Can FreeNAS be implemented on Amazon AWS ?

[Varun Chandak]

Soon, I will be migrating my data to AWS. Therefore I'd like to know if I could implement FreeNAS on the cloud, i.e., Amazon AWS.

Currently, I can only see FreeBSD AMI available in the Amazon Marketplace. Does that mean I can proceed forward with FreeNAS too ?

Really need help here. :(

 

[cyberjock]

In short, no. You need access to bare metal, something Amazon doesn't do because it's not cost effective.

You may or may not be able to pay for that kind of service, but as the use-case is far outside the realm of what we do here I'd say you are on your own.

 

[depasseg]

As cyberjock said, there isn't a way to install a custom OS in EC2. However, there are ways to create a vm locally and then migrate it to EC2. In fact, here's a step by step on how to deploy Hybrid Cluster (which happens to use FreeBSD and ZFS) to Google GCE.
http://docs.hybridcluster.com/current/04-installation/base-install/deploying-on-google-compute.html

The bigger question is - Why would you want to do this? It've very complex, and I don't see it providing any benefit over using the native storage capabilities of EC2 or GCE. And the risk for data loss seems much higher. FreeNAS in a VM isn't able to provide the protection and capabilities that make it so valuable while running as a VM.

 

[Varun Chandak]

I wanted to setup mailing solution on cloud with storage on AWS. That is why i was going on with this.

 

[jgreco]

And the risk for data loss seems much higher. FreeNAS in a VM isn't able to provide the protection and capabilities that make it so valuable while running as a VM.

Or, more specifically, you're not really able to evaluate the platform's abilities to properly protect your data. For example, does the platform offer ECC? How is a storage failure presented to the guest? How will FreeNAS react? Are you willing to pay for storage redundancy at the ZFS level in order to guarantee data corruption recovery? Etc.

A FreeNAS VM will also want as much memory as it would on a bare metal install, but this may end up being kind of expensive on a cloud platform.

 

[Robert Smith]

I wanted to setup mailing solution on cloud with storage on AWS. That is why i was going on with this.

A few scattered points:

· AWS has its own storage solutions.

· All but most simple mail servers store data in a database.

· Check if somebody else has already implemented what you want, so you do not waste time reinventing things.

 

[Varun Chandak]

A few scattered points:

· AWS has its own storage solutions.

· All but most simple mail servers store data in a database.

· Check if somebody else has already implemented what you want, so you do not waste time reinventing things.

I had checked, googling etc.. but couldn't find anything related to this..

 

[jb510]

Not my thing... but interesting to note the Digital Ocean just announced FreeBSD support:
https://www.digitalocean.com/company/blog/presenting-freebsd-how-we-made-it-happen/

I'd suspect someone adventures could get FreeNAS up and running there. Not a very logical thing to do on DO, but then hackers are an illogical bunch.

 

[proligde]

It's over a year now since the last post in this thread but I'd like to add that there are in fact use cases for FreeNAS on virtualized platforms like AWS:

AWS for example lacks a managed NFS service. They know that and came up with EFS (ElasticFileSystem) which is basically that, but it's still beta and only available in the US region for months now. In addition to that it's a black box and I want to have a little more control over my file system. Anyone running workloads that need clustering also need a central NFS compatible storage: So we have two options here: Set it up manually installing NFS-Server or use a good out-of-the-box-solution.

I have FreeNAS running on bare metal here for two years now and I'm very happy with it and yes, it would generate overhead to put ZFS on top of AWS' block storage solution but why not: You're "only" paying with overhead for a lot of flexibility here.

Imagine iXsystems or some other trustworthy party would offer ready-to-go machine images with FreeNAS boxes ready to start on your virtual hardware: I'd bet a lot of people would use that even if it's more expensive than comparable bare metal.

Standard FreeBSD is working on AWS AFAIK (not officially powered by AWS itself but running in the environment used for Microsoft Windows clients as well) so it should be possible to get FreeNAS working as well.

If i was iXsystems I would think about that: Why not offer a a free freeNAS "CloudApp" on AWS and co.? Most of the companies using that will also have non-cloud-workloads and will remember the good FreeNAS experience...

I'd definitely use freeNAS for production workloads in the cloud as well - even though I know it was just not invented to do that in a virtualized environment

 

[jgreco]

You can already do what you suggest, but it is a risky proposition for various reasons, many outlined in the virtualization stickies. For a smallish pool, the strategy outlined in the third virt sticky would be the way to go.

 

[Arwen]

One issue with these cloud services, is that an update can make the virtual node un-bootable.
That's why I'd want either BTRFS or ZFS, for alternate boot environments. Simply get on the
virtual console and select prior boot environment. Then fix whatever was wrong with the update.
Or delete the update and try again. Keep at least one prior boot environment for recovery purposes.

It's also nice to verify the integrety of your files. Though backups would have to do for any failures.

 

[proligde]

@jgreco thanks for pointing that out: I'll have look into them

@Arwen that's interesting: why wouldn't you rely on the providers standard system disk snapshots prior to updates? You could always switch back and boot again without the need for alternate boot setups. Do I miss sth. here?

 

[jgreco]

And just to be clear, now that I'm on a laptop...

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ative-for-those-seeking-virtualization.26095/

 

[proligde]

@jgreco thanks for all the in depth knowledge you're sharing here! I've took a step back and just set up a test environment with an easy-to-handle zfs on linux combined with a standard NFS server. I use the EBS drives as zpool elements without any zfs-added redundancy on top and now I'll try to break my zpool by intended-clumsy behaviour :)

 

[Arwen]

@Arwen that's interesting: why wouldn't you rely on the providers standard system disk snapshots prior to updates? You could always switch back and boot again without the need for alternate boot setups. Do I miss sth. here?

Hmm, I had not thought of that. My cloud VM did not have that feature. I'll have to check to see if it does now.

 

[jgreco]

@jgreco thanks for all the in depth knowledge you're sharing here! I've took a step back and just set up a test environment with an easy-to-handle zfs on linux combined with a standard NFS server. I use the EBS drives as zpool elements without any zfs-added redundancy on top and now I'll try to break my zpool by intended-clumsy behaviour :)

Not providing any redundancy means that reads of bad data will fail, unless you also disable checksumming, and as you start to lose key ZFS features and capabilities, the question has to become, why are you even bothering? Just set up a conventional filesystem. There's nothing evil in that.