Why should I stay with Freenas 8.2 and not change to Nas4Free?

[madmax]

I just started making a NAS and installed Freenas 8.2 and like it a lot. I been learning as I go and found that things aren't to complicated for me. But I didn't know that there was NAS4Free until now. There are some tempting things to want to switch to Nas4Free. I haven't used it yet so I might just do for the stake of trying. It has full disk encryption and is using more up to date ZFS version and on a 9.1 FreeBSD platform versus nanoBSD which I have no clue why that would benefit me more maybe compatible with programs that are made for FreeBSD? I was wondering why I would want to stay with FreeNas rather then make the switch to NAS4Free? Any opinions to set me straight?

 

[phoenix]

You'll find that ZFS v28 is in the current FreeNAS Beta 2 if you're keen to try it, I wouldn't have thought the version of FreeBSD would make much difference as far as a storage server is concerned.

 

[ben]

As phoenix says, the current development builds have ZFS v28. Encryption support is currently in trunk for FreeNAS, so although it is not coming for 8.3.0, it will very likely be in a subsequent release. The nanoBSD vs just FreeBSD base is a non-distinguishing detail, it's just a different choice on how to build and install. If for some reason encryption is an urgent need for you, by all means use NAS4Free, but if that's not a feature you plan to use and there aren't any other differences that are relevant to your use... then just use what works for you.

Addendum: just to clarify, NanoBSD IS FreeBSD, just offering tools to optimize it for an embedded appliance like FreeNAS.

 

[madmax]

So putting the difference of encryption for now aside, the "build and install" what are the particulars or benefits on why to go with one style versus the other? Why does one prefer one from the other? Is there any benefits or just as simple as taking one path on one half of a circle and other being the other half but you get to the same point anyways?

 

[Joshua Parker Ruehlig]

So putting the difference of encryption for now aside, the "build and install" what are the particulars or benefits on why to go with one style versus the other? Why does one prefer one from the other? Is there any benefits or just as simple as taking one path on one half of a circle and other being the other half but you get to the same point anyways?

I prefer FreeNAS cause the whole config is stored in a config file. Back it up, even if your usb dies you can just flash a new one, throw on the config and your running again.
Full install would have some benefits for compatibly of freebsd programs (but that's what the plugins system covers) but definitely wouldn't be as portable as the FreeNAS approach.

 

[zoon01]

I prefer FreeNAS cause the whole config is stored in a config file. Back it up, even if your usb dies you can just flash a new one, throw on the config and your running again.
QUOTE]


NAS4Free does this exactly the same :)
Load the config and you're up and ready.

 

[madmax]

NAS4Free does this exactly the same :)
Load the config and you're up and ready.

So really comes down to the particulars in nanobsd. Which i'm ignorant to but will sometime in future look into.

 

[cyberjock]

To be honest, I don't know alot about NAS4Free. But I looked into it when I was first reading about FreeNAS. Aside from the ZFS version I found no compelling reason to choose NAS4Free. I preferred the GUI of FreeNAS and it seemed to be a better product for long term use.

If you are asking why you should stay with FreeNAS I think you should really be asking yourself why you shouldn't stick with FreeNAS. Don't switch just to switch. :P

 

[pdegrandmaison]

I use both freenas v7 and v8; nas4free is based on freenas v7 framework. One major difference is the WEB user interface which is way different. I personally have a very hard time with the v8 user interface, I just can't get use to it, I just can't remember where are my iscsi definitions are, it is just not that natural. V7 offers several ways to search in the logs, v8 there is just that main view which take part of the screen. Any way it is probably just a question of getting use to. V8 has the plugin approach which could be nice for the future but just not useful for me yet.

 

[webberen]

To be honest, I don't know alot about NAS4Free. But I looked into it when I was first reading about FreeNAS. Aside from the ZFS version I found no compelling reason to choose NAS4Free. I preferred the GUI of FreeNAS and it seemed to be a better product for long term use.

If you are asking why you should stay with FreeNAS I think you should really be asking yourself why you shouldn't stick with FreeNAS. Don't switch just to switch. :P

But what about the high RAM usage of freenas ZFS versus the Nas4free version....?

 

[jgreco]

But what about the high RAM usage of freenas ZFS versus the Nas4free version....?

What about it? If you don't have a lot of memory, go for NAS4Free. FreeNAS is tuned by default for large systems. Nobody will think less of you if you are recycling old hardware, or can't afford 8GB of RAM, or don't want to use the available resources to show you how to make FreeNAS work with less memory. FreeNAS does not aspire to be everything for everyone.