Why did you choose freenas over nas4free?

[pschatz100]

Here is my review and test results; bear in mind i'm only concerned with the NAS aspects of each system. I dont care about jails or any other features they may have. Before the tests I was on the fence about which way to go. I set up a RAIDZ pool for the tests

So much for a "review" and "test results." No information about the hardware configuration. No information about what versions of the software are being compared. Some vague references about taking disks offline and then replacing them via the command line. No real-world usage at all.

To the forum regulars, why bother? The OP had his mind made up before he started...

 

[danb35]

When it comes to replacing a faulty drive it has to be easy and fault free. Afterall that is the whole point in having redundancy.

Hey, it's your call, though I agree with @pschatz100 that you seemed to have your mind all but made up before you started. But I'm curious why you identified this as the reason--you yourself stated that you had the same problem replacing a disk via the UI with NAS4Free and FreeNAS.

 

[jgreco]

Replacing disks from the command line is bad; doing replacements through the GUI works fine especially if you follow the documentation instructions. Using the appliance as designed would be better...

 

[SweetAndLow]

Here is my review and test results; bear in mind i'm only concerned with the NAS aspects of each system. I dont care about jails or any other features they may have. Before the tests I was on the fence about which way to go. I set up a RAIDZ pool for the tests.

Documentation and Community
Nas4Free - Small community and the documentation in parts is outdated and has mistakes
FreeNas - Large community and the documentation excellent

Speeds
The speed test was done by transferring a file from linux mint machine to the nas box. The linux mint machine was connected over WiFi to the router. The NAS box had a wired connection
Nas4Free - Got about 45 Mbps
FreeNas - Got about 45 Mbps

Installation and first boot
Nas4Free - easy installation, fast. No problems.
FreeNas - easy to set up usb stick but on first boot it kept hanging at 'waiting up to 5 seconds for ixdiagnose to finish'. waited over 20 minutes and it was still hanging. Eventually after several reboots got into freenas (i unplugged everything except the usb flash drive).

Web GUI
Nas4Free - very simple UI with just the basics. Very intuitive.
FreeNas - Much more options and features in the UI which makes it tricky to navigate. Also it's not obvious what a button does until you hover over it (e.g. volume status button is just a a button with a rectangle picture on it). The 'Alert ' is very useful to quickly determine the health of the system.

Simulating a damaged Disk
For this test, I took a disk offline. Shutdown the system. Replaced the disk with a another one. Then 'replaced' it in the OS.
Nas4Free - Took the disk offline via the UI, but was unable to replace it via the Ui. Had to replace it on command line using zpool replace -f. Then had a healthy volume again.
FreeNas - Took the disk offline via the UI, but was unable to replace it via the Ui. Had to replace it on command line using zpool replace -f. Then had a healthy pool again.

Simulating a damaged USB
For this test i backed up the confguartion and installed the OS onto a different USB stick and then restored the config
Nas4Free - Worked fine system booted up quickly, I updated the config and was back to status quo
FreeNas - Once again kept hanging at 'waiting up to 5 seconds for ixdiagnose to finish'. When I updated the config it said pool was degraded. For some reason the disk I had replaced in the last test was showing up as unavailable again. Gave up trying to get it Healthy again.


Conclusion
Due to the problems I had with FreeNas; I'm going to go with NAS4Free. When it comes to replacing a faulty drive it has to be easy and fault free. Afterall that is the whole point in having redundancy.

Anyone else reading this in the future make sure not to do what he did. FreeNAS doesn't work properly when you replace a drive using the CLI, this is why he had issues when trying the new USB stick. If he would have followed the documentation and clicked the button in the GUI everything would have worked perfectly.

 

[jgreco]

Anyone else reading this in the future make sure not to do what he did. FreeNAS doesn't work properly when you replace a drive using the CLI, this is why he had issues when trying the new USB stick. If he would have followed the documentation and clicked the button in the GUI everything would have worked perfectly.

Ayup. Cannot emphasize enough: FreeNAS expects you to use its interface and not go playing admin with the CLI.

 

[DrKK]

That's ridiculous.

I would say nearly 100% of our users know about NAS4Free, and have decided not to use it. If you install the first thing that hits on Google, then you're a jackass.

 

[Storms]

guys, dont be die-hards. I did the tests to help me choose. I was on the fence before that.

This was an honest review using the latest versions of both distros. The reason I had to use the CLI was that the UI wouldnt would'nt work.... do you honestly think I wouldnt try the UI before resorting to CLI? It kept giving an error ( the error message explicitly saying go and use the -f option - see end of post for error output and zpool status)



It seems that the UI documentation for 'replacing' a drive is geared towards you having a spare sata port, i.e. plug the new drive into the spare sata port; and then replace. If you have to first remove the faulty device and reuse its port then it doesnt seem to play nice.

Also I should mention that on the same kit I've been using FreeNas for a number if years; but I never had to replace faulty drive/usb stick (thank god!).

My advice to everyone is to try it. Try taking a disk offline and replacing it. Try changing the usb stick and updating it. If it works for you then excellent; if not then you'd better think of an alternative.

But cmon guys; the installation problems of freenas were also a big let down (it didnt hang in older releases).... the hanging at 'waiting up to 5 seconds for ixdiagnose to finish' was a big let down.

More developers doesn't mean better product. Less developers who know what theyre doing will deliver you a better product. Too many cooks and all that.




ERROR DETAILS:
freenas manage.py: [middleware.exceptions:38] [MiddlewareError: Disk replacement failed: "invalid vdev specification, use '
-f' to override the following errors:, /dev/gptid/76009f3c-699d-11e4-afd9-bcaec524bbb5 is part of potentially active pool 'nas', "]

!) .

and this was the status when the ui gave the error:
root@freenas] ~# zpool status -v
pool: nas
state: DEGRADED
status: One or more devices has been taken offline by the administrator.
Sufficient replicas exist for the pool to continue functioning in a
degraded state.
action: Online the device using 'zpool online' or replace the device with
'zpool replace'.
scan: none requested
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
nas DEGRADED 0 0 0
raidz2-0 DEGRADED 0 0 0
gptid/39ce28ec-699b-11e4-9e47-bcaec524bbb5 ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/3a52e8cd-699b-11e4-9e47-bcaec524bbb5 ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/3ae19d09-699b-11e4-9e47-bcaec524bbb5 ONLINE 0 0 0
4281668094433275593 OFFLINE 0 0 0 was /dev/gptid/3b5765fb-699b-11e4-9e47-bcaec524bbb5

errors: No known data errors


The following on CLI then worked
[root@freenas] ~# zpool replace -f nas /dev/gptid/3b5765fb-699b-11e4-9e47-bcaec524bbb5 ada3
[root@freenas] ~# zpool status -v
pool: nas
state: ONLINE
scan: resilvered 1.30M in 0h0m with 0 errors on Tue Nov 11 04:46:39 2014
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
nas ONLINE 0 0 0
raidz2-0 ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/39ce28ec-699b-11e4-9e47-bcaec524bbb5 ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/3a52e8cd-699b-11e4-9e47-bcaec524bbb5 ONLINE 0 0 0
gptid/3ae19d09-699b-11e4-9e47-bcaec524bbb5 ONLINE 0 0 0
ada3 ONLINE 0 0 0

errors: No known data errors
[root@freenas] ~#

 

[Storms]

Hey, it's your call, though I agree with @pschatz100 that you seemed to have your mind all but made up before you started. But I'm curious why you identified this as the reason--you yourself stated that you had the same problem replacing a disk via the UI with NAS4Free and FreeNAS.

maybe i should've been a bit more clear on that. The replacement of the hard drive worked (even though i had to use cli). It's only afterwards when I also replaced the USB that state went to degraded again and I was unable to recover. (this issue did not occur on nas4free)

However i will test this again... as it was strange. I'm part thinking that perhaps i saved the config before i replaced the drive.

 

[rogerh]

Just for interest - which version of FreeNAS were you using for this test?

 

[Storms]

Just for interest - which version of FreeNAS were you using for this test?

9.2.1.8

 

[anodos]

Ayup. Cannot emphasize enough: FreeNAS expects y

guys, dont be die-hards. I did the tests to help me choose. I was on the fence before that.

This was an honest review using the latest versions of both distros. The reason I had to use the CLI was that the UI wouldnt would'nt work.... do you honestly think I wouldnt try the UI before resorting to CLI? It kept giving an error (on both distros - the error message explicitly saying go and use the -f option!!) . It seems that the UI documentation for 'replacing' a drive is geared towards you having a spare sata port, i.e. plug the new drive into the spare sata port; and then replace. If you have to first remove the faulty device and reuse its port then it doesnt seem to play nice.

Also I should mention that on the same kit I've been using FreeNas for a number if years; but I never had to replace faulty drive/usb stick (thank god!).

My advice to everyone is to try it. Try taking a disk offline and replacing it. Try changing the usb stick and updating it. If it works for you then excellent; if not then you'd better think of an alternative.

But cmon guys; the installation problems of freenas were also a big let down (it didnt hang in older releases).... the hanging at 'waiting up to 5 seconds for ixdiagnose to finish' was a big let down.

More developers doesn't mean better product. Less developers who know what theyre doing will deliver you a better product. Too many cooks and all that.

I've changed disks without problem, and rotate USB stick every update. No problems, and I'm not exactly an expert.

No need for cryptic references to cooks and kitchens. The project is on github. Give examples. :)

The slow loading on first boot. That's the 'time to get coffee' flag.

 

[danb35]

It seems that the UI documentation for 'replacing' a drive is geared towards you having a spare sata port, i.e. plug the new drive into the spare sata port; and then replace. If you have to first remove the faulty device and reuse its port then it doesnt seem to play nice.

No, this is not correct. I've replaced failed and failing disks several times, and in every case done it by following the manual (i.e., offline the disk, remove it, install the replacement, select the failed disk in the Web GUI, and click Replace--see section 6.3.12 in the manual for details). I have never installed the replacement disk first, and there's no need or reason to do so. If there's something in the docs that you think says otherwise, I'm sure Dru would be interested in hearing about it so she can fix it.

The delay on "waiting for ixdiagnose to finish" is normal for a first boot, though I'd think waiting 20 minutes is out of the ordinary.

 

[Storms]

No, this is not correct. I've replaced failed and failing disks several times, and in every case done it by following the manual (i.e., offline the disk, remove it, install the replacement, select the failed disk in the Web GUI, and click Replace--see section 6.3.12 in the manual for details). I have never installed the replacement disk first, and there's no need or reason to do so. If there's something in the docs that you think says otherwise, I'm sure Dru would be interested in hearing about it so she can fix it.

The delay on "waiting for ixdiagnose to finish" is normal for a first boot, though I'd think waiting 20 minutes is out of the ordinary.

thats exactly what i did and followed the same section of the doc. but got the error above and hence had to use cli

 

[joeschmuck]

There will be something that gets someone, although the majority of the time it is due to Operator Error (OE), but I'm not saying that is the case here, you were the one doing it so we have to take it at face value, but you are the exception if this was not OE.

FreeNAS and NAS4Free are different beasts and quite honestly the selection depends on your hardware, expected usage, ease of operation, and forum support as well as personal preference.

Right now I feel this thread is to the point of trolling and for that reason I'm locking it.