Hi,
i did just finish the powerpoint presentation for the freeNAS guide for noobs. I also just finished to install and test BTSync on freeNAS, nas4Free and openmediavault in a virtual KVM VPS.
Preface: I want to switch a small PlasticSCM + FirebirdDB server used as coding repo over to something more stable and maintenance free, while i also want to switch from dropbox to BTSync (more of a hobby project).
We used cheap desktop hardware on the local PlasticSCM server, since we use Crashplan already and have data in the range of 100-500GB there. So this was build with the expectation that the single 1TB disk might fail some day, but Crashplan comes to the rescue and having 1-2 day to redownload/setup is acceptable.
I guess we are not the typical freeNAS, raid + ZFS users, but i still like the idea of freeNAS, since it looks stable and low maintenance, while providing a nice user interface. So instead of using my usual CentOS 6.5 or Ubuntuu Server + Webmin, i was looking into NAS distros and stumbled across those 3, while freeNAS impressed me the most so far.
Questions:
1) So far i gathered that we should not use ZFS at all, since it provides no benefits in our cases (1x TB Disk + 4GB Ram), as PlasticSCM server or as BTSync cloud node. So should i use UFS than and is freeNAS still a good choice than?
2) There is a post noting that freeNAS should not be used on VPS, but it seems this is ment for ZFS/Raid users? So is it safe and recommend to use freeNAS inside a KVM VPS?
3) What are the minimum freeNAS memory requirements if u just want to use UFS, FTP, SSH, BtSync, WEBDAV and u are actually always limited by the "cloud" network speed aka VDSL ~100MBits. (Cloud VPS setup)
4) Will future freeNAS versions still fully support UFS, with all functions?
5) Is there a way to VPN into the freeNAS server so Windows/Mac clients can see/access the samba shares without third party clients?
NOTE: We use softEther under windows atm and it works great even on a none server version os, while it took just minutes to setup. I hope this can be done also under freeNAS, since there is a freeBSD version available?
6) Is there a VPN server web interface/plugin for freeNAS?
7) What advantages does freeNAS have over nas4free or openmediavault.
NOTE: So far i like the interface/plugin system better and it seems only freeNAS supports SMB3 via samba 4 atm?
But it was also noted that freeNAS needs lots more ram, which seems to assume ZFS useage.
8) Is freeNAS the best choice if u don't plan to use ZFS or u are better of with a other NAS distro?
9) Does the freeNAS/FreeBSD Jail linux emulation really work well? I found firebirdDB as port, but PlasticSCM needs to run from a .rpm/deb package, since there is no freeBSD version. I'm in for some pain or will i be surprised how well all works?
Thx
Andy
i did just finish the powerpoint presentation for the freeNAS guide for noobs. I also just finished to install and test BTSync on freeNAS, nas4Free and openmediavault in a virtual KVM VPS.
Preface: I want to switch a small PlasticSCM + FirebirdDB server used as coding repo over to something more stable and maintenance free, while i also want to switch from dropbox to BTSync (more of a hobby project).
We used cheap desktop hardware on the local PlasticSCM server, since we use Crashplan already and have data in the range of 100-500GB there. So this was build with the expectation that the single 1TB disk might fail some day, but Crashplan comes to the rescue and having 1-2 day to redownload/setup is acceptable.
I guess we are not the typical freeNAS, raid + ZFS users, but i still like the idea of freeNAS, since it looks stable and low maintenance, while providing a nice user interface. So instead of using my usual CentOS 6.5 or Ubuntuu Server + Webmin, i was looking into NAS distros and stumbled across those 3, while freeNAS impressed me the most so far.
Questions:
1) So far i gathered that we should not use ZFS at all, since it provides no benefits in our cases (1x TB Disk + 4GB Ram), as PlasticSCM server or as BTSync cloud node. So should i use UFS than and is freeNAS still a good choice than?
2) There is a post noting that freeNAS should not be used on VPS, but it seems this is ment for ZFS/Raid users? So is it safe and recommend to use freeNAS inside a KVM VPS?
3) What are the minimum freeNAS memory requirements if u just want to use UFS, FTP, SSH, BtSync, WEBDAV and u are actually always limited by the "cloud" network speed aka VDSL ~100MBits. (Cloud VPS setup)
4) Will future freeNAS versions still fully support UFS, with all functions?
5) Is there a way to VPN into the freeNAS server so Windows/Mac clients can see/access the samba shares without third party clients?
NOTE: We use softEther under windows atm and it works great even on a none server version os, while it took just minutes to setup. I hope this can be done also under freeNAS, since there is a freeBSD version available?
6) Is there a VPN server web interface/plugin for freeNAS?
7) What advantages does freeNAS have over nas4free or openmediavault.
NOTE: So far i like the interface/plugin system better and it seems only freeNAS supports SMB3 via samba 4 atm?
But it was also noted that freeNAS needs lots more ram, which seems to assume ZFS useage.
8) Is freeNAS the best choice if u don't plan to use ZFS or u are better of with a other NAS distro?
9) Does the freeNAS/FreeBSD Jail linux emulation really work well? I found firebirdDB as port, but PlasticSCM needs to run from a .rpm/deb package, since there is no freeBSD version. I'm in for some pain or will i be surprised how well all works?
Thx
Andy
