Installing freenas on 32bit machine for learning or....

[Timothy Gleason]

I have an old 32bit cpu(amd athlon xp 3200) machine. Will freenas install on it?
I want to learn more about freenas by using it before I build a new system.

Or is there a better way? Can I install freenas on a usb drive with my laptop(64bit)
leaving my windows drive alone and use it on an external drive?

Thank you

 

[Spearfoot]

FreeNAS has been 64-bits-only since version 9.3, as explained in the FAQ here. As the FAQ states, you can download older versions in 32 bits, but this doesn't really suit your goal of learning about the current version of FreeNAS with a view towards building a new system.

The best way to play with FreeNAS without installing it on hardware is to set it up on a virtual machine, using VirtualBox or VMware or such. I prefer VirtualBox, which is free, and available here.

Good luck!