Connecting FreeNas Directly To Server

[benfozzer]

Hi All!

Server Specs:
HP DL180 G6
2x Xeon E5620's
48GB ECC RAM
24TB Storage

Latest Build of FreeNas

Not having the best of mornings here, I came into the office and it seems that for some unknown reason the DHCP server has gone down and the FreeNas has re-assigned itself a new IP.

I disabled the DHCP on the FreeNas box, then assigned it a static IP of 192.168.2.3. Rs'd the machine. I could ping the 192.168.2.3 address from my PC but couldn't access the Web Interface or map any of the drives. So I thought.. Maybe a DNS issue? I then pulled our DNS server info and input it into the DNS settings from within the FreeNas console.. but still no luck.

Failing that, I figured the best way to solve this (and to increase the backup speeds) was to plug the FreeNas machine directly into our server.

I've looked at some articles about the benefits of having the box directly connected, we've been looking to improve the speeds of our backups for quite a while.. A normal FreeNas backup takes about 2 Days over the network but will only take half a day when directly connected.

Things I've tried so far in regards to the direct connection;

Set the IP on the FreeNas server to 192.168.2.3 and also changed the IP within windows to reflect this. (within the Ethernet properties for the new connection)

Set the DNS records within Windows (On the ethernet settings) to reflect the correct DNS settings.

Any help would be massively appreciated!

 

[danb35]

Why are you setting the Windows box to the same IP address as the FreeNAS server? And why was the FreeNAS server using DHCP to begin with?

 

[melloa]

Check your gateway on the FreeNAS box. When assigning static IPs, we, sometimes, overlook this little detail.

I do prefer let my DHCP handle all my network IPs and fix the servers IPs in it.

Edit: Those blades come with a HP Smart Array controller ... if you can't get them in IT mode, I wouldn't recommend for FreeNAS.