AutoDeployment / Config Answer File

[JesseMoore]

Hello,

I am currently looking at FreeNAS for use in a Service Provider environment, where Virtual FreeNAS Appliances will be deployed on a per customer basis.

Is there currently any way of creating a file with the configuration required and having freenas configure from that on first run?

Thanks,

Jesse

 

[jgreco]

Not automatically, no. It should be possible to add such a module to your provisioning tool, however. The entire FreeNAS configuration is held in the database file, so basically your provisioning tool needs to generate an appropriate db file, install a copy of FreeNAS on the new virtual disk, mount the disk image, and put the database file in place.

A curious choice for a virtual SP environment; you can really afford 8+ GB VM's for per-customer file storage? I suppose... I mean I've been telling people RAM is cheap for a decade now.

 

[JesseMoore]

Hi jgreco,

Thank you for your feedback, I will test this.

Regarding the 8GB RAM per instance. In situations where compliance requires separate SAN instances, comparing the cost versus a physical Dell or EMC SAN it's still favourable.

 

[jgreco]

Yes, it is, especially if you're already compartmentalizing customer VM's onto physical hosts dedicated to that customer.

We've seen a number of people come on in and want to run FreeNAS on Amazon or other random cloud service providers, where the pricing of that and the underlying technology doesn't really make sense.

Do be aware that there are other engineering considerations for hosting FreeNAS on a VM, such as how to handle the ZFS self-healing mechanism.

 

[cyberjock]

Anyone care to guess the time frame before data is lost the first time? ;)

 

[jgreco]

If it's done right, it could be just fine, even safer than with conventional disks on a baremetal NAS. The service provider environment is more likely to "get it right" than a hobbyist setup where cost cost cost is the driving factor.