Nrgaway
Cadet
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2014
- Messages
- 4
Would there be any interest in FreeNAS running native on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions?
I am in the process of porting it over to Ubuntu server 14.04. I currently have a build that installs all the dependencies and runs the freenasUI website and am working on converting the middleware layer to make it cross compatible with Linux and Mac while still supporting BSD (so the website actually does something useful hehe).
I decided to port FreeNAS since I got really, really good benchmarks with BTRFS using the 3.13 kernel (almost double that of 3.11 kernel). I was able to write as fast as using ZFS which prompted the conversion of FreeNAS to Ubuntu since I like the framework it uses (python, django).
I am replacing most middleware components with the salt API. Salt (http://www.saltstack.com/) allows administration of computers for multiple platform types which will allow the middleware components to work with both OS's.
Linux does not have jails, but we do have docker :) Docker containers (https://www.docker.io/) already have many many existing 'plugins' that will just work so they will be easy to install. I just have to write a small API for configuration files and write code to either offer jails or docker containers based on platform.
I also have the personal requirement of running and managing some local virtual machines, so will be adding a section to create and manage them.
Users will still have the choice of using ZFS and in addition BTRFS (via mdraid or BTRFS raid) with encryption, compression and snapshots similar to what ZFS has.
FreeNAS will initially be able to be installed on top of an existing Linux installation which means the OS will need to be installed first. We will see where it goes from there.
I am not sure if there would be any interest in merging my code-base or if I should just run with a completely separate fork. My future design decisions will be based on there being acceptance for a new platform or not from the existing FreeNAS development community. One other advantage of combing the releases is that it will open up the market for other Linux developers to contribute as well.
So, what ya think of my very first post here :)
I am in the process of porting it over to Ubuntu server 14.04. I currently have a build that installs all the dependencies and runs the freenasUI website and am working on converting the middleware layer to make it cross compatible with Linux and Mac while still supporting BSD (so the website actually does something useful hehe).
I decided to port FreeNAS since I got really, really good benchmarks with BTRFS using the 3.13 kernel (almost double that of 3.11 kernel). I was able to write as fast as using ZFS which prompted the conversion of FreeNAS to Ubuntu since I like the framework it uses (python, django).
I am replacing most middleware components with the salt API. Salt (http://www.saltstack.com/) allows administration of computers for multiple platform types which will allow the middleware components to work with both OS's.
Linux does not have jails, but we do have docker :) Docker containers (https://www.docker.io/) already have many many existing 'plugins' that will just work so they will be easy to install. I just have to write a small API for configuration files and write code to either offer jails or docker containers based on platform.
I also have the personal requirement of running and managing some local virtual machines, so will be adding a section to create and manage them.
Users will still have the choice of using ZFS and in addition BTRFS (via mdraid or BTRFS raid) with encryption, compression and snapshots similar to what ZFS has.
FreeNAS will initially be able to be installed on top of an existing Linux installation which means the OS will need to be installed first. We will see where it goes from there.
I am not sure if there would be any interest in merging my code-base or if I should just run with a completely separate fork. My future design decisions will be based on there being acceptance for a new platform or not from the existing FreeNAS development community. One other advantage of combing the releases is that it will open up the market for other Linux developers to contribute as well.
So, what ya think of my very first post here :)