How have I done without FreeNAS for so long? This is like that fun gal that can go from the fine dining wine & tea, hang in the hood and then hit the outdoors without skipping a beat !
I built this NAS system earlier this year for my virtual environments mainly so they could be physically High Availability (HA) with shared storage networks that are redundant, multi-paths etc… I just needed one more piece to make it all work together and FreeNAS provides the interface, software know-how all together in a great Open Source package! Really the only thing holding me back has been I need to add another dedicated 20 amp circuit to go along with the one already in my computer room and I might add two more circuits because I like playing with stuff!
With FreeNAS I can share to any OS using all the usual suspects, NFS, iSCSI, CIFS, even Apple’s AFP which I have never used. I mainly use NFS & iSCSI and that let’s me create the storage needed for my XenServer & VMware virtual environment and present storage to my Linux and Windows servers as well as my Linux & Windows desktops.
So why do I say that FreeNAS is like that woman that can handle any environment without skipping a beat? Well FreeNAS has proven it can handle all the issues that come up without the use of a specific 3rd party app or additional handling of external devices one storage system does it all!
Here is what FreeNAS is doing that has me stoked :
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Reliable storage making my Virtual environment HA where VM’s move from host to host seamlessly.
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Used NFS to share out storage to save CloneZilla images of systems over LAN .
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Outgrew my Linux desktop, built another Linux desktop system, shared NFS share to migrate the data in home directory that I needed.
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Ran out of space on my Windows desktop, built another Windows desktop and needed to import Outlook mail to Thunderbird email but had no disk space on XP system (yes XP). Created 100gb iSCSI target on FreeNAS, downloaded Windows iSCSI initiator on XP system, format with NTFS, install Thunderbird email on iSCSI drive on windows XP start importing email to Thunderbird during day while I do other tasks. No need to install another hard drive on system or install Outlook again on my Windows 8.1 system.
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Creating a media archive with all my music, movies, pictures, personal, financial, legal documents etc..
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With Xenserver I can even use FreeNAS for my NFS ISO library so I can easily pick any OS or other ISO to boot off of to troubleshoot or build a VM.
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I have one disk array acting as backup with FreeNAS.
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Shares music I play on my Internet Radio station
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I can keep the storage on specific LAN’s I now have 3 with one strictly storage but I may add another 1 or 2 since some of the iSCSI to my desktops are going over my traditional LAN’s.
FreeNAS adapts capably to whatever scenario I present and seamlessly just like the woman that can fit in anywhere, does it all and enjoys it! Haven’t met the gal like that yet but FreeNAS holds the blueprint!
