Newbie Basic Qns

[vikrang]

I have an old Pentium Laptop which I thought could make use of it as a server

1. After installing Freenas on the USB , I have to keep it plugged in the machine permanently?
2. Should I use the entire hardrive and partition it and add it in Disk management?
3. If it is possible to allocate a partition for Free NAS , will I be able to add Disks in my network?
4. Once I start using the laptop as a server , would that mean it cant be used for anything else? suppose it has another OS in some other partition , can I just disable the network temporarily and start using it as a stand alone machine if need be?
5. I may not want this to be powered on 24*7 ..So , can I just plug it on when required?..Alternatively , what would be the power consumption in idle state?
6. On adding disks from other machines , the data shouldnt be disturbed on these drives..It shouldnt be like only if I use FreeNAS , I would have access to these disks..
in short , standalone functioning of these drives with resident OSes should not get affected.
7. Can I assign an IP for a ALL in 1 HP connected to one of the clients and use it across the network?..
8. I have very average specs in terms of RAM , the ZFS specifies 6 GB min which I dont have, so should I use Zfs or Ufs?

Can you please advise me on my concerns?

 

[cubix]

Sure thing, you will find answers to all your questions here http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?1793-Noobs-FAQS-amp-Documentation-are-HERE

 

[vikrang]

Well Thx Cubix...

There were no direct answers but I infer the following based on my understanding..If some expert could go thru this and correct me it would be gr8

1.Usb to be plugged in whenever network storage is to be used for sharing by other clients
2.I think there is a difference in the terminology of "disk" and "partition/slices" in UNIX context..In WIN or LINUX a partition is referred as a "disk",,,Here , I guess "disk" refers to an entire volume - eg "one SEAGATE SATA HDD of 160 GB"..So , I guess one has to dedicate an entire disk for FREE NAS at least. Also external HDD like WD passport cannot be used in 8.0
3. Not possible as inferred from 2 above
4.Not possible..Free NAS consumes a whole disk , so other OS cant reside in the disk
5. Sharing happens thru SMB client (samba/win etc) , server would use the allocated disk for storage

Note - In Volumes section I read there is a facility of importing other disks ..It means that FreeNAS should be able to automatically detect all the disks in a network..

The client systems would not be affected so long as I do not choose to add a volume to Free NAS from these client computers
6.Understood based on 5
7. Should be possible as it is not a gr8 deal from what I read
8. If Zfs is used on a low spec machine of say 512 MB RAM , the performance would be bad , but theoretically it can be installed..I am reluctant with using UFS as it is way below in performance compared to ext4 (the best )and ZFS (next best), UFS - last and poor performer compared to the other 2

Major considerations

1. Spare an entire drive for FREENAS and lose the laptops's functionality by not being able to use the preinstalled WIN Xp and Arch distro installed


Pl go thru the answers to my own Qns based on my understanding on the forum qNS and correct the same

 

[ProtoSD]

Hi Vikrang, thanks for reading through some of the docs / FAQs! I'll try to clarify some of your answers.

1.Usb to be plugged in whenever network storage is to be used for sharing by other clients

By this I assume you mean your USB flash drive with FreeNAS installed.

2.I think there is a difference in the terminology of "disk" and "partition/slices" in UNIX context..In WIN or LINUX a partition is referred as a "disk",,,Here , I guess "disk" refers to an entire volume - eg "one SEAGATE SATA HDD of 160 GB"..So , I guess one has to dedicate an entire disk for FREE NAS at least. Also external HDD like WD passport cannot be used in 8.0

Yes, this can be a little confusing. A volume can be a single disk or a collection of disks accessed as a single device. A slice is basically a partition. External USB disks cannot be used for volumes/pools in ZFS. Using an entire disk is preferred, not really easy to explain using partial disks, or practical.

3. Not possible as inferred from 2 above
4.Not possible..Free NAS consumes a whole disk , so other OS cant reside in the disk

FreeNAS (version 8 anyway), is only meant to be run from a USB flash device, not installed or multi-booted with other OS's on the same disk. If you're knowledgeable could be possible, but not easy/practical.

5. Sharing happens thru SMB client (samba/win etc) , server would use the allocated disk for storage

Yup, sounds like you figured this out.

Note - In Volumes section I read there is a facility of importing other disks ..It means that FreeNAS should be able to automatically detect all the disks in a network..

This is a little misleading. You can 'import' volumes from a previous install of FreeNAS, but... by the release of 8.01 you should be able to mount/read-only other file systems (NTFS/FAT/Ext2) to copy files to your NAS storage, and possibly to allow read/copy access with CIFS/Samba.

The client systems would not be affected so long as I do not choose to add a volume to Free NAS from these client computers

Not sure what you mean here

7. Should be possible as it is not a gr8 deal from what I read

Again, not sure what you mean, but if you mean a single IP address to access all of your storage, yes.

8. If Zfs is used on a low spec machine of say 512 MB RAM , the performance would be bad , but theoretically it can be installed..I am reluctant with using UFS as it is way below in performance compared to ext4 (the best )and ZFS (next best), UFS - last and poor performer compared to the other 2

Don't even attempt ZFS without at least 4GB of RAM. That leaves you with UFS, but you can still create mirrors/stripe (If you have a system that has multiple internal disks).

I just don't see how you're going to have multiple disks with a laptop. What do you want to accomplish by using FreeNAS? If you're just going to have 1 disk to share files and still want to boot other OS's, why not just share your files using one of those?

Hope that helps clarify things a little more. Thanks again for reading the docs/FAQs first!

 

[vikrang]

Thanks a lot protosd for your detailed reply

Well, at hindsight your question is thought provoking . To start with , my objectives were the following:

1. I have abt 4-5 computers at home..1 desktop 2 laptops connected thro WiFi.. Since all the machines are in different floor/rooms , I thought it would be better to try to set up a small home server using which all of us can access common data (music , mov,photos etc), share printer which is connected to a particular desktop..

2. Samba is good in a way but I thought I would give this a shot as seemingly it has more features than a bare samba.

3.My other folks at home are a bit touchy and wouldnt want any kind of new OS or modification to their existing system..They stick to Win....I am the only experimenter and have this old laptop and a desktop at my disposal.

I thought I could achieve the following but guess it is more time consuming and cumbersome:

1. Just like an office environment have a network which serves all
2. If posible set up Mail Accounts for users...But I have no idea abt domain registration etc..So think it is not too simple
3. Thought could backup some important data which could get lost if a drive got corrupted
4.A common drive would also eliminate duplication of files in several machines and save space.
5. Switch off the desktop in first floor remotely from my room at 2nd floor after listening to music or working in some files shared from it.
6. Currently have a prninter (hp deskjet all in 1) attached to one desktop , from samba able to print but not able to scan! Also the printer is dependent on the desktop , if the desktop is switched off , cannot access the printer. I read somewhere that you can assign an IP to the printer and connect it to the router .. Exploring this possibility..Maybe I can get VNC installed and operate remotely also

Apart from the cosmetic stuff like Mail and some other features of network , think Samba is well worth it, unless the server simplifies the above.

 

[ProtoSD]

Vikrang,

The printer sounds like the biggest problem. If it's a network printer you can assign an IP and connect it to your router. I think based on what you are looking for and your experience level, you *might* be better to start with version .7. There's a link to the forums for that version at the top of this page in the title bar. Maybe make a copy of your post above and post it in those forums and see what someone there can suggest. Version .7 is a little more versatile and geared toward older hardware, and has a lot more bells & whistles than Version 8.x does right now.

Hope that helps!