FreeNAS on NetApp FAS2020

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FakeMoth

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Aug 18, 2013
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Hello, I can get a very good deal for a NetApp FAS2020 filer with 12 SAS 15k HDDs, problem is... they are weird and after 2 weeks of exchanging emails with the NetApp dudes they are basically telling me that even if I am the owner of the filer and the previous owner confirms it and keeps on mailing them also and is willing to give up all the "rights", they can't grant me acces to anything (that is the Ontap OS that should be reinstalled due to missing files, the default software of the device and, believe it or not, the documentation, sigh). This also means no licenses so I have no NFS/iSCSI/deduplication/anything else. Because I didn't bought it from them... WTH?!?!?

I am so sick of these cretinoids.

Is there any way I can install FreeNAS on this machine and make proper use of it? Please describe your experience and maybe a step by step tutorial (noob level). This would be so cool to pump life in those machines. And i think this is not very weird to ask: it basically already runs a BSD, and the controller is a Celeron with 1GB RAM...

I wonder why ppl keep selling the FAS series on the eBay for example if they cannot be used...

Thank you all - good job with FreeNAS!
 

cyberjock

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Mar 25, 2012
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Is the CPU x86 instructions? Is the hardware compatible with the FreeBSD hardware list? Does the machine have sufficient RAM to run FreeNAS?

If the answers to all of these is "yes" then it should work fine. If not, then you are out of luck.

If you don't want to take the time to do the homework(hint: you don't.. that's why you are asking here, right?) then you should just get out the manual, read the section on installing FreeNAS to a USB stick, and give it a go. Either it'll boot up and work fine or it won't. And if it boots up and you don't like FreeNAS just pull the USB stick out. As long as you don't setup UFS or ZFS on the hard drives all the data on the drives will be intact when you go back to the old OS.
 

Atomic

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William Grzybowski

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I saw it has only 1GB of ram? I doubt you will get any useful performance with that amount of RAM.
 

cyberjock

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Yeah, you really need 2GB for the "low RAM" file system... UFS.
 

Daniel-san

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Jun 25, 2012
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netaps are the REAL DEAL - I was very skeptical at first as to why my company was buying these very expensive net apps but after the 1 week course they sent me on... my god do I ever want one.

keep harassing them, or get all the info you need from the original buyer!

updating/os reinstall on this thing is as easy as turning on cifs, and moving the new OS file to that share.
the NA will see the new firmware file, auto virtualizes itself (so your shares/iscsi don't go down), clones itself as a VM, then updates itself, reboots just that process, then onces it's done (takes moments) you tell it to migrate (also takes moments) and the new OS will now handle the shares, and the NA VM turns itself off.
it's just unreal.

WAFL (Write Anywhere File Layout) is also pretty boss.

you could remove any drives and put them back in any order in the array and the net app woudn't skip a beat, no reconfigs.. it just goes.

but they are expensive - even SATA drives need to be purchased through them and they cost way more then you'd think. because they have "special firmware"... i'm sure they do but a 2x maybe 3x times the price for a 2TB drive.... it's not for everyone.

while the 2020 was the lower end model a generation or 2 ago, i'm sure it's still a great performer.

we run a 3 tired esi host array with about 50 Vms on a 2040 and she's not relly skipping a beat. never seen the thing have an downtime, ever.
 

FakeMoth

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Aug 18, 2013
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Hello, for some reason didn't get any notifications of the replies. I suspected it is compatible but I abandoned the idea due to RAM limitation. In the end I managed through perseverence to make NetApp grant some rights to my account and got everything I need (except the OS, but I managed myself). I couldn't have done it if the company that sold me the filer wasn't some huge electronics producer and NetApp just couldn't say "no"; the web is full of sad stories... Was so angry that even sent some ugly mails to NetApp :)

But you know what? The machines are amazing - in fact the Ontap OS, cause it is not about the hardware in their case (BTW Daniel-san mine has 12 SAS disks/15k rpm). So I will use it as intended and revamp my old sharing machine into a monster FreeNAS backup storage. Thanks for the insights!
 
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