Is FreeBSD capable of doing all this?

calgarychris · Sep 21, 2011

Hi,

Not that I've managed to successfully install FreeBSD yet (!), but I wanted to confirm whether the following is possible with FreeBSD. I am currently using Freenas, which is working well as a NAS, but I had hoped for more capability and am now wondering if FreeBSD can provide it:

My setup
4 x 2TB
AMD 350M1-I Deluxe
8GB RAM

In order of importance:

1. Headless server - once the initial "setup" stuff is complete, I'm hoping I can run this without a monitor, keyboard and mouse...I know you can ssh into it, are there web based login possibilities (like Freenas has)?

2. NAS storage for media - I know it can do this - are there recommendations on something easy to understand, implement and maintain (like Freenas?). I like the idea of using ZFS but mdadm is the only other package I've heard of for RAID and it doesn't do ZFS, if I'm not mistaken.

3. Scheduled backups of my other NAS (DNS-323) - this is something that Freenas apparently cannot do, as rsync cannot pull files (?) Is this a limitation of FreeBSD?

4. Ability to load Sabnzbd on startup and use the API key to access remotely - I know there's a Ubuntu version, has anyone got it working on FreeBSD?

5. Power down and wake on lan - is it possible to power down completely and then wake up if something (i.e. Sabnzbd) pings it?

6. Less important, it would be neat to have a small chunk of hard drive that I could save files remotely onto and perhaps read access to what's on the drive - I guess that's ftp and I'll read up on it but if someone can confirm it can be done that'd be helpful.

I have been reading the Handbook and the New User guides and such, but without knowing what's possible and how easy it is, I keep jumping between whether this is possible in Ubuntu server, Debian, FreeBSD or Freenas and it makes for a *lot* of reading (most of it Greek to me!). I've gotten Debian and Ubuntu to work in VMWare, but not FreeBSD. I'm sort of partial to FreeBSD since Freenas is based off it and this seems like it's got a really friendly community.

Thanks very much, I appreciate any help I can get.

Chris

vermaden · Sep 21, 2011

calgarychris said:
1. Headless server - once the initial "setup" stuff is complete, I'm hoping I can run this without a monitor, keyboard and mouse...I know you can ssh into it, are there web based login possibilities (like Freenas has)?

The SSH will be available, along with all other stuff that You configure there, but FreeBSD does not have any web interface.

There is also ZFSGURU NAS distribution that You may find interesting: http://zfsguru.com/

2. NAS storage for media - I know it can do this - are there recommendations on something easy to understand, implement and maintain (like Freenas?). I like the idea of using ZFS but mdadm is the only other package I've heard of for RAID and it doesn't do ZFS, if I'm not mistaken.

I think I haven't got about what You are asking here mate

3. Scheduled backups of my other NAS (DNS-323) - this is something that Freenas apparently cannot do, as rsync cannot pull files (?) Is this a limitation of FreeBSD?

What do You mean by 'rsync cannot pull files' I personally use RSYNC to backup my FreeBSD laptop to my FreeBSD NAS ...

5. Power down and wake on lan - is it possible to power down completely and then wake up if something (i.e. Sabnzbd) pings it?

Powering down is not a problem, as for WoL, You will have to check if the driver for Your network adapter has that functionality implemented.

6. Less important, it would be neat to have a small chunk of hard drive that I could save files remotely onto and perhaps read access to what's on the drive - I guess that's ftp and I'll read up on it but if someone can confirm it can be done that'd be helpful.

Yes thats possible.

calgarychris · Sep 21, 2011

First off - thanks for the quick reply!

vermaden said:
The SSH will be available, along with all other stuff that You configure there, but FreeBSD does not have any web interface.

There is also ZFSGURU NAS distribution that You may find interesting: http://zfsguru.com/

Bummer, although, as I understand it, once you've got the zpools set up and zfs is ticking along, there's really no need for an interface correct? I'm not serving many users - it'll connect to my Boxee Box three feet away via samba (hopefully) and then the occasional laptop/PC backup.

I think I haven't got about what You are asking here mate

Ah, not surprising, given how I asked. Given I won't be using Freenas anymore, how do I go about setting up a zfs or RAID configuration? I know mdadm is mentioned for Ubuntu - is there a recommended package in FreeBSD?

What do You mean by 'rsync cannot pull files' I personally use RSYNC to backup my FreeBSD laptop to my FreeBSD NAS ...

Again, my very very limited FreeBSD exposure is secondhand through Freenas where they have explicitly said that rsync can save files from the NAS to somewhere else on a schedule, but that it cannot save files from somewhere else onto the server. In my case, I'm hoping to backup my files on my DNS-323 to my FreeBSD server on a schedule. Is that possible? Do they both have to be running FreeBSD?

Powering down is not a problem, as for WoL, You will have to check if the driver for Your network adapter has that functionality implemented.

My network card apparently can - or at least, it's an integrated card on the motherboard and the BIOS appears to have a wol option. So...possible I guess. Is this something anyone has up and running?

Yes thats possible.

Sweet, thanks - more reading then for if and when I get there.

Thanks again!

kpa · Sep 21, 2011

Mdadm is the linux utility for setting up software RAID, FreeBSD does not have it. ZFS is both a software RAID and volume manager, zpool(8) and zfs(8) are the utility programs that are used for setting up and maintaining ZFS pools and filesystems on FreeBSD.

calgarychris · Sep 21, 2011

kpa said:
Mdadm is the linux utility for setting up software RAID, FreeBSD does not have it. ZFS is both a software RAID and volume manager, zpool(8) and zfs(8) are the utility programs that are used for setting up and maintaining ZFS pools and filesystems on FreeBSD.

Ahhh, thanks - I wasn't sure if there was a package or program (in my parlance!) that I could run, more from a management side...I'll add those two to my list of "to be read" items! Thanks!

vermaden · Sep 21, 2011

calgarychris said:
First off - thanks for the quick reply!

Welcome mate

calgarychris said:
Bummer, although, as I understand it, once you've got the zpools set up and zfs is ticking along, there's really no need for an interface correct? I'm not serving many users - it'll connect to my Boxee Box three feet away via samba (hopefully) and then the occasional laptop/PC backup.

After I have set up everything, I do not log in via ssh, unless I want to check something.

Ah, not surprising, given how I asked. Given I won't be using Freenas anymore, how do I go about setting up a zfs or RAID configuration? I know mdadm is mentioned for Ubuntu - is there a recommended package in FreeBSD?

With ZFS its best to use ZFS mirror/raidz/raidz2 and do not use hardware raid at all which is far less secure then ZFS mirrors/raidz's.

Again, my very very limited FreeBSD exposure is secondhand through Freenas where they have explicitly said that rsync can save files from the NAS to somewhere else on a schedule, but that it cannot save files from somewhere else onto the server. In my case, I'm hoping to backup my files on my DNS-323 to my FreeBSD server on a schedule. Is that possible? Do they both have to be running FreeBSD?

Yes, I do it that way, its also possible on FreeNAS, just maybe not using the web interface.

My network card apparently can

Even if You network adapter can, its also the question IF the FreeBSD driver for that card has that feature implemented

ph0enix · Sep 21, 2011

1. Headless = Yes ...but what functionality do you want a web based interface to provide though? You want to be able to manage the server remotely via the web? If so you could try webmin.
2. A NAS is simply a network file server. FreeBSD supports all the standard file sharing protocols so that's a Yes.
3. What's a limitation of FreeBSD? Not sure what you're asking. There other ways of backing up data residing on a remote system besides rsync. You could even use Samba since I'm guessing that's what your other device supports.
6. You want SFTP (part of OpenSSH), not FTP. Just set up a chroot'ed environment for it on its own partition if you want to be a specific size. Either that or use disk quotas to allocate only a specific amount of disk space to each user:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/quotas.html

_martin · Sep 21, 2011

calgarychris said:
I know mdadm is mentioned for Ubuntu - is there a recommended package in FreeBSD?

As it was mentioned, mdadm is indeed linux only. There are other ways than ZFS to create mirror/raid on FreeBSD, if that is what you asked. For example - gmirror(8)() or graid3(8).

It is always good to have serial console configured on headless systems - in case of something you can login directly.

If you are just getting familiar with *nix systems, don't jump to ZFS configuration just yet; start off slow.

$ man hier
is a good start too. Get familiar with the system, software management (i.e. ports/packages) and then ease in on basic administration tasks.

..good luck and enjoy