the week to take snapshots
Once you click the OK button, a snapshot will be taken and this task will be repeated according to your
settings. If you click ZFS Snapshots, you will see a listing of available snapshots as seen in the example
in Figure 6.1b:
Figure 6.1b: Viewing Available Snapshots
The most recent snapshot will be listed last and will have 3 icons instead of 2. The icons associated
with a snapshot allow you to:
Clone Snapshot: will prompt you for the name of the clone. The clone will be a writable copy of the
snapshot and can only be created on the same ZFS volume. Clones do not inherit the properties of the
parent dataset, but rather inherit the properties based on where the clone is created in the ZFS pool.
Because a clone initially shares all its disk space with the original snapshot, its used property is initially
zero. As changes are made to the clone, it uses more space.
Destroy Snapshot: a pop-up message will ask you to confirm this action. Note that clones must be
destroyed before the parent snapshot can be destroyed.
Rollback Snapshot: a pop-up message will ask if you are sure that you want to rollback to this
snapshot state. If you click Yes, any files that have changed since the snapshot was taken will be
reverted back to their state at the time of the snapshot.
NOTE: rollback is a potentially dangerous operation and will cause any configured replication tasks to
fail as the replication system uses the existing snapshot when doing an incremental backup. If you do
need to restore the data within a snapshot, the recommended steps are:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 64 of 164
1. Clone the desired snapshot.
2. Share the clone with the share type or service running on the FreeNAS™ system.
3. Once users have recovered the needed data, destroy the clone.
This approach will never destroy any on-disk data and has no impact on replication.
Alternatively, periodic snapshots will appear as shadow copies in newer versions of Windows Explorer.
Users can access the files in the shadow copy using Explorer without requiring any interaction with the
FreeNAS™ graphical administrative interface.
6.2 Replication Tasks
FreeNAS™ supports the secure replication of ZFS snapshots to another remote FreeNAS™ system (or
any other system running the same version of ZFS and a listening SSH server). This allows you to
create an off-site backup of the storage data.
This section demonstrates how to setup SSH replication between two FreeNAS™ systems. We will use
the terms LOCAL (to represent the system that will send the snapshots) and REMOTE (to represent the
system to receive the snapshots). In this example, LOCAL has an IP address of 192.168.2.4 and
REMOTE has an IP address of 192.168.2.2. An overview is seen in Figure 6.2a.
Figure 6.2a: Overview of Configuration Example
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 65 of 164
In order to replicate ZFS snapshots you will need the following:
• a ZFS volume created on both LOCAL and REMOTE (see section 6.3.3 Creating Volumes for
instructions on how to do this)
• a periodic snapshot task must be created on LOCAL (see section 6.1 Periodic Snapshot Tasks
for instructions on how to do this)
• both systems configured for SSH key based authentication
6.2.1 Configuring SSH Key Based Authentication
In order to setup SSH key based authentication, you will need to temporarily use SSH password based
authentication so that you can copy the SSH key information to the required locations. The
configuration steps are as follows:
1. If you haven’t already, create on LOCAL a user account which will be used to ssh into LOCAL.
Make the user a member of the wheel group and set their home directory to the full path of the ZFS
volume. In the example shown in Figure 6.2b, a user account named user1 has a home directory
pointing to the ZFS volume named /mnt/data2. Create a similar user on REMOTE.
2. If you haven’t done so already, set the root password in Account -> Users -> View All Users on both
systems.
3. Use an SSH client (e.g. the ssh command from a command prompt or PuTTY from a Windows
system) to login into LOCAL. In the example shown in Figure 6.2b, user1 is using the ssh command to
login to the LOCAL FreeNAS™ system with an IP address of 192.168.2.4. Once logged in, copy the
contents of /data/ssh/replication.pub to a temporary file. This is the public key of LOCAL. To get the
public key of REMOTE, issue the ssh-keyscan command with the IP address of REMOTE and add that
public key as a separate line in your temporary file. In the example shown in Figure 6.2c, the REMOTE
IP address is 192.168.2.2.
NOTE: make sure that each key is pasted as one long line.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 66 of 164
Figure 6.2b: Create a User
Figure 6.2c: Copying the Replication Keys for LOCAL and REMOTE
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 67 of 164
4. Now you will create an authorized_keys file on each system and paste the opposite system’s key to
that file. In Example 6.2a, user1 is still logged into LOCAL. Once the REMOTE key is copied into
LOCAL’s authorized_keys, user1 logs into REMOTE as user2 and creates an authorized_keys file
containing the LOCAL key. When finished, the user types exit four times to leave both ssh sessions.
NOTE: when creating the authorized_keys file, make sure that the correct key is pasted as one long
line.
Example 6.2a: Creating the authorized_keys Files
mount -uw /
mkdir –p /root/.ssh/
chmod 700 /root/.ssh
nano /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
192.168.2.2 ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCrF1/MRk3I1wJm4708l
yugDmGd6JFeJonoeON3wCRVxmtUh7nKp1PXnagnbVFmq7aXIBs7Jd/GdOWjousAIT9G3qcn/tUf6A+AqcMk
4cl9BURDX6xMSotmAn4m6YuKQffACv86eIo69Xn7xVKVD8s8c7OKO/XnstPrL0NPBmpfHa04P5NZoe2C06C
JKQCzKJGNJ/pmlbE0CogVHf5AJT1NtEQkD78a7SqrQK30MlkIzjCVD3WvchWJp8hr3TCs5F1Tc1ay5EU2Zv
LwR8txaswuLyG33DKcE2SVRG5t+LD0S7wuvATTWrzSOQTpeZoiZDw7Qf3kkjpmt14UFnLsCjs9
ssh [email protected]
su
mkdir –p /root/.ssh/
chmod 700 /root/.ssh
nano /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCwt6Fb1JthH6xPtmN5SzlqEjggZCH/
wwWQsYKEHO/vdwXLri8J+Pn/oPMM3GlRRbYhB+vpnAxrTt1uiLREtenpQhSb56RIWyyZ6m1FrXs+QSaDKCp
M6+XRrQtLPd+VSoGDWsz6tK8mV7vpfk3X77w1Y0PZDZyOj1aZnEE447WtEtCAgYcaH3+4G6mWzoK8Rf7yXa
kNV+RO8Vu+40+H5qoqTAWk+rNIsZYcl8p7JiqxXLPGj6lPr5p9jqYsWqE23bwmpGrOZF1J9rd+hKv9jfxqW
86Am/izWASYfy6qEIp4haYCo5oo09pqoOk17bDRNbPvFZ58aYadjvaap8YB5z0t Key for replication
exit
exit (exits superuser and then REMOTE)
exit
exit (exits superuser and then LOCAL)
6.2.2 Creating the Replication Task
You are now ready to create a replication task. On LOCAL, click Storage -> Replication Tasks -> Add
Replication Task. In the example shown in Figure 6.2d, the LOCAL ZFS volume is /mnt/data2, the
REMOTE ZFS filesystem is data, and the REMOTE key has been pasted into the box. Note that for the
remote ZFS filesystem, /mnt/ is assumed and should not be included in the path.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 68 of 164
Figure 6.2d: Adding a Replication Task
Table 6.2a summarizes the options in the Add Replication Task screen.
Table 6.2a: Adding a Replication Task
Setting Value Description
Mount Point drop-down
menu the ZFS volume on LOCAL containing the snapshots to be replicated
Remote ZFS
filesystem string the ZFS volume on REMOTE that will store the snapshots
Recursively
replicate checkbox if checked will replicate child datasets and replace previous dataset
on remote system
Initialize remote
side checkbox does a reset once operation which destroys the replication data on the
remote target and then reverts to normal operation
Remote
hostname string IP address or DNS name of remote system
Remote hostkey string mandatory; paste the public key of the remote system (this will be
the second line in the temporary file you created above)
6.2.3 Testing Replication
If you have followed all of the steps above and have LOCAL snapshots that are not replicating to
REMOTE, try deleting all snapshots on LOCAL except for the most recent one. In Storage -> Periodic
Snapshot Tasks -> View All Snapshot Tasks -> ZFS Snapshots check the box next to every snapshot
except for the last one (the one with 3 icons instead of 2), then click the global Destroy button at the
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 69 of 164
bottom of the screen.
Once you have only one snapshot, ssh into LOCAL and use the zfs send command. In the following
example, the ZFS snapshot on LOCAL is on ZFS volume data2 and is named auto-20110922.1753-2h,
the IP address of REMOTE is 192.168.2.2, and the ZFS volume on REMOTE is data. Note that the @
is used to separate the volume/dataset name from the snapshot name.
zfs send [email protected] | ssh -i /data/ssh/replication 192.168.2.2 \
zfs receive [email protected]
NOTE: if this command fails with the error “cannot receive new filesystem stream: destination has
snapshots”, check the box “initialize remote side for once” in the replication task and try again. If the
zfs send command still fails, you will need to ssh into REMOTE and use the zfs destroy -R
volume_name@snapshot_name command to delete the stuck snapshot.
You can confirm that the replication was successful by going to Storage -> Periodic Snapshot Tasks ->
View All Periodic Snapshot Tasks -> ZFS Snapshots on REMOTE. Figure 6.2e shows the successful
replication for our example:
Figure 6.2e: Viewing the Replicated Snapshot From REMOTE
6.2.4 Troubleshooting
If replication is not working, check to see if SSH is working properly. ssh into LOCAL and try to ssh
into REMOTE. Replace hostname_or_ip with the value for REMOTE:
ssh -i /data/ssh/replication hostname_or_ip
This command should not ask for a password. If it asks for a password, key based authentication is not
working. Check that the correct keys have been copied into the authorized_key files as described in
section 6.2.1 Configuring SSH Key Based Authentication.
If SSH is working correctly, check if the snapshot has replicated. ssh into REMOTE and run the
command:
zfs list -t snapshot
It should list the snapshots replicated from LOCAL. If it does not, run the zfs send command as
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 70 of 164
demonstrated in section 6.2.3 Testing Replication.
After successfully transmitting the snapshot, recheck again after the time period between snapshots
lapses to see if the next snapshot successfully transmitted. If it is still not working, you can manually
send an incremental backup of the last snapshot that is on both systems to the current one with this
command:
zfs send [email protected] | ssh -i /data/ssh/replication 192.168.2.2 \
zfs receive [email protected]
6.3 Volumes
Since the storage disks are separate from the FreeNAS™ operating system, you don’t actually have a
NAS (network-attached storage) system until you configure your disks into at least one volume.
FreeNAS™ supports the creation of both UFS and ZFS volumes; however, ZFS volumes are
recommended to get the most out of your FreeNAS™ system. This section demonstrates how to
perform the following actions:
• If your disks are using an existing UFS or ZFS software RAID, see section 6.3.1 Auto
Importing Volumes.
• If your disks are already formatted with UFS, NTFS, MSDOS, or EXT2, see section 6.3.2
Importing Volumes.
• If you wish to format your disks into a UFS volume or ZFS pool, see section 6.3.3 Creating
Volumes.
• If you wish to grow the size of an existing ZFS pool, see section 6.3.4 Adding to an Existing
Volume.
• If you wish to divide an existing ZFS pool into datasets, see section 6.3.5 Creating ZFS
Datasets.
• If you wish to create a ZFS block device to use as an iSCSI device extent, see section 6.3.6
Creating a zvol.
• If you wish to control user/group access to an existing UFS volume, ZFS pool, or ZFS dataset,
see section 6.3.7 Setting Permissions .
6.3.1 Auto Importing Volumes
If you click Storage -> Volumes -> Auto Import Volume, you can configure FreeNAS™ to use an
existing software UFS or ZFS RAID volume. Supported volumes are UFS GEOM stripes (RAID0),
UFS GEOM mirrors (RAID1), UFS GEOM RAID3, as well as existing ZFS pools. UFS RAID5 is not
supported as it is an unmaintained summer of code project which was never integrated into FreeBSD.
NOTE: since .7 versions of FreeNAS™ use an earlier version of ZFS, importing ZFS pools into
FreeNAS™ 8 is a one-way street. In other words, once you import a ZFS volume, you can not revert
back to a previous version of ZFS. FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 does not currently support deduplication,
compatibility with Nexenta pools, or Linux fuse-zfs.
f you have an existing software RAID volume, you will be able to select it from the drop-down menu.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 71 of 164
In the example shown in Figure 6.3a, the FreeNAS™ system has an existing ZFS RAIDZ1 named
backups. Once the volume is selected, click the “Import Volume” button.
Figure 6.3a: Importing an Existing RAID Volume
Once the import is complete you may have to refresh your browser in order for it to appear in the View
All Volumes list.
NOTE: FreeNAS™ will not import a dirty volume. If your existing volume does not show in the dropdown
menu, you will need to access the console in order to fsck the volume.
6.3.2 Importing Volumes
The import volume screen is used to import disks with existing filesystems so that they can be
configured for use by FreeNAS™. If you click Import Volume, you’ll see the screen shown in Figure
6.3b:
Figure 6.3b: Importing a Volume
Input a name for the volume, use the drop-down menu to select the volume that you wish to import,
and select the type of filesystem on the disk. At this time, FreeNAS™ supports the import of disks that
have been formatted with UFS, NTFS, MSDOS, or EXT2.
Before importing a disk, be aware of the following caveats:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 72 of 164
• FreeNAS™ will not import a dirty filesystem. If a supported filesystem does not show in the
drop-down menu, you will need to access the console in order to fsck the filesystem.
• earlier versions of FreeNAS™ 8 had a bug that prevented the successful import of NTFS drives.
Don’t try to import NTFS if you are running a version earlier than FreeNAS™ 8.0.1-RC1.
• due to the current GEOM implementation, FreeNAS™ can not import dynamic NTFS volumes
at this time. A future version of FreeBSD may address this issue.
6.3.3 Creating Volumes
If you have unformatted disks or wish to overwrite the filesystem (and data) on your disks, use the
Create Volume screen to format the desired disks as a UFS volume or a ZFS pool.
If you click on Storage -> Volumes -> Create Volume, you will see a screen similar to the example
shown in Figure 6.3c.
Figure 6.3c: Creating a ZFS Volume
The options that are available in this screen differ depending upon the filesystem that is selected and
the number of disks available:
• if you select one disk, you can only choose to format with UFS or ZFS
• if you select two disks, you can create a UFS or ZFS mirror or stripe
• if you select three disks, you can create a UFS or ZFS stripe, a UFS RAID3, or a ZFS RAIDZ1
• if you select four disks, you can create a UFS or ZFS mirror or stripe, or a ZFS RAIDZ1 or
RAIDZ2
Table 6.3a summarizes the configuration options of this screen.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 73 of 164
Table 6.3a: Options When Creating a ZFS Volume
Setting Value Description
Volume
name string
up to 9 alphanumeric characters. If an existing volume name is
specified, the volume being created will be added to the existing
volume as a stripe. This allows for complex volumes such as RAID 10,
RAIDZ+0, and RAIDZ2+0. The top level group is implicitly a stripe
and there is no provision to build a mirror of mirrors, a RAIDZ of
mirrors, or a mirror of RAIDZs.
Member
disks checkboxes select desired number of disks from list of available disks
Filesystem
type button select either UFS or ZFS
Force 4096
bytes sector
size
checkbox
the system will automatically create the volume with 4K sectors if the
underlying disk is using Advanced Format. Checking this option creates
4K sector size (instead of 512 bytes) regardless of the underlying
hardware.
ZFS extra select for each
member disk
only available when select ZFS. Choose from: None, Log, Cache,
Spare. See note below for descriptions of each option.
The Add Volume button warns that creating a volume destroys all existing data on selected disk(s).
The ZFS extra options can be used to increase performance. They are as follows:
None: selected disk(s) will be used for storing data.
Log: selected disk will be dedicated for storing the ZIL (ZFS Intent Log). See the Separate Log
Devices section of the ZFS Best Practices Guide for size recommendations. When two or more log
devices are specified, FreeNAS™ will mirror them as suggested by the ZFS Best Practices Guide. This
is a prevention measure because losing the ZIL could lead to disastrous results such as making the
entire pool inaccessible.
Putting the ZIL on high speed devices can also improve performance for certain workloads, especially
those requiring synchronous writes such as NFS clients connecting to FreeNAS™ running on VMWare
ESXi. In such cases, a dedicated ZIL will make a big difference in performance. Applications that do
not do a lot of synchronous writes are less likely to benefit from having dedicated ZIL devices. For
VMWare, if a high speed ZIL device is not an option, using iSCSI instead of NFS is a workaround to
achieve better performance.
Cache: selected disk will be dedicated to L2ARC on-disk cache. Typically, one would select a fast
disk, such as an SSD. See the Separate Cache Devices section of the ZFS Best Practices Guide for size
recommendations. Losing an L2ARC device has no implications at all, other than read access can slow
down.
Spare: will create a hot spare that is only used when another disk fails. Hot spares speed up healing in
the face of hardware failures and are critical for high mean time to data loss (MTTDL) environments.
One or two spares for a 40-disk pool is a commonly used configuration. Use this option with caution as
there is a known bug in the current FreeBSD implementation.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 74 of 164
The volume creation screen allows for advanced scenarios:
• to create a mirror (RAID 1): check the 2 disks to go into the mirror from the list of available
disks
• to create a striped mirror (RAID 10): create 2 mirrors with the same volume name
• to add an SSD as hybrid storage: check the box for the device, select ZFS, and choose Cache
for that device in the ZFS Extra section
• to add a cache drive which will help read performance when the working set is smaller than
the cache drive, but larger than the size of RAM available to the system: check the box for the
device, select ZFS, and choose Cache for that device in the ZFS Extra section
An overview of the various RAID levels can be found in section 1 . 1 .6 RAID Overview .
6.3.4 Adding to an Existing Volume
ZFS supports the addition of virtual devices (vdevs) to an existing volume (ZFS pool). A RAIDZ1 is an
example of a vdev. Once a vdev is created, you can not add more drives to that vdev. However, if you
have an existing RAIDZ1, you can stripe it with a new RAIDZ1 (and its disks). This will increase the
overall size of the pool.
To combine two vdevs in the graphical administrative interface, go to Storage -> Volumes -> Create
Volume. In the Volume Name section, input the same name as an existing vdev, select the disk(s) that
you wish to add, the type of RAID (which has to be the same as the existing one), choose ZFS as the
filesystem, and click Add Volume.
6.3.5 Creating ZFS Datasets
An existing ZFS volume can be divided into datasets. This allows you to create a share per dataset,
allowing for more granularity on which users have access to which data. A dataset is similar to a folder
in that you can set permissions; it is also similar to a filesystem in that you can set quotas and
compression.
NOTE: if your goal is to share an entire ZFS volume, you don’t have to create datasets. If you wish to
divide up a ZFS volume’s data into different shares, create a dataset for each share.
If you click Volumes -> Create ZFS Dataset, you will see the screen shown in Figure 6.3d. Note that
this menu option is not available until after you have created a ZFS volume.
Table 6.3b summarizes the options available when creating a ZFS dataset.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 75 of 164
Figure 6.3d: Creating a ZFS Dataset
Table 6.3b: ZFS Dataset Options
Setting Value Description
Volume drop-down
menu select an existing ZFS volume
Dataset Name string mandatory
Compression Level drop-down
menu
choose from: inherit, off, lzjb (optimized for performance while
providing decent data compression), gzip level 6, gzip fastest (level
1), gzip maximum (level 9, best compression but slow); see NOTE
below
Enable atime inherit, on,
or off
controls whether the access time for files is updated when they are
read. Turning this property off avoids producing write traffic when
reading files and can result in significant performance gains, though
it might confuse mailers and other similar utilities.
Quota for dataset integer default of 0 is off; can specify M (megabyte), G (gigabyte), or T
(terabyte) as in 20G for 20 GB
Quota for dataset
and children integer default of 0 is off; can specify M (megabyte), G (gigabyte), or T
(terabyte) as in 20G for 20 GB
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 76 of 164
Setting Value Description
Reserved space for
dataset integer default of 0 is unlimited (besides hardware); can specify M
(megabyte), G (gigabyte), or T (terabyte) as in 20G for 20 GB
Reserved space for
dataset and
children
integer default of 0 is unlimited (besides hardware); can specify M
(megabyte), G (gigabyte), or T (terabyte) as in 20G for 20 GB
NOTE on compression: most media (e.g. .mp3, .mp4, .avi) is already compressed, meaning that you’ll
increase CPU utilization for no gain if you store these files on a compressed dataset. However, if you
have raw .wav rips of CDs or .vob rips of DVDs, you’ll see a performance gain using a compressed
dataset.
6.3.6 Creating a zvol
A zvol (ZFS volume) is a feature of ZFS that creates a device block over ZFS. This allows you to use a
zvol as an iSCSI device extent.
To create a zvol, go to Storage -> Volumes -> Create ZFS Volume which will open the screen shown
in Figure 6.3e. Note that this menu option is not available until after you have created a ZFS volume.
Figure 6.3e: Creating a zvol
The configuration options are described in Table 6.3c:
Table 6.3c: zvol Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Existing Volume drop-down
menu select existing ZFS pool to create the zvol from
ZFS Volume
Name string input a name for the zvol
Size integer specify size and value such as 10G
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 77 of 164
Setting Value Description
Compression
Level
drop-down
menu
inherit means it will use the same compression level as the existing
zpool used to create the zvol
6.3.7 Setting Permissions
Setting permissions is an important aspect of configuring a share so that FreeNAS™ volumes are
accessible to the clients in your network. The graphical administrative interface is meant to set the
initial permissions for a volume or dataset in order to make it available as a share. Once a share is
available, the client operating system can be used to fine-tune the permissions of the files and
directories that are created by the client.
Section 7 Sharing contains configuration examples for several types of permission scenarios. This
section provides an overview of the screen that is used to set those permissions.
Once a volume or dataset is created, it will be listed by its mount point name in Storage -> View All
Volumes. If you click the Change Permissions icon for a specific volume/dataset, you will see the
screen shown in Figure 6.3f. Table 6.3d summarizes the options in this screen.
Figure 6.3f: Changing Permissions on a Volume or Dataset
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 78 of 164
Table 6.3d: Options When Changing Permissions
Setting Value Description
Owner(user) drop-down
menu
user to have permission to the volume/dataset; user must be created first if
it does not already exist
Owner(group) drop-down
menu
group to have permission to the volume/dataset; group must be created first
if it does not already exist and desired users need to be added as members
of the group
mode checkboxes check the desired permissions for user, group, and other
Type of ACL bullet
selection
Unix and Windows ACLs are mutually exclusive, this means that you
must select the correct type of ACL to match the share; see the NOTE
below for more details
recursive checkbox
if checked, permissions will also apply to subdirectories of the volume or
dataset; if you edit the owner and/or group at a later time, be sure to check
this box so that the change is populated to all of the directories
NOTE regarding Type of ACL: when in doubt, or if you have a mix of operating systems in your
network, always select Unix ACLs as all clients understand them. The only time there is a benefit to
picking Windows ACLs is when your network only contains Windows clients and you are configuring
CIFS shares. You will also want to use Windows ACLs if you are configuring the Active Directory
service for a network that only contains Windows clients. Windows ACLs add a superset of
permissions that augment those provided by Unix ACLs. This means that only Windows clients
understand Windows ACLs. While Windows clients can understand Unix ACLs, they won’t benefit
from the extra permissions provided by Active Directory and Windows ACLs when Unix ACLs are
used.
6.3.8 Viewing Volumes
If you click View All Volumes, you can view and further configure each volume and dataset, as seen in
the example shown in Figure 6.3g.
The five icons towards the top of the right frame allow you to: create another volume, create a ZFS
dataset, create a ZFS volume, import a volume, and auto import a volume.
The seven icons associated with a ZFS volume entry allow you to:
• Export Volume: this button will perform an export or a delete, depending upon the choice you
make in the screen that pops up when you click this button. The pop-up message, seen in Figure
6.3h, will show the current used space, provide the check box “Mark the disks as new (destroy
data), prompt you to make sure that you want to do this, warn you if the volume has any
associated shares and ask if you wish to delete them, and the browser will turn red to alert you
that you are about to do something that will make the data inaccessible. If you do not check that
box, the volume will be exported. This means that the data is not destroyed and the volume can
be re-imported at a later time. If you will be moving a ZFS drive from one system to another,
you should first export it. This operation flushes any unwritten data to disk, writes data to the
disk indicating that the export was done, and removes all knowledge of the pool from the
system. If you do check that box, the volume and all of its data will be destroyed and the
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 79 of 164
underlying disks will be returned to their raw state.
Figure 6.3g: Viewing Volumes
Figure 6.3h: Exporting or Deleting a Volume
• Scrub Volume: the ZFS Best Practices Guide recommends that you should run a ZFS scrub on
a regular basis to identify data integrity problems. If you have consumer-quality drives, consider
a weekly scrubbing schedule. If you have datacenter-quality drives, consider a monthly
scrubbing schedule. You should also scrub a volume prior to replacing any of its drives.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 80 of 164
• Edit ZFS Options: allows you to edit the volume’s compression level, atime setting, dataset
quota, and reserved space for quota.
• Change Permissions: allows you to edit the volume’s user, group, Unix rwx permissions, and
to enable recursive permissions on the volume’s subdirectories.
• Create Snapshot: allows you to configure the snapshot’s name and whether or not it is
recursive before manually creating a snapshot of the ZFS volume.
• View Disks: will display each disk’s numeric ID, FreeBSD device name, serial number, UUID,
description, transfer mode, HDD standby setting, advanced power management setting, acoustic
level, whether S.M.A.R.T is enabled, S.M.A.R.T extra options, and group membership. An Edit
button is included should you wish to modify any of these settings. A Replace button is included
should the disk fail and ZFS needs to be made aware that the disk has been replaced.
• zpool status: will show the device name and status of each disk in the ZFS pool.
If you click the View Disks icon → Edit, you’ll see the screen shown in Figure 6.3i.
Figure 6.3i: Editing a Volume’s Disk Options
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 81 of 164
Table 6.3d summarizes the configurable options.
Table 6.3d: Editable Options for a Volume’s Disk
Setting Value Description
Name string read-only value showing FreeBSD device name for disk
Identifier string
read-only value showing the UUID of the disk (name
may change with hot-swappable devices but the UUID
does not)
Description string by default will show name of volume
Transfer Mode drop-down
menu
default is auto, can also specify transfer mode used by
hardware
HDD Standby drop-down
menu
indicates the time of inactivity (in minutes) before the
drive enters standby mode in order to conserve energy;
the default is always on
Advanced Power
Management
drop-down
menu
default is disabled, can select a power management
profile from the menu
Acoustic Level drop-down
menu
default is disabled, can be modified for disks that
understand AAM
Enable S.M.A.R.T checkbox on by default
S.M.A.R.T extra options string smartctl(8) options
Group Membership drop-down
menu the volume the disk is a member of
6.3.9 Replacing a Failed Drive
If you are using any form of RAID, you should replace a failed drive as soon as possible to repair the
degraded state of the RAID. Go to Storage -> Volumes -> View All Volumes. Click the View Disks
button of the associated volume which will list all of the disks within the volume. Locate the failed disk
and click its Replace button. Select an unused drive from the drop-down menu in the pop-up menu that
appears, then click the Replace disk button. In the example shown in Figure 6.3j, failed disk ada0 is
being replaced by disk ada3.
As seen in the example shown in Figure 6.3k, once you click the Replace disk button, the failed disk
will be placed at the bottom of the list and will now have a Detach button. Click Yes to confirm and the
disk will be removed from the list of member disks.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 82 of 164
Figure 6.3j: Replacing a Failed Disk
Figure 6.3k: Detaching the Failed Disk
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 83 of 164
6.3.10 Hot Swapping a ZFS Failed Drive
Until the hot swapping improvements that became available in FreeBSD 9.0 are backported to
FreeNAS™, ZFS will not automatically detach from the underlying GEOM provider. This means that
care must be taken when hot swapping a drive. The following procedure is recommended:
• do NOT hot-pull the disk BEFORE making the operating system aware of your intent as this
could cause more problems
• from the FreeNAS™ console, use the swapctl -l command to determine the device name of the
disk’s swap partition, then run swapoff <devicename> to disable that swap device
• from the FreeNAS™ console, offline the disk to be removed using the command zpool offline
<poolname> <diskname>
At this point, the disk can be hot-pulled from the system. Insert the new disk and recreate the same disk
layout. Make sure that the size of the swap partition is the same as the rest of the disks in the pool.
The following example creates a swap size of 2GB on disk da11:
gpart create -s gpt da11
gpart add -b 128 -s 4194304 -t freebsd-swap da11
gpart add -t freebsd-zfs da11
Next, issue the following commands to replace the disk, turn swap back on, and to detach from the
pool:
zpool replace tank da11p2
/etc/rc.d/swap1 start
zpool detach tank da11p2/old
7 Sharing Configuration
Once you have a volume, create at least one share so that the storage is accessible by the other
computers in your network. The type of share you create depends upon the operating system(s) running
in your network:
AFP Shares: the Apple File Protocol (AFP) type of share is the best choice if all of your computers run
Mac OS X.
CIFS Shares: the Common Internet File System (CIFS) type of share is accessible by Windows, Mac
OS X, Linux, and BSD computers, but it is slower than an NFS share due to the single-threaded design
of Samba. If your network contains only Windows systems, this is a good choice. However, it is a poor
choice if the CPU on the FreeNAS™ system is limited; if your CPU is maxed out, you need to upgrade
the CPU or consider another type of share.
NFS Shares: the Network File System (NFS) type of share is accessible by Mac OS X, Linux, BSD,
and the professional/enterprise versions (not the home editions) of Windows. It is a good choice if there
are many different operating systems in your network. Depending upon the operating system, it may
require the installation or configuration of client software on the desktop.
If you are looking for a solution that allows fast access from any operating system, consider
configuring the FTP service instead of a share and use a cross-platform FTP and file manager client
application such as Filezilla.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 84 of 164
If data security is a concern and your network’s users are familiar with SSH command line utilities or
WinSCP, consider configuring the SSH service instead of a share. It will be slower than unencrypted
FTP due to the overhead of encryption, but the data passing through the network will be encrypted.
NOTE: while the GUI will let you do it, it is a bad idea to share the same volume using multiple types
of access methods. Different types of shares and services use different file locking methods. For
example, if the same volume is configured to use both NFS and FTP, NFS will lock a file for editing by
an NFS user, but a FTP user can simultaneously edit or delete that file. This will result in lost edits and
confused users. Another example: if a volume is configured for both AFP and CIFS, Windows users
may be confused by the extra filenames used by Mac files and delete the ones they don’t understand;
this will corrupt the files on the AFP share. In other words, pick the one type of share or service that
makes the most sense for the types of clients that will access that volume, and configure that volume
for that one type of share or service.
7.1 AFP Shares
FreeNAS™ uses AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) to share data with Apple systems. Configuring AFP
shares is a multi-step process that requires you to create users and groups, set volume/dataset
permissions, create your AFP share(s), configure the AFP service in Services -> AFP, then enable the
AFP service in Services -> Control Services. This section shows the configuration screen for creating
the AFP share and demonstrates how to connect from a Mac OS X client once the AFP service has
started.
7.1.1 Creating AFP Shares
If you click Sharing -> AFP Shares → Add AFP Share, you will see the screen shown in Figure 7.1a.
Table 7.1a summarizes the available options when creating an AFP share.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 85 of 164
Figure 7.1a: Creating an AFP Share
Table 7.1a: AFP Share Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Name string
volume name that will appear in the Mac computer’s “connect to
server” dialogue; limited to 27 characters and can not contain a
period
Share Comment string optional
Path browse button browse to the volume/dataset to share
Share password string recommended; maximum of 8 characters
Share Character
Set string examples include UTF8 and ISO–8859-15
Allow List string comma delimited list of allowed users and/or groups where
groupname begins with a @
Deny List string comma delimited list of denied users and/or groups where
groupname begins with a @
Read-only Access string comma delimited list of users and/or groups who only have read
access where groupname begins with a @
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 86 of 164
Setting Value Description
Read-write
Access string comma delimited list of users and/or groups who have read and write
access where groupname begins with a @
Disk Discovery check box enable if there is no DNS record for the FreeNAS™ system
Disk discovery
mode
drop-down
menu default or Time Machine (Apple’s backup utility)
Database Path string by default, the CNID databases used by AFP are located the root of
the volume
Cache CNID checkbox
if checked, AFP uses the ID information stored in AppleDouble
header files to reduce database load; do not set this option if the
volume is modified by non-AFP clients (e.g. NFS or CIFS)
Translate CR/LF checkbox
if enabled, AFP will automatically convert Macintosh line breaks into
Unix ones; some older programs store binary data files as type
“TEXT” when saving and switch the file type in a second step and
enabling this checkbox will break those files
Windows File
Names checkbox
forces filename restrictions imposed by older versions of Windows; it
is NOT recommended for volumes mainly used by Macs as it breaks
some the ability of some applications to save files (e.g. OfficeX)
No .AppleDouble checkbox
forces AFP to not create .AppleDouble directories when a non-Mac
client saves a file; you can’t avoid the creation of .AppleDouble
directories when a Mac client writes so try to avoid this option
whenever possible
Zero Device
Numbers checkbox enable when the device number is not constant across a reboot
Disable File ID checkbox if enabled, AFP will not advertise createfileid, resolveid, and deleteid
calls
Disable :hex
Names checkbox if this box is checked, AFP disables :hex translations for anything
except dot files; this option makes the / character illegal
ProDOS checkbox if checked, provides compatibility with Apple II clients
No Stat checkbox
if checked, AFP won’t stat the volume path when enumerating the
volumes list; useful for automounting or volumes created by a
preexec script
AFP3 UNIX
Privs checkbox do not enable if network contains Mac OS X 10.4 clients as they do
not support this
7.1.2 Connecting to AFP Shares As Guest
AFP supports guest logins, meaning that all of your Mac OS X users can access the AFP share without
having to first create user accounts on the FreeNAS™ system or a ZFS dataset for each user. In this
configuration example, the AFP share has been configured for guest access as follows:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 87 of 164
1. A ZFS volume named /mnt/data has its permissions set to the nobody user account and the
nobody group.
2. An AFP share with a Name of freenas has been created with a Path of /mnt/data, a Share
Password has been set, the Allow List is set to nobody and Read-write Access has been set to
nobody. The Disk Discovery checkbox has been checked and the IP address of the FreeNAS™
system is 192.168.2.2.
3. The Services -> AFP has been configured as follows: Server Name is freenas, the Guest Access
checkbox is checked, nobody is selected in the Guest account drop-down menu, and the Local
Access checkbox is unchecked.
Once the AFP service has been started in Services -> Control Services, Mac OS X users can connect to
the AFP share by clicking Go -> Connect to Server. In the example shown in Figure 7.1b, the user has
input afp: followed by the IP address of the FreeNAS™ system.
Figure 7.1b: Connect to Server Dialogue
Click the Connect button and a login box, seen in Figure 7.1c, will appear. Since a password has been
configured for this AFP share, the user must input the share password (i.e. not their own password).
Once connected, Finder will automatically open. The name of the AFP share will be displayed in the
SHARED section in the left frame and the contents of the share will be displayed in the right frame. In
the example shown in Figure 7.1d, /mnt/data has one folder named images. The user can now copy
files to and from the share.
To disconnect from the volume, click the eject button in the Shared sidebar.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 88 of 164
Figure 7.1c: Authenticating to the AFP Share
Figure 7.1d: Viewing the Contents of the Share From a Mac System
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 89 of 164
7.1.3 Using Time Machine
Mac OS X includes Time Machine which can be used to schedule automatic backups. In this
configuration example, Time Machine will be configured to backup to an AFP share on a FreeNAS™
system. To configure the AFP share on the FreeNAS™ system:
1. A ZFS dataset named /mnt/data/backup_user1 with a quota of 60G was created in Storage ->
Create ZFS Dataset.
2. A user account was created as follows: Username of user1, Primary Group ID was left empty,
Home Directory of /mnt/data/backup_user1, and the Full Name, E-mail, and Password fields
were set. The Username and Password of the created account match the values on the Mac OS
X system.
3. An AFP share with a Name of backup_user1 has been created with a Path of
/mnt/data/backup_user1, the Allow List is set to user1 and Read-write Access has been set to
user1. The Disk Discovery checkbox has been checked, the Disk Discovery mode is set to Time
Machine and the IP address of the FreeNAS™ system is 192.168.2.2.
4. Services -> AFP has been configured as follows: Server Name is freenas, the Guest Access
checkbox is unchecked, and the Local Access checkbox is checked.
5. The AFP service has been started in Services -> Control Services.
To configure Time Machine on the Mac OS X client, go to System Preferences -> Time Machine which
will open the screen shown in Figure 7.1e. Click ON and a pop-up menu should show the FreeNAS™
system as a backup option. In our example, it is listed as backup_user1 on “freenas”. Highlight the
entry representing the FreeNAS™ system and click the Use Backup Disk button. A connection bar will
open and will prompt you for the user account’s password–in this example, the password for the user1
account.
Time Machine will create a full backup after waiting two minutes. It will then create a one hour
incremental backup for the next 24 hours, and then one backup each day, each week and each month.
Since the oldest backups are deleted when the ZFS dataset becomes full, make sure that the quota size
you set is sufficient to hold the backups. Note that a default installation of Mac OS X is ~21GB in size.
If you receive a “Time Machine could not complete the backup. The backup disk image could not be
created (error 45)” error when backing up to the FreeNAS™ system, you will need to create a
sparsebundle image using these instructions.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 90 of 164
Figure 7.1e: Configuring Time Machine on Mac OS X Lion
7.2 CIFS Shares
FreeNAS™ uses Samba to share volumes using Microsoft’s CIFS protocol. CIFS is built into the
Windows and Mac OS X operating systems and most Linux and BSD systems pre-install the Samba
client (which provides CIFS). If your distro did not, check your distro’s software repository to install
the Samba client.
Configuring CIFS shares is a multi-step process that requires you to set permissions, create CIFS
share(s), configure the CIFS service in Services -> CIFS, then enable the CIFS service in Services ->
Control Services. If your Windows network has a Windows server running Active Directory, you will
also need to configure the Active Directory service in Services -> Active Directory. Depending upon
your authentication requirements, you may also need to create users and groups. This section will
demonstrate some common configuration scenarios:
• If you would like an overview of the configurable parameters, see section 7.2.1 Creating CIFS
Shares.
• If you would like an example of how to configure access that does not require authentication,
see section 7.2.2 Configuring Anonymous Access .
• If you would like each user to authenticate before accessing the share, see section 7.2.3
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 91 of 164
Configuring Local User Access.
• If you are having problems accessing your CIFS share, see Troubleshooting Tips.
7.2.1 Creating CIFS Shares
Figure 7.2a shows the configuration screen that appears when you click Sharing -> CIFS Shares -> Add
CIFS Share. Table 7.2a summarizes the options when creating a CIFS share. The values you use will
vary by configuration example.
If you wish some files on a shared volume to be hidden and inaccessible to users, put a veto files= line
in the Auxiliary Parameters field. The syntax for this line and some examples can be found here.
If you have created multiple CIFS shares that contain symbolic links pointing to each other, add the
following lines to Auxiliary Parameters so that CIFS clients can follow the links:
unix extensions = no
follow symlinks = yes
wide links = yes
Figure 7.2a: Adding a CIFS Share
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 92 of 164
Table 7.2a: Options for a CIFS Share
Setting Value Description
Name string mandatory; name of share e.g. Movies
Comment string optional
Path browse button select volume/dataset to share
Export Read Only checkbox prohibits write access to the share
Browsable to
Network Clients checkbox enables Windows clients to browse the shared directory using
Windows Explorer
Owner Group checkbox if left unchecked, the owner’s group is taken from the logged in
user of the share
Inherit
Permissions checkbox if checked, permissions on new files and directories are inherited
from parent directory
Export Recycle
Bin checkbox deleted files are moved to a recycle directory instead of being
deleted
Show Hidden Files checkbox will display hidden files
Guest Account drop-down
menu account to use for guest access
Allow Guest
Access checkbox guest user will not be required to login in order to access the share
Only Allow Guest
Access checkbox forces guest access
Hosts Allow string comma, space, or tab delimited list of allowed hostnames or IP
addresses
Hosts Deny string
comma, space, or tab delimited list of denied hostnames or IP
addresses; allowed hosts take precedence so can use ALL here and
specify allowed hosts in Hosts Allow
Auxiliary
Parameters string add additional smb.conf parameters not covered by other option
fields
7.2.2 Configuring Anonymous Access
If you would like to share a volume with all of the users in your network without requiring them to
input a password, you can configure anonymous CIFS sharing. The following steps are needed for this
type of configuration:
1. Create a volume in Storage -> Volumes -> Create Volume.
2. Create a guest user account in Account -> Users -> Add User. In the screen shown in Figure 7.2b,
input the username of guest, input the name of the volume you created as the home directory (in this
example, /mnt/shared), input a description in the full name (in this example, cifs anon access), check
the disable logins box, and click OK to create the account.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 93 of 164
Figure 7.2b: Creating a Guest Account for Anonymous Access
3. Associate the guest account with the volume in Storage -> Volumes. Click the volume’s name then
Change Permissions. In the screen shown in Figure 7.2c, select guest as the owner(user) and
owner(group), check the permissions that are appropriate to your network, and check the set
permissions recursively box. If non-Windows systems will be accessing the CIFS share, leave the type
of permissions as Unix. Only change the type of permissions to Windows if the share is only accessed
by Windows systems.
4. Create a CIFS share in Sharing -> CIFS Shares -> Add CIFS Share. In the screen shown in Figure
7.2d, input a name for the share (in this example, windows), input a comment (in this example, anon
access), browse to the path of the volume (in this example, /mnt/shared), select guest as the guest
account, check the boxes Allow Guest Access and Only Allow Guest Access, input the network address
(in this example 192.168.2.0/24 will only allow hosts in the address range from 192.168.2.1 to
192.168.2.254), and click OK to create the share. If you have specific hosts on your network that you
would like to exclude, you can add them in the hosts deny section. You can add a specific IP address
(e.g. 192.168.2.7), one address per line, or specific subnets (for example, 192.168.2.32/27).
5. Configure the CIFS service in Services -> CIFS. In the screen shown in Figure 7.2e, select
Anonymous as the authentication model, select guest as the guest account, check the boxes Allow
Anonymous Access, Only Allow Anonymous Access, Allow Empty Password, and Enable Home
Directories, browse to the volume name under home directories, and click OK.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 94 of 164
Figure 7.2c: Associating the Guest Account with the Volume
Figure 7.2d: Creating the CIFS Share
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 95 of 164
6. Start the CIFS service in Services -> Control Services. Click the click the red OFF button next to
CIFS. After a second or so, it will change to a blue ON , indicating that the service has been enabled.
7. Test the connection. To test from a Windows system, open Explorer, click on Network and you
should see an icon named FREENAS. Since anonymous access has been configured, you should not be
prompted for a username or password in order to see the share. An example is seen in Figure 7.2f.
If you click on the FREENAS icon, you can view the CIFS share that you created in step 4.
To prevent Windows Explorer from hanging when accessing the share, map the share as a network
drive. To do this, right-click the share and select “Map network drive…” as seen in Figure 7.2g.
Figure 7.2e: Configuring CIFS Service for Anonymous Access
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 96 of 164
Figure 7.2f: Accessing the CIFS Share from a Windows Computer
Figure 7.2g: Mapping the Share as a Network Drive
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 97 of 164
Choose a drive letter from the drop-down menu and click the Finish button as shown in Figure 7.2h.
Figure 7.2h: Selecting the Network Drive Letter
7.2.3 Configuring Local User Access
If you would like each user to authenticate before accessing the CIFS share, you need to configure local
user access as follows:
1. Create a user account for each user in Account -> Users -> Add User that matches their username
and password on the client system. In the screen shown in Figure 7.2i, the Username is user1 and the
Home Directory points to the ZFS volume /mnt/test1. When setting the username and password, use
values that match existing user accounts that will be accessing the CIFS share; for example, use the
existing Windows login names and passwords. Repeat this process to create a user account for every
user that will need access to the CIFS share.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 98 of 164
Figure 7.2i: Creating a User Account
2. Create a group in Account -> Groups -> Add Group. Once the group is created, click its Members
button and add the user accounts that you created in step 1. In the example shown in Figure 7.2j, the
user accounts user1 and user2 are being added to the group windows.
3. Give the group permission to the volume in Storage -> View All Volumes. In the example shown
in Figure 7.2k, the /mnt/test1 volume is set to the user nobody, the group windows, and the write
checkbox for Group has been checked as it is off by default. Make sure that you set the permissions on
the volume that is the home directory for the users that you added to the group.
4. Create a CIFS share in Sharing -> CIFS Shares -> Add CIFS Share. In the example shown in
Figure 7.2l, the Name of the share is backups the Path points to the ZFS volume /mnt/test1 and the
Browsable to Network Clients box is checked.
NOTE: be careful about unchecking the Browsable to Network Clients box. When this box is checked
(the default), other users will see the names of every share that exists using Windows Explorer, but they
will receive a permissions denied error message if they try to access someone else’s share. If this box is
unchecked, even the owner of the share won’t see it or be able to create a drive mapping for the share in
Windows Explorer. They can still access the share from the command line, so this option may be
desirable in networks where security is a concern and where users are comfortable using the command
line.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 99 of 164
Figure 7.2j: Create a Group
Figure 7.2k: Give the Group Permissions to the Volume
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 100 of 164
Figure 7.2l: Creating the CIFS Share
5. Configure the CIFS service in Services -> CIFS as follows:
• to ensure that the user is prompted to authenticate, select Local User as the Authentication
Model
• change the Workgroup name to that being used on the Windows network; unless it has been
changed by the administrator, the default workgroup name is WORKGROUP
6. Start the CIFS service in Services -> Control Services. Click the click the red OFF button next to
CIFS. After a second or so, it will change to a blue ON , indicating that the service has been enabled.
NOTE: if you make changes in any of these steps after starting the CIFS service, you should restart the
CIFS service to make sure that the changes are applied.
7. Test the connection. To test from a Windows system, open Explorer, and click on Network. For this
configuration example, a system named FREENAS should appear with a share named backups. If you
click on backups, a Windows Security pop-up screen will prompt for the user’s username and password.
Once authenticated the user can copy data to and from the CIFS share.
NOTE: since the share is group writable, any authenticated user can change the data in the share. If
you wish to setup shares where a group of users have access to some folders but only individuals have
access to other folders (where all these folders reside on the same volume), you will need to create
these directories and set their permissions at the console. Instructions for doing so can be found at the
forum post Set Permission to allow users to share a common folder & have private personal folder.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 101 of 164
7.3 NFS Shares
FreeNAS™ supports the Network File System (NFS) for sharing volumes over a network. Once the
NFS share is configured, clients use the mount command to mount the share. Once mounted, the share
appears as just another directory on the client system. Some Linux distros require the installation of
additional software in order to mount an NFS share. Windows systems may need to first enable
Services for NFS.
NOTE: Services for NFS is only available in the Ultimate or Enterprise editions of Windows.
Configuring NFS is a multi-step process that requires you to create NFS share(s), configure NFS in
Services -> NFS, then start NFS in Services -> Control Panel. It does not require you to create users or
groups as NFS uses IP addresses to determine which systems are allowed to access the NFS share.
7.3.1 Creating NFS Shares
If you click Sharing -> NFS Shares → Add NFS Share you’ll see the screen shown in Figure 7.3a.
Table 7.3a summarizes the options in this screen.
Figure 7.3a: Creating an NFS Share
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 102 of 164
Table 7.3a: NFS Share Options
Setting Value Description
Comment string optional
Path browse button select volume/dataset to share
Authorized
network string
comma delimited list of allowed IP addresses and/or network
addresses in the form 1.2.3.0/24 where the number after the slash is
a CIDR mask; if you need to input network addresses with different
CIDR masks, create multiple shares pointing to the same
volume/dataset, one for each mask
All directories checkbox allows the client to mount at any point within the volume’s file
system
Read only checkbox prohibits writing to the volume
Quiet checkbox
inhibits some syslog diagnostics which can be useful to avoid
annoying error messages for known possible problems; see
exports(5) for examples
Maproot User drop-down menu
if left at N/A, the root user will not be able to modify files on the
NFS share; if a user is selected, the root user is limited to that user’s
permissions
Maproot Group drop-down menu if specified, the root user will also be limited to that group’s
permissions (in addition to the maproot user)
Mapall User drop-down menu the specified user (and their permissions) is used by all clients
Mapall Group drop-down menu the specified group (and its permissions) is used by all clients
NOTE: the Maproot and Mapall options are exclusive, meaning you can only use one or the other–the
GUI will not let you use both. If you only wish to restrict the root user’s permissions, set the Maproot
option. If you wish to restrict the permissions of all users, set the Mapall option.
7.3.2 Sample NFS Share Configuration
By default the Mapall options shown in Figure 7.3a show as N/A. This means that when a user
connects to the NFS share, they connect with the permissions associated with their user account. This is
a security risk if a user is able to connect as root as they will have root access to the share.
A better scenario is to do the following:
1. Create a user account that is specifically used for NFS access in Account -> Users -> Add User.
Alternately, use the built-in nobody account.
2. In the volume that is being shared, change the owner and group to the NFS user account and set
the permissions according to your specifications.
3. Select the NFS user and its associated group in the Mapall User and Mapall Group drop-down
menus for the share in Sharing -> NFS Shares.
With this configuration, it does not matter what user account is used to connect to the NFS share, as it
will be mapped to your NFS user account and will only have the permissions associated with that
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 103 of 164
account. For example, even if the root user is able to connect, it will not have root access to the share.
7.3.3 Connecting to the NFS Share
In the following examples, the NFS share has been configured as follows:
1. A ZFS volume named /mnt/data has its permissions set to the nobody user account and the
nobody group.
2. A NFS share has been created with a Path of /mnt/data, an Authorized Network of
192.168.2.0/24, and the MapAll User and MapAll Group of nobody. The All Directories
checkbox has been checked and the IP address of the FreeNAS™ system is 192.168.2.2.
7.3.3.1 From BSD or Linux Clients
To make this share accessible on a BSD or a Linux system, run the following command as the
superuser (or with sudo) from the client system (repeat for each client that needs access to the NFS
share):
mount 192.168.2.2:/mnt/data /mnt
This command should return the superuser to the command prompt without any error messages,
indicating that the share was successfully mounted. Users on the client system can now copy files to
and from /mnt and all files will be owned by nobody:nobody. Any changes to /mnt will be saved to the
FreeNAS™ system’s /mnt/data ZFS volume. Should you wish to make any changes to the NFS share’s
settings or wish to make the share inaccessible, unmount the share first as the superuser:
umount /mnt
7.3.3.2 From Microsoft Clients
Enterprise versions of Windows systems can connect to NFS shares using Services for NFS.
Connecting to NFS shares is often faster than connecting to CIFS shares due to the single-threaded
limitation of Samba. Instructions for connecting from an Enterprise version of Windows 7 can be found
at Mount Linux NFS Share on Windows 7.
If your Windows client is running a Home Edition of Windows 7, Nekodrive provides an open source
graphical NFS client. To use this client, you will need to install:
• 7zip to extract the .z files
• NFSClient and NFSLibrary from the Nekodrive download page; once downloaded, extract these
files using 7zip
• .NET Framework 4.0
Run the NFSClient executable to start the GUI client. In the example shown in Figure 7.3b, the user
has connected to the example /mnt/data share of the FreeNAS™ system at 192.168.2.2.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 104 of 164
Figure 7.3b: Using the Nekodrive NFSClient from Windows 7 Home Edition
7.3.3.3 From Mac OS X Clients
To mount the NFS volume from a Mac OS X client, click on Go -> Connect to Server. In the Server
Address field, input nfs:// followed by the IP address of the FreeNAS™ system and the name of the
volume/dataset being shared by NFS. The example shown in Figure 7.3c continues with our example of
192.168.2.2:/mnt/data. Once connected, Finder will automatically open. The IP address of the
FreeNAS™ system will be displayed in the SHARED section in the left frame and the contents of the
share will be displayed in the right frame. In the example shown in Figure 7.3d, /mnt/data has one
folder named images. The user can now copy files to and from the share.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 105 of 164
Figure 7.3c: Mounting the NFS Share from Mac OS X
Figure 7.3d: Viewing the NFS Share in Finder
7.3.4 Troubleshooting
Some NFS clients do not support the NLM (Network Lock Manager) protocol used by NFS. You will
know that this is the case if the client receives an error that all or part of the file may be locked when a
file transfer is attempted. To resolve this error, use the option -o nolock when running the mount
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 106 of 164
command on the client in order to allow write access to the NFS share.
If you receive an error about a “time out giving up” when trying to mount the share from a Linux
system, make sure that the portmapper service is running on the Linux client and start it if it is not. If
portmapper is running and you still receive timeouts, force it to use TCP by including -o tcp in your
mount command.
If you receive an error “RPC: Program not registered”, upgrade to the latest version of FreeNAS™ and
restart the NFS service after the upgrade in order to clear the NFS cache.
8 Services Configuration
The Services section of the GUI allows you to configure, start, and stop the various services that ship
with the FreeNAS™ system. FreeNAS™ supports the following services:
• AFP
• Active Directory
• CIFS
• Dynamic DNS
• FTP
• LDAP
• NFS
• S.M.A.R.T .
• SNMP
• SSH
• TFTP
• UPS
• iSCSI
• Rsync
This section describes the configuration options for each of these services, as well as how to start a
FreeNAS™ service.
8.1 Control Services
The Control Services screen, shown in Figure 8.1a, allows you to quickly determine which services are
currently running, enable/disable services, and configure services.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 107 of 164
Figure 8.1a: Control Services
To enable/disable a service, click its on/off icon.
To configure a service, click the wrench icon associated with the service. The configuration options for
each service are described in the rest of this section.
NOTE: if you are troubleshooting a service, go to System -> Settings -> Advanced and check the box
“Show console messages in the footer (Requires UI reload)”. Once you refresh your browser, the
console messages will show at the bottom of the screen. If you click on the console, it will pop-up as a
scrolled window, allowing you to scroll through the output and to copy/paste messages. Watch these
messages for errors when you stop and start the problematic service.
8.2 AFP
The Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) is a network protocol that offers file services for Mac computers.
Before configuring this service, you should first create your AFP Shares in Sharing -> AFP Shares ->
Add AFP Share. After configuring this service, go to Services -> Control Panel to start the service.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 108 of 164
Enabling this service will open the following ports on the FreeNAS™ system:
* TCP 548 (afpd)
* TCP 4799 (cnid_metadata)
* UDP 5353 and a random UDP port (avahi)
Figure 8.2a shows the configuration options which are described in Table 8.2a:
Figure 8.2a: AFP Configuration
Table 8.2a: AFP Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Server Name string server name that will appear to Mac clients; by default it is
freenas
Guest Access checkbox if checked, clients will not be prompted to authenticate before
accessing the AFP share
Guest Account drop-down menu select account to use for guest access
Local Access checkbox restricts access to local network only
Max Connections integer maximum number of simultaneous connections
8.3 Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is a service for sharing resources in a Windows network. It requires a
configured system that is running at least Windows Server 2000. If you wish to share your FreeNAS™
CIFS shares with Windows systems in a network that does not have a Windows server running AD,
enable and configure CIFS instead. If your network does have a Windows server running AD,
configure both the Active Directory service and the CIFS service on the FreeNAS™ system so that
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 109 of 164
users can authenticate to the Windows server and be authorized to access the CIFS shares on the
FreeNAS™ system.
NOTE: many changes and improvements have been made to Active Directory support since the release
of FreeNAS™ 8.0.1. If you are not running FreeNAS™ 8.0.3-RELEASE, you should upgrade before
attempting Active Directory integration.
Before configuring AD, make sure that you can resolve the Active Directory domain controller from
the FreeNAS™ system by pinging its domain name. In order to do so, you may have to first set the
network’s DNS servers and default gateway from Network -> Global Configuration on the FreeNAS™
system.
Active Directory relies on Kerberos, which is a very time sensitive protocol. This means that the time
on both the FreeNAS™ system and the Active Directory Domain Controller can not be out of sync by
more than a few minutes. The best way to ensure that the same time is running on both systems is to
configure both systems to:
• use the same NTP server (set in System -> Settings -> General on the FreeNAS™ system)
• have the same timezone
• be set to either localtime or universal time at the BIOS level
Once you have configured the CIFS and Active Directory services, remember to start them in Services
-> Control Services. It may take a few minutes for the Active Directory information to be populated to
the FreeNAS™ system. Once populated, the AD users and groups will be available in the drop-down
menus of the permissions screen of a volume/dataset.
NOTE: your FreeNAS™ system may not show up in Active Directory until you add a DNS record for
the FreeNAS™ system on the Windows server.
Figure 8.3a shows the Active Directory Configuration screen and Table 8.3a describes the configurable
options.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 110 of 164
Figure 8.3a: Configuring Active Directory
Table 8.3a: Active Directory Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Domain Controller
Name string IP address or hostname of Windows PDC
Domain Name string name of Windows server’s DNS realm
Host Name string hostname of FreeNAS™ system
Workgroup Name string name of Windows server’s workgroup (for older Microsoft
clients)
Administrator Name string name of the Active Directory Administrator account
Administrator Password string password for the Active Directory Administrator account
You can verify which Active Directory users and groups have been imported to the FreeNAS™ system
at the FreeNAS™ command line:
wbinfo -u (to view users)
wbinfo -g(to view groups)
If no users or groups are listed in the output of those commands, these commands will provide more
troubleshooting information:
getent passwd
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 111 of 164
getent group
8.3.1 Troubleshooting Tips
If you are running AD in a 2003/2008 mixed domain, see this forum post for instructions on how to
prevent the secure channel key from becoming corrupted.
In some large domains, caching user data appears to stall the FreeNAS™ GUI or fails to populate the
user cache on the PDC. If this occurs in a multi-tiered forest, specify allow trusted domains = no in the
auxiliary parameters field of Sharing -> CIFS Shares.
The LDAP code uses DNS to determine the location of the domain controllers and global catalog
servers in the network. Use the host -t srv _ldap._tcp.domainname.com command to determine the
network’s SRV records and, if necessary, change the weight and/or priority of the SRV record to reflect
the fastest server. More information about SRV records can be found in the Technet article How DNS
Support for Active Directory Works.
If the cache becomes out of sync due to an AD server being taken off and back online, resync the cache
using System -> Settings -> Advanced -> Rebuild LDAP/AD Cache.
8.4 CIFS
The Common Internet File System (CIFS) is a network protocol that offers file services for (typically)
Windows computers. FreeNAS™ uses Samba to provide CIFS capability without the need for a
Windows server in the network. UNIX-like systems that provide a CIFS client can also connect to
CIFS shares. Before configuring this service, you should first create your CIFS Shares in Sharing ->
CIFS Shares -> Add CIFS Share. After configuring this service, go to Services -> Control Panel to start
the service.
NOTE: after starting the CIFS service, it may take several minutes for the master browser election to
occur and for the FreeNAS™ system to become available in Windows Explorer.
Starting this service will open the following ports on the FreeNAS™ system:
• TCP 139 (smbd)
• TCP 445 (smbd)
• UDP 137 (nmbd)
• UDP 138 (nmbd)
Figure 8.4a shows the configuration options which are described in Table 8.4a. This configuration
screen is really a front-end to smb.conf.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 112 of 164
Figure 8.4a: Configuring CIFS
Table 8.4a: CIFS Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Authentication
Model
drop-down
menu
anonymous or local user; if select local user, user accounts must
exist on FreeNAS™ system and should match the
username/password of Windows accounts needing access to the
share as the user will be required to authenticate before accessing
the share
NetBIOS Name string must be lowercase and should be same as hostname
Workgroup string must match Windows workgroup name; default is WORKGROUP
Description string optional
DOS Charset drop-down
menu
the character set Samba uses when communicating with DOS and
Windows 9x/Me clients; default is CP437
UNIX Charset drop-down
menu
default is UTF-8, which is fine for most systems and covers all
characters in all languages
Log Level drop-down
menu choices are minimum, normal, full, or debug
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 113 of 164
Setting Value Description
Local Master checkbox
determines whether or not the FreeNAS™ system participates in a
browser election; should be disabled when network contains an AD
or LDAP server and is not necessary if Windows Vista/7 machines
are present
Time Server checkbox determines whether or not the FreeNAS™ system advertises itself
as a time server to Windows clients
Guest Account drop-down
menu account to be used for guest access
Allow guest access checkbox if checked, the guest account is not prompted to authenticate in
order to access the CIFS share
Only allow guest
access checkbox if checked, all access is through the guest account and subject to its
permissions
File mask integer overrides default file creation mask of 0666 which creates files
with read and write access for everybody
Directory mask integer overrides default directory creation mask of 0777 which grants
directory read, write and execute access for everybody
Large RW support checkbox
determines whether or not the FreeNAS™ system supports 64k
streaming read/write requests introduced with Windows 2000 and
which can improve performance by 10% with Windows 2000
clients
Send files with
sendfile(2) checkbox newer Windows versions support the more efficient sendfile system
call which makes Samba faster
EA Support checkbox enables extended attributes
Support DOS File
Attributes checkbox allows a user who has write access to a file to modify the
permissions, even if not the owner of the file
Allow Empty
Password checkbox
if checked, users can just press enter when prompted for a
password; requires that the username/password be the same for the
FreeNAS™ user account and the Windows user account
Auxiliary
parameters string smb.conf options not covered elsewhere in this screen; see the
Samba Guide for additional settings
Enable home
directories checkbox if checked, a folder with the same name as the user account will be
created for each user
Enable home
directories browsing checkbox users can browse (but not write to) other users’ home directories
Home directories browse
button select volume/dataset where the home directories will be created
Enable AIO checkbox
enables asynchronous I/O in FreeNAS™ versions 8.0.3-RELEASE
and higher; if CIFS seems slow, try disabling this setting and/or
tweaking the minimum AIO read and write sizes
Minimum AIO read integer if set to non-zero value, Samba will read from file asynchronously
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 114 of 164
Setting Value Description
size when size of request is bigger than this value in bytes
Minimum AIO write
size integer if set to non-zero value, Samba will write from file asynchronously
when size of request is bigger than this value in bytes
Zeroconf share
discovery checkbox enable if Mac clients will be connecting to the CIFS share
NOTE: beginning with FreeNAS™ versions 8.0.3-RELEASE, changes to CIFS settings and CIFS
shares take effect immediately. For previous versions, changes will not take effect until you manually
stop and start the CIFS service.
8.4.1 Troubleshooting Tips
Compared to other networking protocols, CIFS is not fast. Enabling the following checkboxes may
help to increase network throughput: “Large RW support”, “Send files with sendfile(2)”, and “Enable
AIO”. Adjusting the AIO minimum and maximum size settings to better fit your networking
infrastructure may improve or degrade performance.
Samba’s “write cache” parameter has been reported to improve write performance in some
configurations and can be added to the Auxiliary Parameters field. Use an integer value which is a
multiple of _SC_PAGESIZE (typically 4096) to avoid memory fragmentation. This will increase
Samba’s memory requirements and should not be used on systems with limited RAM.
If you wish to increase network performance, read the Samba section on socket options. It indicates
which options are available and recommends that you experiment to see which are supported by your
clients and improve your network’s performance.
Windows automatically caches file sharing information. If you make changes to a CIFS share or to the
permissions of a volume/dataset being shared by CIFS and are no longer able to access the share, try
logging out and back into the Windows system.
Where possible, avoid using a mix of case in filenames as this may cause confusion for Windows users.
Representing and resolving filenames with Samba explains this in more detail.
8.5 Dynamic DNS
Dynamic DNS (DDNS) is useful if your FreeNAS™ system is connected to an ISP that periodically
changes the IP address of the system. With dynamic DNS, the system can automatically associate its
current IP address with a domain name, allowing you to access the FreeNAS™ system even if the IP
address changes. DDNS requires you to register with a DDNS service such as DynDNS.
Figure 8.5a shows the DDNS configuration screen and Table 8.5a summarizes the configuration
options. The values you need to input will be given to you by the DDNS provider. After configuring
DDNS, don’t forget to start the DDNS service in Services -> Control Services.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 115 of 164
Figure 8.5a: Configuring DDNS
Table 8.5a: DDNS Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Provider drop-down
menu several providers are supported
Domain name string fully qualified domain name (e.g. yourname.dyndns.org)
Username string username to logon to the provider and update the record
Password string password used to logon to the provider and update the record
Update period integer in milliseconds; be careful with this setting as the provider may block
you for abuse if this setting occurs more often than the IP changes
Forced update
period integer
in seconds so be careful with this setting as the provider may block you
for abuse; issues a DDNS update request even when the address has not
changed, so that the service provider knows that the account is still
active
Auxiliary
parameters string additional parameters passed to the provider during record update
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 116 of 164
8.6 FTP
FreeNAS™ allows you to configure the proftpd FTP server so that users can browse and download data
using their web browser or FTP client software. The advantage of FTP is that easy-to-use crossplatform
utilities are available to manage uploads to and downloads from the FreeNAS™ system. The
disadvantage of FTP is that it is considered to be an insecure protocol, meaning that it should not be
used to transfer sensitive files. If you are concerned about sensitive data, see section 8.6.4 Encrypting
FTP.
In order for FTP to work, you will need to set appropriate permissions on the storage volume, and
depending upon your configuration needs, you may also need to create users and groups. This section
includes configuration examples demonstrating some common scenarios.
Figure 8.6a shows the configuration screen for the FTP service:
Figure 8.6a: Configuring FTP
Table 8.6a summarizes the available options when configuring the FTP server:
Table 8.6a: FTP Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Port integer port to use for connection requests
Clients integer maximum number of simultaneous clients
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 117 of 164
Setting Value Description
Connections integer maximum number of connections per IP address where 0
means unlimited
Login Attempts integer maximum number of attempts before client is
disconnected; ; increase this if users are prone to typos
Timeout integer maximum client idle time in seconds before client is
disconnected
Allow Root Login checkbox discouraged as increases security risk
Allow Anonymous Login checkbox allows anyone to browse the data
Path browse button root directory of FTP server; must point to the
volume/dataset or connections will fail
Allow Local User Login checkbox required if anonymous is disabled
Banner string message users see when access FTP server, if left empty
it will show the version of FTP
File Permission checkboxes sets umask for newly created files
Directory Permission checkboxes sets umask for newly created directories
Enable FXP checkbox discouraged as vulnerable to FTP bounce attacks
Allow Transfer Resumption checkbox if transfer is interrupted, server will resume transfer at
last known point
Always Chroot checkbox forces users to stay in their home directory (always true
for anonymous)
Require IDENT
Authentication checkbox will result in timeouts if identd is not running on the
client
Require Reverse DNS for IP checkbox will result in timeouts if there isn’t a DNS record for the
client’s hostname
Masquerade address string IP address or hostname; use if FTP clients can not
connect through a NAT device
Minimum passive port integer to be used by clients in PASV mode, default of 0 means
any port above 1023
Maximum passive port integer to be used by clients in PASV mode, default of 0 means
any port above 1023
Local user upload
bandwidth integer in KB/s, default of 0 means unlimited
Local user download
bandwidth integer in KB/s, default of 0 means unlimited
Anonymous user upload
bandwidth integer in KB/s, default of 0 means unlimited
Anonymous user download
bandwidth integer in KB/s, default of 0 means unlimited
Enable SSL/TLS checkbox enables encrypted connections; you will need to
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 118 of 164
Setting Value Description
configure the certificate in System -> Settings → SSL
Auxiliary parameters string include proftpd(8) parameters not covered elsewhere in
this screen
The following example demonstrates the auxiliary parameters that will prevent all users from
performing the FTP DELETE command:
<Limit DELE>
DenyAll
</Limit>
8.6.1 Anonymous FTP
Anonymous FTP may be appropriate for a small network where the FreeNAS™ system is not
accessible from the Internet and everyone in your internal network needs easy access to the stored data.
Anonymous FTP does not require you to create a user account for every user. In addition, passwords
are not required so you don’t have to manage changed passwords on the FreeNAS™ system.
To configure anonymous FTP:
1. Give the built-in ftp user account permissions to the volume/dataset in Storage -> Volume -> View
All Volumes. Click the Change Permissions button for the volume/dataset that you wish to share using
FTP. In the screen shown in Figure 8.6b, select the ftp user in the drop-down menu for Owner(user),
select the ftp group for Owner(group), review that the permissions are appropriate for your network,
keep the type of ACL as Unix, check the box Set permission recursively, and click the Change button.
NOTE: for FTP, the type of client does not matter when it comes to the type of ACL. This means that
you always use Unix ACLs, even if Windows clients will be accessing FreeNAS™ via FTP.
2. Configure anonymous FTP in Services -> FTP. In the screen shown in Figure 8.6a:
• check the box Allow Anonymous Login
• change the path to the name of the volume/dataset
3. Start the FTP service in Control Services. Click the red OFF button next to FTP. After a second or
so, it will change to a blue ON , indicating that the service has been enabled.
4. Test the connection from a client using a utility such as Filezilla. In the example shown in Figure
8.6c, the IP address of the FreeNAS™ server is 192.168.1.113, the Username is anonymous, and the
Password is the email address of the user.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 119 of 164
Figure 8.6b: Assign ftp User Account Permissions to the Volume
Figure 8.6c: Connecting Using Filezilla
8.6.2 Specified User Access in chroot
If you require your users to authenticate before accessing the data on the FreeNAS™ system, you will
need to create a user account for each user. If you create a ZFS dataset for each user, you can chroot
each user so that they are limited to the contents of their own home directory and you can also restrict
the size of that home directory using a ZFS quota. To configure this scenario:
1. Create a ZFS dataset for each user in Storage -> Create ZFS Dataset. In the example shown in
Figure 8.6d, a ZFS dataset named user1 has been created with a ZFS quota of 20GB. In later steps, we
will create a user named user1 to associate with the dataset. Repeat this process to create a dataset for
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 120 of 164
every user that will need access to the FTP service.
Figure 8.6d: Create a ZFS Dataset with a Quota
2. Create a user account for each user in Account -> Users -> Add User. In the screen shown in
Figure 8.6e, input a Username for the user (in this example, user1), change the Home Directory to the
name of an existing dataset (in our example, the dataset named /mnt/test1/user1), input a description
under Full Name, input the user’s email address, input and confirm the user’s password, and click the
OK button. Repeat this process to create a user account for every user that will need access to the FTP
service, making sure to assign each user their own dataset.
3. Set the permissions for each dataset in Storage -> Volume -> View All Volumes. This is how you
associate a user account with a dataset and set the desired permissions for that user. Click the Change
Permissions button for a dataset that you specified as the Home Directory when you created a user
account. In the screen shown in Figure 8.6f, select the user in the drop-down menu for Owner(user) and
Owner(group) (in this example, user1), keep the type of ACL as Unix, review the read and write
permissions to see if they are appropriate to that user, check the box Set permission recursively, and
click the Change button.
NOTE: for FTP, the type of client does not matter when it comes to the type of ACL. This means that
you always use Unix ACLs, even if Windows clients will be accessing FreeNAS™ via FTP.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 121 of 164
Figure 8.6e: Creating a User Account
Figure 8.6f: Setting the Dataset’s Permissions
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 122 of 164
4. Configure FTP in Services -> FTP. In the screen shown in Figure 8.6a:
• make sure the boxes for Allow Anonymous Login and Allow Root Login are unchecked
• check the box Allow Local User Login
• check the box Always Chroot
5. Start the FTP service in Control Services. Click the red OFF button next to FTP. After a second or
so, it will change to a blue ON , indicating that the service has been enabled.
6. Test the connection from a client using a utility such as Filezilla. This time in the example shown
in Figure 8.6d, use the IP address of the FreeNAS™ system, the Username of a user that has been
associated with a dataset, and the Password for that user.
8.6.3 Encrypting FTP
During installation, an RSA certificate and key are auto-generated for you. You can view these or
cut/paste your own signed certificate and key in System -> Settings -> SSL. To configure any FTP
scenario to use encrypted connections:
1. Enable SSL/TLS in Services -> FTP. Check the box Enable SSL/TLS. Once you press OK, proftpd
will automatically restart and be configured to use the certificate stored in the SSL tab.
2. Specify secure FTP when accessing the FreeNAS™ system. For example, in Filezilla input
ftps://IP_address (for an implicit connection) or ftpes://IP_address (for an explicit connection) as the
Host when connecting. The first time you connect, you should be presented with the certificate of the
FreeNAS™ system. Click OK to accept the certificate and negotiate an encrypted connection.
8.6.4 Troubleshooting
A very common issue is that proftpd won’t start if it can’t resolve the system’s hostname to an IP via
DNS. To see if the FTP service is running, go to the console shell (or a command prompt in an SSH
session) and issue the command:
sockstat -4p 21
If there is nothing listening on port 21, proftpd isn’t running. To see the error message that occurs when
FreeNAS™ tries to start the FTP service, go to System -> Settings -> Advanced and check the box
“Show console messages in the footer (Requires UI reload)”. Refresh your browser and the console
messages should display at the bottom of your screen.
Next, go to Services -> Control Services and switch the FTP service off then back on in the GUI. Watch
the console messages for errors.
If the error refers to DNS, either create an entry in your local DNS server with the FreeNAS™ system’s
hostname and IP address, or make an entry containing that information in /etc/hosts on the FreeNAS™
server.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 123 of 164
8.7 LDAP
FreeNAS™ includes an OpenLDAP client for accessing information from an LDAP server. An LDAP
server provides directory services for finding network resources such as users and their associated
permissions. Examples of LDAP servers include Microsoft Server (2000 and newer), Mac OS X
Server, Novell eDirectory, and OpenLDAP running on a BSD or Linux system. If an LDAP server is
running on your network, you should configure the FreeNAS™ LDAP service so that the network’s
users can authenticate to the LDAP server and thus be provided authorized access to the data stored on
the FreeNAS™ system.
Figure 8.7a shows the LDAP Configuration screen that is seen when you click Services -> LDAP.
Figure 8.7a: Configuring LDAP
Table 8.7a summarizes the available configuration options:
Table 8.7a: LDAP Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Hostname hostname or IP
address of LDAP server
Base DN integer top level of the LDAP directory tree to be used when searching for
resources
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 124 of 164
Setting Value Description
Allow
Anonymous
Binding
checkbox instructs LDAP server to not provide authentication and to allow
read/write access to any client
Root bind DN string
used to bind with the LDAP server for administrative write access
to the LDAP directory to change some attributes of an LDAP entry,
such as a user’s password
Root bind
password string used for administrative write access on the LDAP server
Password
Encryption
drop-down
menu
select a type supported by the LDAP server, choices are: clear
(unencrypted), crypt, md5, nds, racf, ad, exop
User Suffix string optional, can be added to name when user account added to LDAP
directory (e.g. dept. or company name)
Group Suffix string optional, can be added to name when group added to LDAP
directory (e.g. dept. or company name)
Password Suffix string optional, can be added to password when password added to LDAP
directory
Machine Suffix optional can be added to name when system added to LDAP directory (e.g.
server, accounting)
Encryption Mode drop-down
menu choices are Off, SSL, or TLS
Self signed
certificate string
used to verify the certificate of the LDAP server if SSL
connections are used; paste the output of the command openssl
s_client -connect server:port -showcerts
Auxiliary
Parameters string Ldap.conf(5) options, one per line, not covered by other options in
this screen
NOTE: FreeNAS™ automatically appends the root DN. This means that you should not include the
scope and root DN when inputting the user, group, password, and machine suffixes.
8.8 NFS
Network File System (NFS) is a protocol for sharing files on a network. Before configuring this
service, you should first create your NFS Shares in Sharing -> NFS Shares -> Add NFS Share. After
configuring this service, go to Services -> Control Panel to start the service.
Starting this service will open the following ports on the FreeNAS™ system:
• TCP and UDP 111 (rpcbind)
• TCP 2049 (nfsd)
Additionally, mountd and rpcbind will each bind to a randomly available UDP port. Figure 8.8a shows
the configuration screen and Table 8.8a summarizes the configuration options for the NFS service.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 125 of 164
Figure 8.8a: Configuring NFS
Table 8.8a: NFS Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Number of servers integer
can not exceed number of CPUs (run sysctl -n kern.smp.cpus at the
FreeNAS™ console shell to determine the maximum number for that
system)
Asynchronous mode checkbox speeds up data access but may result in corruption if a transfer is
interrupted
8.9 S.M.A.R.T
FreeNAS™ uses the smartd(8) service to monitor disk S.M.A.R.T. data for signs of problems. To fully
configure S.M.A.R.T. you need to:
• configure when to run the S.M.A.R.T tests in System -> S.M.A.R.T Tests -> Add S.M.A.R.T.
Test
• enable S.M.A.R.T. for each disk member of a volume in Volumes -> View All Volumes
• check the configuration of the S.M.A.R.T service in Services -> S.M.A.R.T.
• start the S.M.A.R.T. service in Services -> Control Services
Figure 8.9a shows the configuration screen that appears when you click Services -> S.M.A.R.T.
NOTE: smartd will wake up at every Check Interval you configure in Figure 8.9a. It will check the
times you configured in your tests (described in Figure 4.6a) to see if any tests should be run. Since the
smallest time increment for a test is an hour (60 minutes), it usually does not make sense to set a check
interval value higher than 60 minutes. For example, if you set the check interval for 120 minutes and
the smart test to every hour, the test will only be run every 2 hours since the daemon only wakes up
every 2 hours.
Table 8.9a summarizes the options in the S.M.A.R.T Configuration screen.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 126 of 164
Figure 8.9a: S.M.A.R.T Configuration Options
Table 8.9a: S.M.A.R.T Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Check interval integer in minutes, how often to wake up smartd to check to see if any
tests have been configured to run
Power mode drop-down menu can override that the configured test is not performed depending
upon the power mode; choices are: never, sleep, standby, or idle
Difference integer in degrees
Celsius
default of 0 disables this check, otherwise reports if the
temperature of a driver has changed by N degrees Celsius since
last report
Informal integer in degrees
Celsius
default of 0 disables this check, otherwise will message with a log
level of LOG_INFO if the temperature is higher than N degrees
Celsius
Critical integer in degrees
Celsius
default of 0 disables this check, otherwise will message with a log
level of LOG_CRIT and send an email if the temperature is
higher than N degrees Celsius
Email to report string email address of person to receive S.M.A.R.T alert; separate
multiple email recipients with a comma and no space
8.10 SNMP
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol used to monitor network-attached devices
for conditions that warrant administrative attention. FreeNAS™ can be configured as a bsnmpd(8)
server where bsnmp is FreeBSD’s simple and extensible SNMP daemon. If you enable SNMP, the
following port will be enabled on the FreeNAS™ system:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 127 of 164
• UDP 161 (bsnmpd listens here for SNMP requests)
Figure 8.10a shows the SNMP configuration screen and Table 8.10a summarizes the configuration
options:
Figure 8.10a: Configuring SNMP
Table 8.10a: SNMP Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Location string optional description of FreeNAS™ system’s location
Contact string optional e.g. email address of FreeNAS™ administrator
Community string password used on the SNMP network, default is public and should
be changed for security reasons
Send SNMP Traps checkbox a trap is an event notification message
Auxiliary Parameters string additional bsnmpd(8) options not covered in this screen, one per line
8.11 SSH
Secure Shell (SSH) allows for files to be transferred securely over an encrypted network. If you
configure your FreeNAS™ system as an SSH server, the users in your network will need to use SSH
client software in order to transfer files using SSH. You will also need to create a user account for every
user requiring SSH access in Account -> Users -> Add User. When creating your users, set their home
directory to the volume/dataset that you wish them to have access to. This section shows the
FreeNAS™ SSH configuration options, demonstrates an example configuration that restricts users to
their home directory, and provides some troubleshooting tips.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 128 of 164
Figure 8.11a shows the Services -> SSH configuration screen and Table 8.11a summarizes the
configuration options:
Figure 8.11a: SSH Configuration
Table 8.11a: SSH Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
TCP Port integer port to open for SSH connection requests, 22 by default
Login as Root with
password checkbox for security reasons, root logins are discouraged and disabled by
default
Allow Password
Authentication checkbox
if unchecked, only accepts key based authentication which is more
secure but requires additional setup on both the SSH client and
server
Allow TCP Port
Forwarding checkbox allows users to bypass firewall restrictions using SSH’s port
forwarding feature
Compress
Connections checkbox may reduce latency over slow networks
Host Private Key string allows you to paste a specific host key as the default key is changed
with every installation
Extra Options string additional sshd_config(5) options not covered in this screen, one per
line
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 129 of 164
A few sshd_config(5) options that are useful to input in the Extra Options field include:
• ClientAliveInterval: increase this number if ssh connections tend to drop
• ClientMaxStartup: defaults to 10; increase if you have more users
8.11.1 Chrooting SFTP users
By default when you configure SSH, users can use the ssh command to login to the FreeNAS™ system
and the scp and sftp commands to transfer files. While these commands will default to the user’s home
directory, users are able to navigate outside of their home directory which can pose a security risk. SSH
supports using a chroot to confine users to only the sftp command and to be limited to the contents of
their own home directory. To configure this scenario on FreeNAS™, perform the following steps.
1. Create a ZFS dataset for each user requiring sftp access in Storage -> Create ZFS Dataset. In the
example shown in Figure 8.11b, a ZFS dataset named user1 has been created on volume /mnt/test1 with
a ZFS quota of 20GB. In the next step, we will create a user named user1 to associate with this dataset.
Repeat this process to create a dataset for every user that will need access to the SSH service.
Figure 8.11b: Create a ZFS Dataset with a Quota
2. Create a user account for each user in Account -> Users -> Add User. In the screen shown in Figure
8.11c, input a Username for the user (in this example, user1), change the Home Directory to the name
of an existing dataset (in our example, the dataset named /mnt/test1/user1), input a description under
Full Name, input the user’s email address, input and confirm the user’s password, and click the OK
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 130 of 164
button. Repeat this process to create a user account for every user that will need access to the SSH
service.
Figure 8.11c: Creating a User Account
3. Set permissions in Storage -> Volume -> View All Volumes. SSH chroot is very specific in what
permissions it allows (see the ChrootDirectory keyword in sshd_config(5) for details). Your
configuration will not work if the permissions on the datasets used by SSH chroot users differ from
those shown in Figure 8.11d.
Figure 8.11d: Permissions Required by SSH Chroot
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 131 of 164
4. Create a home directory within each dataset. Due to the permissions required by SSH chroot, the
user will not have permissions to write to the root of their dataset. Since your intention is to limit them
to the contents of their home directory, you can manually create a home directory for the user within
their dataset. To do so, you will need to access the FreeNAS™ system’s shell using the instructions in
section 10 . 8 . 7 FAQ: How do I get to the Command Line / CLI / shell .
Once you have access to the FreeNAS™ console, create a home directory for each user within their
own dataset and change the ownership of the directory to the user. Example 8.11a demonstrates the
commands used to create a home directory called user1 for the user account user1 on dataset
/mnt/test1/user1:
Example 8.11a: Creating a User’s Home Directory
mkdir /mnt/test1/user1/user1
chown user1:user1 /mnt/test1/user1/user1
5. Configure SSH in Services -> SSH. Add these lines to the Extra Options section as shown in Figure
8.11e.
Figure 8.11e: Configure SSH for chroot
6. Start the SSH service in Control Services. Click the red OFF button next to SSH. After a second or
so, it will change to a blue ON , indicating that the service has been enabled.
7. Test the connection from a client using a utility such as WinSCP. In the example shown in Figure
8.11f, user1 is connecting to a FreeNAS™ server with an IP address of 192.168.2.9.
Once connected, the user can see the files on their Windows system in the left frame and the files on
the FreeNAS™ system in the right frame, as shown in Figure 8.11g.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 132 of 164
Figure 8.11f: Connecting to the SSH chroot from WinSCP
Figure 8.11g: Using WinSCP Within a chroot
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 133 of 164
Notice that the directory structure on the FreeNAS™ system starts at <root>. If the user clicks on
<root>, they can not navigate to a higher folder. If the user tries to copy a file from the Windows
system to <root>, the operation will fail. However, if the user clicks on their home folder (in this
example, user1), they will enter that folder and can copy files to/from the Windows system within that
folder.
8.11.2 Troubleshooting SSH Connections
If you add any Extra Options in the SSH configuration screen, be aware that the keywords listed in
sshd_config(5) are case sensitive. This means that your configuration will fail to do what you intended
if you don’t match the upper and lowercase letters of the keyword.
When configuring SSH, you should always test your configuration as an SSH user account to ensure
that the user is limited to what you have configured and does have permission to do what you want
them to do. If the user account is experiencing problems, the SSH error messages are usually pretty
specific to what the problem is. You will need to access the console to read these messages with the
following command:
tail -f /var/log/messages
8.12 TFTP
Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is a light-weight version of FTP usually used to transfer
configuration or boot files between machines, such as routers, in a local environment. TFTP is
extremely limited, providing no authentication, and is rarely used interactively by a user. If you enable
TFTP on your FreeNAS™ server, it will open UDP port 69. An example where this is useful is when
you wish to store all of the images and configuration files for your network’s devices on the
FreeNAS™ system. Figure 8.12a shows the TFTP configuration screen and Table 8.12a summarizes
the available options:
Figure 8.12a: TFTP Configuration
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 134 of 164
Table 8.12a: TFTP Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Directory string most devices expect a path of /tftpboot
Allow New
Files checkbox enable if network devices need to send files to the FreeNAS™ system
(e.g. backup their config)
Port integer port to listen for TFTP requests, 69 by default
Username drop-down
menu account used for tftp requests
Umask integer umask for newly created files, default is 022
Extra options string additional tftpd(8) options not shown in this screen, one per line
8.13 UPS
FreeNAS™ uses NUT (Network UPS Tools) to provide UPS support.
Figure 8.13a shows the UPS configuration screen:
Figure 8.13a: UPS Configuration Screen
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 135 of 164
Table 8.13a summarizes the options in the UPS Configuration screen.
Table 8.13a: UPS Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Identifier string input a descriptive name, default is ups
Driver drop-down
menu
supported UPS devices are listed at
http://www.networkupstools.org/stable-hcl.html
Port drop-down
menu
list of available serial (e.g. /dev/cuau#) or USB ports (e.g.
/dev/ugen.X.X) UPS is plugged into (see NOTE below)
Auxiliary Parameters string additional options from ups.conf(5)
Description string optional
Shutdown mode drop-down
menu
choices are UPS goes on battery and UPS reaches low
battery
Shutdown timer integer in seconds
UPS Master User Password string default is fixmepass
Extra users string see upsd.users(5) for examples
Remote monitor checkbox defaults to listen to everything and uses the user
“upsmon” and password “fixmepass”
Send Email Status Updates checkbox if checked, configure the To email
To email email address if Send Email box checked, email address of person to
receive update
Email subject string if send Email Box checked, subject of email updates
NOTE: for USB devices, the easiest way to determine the correct device name is to enable console
logging in System -> Settings -> Advanced -> check the box for “Show console messages”. Refresh
your browser and plug in the USB device. The messages will give the name of the /dev/ugenX.X
device; replace the X’s in your configuration with the actual numbers that show on the console.
8.14 iSCSI
iSCSI is a protocol standard that allows the consolidation of storage data. iSCSI allows FreeNAS™ to
act like a storage area network (SAN) over an existing Ethernet network. Specifically, it exports disk
devices over an Ethernet network that iSCSI clients (called initiators) can attach to and mount.
Traditional SANs operate over fibre channel networks which require a fibre channel infrastructure such
as fibre channel HBAs, fibre channel switches, and discreet cabling. iSCSI can be used over an existing
Ethernet network, although dedicated networks can be built for iSCSI traffic in an effort to boost
performance. iSCSI also provides an advantage in an environment that uses Windows shell programs;
these programs tend to filter “Network Location” but iSCSI mounts are not filtered.
Before configuring iSCSI on your FreeNAS™ device, you should be familiar with the following iSCSI
terminology:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 136 of 164
CHAP: a protocol used for authenticating initiators (clients) by a target (server). CHAP uses a shared
secret and three-way authentication to determine if a system is authorized to access the storage device
and to periodically confirm that the session has not been hijacked by another system.
Mutual CHAP: a superset of CHAP. The target authenticates the initiator as in CHAP, and additionally
the initiator uses CHAP to authenticate the target.
Initiator: the remote system (client) which has authorized access to the storage data on the FreeNAS™
system.
Target: a storage resource on the FreeNAS™ system (server).
Extent: the storage unit to be shared. It can either be a file or a device.
In order to configure iSCSI, you need to:
• review the Target Global Configuration parameters
• decide if you will use CHAP or mutual CHAP for authentication; if so, create an authorized
access
• create either a device extent or a file extent
• determine which hosts are allowed to connect using iSCSI and create an initiator
• determine if you need to create a portal (only required when the FreeNAS™ system has
multiple IP addresses or network interfaces that will be used for iSCSI connections
• create a target
• associate a target with an extent
• start the iSCSI service in Services -> Control Services
NOTE: FreeNAS™ uses istgt to provide iSCSI. At this time, istgt does not support SIGHUP-style
configuration reloading, meaning that FreeNAS™ has to restart istgt to make configuration changes
take effect. This means that any changes to existing iSCSI shares will cause any client that happens to
be writing at the time to be thrown into read-only mode. Future versions of istgt will fix this known
issue. Many iSCSI initiators handle the iSCSI service dropping off fairly gracefully. VMware ESXi
pauses its VMs while it tries to reconnect, offering a fairly large grace period where things will recover
automatically.
8.14.1 Target Global Configuration
The Target Global Configuration screen, shown in Figures 8.14a, contains settings that apply to all
iSCSI shares. Table 8.14a summarizes the settings that can be configured in the Target Global
Configuration screen. The integer values in the table are used to tune network performance; most of
these values are described in RFC 3720. LUC (Logical Unit Controller) is an API provided by istgt to
control removable media by providing functions to list targets, un/load a media to a unit, change media
file, or reset a LUN.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 137 of 164
Figure 8.14a: iSCSI Target Global Configuration Variables
Table 8.14a: Target Global Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Base Name string see the “Constructing iSCSI names using the iqn. format”
section of RFC 3721 for details.
Discovery Auth
Method
drop-down
menu
Choices are: None, Auto, CHAP, or Mutual CHAP. Configures
the authentication level required by the target for discovery of
valid devices. None will allow anonymous discovery. CHAP and
Mutual CHAP require authentication. Auto lets the initiator
decide the authentication scheme.
Discovery Auth
Group
drop-down
menu
Required if Discovery Auth Method is set to CHAP or Mutual
CHAP, optional if Discovery Auth Method is set to Auto, and not
needed if Discovery Auth Method is set to None. In the latter two
cases the config generated in the [Global] section of istgt.conf
will be DiscoveryAuthGroup None, otherwise it will be a number
like DiscoveryAuthGroup 1.
I/O Timeout
integer
representing
seconds
Sets the limit on how long an I/O can be outstanding before an
error condition is returned. Possible values range from 0 -300
with a default value of 30.
NOPIN Interval
integer
representing
seconds
How often target sends a NOP-IN packet to keep a discovered
session alive. Possible values range from 0 -300 with a default
value of 20.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 138 of 164
Setting Value Description
Max. Sessions integer
All connections between an iSCSI initiator portal and a target
portal are associated with a specific session. This option limits
the number of sessions the target will create/accept. Possible
values range from 1 – 64 with a default value of 16.
Max. Connections integer
Refers to the number of connections a single initiator can make
with respect to a single target. Possible values range from 1 – 64
with a default value of 8.
Max. pre-send R2T integer Possible values range from 1 – 255 with a default value of 32.
MaxOutstandingR2T integer
During writes, the target pulls data from the initiator by sending
R2T (ready to receive) packets. This option sets the maximum
number of R2Ts the target can have outstanding for a single
iSCSI command. Larger values should yield performance
increases until MaxOutstandingR2T exceeds the size of the
largest Write I/O divided by MaxBurstLength. Possible values
range from 1 – 255 with a default value of 16.
First burst length integer
The maximum amount in bytes of unsolicited data an iSCSI
initiator may send to the target during the execution of a single
SCSI command. Possible values range from 1 – 2^32 with a
default value of 65536.
Max burst length integer
Maximum write size in bytes the target is willing to receive per
burst of packets (i.e. between R2Ts). Possible values range from
1 – 2^32 with a default value of 262144.
Max receive data
segment length integer In bytes. Possible values range from 1 – 2^32 with a default value
of 262144.
DefaultTime2Wait integer
The minimum time in seconds to wait before attempting a logout
or an active task reassignment after an unexpected connection
termination or reset. Possible values range from 1 – 300 with a
default value of 2.
DefaultTime2Retain integer
The maximum time in seconds after Time2Wait before which an
active task reassignment is still possible after an unexpected
connection termination or reset. Possible values range from 1 –
300 with a default value of 60.
Enable LUC checkbox Only works with removable media. If checked, the rest of the
fields are required.
Controller IP address IP address Must be an IP address that is assigned to an interface or the
daemon won’t start. Generally set to 127.0.0.1.
Controller TCP port integer Possible values range from 1024-65535 with a default value of
3261.
Controller
Authorized netmask subnet mask Typically set to 255.0.0.0.
Controller Auth drop-down Choices are None, Auto, CHAP, or mutual CHAP.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 139 of 164
Setting Value Description
Method menu
Controller Auth
Group
drop-down
menu
Required if Controller Auth Method is set to CHAP or Mutual
CHAP, optional if Controller Auth Method is set to Auto, and not
needed if Controller Auth Method is set to None. In the latter two
cases the config generated in the [Global] section of istgt.conf
will be ControllerAuthGroup None, otherwise it will be a number
like ControllerAuthGroup 1. If you wish to use authenticated
discover the users must be configured prior to this step.
8.14.2 Authorized Accesses
If you will be using CHAP or mutual CHAP to provide authentication, you must create an authorized
access. Go to Services → ISCSI → Authorized Accesses → Add Authorized Access which will open
the screen seen in Figure 8.14b.
NOTE: CHAP does not work with GlobalSAN initiators on Mac OS X.
Figure 8.14b: Adding Authorized Access for iSCSI
Table 8.14b summarizes the settings that can be configured when adding an authorized access:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 140 of 164
Table 8.14b: Authorized Access Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Group ID integer
The Group ID is used to build the authentication groups used by the iSCSI target
software, allowing different groups to be configured with different authentication
profiles. For instance, all users with a Group ID of 1 will be members of “Group 1”
and will inherit the authentication profile associated with that group.
User string
Name of user account that will be created on the FreeNAS™ device in order to
CHAP authenticate with the user on the remote system. Many initiators default to
using the initiator name as the user.
Secret string Needs to be confirmed. Password to be associated with the created user account.
Peer User string If this is entered it will cause the user to be a Mutual CHAP user. In most cases it
will need to be the same as the User.
Initiator
Secret string Needs to be confirmed. The mutual secret password. Must be different than the
Secret. This is required if the Peer User field is set.
As users are added, they will be listed under Authorized Accesses. In the example shown in Figure
8.14c, three users (test1, test2, and test3) have been configured and there are two groups created, with
group 1 consisting of a single CHAP user and group 2 consisting of a mutual CHAP user and a CHAP
user.
Figure 8.14c: Viewing Authorized iSCSI Users
8.14.3 Device Extents
The next step is to configure the share. In iSCSI terminology, you don’t share a volume; instead you
share either a device extent or a file extent:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 141 of 164
Device extent: allows an unformatted disk, a zvol, or an existing HAST device to be exported via
iSCSI. The advantage of a device extent is that it is faster than a file extent. The disadvantage is that the
entire volume is exported. If you only want to share a portion of a volume using iSCSI, either create a
zvol (if it is a ZFS volume) or use a file extent. You can create a zvol by clicking Storage -> Create
ZFS Volume.
File extent: allows you to export a portion of a volume. When creating a file extent, you can specify
either a non-existing file name or an existing ZFS dataset. The advantage of file extents is that you can
create multiple exports per volume. The disadvantage is that they are slower than device extents.
To add a device extent, go to Services → ISCSI → Device Extents → Add Device Extent. In the
example shown in Figure 8.14d, a device extent is being created using a raw (unformatted) disk.
Figure 8.14d: Adding an iSCSI Device Extent
Table 8.14c summarizes the settings that can be configured when creating a device extent:
Table 8.14c: Device Extent Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Extent Name string required
Comment string optional
Disk device drop-down menu select the unformatted disk, previously created zvol, or existing
HAST device
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 142 of 164
8.14.4 Extents
To add a file extent, go to Services → ISCSI → Extents → Add Extent. In the example shown in Figure
8.14e, a file extent named data with a maximum size of 20 GB will be created on the ZFS dataset
/mnt/tank/iscsi. Note that the file extent creation will fail if you do not append the name of the file to be
created to the volume/dataset name.
Figure 8.14e: Adding an iSCSI File Extent
Table 8.14d summarizes the settings that can be configured when creating an File Extent:
Table 8.14d: File Extent Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Extent Name string name of file extent, can not be an existing file within the dataset
Path to the
extent
browse
button browse to the path where the file will be created or to an existing dataset
Extent size integer if the size is specified as 0 then the actual file size will be used and the
file must be created manually in the CLI
Comment string optional
8.14.5 Initiators
The next step is to configure authorized initiators, or the systems which are allowed to connect to the
stored data. Going to Services → ISCSI → Initiators → Add Initiator will bring up the screen shown in
Figure 8.14f. Table 8.14e summarizes the settings that can be configured when adding an initiator.
NOTE: at this time, the FreeNAS™ system itself can not be configured as an initiator.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 143 of 164
Figure 8.14f: Adding an iSCSI Initiator
Table 8.14e: Initiator Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Initiators string can use ALL keyword or a list of initiator hostnames separated by commas
with no space
Authorized
network string can use ALL keyword or a network address with CIDR mask such as
192.168.2.0/24
Comment string optional description
In the example shown in Figure 8.14g, two groups have been created. Group 1 allows connections from
any initiator on any network; Group 2 only allows connections from any initiator on the 10.10.1.0/24
network.
Figure 8.14g: Sample iSCSI Initiator Configuration
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 144 of 164
8.14.6 Portals
A portal allows FreeNAS™ systems with multiple IP addresses or interfaces to provide services on
different interfaces or subnets. Going to Services → ISCSI → Portals → Add Portal will bring up the
screen shown in Figure 8.14h:
Figure 8.14h: Adding an iSCSI Portal
In this example, 0.0.0.0:3260 is a wildcard that will cause the system to bind to every IP address and
interface. This allows you to use multi-path I/O (MPIO).
Table 8.12f summarizes the settings that can be configured when adding a portal:
Table 8.14f: Portal Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Portal string interface or subnet IP address followed by a colon and the TCP port used by
iSCSI (3260 by default)
Comment string optional description
8.14.7 Targets
Next you should add a Target using Services → ISCSI → Targets → Add Target, as shown in Figure
8.14i. A target combines a portal ID, allowed initiator ID, and an authentication method.
Table 8.14g summarizes the settings that can be configured when creating a Target.
NOTE: multiple computers can not connect to the same iSCSI target as iSCSI acts like a physical disk
rather than a share. If you need to support multiple clients to the same data, use CIFS or NFS instead of
iSCSI or create multiple iSCSI targets (one per client).
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 145 of 164
Figure 8.14i: Adding an iSCSI Target
Table 8.14g: Target Settings
Setting Value Description
Target Name string required value; base name will be appended
automatically if it does not start with iqn
Target Alias string optional user-friendly name
Serial string unique ID for target to allow for multiple LUNs; the
default is generated from the system’s MAC address
Type drop-down menu type of device: choices are disk, DVD, tape, or pass
(choose pass in a virtual environment)
Target Flags drop-down menu choices are read-write or read-only
Portal Group ID drop-down menu leave empty or select number of existing portal to use
Initiator Group ID drop-down menu select which existing initiator group has access to the
target
Auth Method drop-down menu choices are None, Auto, CHAP, or mutual CHAP
Authentication Group
number drop-down menu none or integer representing number of existing
authorized access
Queue Depth integer see this post for an explanation of the math involved
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 146 of 164
Setting Value Description
Logical Block Size integer
should only be changed if you need to emulate a physical
disk’s size or you need to increase the block size to allow
for larger filesystems on operating systems limited by
block count
8.14.8 Target/Extents
The last step is associating extents to targets within Services → ISCSI → Target/Extents → Add
Target/Extent. This screen is shown in Figure 8.14j. Use the drop-down menus to select the desired
target and extent.
Figure 8.14j: Associating iSCSI Targets/Extents
Table 8.14h summarizes the settings that can be configured when associating targets and extents:
Table 8.14h: Target/Extents Configuration Settings
Setting Value Description
Target drop-down menu select the pre-created target
Extent drop-down menu select the pre-created extent
It is best practice to associate extents to targets in a 1:1 manner, although the software will allow
multiple extents to be associated to a target.
Once iSCSI has been configured, click the Services -> Control Services icon. Click the iSCSI button to
change it from Off to On and thus start the iSCSI service.
8.14.9 Connecting to iSCSI Share
In order to access the data on the iSCSI share, clients will need to use iSCSI initiator software.
An iSCSI Initiator client is pre-installed with Windows 7. A detailed how-to for this client can be found
here.
Mac OS X does not include an initiator. This how-to demonstrates how to use globalSAN, a free and
easy-to-use Mac initiator.
BSD systems provide command line initiators: iscontrol(8) comes with FreeBSD, iscsi-initiator(8)
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 147 of 164
comes with NetBSD, and iscsid(8) comes with OpenBSD.
Some Linux distros provide the command line utility iscsiadm from Open-iSCSI. Google to see if a
package exists for your distribution should the command not exist on your Linux system.
Instructions for connecting from a VMware ESXi Server can be found at How to configure FreeNAS 8
for iSCSI and connect to ESX(i). Note that the requirements for booting vSphere 4.x off iSCSI differ
between ESX and ESXi. ESX requires a hardware iSCSI adapter while ESXi requires specific iSCSI
boot firmware support. The magic is on the booting host side, meaning that there is no difference to the
FreeNAS™ configuration. See the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide for details.
8.15 Rsync
The Rsync section of Services is used to configure an rsync server. See section 4 . 6 Rsync Tasks for
instructions on how to configure an rsync client and an example of configuring both ends of an rsync
connection.
This section describes the configurable options for the rsyncd service and rsync modules.
Figure 8.15a shows the rsyncd configuration screen which is accessed from Services -> Rsync ->
Configure Rsyncd.
Figure 8.15a: Rsyncd Configuration
Table 8.15a summarizes the options that can be configured for the rsync daemon:
Table 8.15a: Rsync Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
TCP Port integer port for rsyncd to listen on, default is 873
Auxiliary parameters string additional parameters from rsync(1)
8.15.1 Rsync Modules
Figure 8.15b shows the configuration screen that appears when you click Services -> Rsync -> Rsync
Modules -> Add Rsync Module.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 148 of 164
Figure 8.15b: Adding an Rsync Module
Table 8.15b summarizes the options that can be configured when creating a rsync module:
Table 8.15b: Rsync Module Configuration Options
Setting Value Description
Module name string mandatory; also needs to be configured on rsync client
Comment string mandatory
Path browse button of volume/dataset to hold received data
Access Mode drop-down
menu choices are read and write, read-only, or write-only
Maximum
connections integer 0 is unlimited
User drop-down
menu
select user that file transfers to and from that module should
take place as
Group drop-down
menu
select group that file transfers to and from that module should
take place as
Hosts allow string see rsyncd.conf(5) for allowed formats
Hosts deny string see rsyncd.conf(5) for allowed formats
Auxiliary parameters string additional parameters from rsyncd.conf(5)
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 149 of 164
NOTE: one of the things that isn’t apparent from the documentation for some versions of
rsyncd.conf(5) is that * is an alias for all.
9 Additional Options
This section covers the remaining miscellaneous options available from the FreeNAS™ web interface.
9.1 Display System Processes
If you click Display System Processes, a screen will open showing the output of top(1). An example is
shown in Figure 9.1a.
Figure 9.1a: System Processes Running on FreeNAS™
The display will automatically refresh itself. Simply click the X in the upper right corner to close the
display when you are finished. Note that the display is read-only, meaning that you won’t be able to
issue a kill command within it.
9.2 Reboot
If you click Reboot, you will receive the warning message shown in Figure 9.2a.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 150 of 164
Figure 9.2a: Reboot Warning Message
Click the Cancel button if you wish to cancel the reboot request. Otherwise, click the Reboot button to
reboot the system. Rebooting the system will disconnect all clients, including the web administration
GUI. The URL in your web browser will change to add /system/reboot/ to the end of the IP address.
Wait a few minutes for the system to boot, then use your browser’s back button to return to the
FreeNAS™ system’s IP address. If all went well, you should receive the GUI login menu. However, if
something went wrong, you will need physical access to the FreeNAS™ system’s monitor and
keyboard so that you can determine what problem is preventing the system from resuming normal
operation.
9.3 Shutdown
If you click Shutdown, you will receive the warning message shown in Figure 9.3a and your browser
colour will change to red to indicate that you have selected an option that will negatively impact users
of the FreeNAS™ system.
Figure 9.3a: Shutdown Warning Message
Click the Cancel button if you wish to cancel the shutdown request. Otherwise, click the Shutdown
button to reboot the system. Shutting down the system will disconnect all clients, including the web
administration GUI, and will power off the FreeNAS™ system. You will need physical access to the
FreeNAS™ system in order to turn it back on.
9.4 Log Out
To log out of the FreeNAS™ GUI, simply click the Log Out button in the upper right corner. You will
immediately be logged out. An informational message will indicate that you are logged out and will
provide a hyperlink which you can click on to log back in.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 151 of 164
9.5 Help
The Help button in the upper right corner provides hyperlinks to the various FreeNAS™ resources,
including: forums, mailing lists, IRC channel, bug tracker, and this documentation. Each of these
resources is discussed in more detail in the next section.
It also displays the currently installed FreeNAS™ version.
9.6 Alert
FreeNAS™ provides an alert system to provide a visual warning of any conditions that require
administrative attention. The Alert button in the far right corner will flash red when there is an
outstanding alert. For example, the first time you access the administrative GUI, the alert button will be
flashing. If you click the icon, you will see the screen shown in Figure 9.6a:
Figure 9.6a: Example Alert Message
Behind the scenes, an alert script checks for various alert conditions, such as volume status, and writes
these to /var/tmp/alert. A javascript retrieves the current alert status every 5 minutes and will change
the solid green alert icon (if there are no current alert conditions) to flashing red (if a new alert is
detected).
Section 3: Getting Help
10 FreeNAS™ Support Resources
FreeNAS™ has a large installation base and an active user community. This means that many usage
questions have already been answered and the details are available on the Internet. If you get stuck
using FreeNAS™, spend a few moments searching the Internet for the word FreeNAS™ with some
key words that describe your error message or the function that you are trying to implement.
FreeNAS™ 8.0 was released in May of 2011 while the original version of FreeNAS™ (now at
version .7) has been around since 2005. Accordingly, much of the of information available on the
Internet was written for FreeNAS™ .7.x and may or may not apply to FreeNAS™ 8.x.
The rest of this section discusses the additional resources available to FreeNAS™ 8.x users:
• Website and Social Media
• Trac Database
• IRC
• Mailing Lists
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 152 of 164
• Forums
• Instructional Videos
• Professional Support
• FAQs
10.1 Website and Social Media
The FreeNAS™ website contains links to all of the available documentation, support, and social media
resources. Major announcements are also posted to the main page.
Users are welcome to network on the FreeNAS™ social media sites:
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Facebook
A twitter feed is also available.
10.2 Trac Database
FreeNAS™ 8 uses a trac database where you can view existing support tickets to see if your issue has
already been reported or create new tickets for unreported issues. You do not need to create a login
account in order to view existing tickets, but you will need to use the Register link if you wish to create
a ticket. See section 11.2 Submit Bug Reports if you wish to create a support ticket.
10.3 IRC
If you wish to ask a question in “real time”, you can try the #freenas channel on IRC Freenode.
Depending upon the time of day (and your time zone), a FreeNAS™ developer or other FreeNAS™
users may be available to assist you. If you don’t get an answer right away, remain on the channel as
other users tend to read the channel history in order to answer questions as they are able to.
If you don’t have an IRC chat client, you can use the FreeNAS™ browser-based client.
To get the most out of the IRC channel, keep the following points in mind:
• don’t ask “can anyone help me?”; instead, just ask your question. If someone knows the answer,
they will try to assist you.
• don’t ask a question and then leave. Users who know the answer can’t help you if you disappear.
• don’t take it personally if no one answers or demand that someone answers your question.
Maybe no one who knows the answer is available, maybe your question is really hard, or maybe
it is a question that has already been answered many times in the other support resources. Try
asking again in a few hours or research the other resources to see if you’ve missed anything.
• Don’t post error messages in the channel as the IRC software will probably kick you out.
Instead, use a pasting service such as pastebin and refer to the URL on channel. If you prefer to
paste an image of your error, you can upload it to a temporary screenshot hosting service such
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 153 of 164
as Upload Screenshot and post the URL to your uploaded image.
10.4 Mailing Lists
Several FreeNAS™ mailing lists are available which allow users and developers to ask and answer
questions related to the topic of the mailing list. To post an email to a list, you will need to subscribe to
it first. Each mailing list is archived, allowing you to browse for information by date, thread name, or
author.
The following mailing lists are available:
• freenas-announce : This is a low-volume, read-only list where major milestones, such as new
releases, are announced.
• freenas-commit : This is a read-only list. As code changes in the FreeNAS™ repository, the
commit message is automatically sent to this list.
• freenas-devel : FreeNAS™ developers are subscribed to this list. Technical questions about the
current FreeNAS™ release can be posted here.
• freenas-docs : This list is for discussion regarding FreeNAS™ documentation.
• freenas-testing : FreeNAS™ developers are subscribed to this list. Technical questions about the
upcoming FreeNAS™ release and feedback on testing snapshots can be posted here.
• freenas-translations : This list is for discussion regarding FreeNAS™ localization and translating
FreeNAS™ documentation.
Archives of the mailing lists are available from Gmane which allows you to read the archives in
various formats (blog style, news reader style) and to subscribe to RSS feeds for the lists.
10.5 Forums
Another information source for FreeNAS™ is the Forums. Forums contain user-contributed tips and
guides which have been categorized, making it an ideal resource if you wish to learn more about a
certain aspect of FreeNAS™. A searchbar is included should you wish to search by keyword;
alternately, you can click a category to browse through the threads that exist for that topic.
The following categories are available under Help and Support:
• FreeNAS™ 4 N00bs : post here if you are new to FreeNAS™ and are unsure which category
best matches your question.
• Feature Requests : for the discussion of upcoming features and to request features not listed on
the Roadmap.
• Bug Reporting : do you think you have found a bug in FreeNAS™ and want to discuss it before
creating a support ticket?
• Hardware : for the discussion of hardware and tips for getting the most out of your hardware.
• User Authentication : LDAP and Active Directory.
• Sharing : AFP, CIFS, NFS, and iSCSI.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 154 of 164
• Storage : replication, snapshots, volumes, and ZFS.
• Networking : networking hardware, performance, link aggregation, VLANs, DDNS, FTP,
SNMP, SSH, and TFTP.
• Installation : installing help or advice before performing the installation.
The following categories are available under Development:
• FreeNAS™ : general development discussion.
• nanobsd : the embedded operating system FreeNAS™ is based upon.
• Django : the web framework used by the FreeNAS™ graphical administrative interface.
• Dojo Toolkit : the javascript toolkit used to create widgets and handle client side processing.
The following categories are available under How-To Guides:
• Hacking : undocumented tricks for getting the most out of your FreeNAS™ system.
• Installation : specific installation scenarios (hardware and/or software).
• Configuration : specific configuration scenarios (e.g. software or client configuration).
• Hardware : instructions for setting up specific hardware.
The following categories are available under Community Forum:
• Off-topic : want to discuss something of interest to FreeNAS™ users but which is not
necessarily related to FreeNAS™? This is your place.
• Resources : blogs, reviews, and other sources of FreeNAS™ information not listed at
freenas.org.
• Introductions : FreeNAS™ Community meet ‘n greet – introduce yourself and let us know who
we are chatting with.
The following language-specific categories are available under International, allowing FreeNAS™
users to interact with each other in their native language:
• German – Deutsch
• French – Francais
• Italian – Italiano
• Spanish – Espanol
If you wish to ask a question on the forum, you will need to click the Register link to create an account
and login using that account. When asking a question on the forum, it is important that you:
• first check to see if the question has already been asked. If you find a similar question, don’t
create a new thread. Instead use the “Reply to Thread” button to add your comments to the
existing thread.
• review the available categories to see which one is most closely related to your question. Click
on that category and use the “Post New Thread” button to open the editor. After typing your post
and before you click the “Submit New Thread” button, make sure the “Subscribe to this thread
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 155 of 164
and notify me of changes” box is checked. That way you will be notified whenever anyone
answers your question.
10.6 Instructional Videos
A series of instructional videos is being created for FreeNAS™ 8.x. The videos that are available so far
are:
• How to Install FreeNAS™ 8
• FreeNAS™ System Configuration Overview
• FreeNAS™ 8: Volumes Overview
• FreeNAS™ 8: Shares Overview
• FreeNAS™: Network Configuration Overview
• FreeNAS™: Active Directory
• FreeNAS™ 8: iSCSI In-depth
• FreeNAS™ 8: All in One
• FreeNAS™ 8: LAGG and VLAN
The Too Smart Guys show also has a series of videos:
• Building a FreeNAS 8 Box – Part 1 Hardware
• FreeNAS 8 – Build and Install
• FreeNAS 8 EP3 Configuration
10.7 Professional Support
In addition to the freely available community resources, iXsystems offers professional support
packages. iXsystems’ development team works hard to improve new and current versions of
FreeNAS™, providing them with the insight to provide expert FreeNAS™ support and consultation
services. Their Professional Services team can also configure your FreeNAS™ hardware and software
to deliver the highest levels of performance, stability, and security. See the FreeNAS™ Professional
Support page to request a quote.
10.8 FAQs
This section contains some of the questions which are asked most often on the FreeNAS™ IRC
channel. Additional FAQs can be found in this forum post.
10.8.1 Can a RAID-Z array be expanded? For example, if I start off with a 8x2TB RAID-Z2
array can I add more drives to it in the future?
A. You can add drives to a volume, but not to a RAIDZ group. For example, if your volume is a 3 drive
RAIDZ, you can add another 3 drive RAIDZ in the future, giving you a RAIDZ+0. But you can’t
change it to a 4 drive RAIDZ. This a limitation/feature of ZFS.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 156 of 164
10.8.2 Is there a command to force FreeBSD to scan for new disks? I’m trying to add some
disks to my array using the hot-swappable bays and a 3ware SATA card. The drives go
in fine and light up, but the operating system can’t see them.
A. Use the command:
tw_cli /c0 rescan
Then you use the drives to create units and export them to the operating system. When finished, run
camcontrol rescan all and they will show up in the GUI.
10.8.3 If my hardware/motherboard dies, can I rebuild with new/different hardware and still
import/read the data from my disks? What about my datasets?
A. Yes, as long as you aren’t using hardware RAID and let ZFS handle the RAID, A dataset is basically
a folder/directory that lives on your volume with your other files, but which has a separate mount point,
such as /mnt/your-pool/dataset_1.
10.8.4 How do I replace a bad drive?
A. It is recommended that you first upgrade to latest version of 8.0 . 3 to make sure that your system is
not effected by previously known bugs. You will also need access to the FreeNAS™ system to replace
the hard drive and to run some commands from the FreeNAS™ console.
If you are replacing a disk that is a member of a RAIDZ1 or RAIDZ2:
1. Determine the device name and UUID of the disk that needs to be replaced in Storage ->
Volumes -> View all Volumes -> View Disks icon for effected volume.
2. Shut down the system, pull out the failed drive, and replace it with a new disk of the same size
or larger into the same port.
3. Power-on the system. At this point the RAIDZ will be in a DEGRADED state and the disk will
be listed as Unavailable.
4. From the command line type zpool replace tank ada7 where tank represents the pool name
and ada7 represents the device name.
5. The pool will begin re-silvering. This can take a long time (many hours); be patient and let it
finish. You can check the status of the resilvering with zpool status -v. Once the resilvering
finishes, zpool status -v will still say DEGRADED.
6. Type the command zpool detach tank /dev/ada7/old, replacing tank and ada7 with your pool
name and device name. Check the status again and the DEGRADED and /dev/ada7/old should
be gone and the pool state should be ONLINE.
7. Type the command zpool export tank. This will prepare the specified pool for an auto-import
of the disk.
8. From the GUI go to: Storage -> Volumes -> Auto Import. Your disk should now show in the
drop-down menu.
9. Should the disk not appear in the drop-down menu, make sure that you are running the latest
version of FreeNAS™ upgrade if you are not. If you are running the latest FreeNAS™, try
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 157 of 164
backing up your configuration from System -> Settings -> Config -> Save Config. Then, reset
the configuration to the factory defaults using the Factory Restore button, and try the autoimport
again. Once your disk is imported, you can return to your saved configuration using the
Upload Config button.
10.8.5 Can I share files from my external USB drive?
A. No, at this time the GUI does not support this. This should be fixed in a later version.
10.8.6 Can I mount my MAC formatted drive?
A. No, at this time FreeNAS™ and FreeBSD do not support mounting HFS/HFS+ filesystems.
10.8.7 How do I get to the command line /CLI/shell?
A. There are 2 ways: from the console (the screen you see when you boot), and using SSH.
To use the console, you will need access to the keyboard connected to FreeNAS™. Select option “9)
Shell” from the menu shown in Figure 2.4a in section 2.4 Initial Setup. To return to the console menu
from the shell, type exit.
To access the FreeNAS™ system using SSH, you will need to enable the SSH service in Control
Services. You will also need a client program to make the connection. When connecting, use the IP
address of the FreeNAS™ system and the username admin. If you need to gain root privileges during
the session type su.
10.8.8 Does FreeNAS support 4k sector drives? How do I check if it is configured?
A. Yes. FreeNAS detects and uses 4K sectors automatically.
From the command line, type these command to check if you have 512 or 4k sectors configured:
zpool set cachefile=/data/zfs/zpool.cache tank (change tank to your pool
name)
zdb -U /data/zfs/zpool.cache | grep ashift
If the answer = 9, you have 512 byte sectors. If the answer = 12, you have 4k byte sectors.
Any hard drive produced after January 1, 2011 should be a 4K Advanced Format drive, though some
drives retain backwards compatibility by performing 512 byte emulation. FreeNAS™ always uses 4K
sector for ZFS if the underlying hard drive is advanced format in order to get maximum performance.
For UFS, the format always uses 4K sectors.
When you create your volumes, you can optionally check the box to “Force 4096 bytes sector size”.
This will not improve performance on 512-byte sector hard drives but could be helpful in a RAIDZ that
also contains advanced format drives.
10.8.9 My network transfer speeds are very slow, what is wrong?
A. You need to determine whether the bottleneck is your LAN, your disks/array/controller, not enough
RAM, your CPU load, a misconfiguration, the type of share in use, or that some tuning is required.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 158 of 164
• if you’re using a 10-100Mb/s wired router/switch you should get somewhere around 11-12MB/s
• if you’re transferring across the Internet, your speed will only be as fast as your slowest link
• if you’re using a Gig interface, check that it is properly enabled on both the switch and the
FreeNAS™ system. To check the FreeNAS™ system, run this command at the console:
ifconfig -a grep media
If it is not showing at 1000Mb/s, add the following line to the Options field of the interface’s settings:
media 1000baseTX mediaopt full-duplex
10.8.10 Why do changes I make at the command line to config files or settings disappear after a
reboot?
A. FreeNAS™is booted from a compressed filesystem and the configuration that is stored in a database
is loaded into RAM. Any changes made at the command line do not get added to the configuration
database. While you can make changes persist using the tips in this forum post, those changes won’t
survive an upgrade and it is not recommended to manually add command line edits to the database.
Instead, if the functionality you desire is not possible through the GUI, go to support.freenas.org and
search to see if a feature request to add that functionality already exists. If there is no existing ticket,
create a ticket describing the needed functionality.
Section 4: Contributing to FreeNAS™
11 How to Get Involved
As an open source community, FreeNAS™ relies on the input and expertise of its users to help improve
FreeNAS™. When you take some time to assist the community, your contributions benefit everyone
who uses FreeNAS™.
This section describes some areas of participation to get you started. It is by no means an exhaustive
list. If you have an idea that you think would benefit the FreeNAS™ community, bring it up on one of
the resources mentioned in section 10 FreeNAS™ Support Resources .
This section demonstrates how you can:
• Assist with Localization
• Submit Bug Reports
• Test Upcoming Versions
11.1 Assist with Localization
FreeNAS™ uses Pootle, an open source application, for managing the localization of the menu screens
used by the FreeNAS™ graphical administrative interface. Pootle makes it easy to find out the
localization status of your native language and to translate the text for any menus that have not been
localized yet. By providing a web editor and commenting system, Pootle allows translators to spend
their time making and reviewing translations rather than learning how to use a translation submission
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 159 of 164
tool.
To see the status of a localization, open up the FreeNAS™ Translation System in your browser, as seen
in Figure 11.1a:
Figure 11.1a: FreeNAS™ Localization System
The localizations FreeNAS™ users have requested are listed alphabetically on the left. If your language
is missing and you would like to help in its translation, send an email to the translations mailing list so
it can be added.
The green bar in the Overall Completion column indicates the percentage of FreeNAS™ menus that
have been localized. If a language is not at 100%, it means that the menus that currently aren’t
translated will appear in English instead of in that language.
If you wish to help localize your language, you should first join the translations mailing list and
introduce yourself and which language(s) you can assist with. This will allow you to meet other
volunteers as well as keep abreast of any notices or updates that may effect the translations. You will
also need to click on the Register link in order to create a Pootle login account.
The first time you log into the FreeNAS™ Pootle interface, you’ll be prompted to select your language
so that you can access that language’s translation whenever you login. Alternately, you can click the
Home link to see the status of all of the languages. To work on a translation, click the link for the
language -> click the FreeNAS™ link for the project -> click the link for LC_MESSAGES -> and click
the link for django.po. Every text line available in the GUI menu screens has been assigned a string
number. If you click the number, an editor will open where you can translate the text. In the example
shown in Figure 11.1b, a user has selected string number 46 in the German translation; the other strings
in the screenshot have already been translated:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 160 of 164
Figure 11.1b: Using the Pootle Interface to Edit a Translation String
Simply type in the translated text and click the Submit button to save your change.
11.2 Submit Bug Reports
FreeNAS™ uses Trac, an open source bug reporting system, to manage bug reports and feature
requests submitted by users. You can search for existing bugs and submit a bug report at
support.freenas.org.
If you find a bug while using FreeNAS™ or if you would like to request a feature in an upcoming
version, take the time to research your bug/feature first, before submitting your bug report. This is so
that you don’t end up duplicating an existing report and to ensure that your report contains the
information that the developers need in order to implement the fix or the feature.
Before submitting a bug report, perform the following steps:
• determine if you are running the latest version of FreeNAS™ 8.x. FreeNAS™ developers tend
to fix bugs rapidly and new features are being implemented as 8.x matures. If you are not
running the latest version, it is quite likely that the bug has already been fixed or the missing
feature has been implemented. If this is the case, your best course of action is to backup your
data and configuration and perform an upgrade to the latest version. Note that FreeNAS™ will
stabilize at version 8.2 and that the most recent version may be labelled as a beta or an RC; it
will still be considered more stable than the release before it.
• if you are running the latest version, use the search feature at support.freenas.org to see if a
similar report/request already exists. If one does, do not create another ticket. Instead, add a
comment to the existing ticket if you have additional information to add.
If a similar report does not already exist, keep the following points in mind when you create your bug
report or feature request:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 161 of 164
• you will need to register for an account, confirm you registration email address, and be logged
in before you can create a new ticket.
• in the Summary section shown in Figure 11.2a, include descriptive keywords that describe your
problem or feature request. This is useful for other users who search for a similar problem. You
can also include a comma separated list of keywords in the Keywords section.
• in the Description section, describe the problem, how to recreate it, and include the text of any
error messages. If you are requesting a feature, describe the benefit provided by the feature and,
if applicable, provide examples of other products that use that feature or the URL of the
homepage for the software. If you would like to include a screenshot of your configuration or
error, check the “I have files to attach to this ticket” box.
• under Type, select defect if it is a bug report or enhancement if it is a feature request.
• for bug reports, be sure to select the version of FreeNAS™ that you are using.
• press the Preview button to read through your ticket before submitting it. Make sure it includes
all of the information that someone else would need to understand your problem or request.
Once you are satisfied with your ticket, click the Create Ticket button to submit it.
• if you get stuck in how to fill out a field in the ticket, the TracTickets link at the bottom of the
ticket creation page has several examples.
Figure 11.2a: Creating a New Ticket
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 162 of 164
11.3 Test Upcoming Versions
11.3.1 Upcoming Version 8.2
A release date has not been set yet for 8.2, though it is expected to be released by the end of Q1, 2012.
Prior to 8.2 release, there will be a beta period where testing snapshots will be announced on the
FreeNAS™ website, blog, and social media sites every week or so. This beta period is meant to
provide users an opportunity to test the upcoming release and to provide feedback on bugs and errors
so that they can be fixed prior to release. Feedback can be sent to the Freenas-testing mailing list.
11.3.2 Testing a Nightly Snapshot
Changes to FreeNAS™ occur daily as developers address the bugs and enhancement requests reported
by FreeNAS™ users. A testing version that incorporates these changes is automatically built daily and
is available for download as a nightly release.
If you wish to install or upgrade to the testing version of FreeNAS™ (i.e. the version that addresses all
fixed bugs up to today’s date) or you need to upgrade to a version that incorporates a fix you are
waiting for, you can download the latest nightly version.
NOTE: it is possible that a recently implemented change will not work as expected or will break
something else. If you experience this, take the time to add a comment to the applicable support ticket
so that the developers can address the problem.
DANGER! upgrading from a nightly snapshot to an RC or a RELEASE is not supported! . Be wary of
installing a nightly in a production environment and be sure to backup your configuration before
attempting a full install of a later RC or RELEASE.
Nightly builds are available as ISO, GUI upgrade, or Full install images. If you are upgrading to a
nightly from an earlier version of FreeNAS™ 8.x, see the section on Upgrading FreeNAS™ for
instructions on how to upgrade.
11.3.3 Rolling Your Own Testing Snapshot
Users who wish to test 8.2 prior to the testing period can download the latest source from the svn
repository and generate their own ISO for testing purposes.
NOTE: 8.2 is currently in alpha phase and some of its new features are still broken or not fully
implemented. Expect to find bugs. Do not use in a production environment! It is recommended that you
read the README first so that you are aware of any gotchas and currently known limitations.
If you wish to build your own testing snapshot, you will need to install FreeBSD 8.2 in a virtual
environment or on a test system. If you are using a virtual environment, a 64-bit system with at least 4
GB of RAM is recommended. Download the FreeBSD version (i386 or amd64) that matches the
architecture that you wish to build and when prompted to choose your distribution set during the
installation, select the Minimal install option.
After booting into the newly installed FreeBSD system, become the superuser and run the following
commands. First, install the software you’ll need and refresh your path so it is aware of the new
binaries:
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 163 of 164
pkg_add -r subversion
pkg_add -r nano
pkg_add -r cdrtools
rehash
You’re now ready to download FreeNAS™ source:
cd /usr/local
svn co https://freenas.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/freenas/trunk
cd trunk
setenv FREEBSD_CVSUP_HOST cvsup10.freebsd.org
If you wish to install extra software in your snapshot, you will need to increase the size of the
NanoBSD image by editing freenas-common. The size of the image should be double the space that it
needs as the image will be formatted with two same-size partitions. This is to allow for upgrades as one
partition contains the new running image and the other partition contains a copy of the backup image.
When editing freenas-common, search for this line:
FlashDevice generic 1g
and edit it to the size you’ll need. Make sure that you have a memory stick that can hold the specified
size. You’re now ready to build the image:
sh build/do_build.sh
sh build/create_iso.sh
Once these commands complete, you will have an image in obj.yyyy/FreeNAS—VVVV-XXXXyyyy.
full.xz where:
• VVVV is the release branch version
• XXXX is the svn revision from the FreeNAS™ repo
• yyyy is either i386 or amd64 depending on your platform and what was provided via
$FREENAS_ARCH on the command line or in an environment setting
This is a compressed raw disk image which needs to be decompressed and converted to your favorite
virtual machine container format before use. There will also be a CD image called obj.yyy/FreeNASVVVV-
XXXX-yyyy.full.iso that you can burn to disk and use to install or upgrade FreeNAS™.
Please see the README file for common workflows and tips.
FreeNAS™ 8.0.3 Guide Page 164 of 164

Versão para Impressão