SOLVED USB Installation Clarification

[Faluzure]

So, obviously I haven't yet gotten my motherboard yet, but I'm prepping for a FreeNAS installation tomorrow or Thursday.

I already "burned" the image file to a bootable USB drive. When I boot off of the drive, I understand that I will get to the FreeNAS Console Setup Menu. However since I'm not actually doing it yet, I'm not sure of my options. I know you set up FreeNAS (including the network interfaces, etc). Then I browse to the IP via a browser, and this is where I setup the FreeNAS.

After reading the manual over & over, I noticed this part and just need clarification:

Before installing, it is important to remember that the FreeNAS® operating system must be installed on
a separate device from the drive(s) that will hold the storage data. In other words, if you only have one
disk drive you will be able to use the FreeNAS® graphical interface but won't be able to store any data,
which after all, is the whole point of a NAS system. ​

This is the part that confuses me.

• Since I'm booting off of the USB and not using my storage drives for OS installation, where do you install the actual OS to?
• Do I need another USB drive to install the FreeNAS OS to during the installation procedure?
• If not, is it safe to assume that any FreeNAS setup/configuration changes made would be saved to the same USB drive?

In terms of storage, all I have are my 4x 3TB drives and the USB drive that I plan on booting off of. I do have a spare USB drive handy though.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ericloewe]

You have three options:

Directly copy FreeNAS to the drive

OR

Copy the FreeNAS installer to a drive and use it to install FreeNAS on a second USB drive

OR

Use IPMI to mount a virtual CD drive with the FreeNAS ISO and use that to write FreeNAS to the USB drive

 

[dlavigne]

If you burn the image to USB, you don't have to install the OS as it is a running (pre-installed) image. Also, if the network has a DHCP server, FreeNAS should automatically get and display an IP address so you just have to point your browser at it.

 

[Faluzure]

If you burn the image to USB, you don't have to install the OS as it is a running (pre-installed) image. Also, if the network has a DHCP server, FreeNAS should automatically get and display an IP address so you just have to point your browser at it.

OK. So technically there is no "installation", but rather when burning the image to the USB, FreeNAS is ready to go once I boot off the USB? So if that's the case and I wanted to have 2 USB drives (one for backup), I would do the following:

1. Burn Image to USB on 1st USB Drive
2. Burn Image to USB on 2nd USB Drive
3. Use of of the USB drives to boot off of.
4. Browse to the IP (from DHCP) via browser. The configure as I see fit.
4. Once done, do step "3.1.10 Backup the Configuration" to backup the configuration DB. (I will do some kind of cron job or what not to backup daily).
5. Then when/if the 1st USB drive goes bad, I can just pop the 2nd one in and do an import (upload) of said configuration file, as this person states here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/backup-usb.21961/#post-133486

 

[dlavigne]

Correct.

 

[Faluzure]

Correct.

Thanks sir. Much appreciated.