r u kidding? install FreeNAS on old hardware?

[mrm13440]

I laugh at the posts people write about putting FreeNAS on old hardware. I get eager to read until I see their definition of hardware consists of a computer with 6-8 or more gigs of memory and terabytes of HD's. Get real people when most of us are talking old hardware its old p4's with 512-1024mb of memory and a 250-300gb hd. I guess FreeNAS requires 8gb of memory? If I had a system with that much memory it would be on my desktop. I have many old systems (which is the correct term here...P4's with1/2 to 1 gb mem) that in no way can run FreeNAS. I used to have an old FreeNAS server (not sure of the year early 2000's) that ran for 14 years. Yes I replaced 3 or 4 power supplies in it until it finally tapped out. That was an old P3. I finally found my old disk FreeNAS .685b I think? I'll let you know how setting up a server on correct usage OLD HARDWARE goes.

 

[m0nkey_]

Considering FreeNAS went 64-bit only when 9.3 was released, it'll be tough to get to work on some older systems.

 

[gpsguy]

FreeNAS 0.7 became NAS4free

FreeNAS 8.x and later is a completely different product. iXsystems bought the name.

I finally found my old disk freenas .685b I think?

 

[mrm13440]

Well I found my copy of .685b...don't know what year that is but I ran it until 2013-2014?? Since I'm not using ZFS and RAID...just storing everyones home folders on there, using upgraded NICs why wouldn't this perform the same or even better than my old system. My old system was outstanding in doing this job....the motherboard finally puked. a lot of times I wouldn't even power down the old server...just turn the power off then give it a few extra minutes booting up.

 

[danb35]

Get real people when most of us are talking old hardware its old p4's with 512-1024mb of memory and a 250-300gb hd.

So it doesn't count as "old hardware" unless it's at least 15 years old? By that definition, no, FreeNAS won't work on "old hardware"--it needs reasonably-modern, 64-bit architecture with at least 8 GB of RAM. This is 2018, after all, not 1998. If you're unwilling or unable to dedicate those resources to your server, then FreeNAS isn't for you.

Edit: And no, 0.685 wasn't 2013-2014--the 0.7 series was EOL in 2011. Clear information that far back is hard to find, but the release you have is probably at least ten years old (Edit 2: This article from the Washington Post suggests I was pretty close with that--it's dated 27 Aug 08, and the current release at that time was 0.686.3--so you've been running ten-year-old software on 15-year-old hardware). If it works for you, more power to you, but any questions about that software belong at nas4free.org--it's simply a completely different product.

 

[Chris Moore]

Since I'm not using zfs and raid...just storing evryones home folders on there, using upgraded nic's why wouldn't this perform the same or even better than my old system. My old system was outstanding in doing this job....the motherboard finally puked. a lot of times I wouldn't even power down the old server...just turn the power off then give it a few extra minutes booting up.

You don't get a choice with the current version of FreeNAS. Even the boot pool is a ZFS volume and all the data drives too. If you want to do what you are talking about doing, you can use Linux. I run a Linux system on 4GB of memory and it will easily do what you are seeking. If you want FreeNAS, it needs just a bit more. You could get a system for around $600 (all in) that would do what you want on new hardware that would last as long as hardware should reasonably be expected to last, which is much less than 14 years. Normal hardware will last 6 to 10 years. Beyond that, you are living on borrowed time.

 

[mrm13440]

I have many a system that r p4's that people threw out because windows wouldn't run them. Linux lite flies on them. My desktop with 6gigs is way more than I'll ever need for surfing the web, email, watching movies etc. I think a nfs container is something that most people should have but what people r throwing out are not 8,10,12 gig systems...at least around here. Lucky I had an old FreeNAS disk or no Net storage for me.

 

[danb35]

Well, if your requirement is that you can run a file server on computers that people are throwing away, that's going to limit you. With that limitation, FreeNAS simply isn't for you. What you have been running is no longer called FreeNAS; that's evolved into NAS4Free.

 

[mrm13440]

You don't get a choice with the current version of FreeNAS. Even the boot pool is a ZFS volume and all the data drives too. If you want to do what you are talking about doing, you can use Linux. I run a Linux system on 4GB of memory and it will easily do what you are seeking. If you want FreeNAS, it needs just a bit more. You could get a system for around $600 (all in) that would do what you want on new hardware that would last as long as hardware should reasonably be expected to last, which is much less than 14 years. Normal hardware will last 6 to 10 years. Beyond that, you are living on borrowed time.

600 dollars...up here in the sticks....you have to be kidding....bought a laptop 3 years ago paid 220$ and thought this is crazy. I think I'll have to make multiple copies of my disk and save them somewhere secure...can't find this on the net.

 

[mrm13440]

Well, if your requirement is that you can run a file server on computers that people are throwing away, that's going to limit you. With that limitation, FreeNAS simply isn't for you. What you have been running is no longer called FreeNAS; that's evolved into NAS4Free.

For what I'm doing... letting everyone in the house back up their documents it was rock solid until the motherboard crapped... as far as the software and drives... absolutely fantastic... I would still be using it.

 

[danb35]

can't find this on the net

If you tried looking at the place that actually supports that software (you've only been given that reference three times in this thread), you might have better luck. And with that, the ignore list gets another entry.

 

[mrm13440]

I'm sure this version .685b is a lot earlier than 8.0.

 

[m0nkey_]

If you want to stay on the pre 8.0 code base, you will want to use NAS4Free. FreeNAS is clearly not for you if you want to run on older hardware.

 

[Ericloewe]

This is going nowhere. OP, you have been told where to find support for FreeNAS versions older than 8.

The hardware requirements for FreeNAS are what they are and they're not going to change. Even some hardware that is nominally supported is too slow for what I'd call a minimum baseline (Saturate GbE with SMB) - notably Core 2 processors and their associated platform.