Any issues dual-booting FreeNAS and Lubuntu?

[itm]

I've bought an HP Proliant Microserver Gen8, primarily for use as a file server, but occasionally for using the odd Linux app. I want to put 4 existing NTFS-formatted hard drives into it (NTFS in case I need to recover data using my Windows machine), and I want to dual-boot between FreeNAS and Lubuntu 16.10. My question is: if I have 2 bootable USB sticks (one for FreeNAS, one for Lubuntu), will both O/S's be able to read/write to all of the hard disk drives, or are there any ownership/permissions issues that I need to be aware of?

 

[pirateghost]

whoa. full stop.

You cannot do this.

NTFS support in FreeNAS is for READING the data. FreeNAS uses ZFS for its pools.

 

[itm]

Ahhh that's a shame - many thanks for the reply. If I decided to bite the bullet and use ZFS would I then have potential issues reading/writing to the drives from Lubuntu?
Also - any idea if Windows 7 can read ZFS partitions?

 

[pirateghost]

Ahhh that's a shame - many thanks for the reply. If I decided to bite the bullet and use ZFS would I then have potential issues reading/writing to the drives from Lubuntu?
Also - any idea if Windows 7 can read ZFS partitions?

Windows (in any current version) cannot read ZFS.

Ubuntu and derivatives support ZFS, but honestly, you should NOT be dual-booting your FreeNAS server. If you need to run Linux applications, just configure your storage needs on a linux box and be done.

 

[itm]

What are the reasons that I shouldn't be dual-booting the FreeNAS server? It's being used as a secondary backup server, so there's nothing "live" on it per se.

 

[pirateghost]

What are the reasons that I shouldn't be dual-booting the FreeNAS server? It's being used as a secondary backup server, so there's nothing "live" on it per se.

There are many reasons.

First and foremost, it is a server.

If the OS that you dual boot to does ANYTHING to the disks, that can have real issues within FreeNAS.

FreeNAS needs the ability to run its jobs for SMART, scrubs, etc. If you are booting it up randomly, it will never complete these tasks.

I don't understand what you think you gain by trying to shoehorn FreeNAS in there. Anything that can be done on FreeNAS can be done on Linux. If you need to use Linux, then use Linux.

 

[itm]

Actually using Linux was my original plan, but I've just spent the last 3 days battling to get it set up (shares/permissions etc) and have hit a problem where I can't get write to my NTFS partition from a Windows client via the Samba share (even though I can write to the underlying device from within the host Linux O/S). I've scouted around the Ubuntu forums for a solution but it looks like it's a bug.

So after 3 days of trying to set up a "simple" NAS solution in Linux I figured maybe a dedicated NAS O/S would be an easier solution.

 

[pirateghost]

Actually using Linux was my original plan, but I've just spent the last 3 days battling to get it set up (shares/permissions etc) and have hit a problem where I can't get write to my NTFS partition from a Windows client via the Samba share (even though I can write to the underlying device from within the host Linux O/S). I've scouted around the Ubuntu forums for a solution but it looks like it's a bug.

So after 3 days of trying to set up a "simple" NAS solution in Linux I figured maybe a dedicated NAS O/S would be an easier solution.

FreeNAS definitely would not solve this issue for you. You would need to A. move all the data over to a backup, B. create the pool, C. move the data back, D. set up the shares and permissions. If you are having permissions issues with Linux, you will have the same issues in FreeNAS if you do not understand how to resolve them.

 

[itm]

Hmmm....maybe I should've gone a Windows Server O/S all along.....

 

[pirateghost]

Hmmm....maybe I should've gone a Windows Server O/S all along.....

I always say, use the right tool for the job.

 

[Stux]

VM time?

Thought dual booting went out of fashion in the naughties.

 

[itm]

VM time?

Thought dual booting went out of fashion in the naughties.

Yeah maybe VM might have been a better way to go, but it wouldn't affect the potential issues raised by pirateghost re. shared use of the disks by Linux & FreeNAS