As long as these blocks don’t change afterward, preserving the snapshot uses virtually no space. ZFS also supports a snapshot feature, which works by preventing the deletion of blocks that are part of files present at the time a snapshot is taken. Because block pointers are not updated until the data is written to disk, the typical RAID write hole problem does not apply to ZFS. The copy-on-write technology of ZFS makes possible many of its most impressive features. Originally developed by Sun Microsystems, ZFS was designed for large storage capacity and to address many storage issues, such as silent data corruption, volume management, and the RAID 5 “write hole.” FreeNAS 9.1.1, the most current release at the time of writing, uses all of the most advanced features ZFS has to offer. We will point out hardware or configuration considerations necessary to get the most from FreeNAS and, finally, describe how to set up and maintain a FreeNAS installation.Ī key feature of FreeNAS is ZFS (or “Zettabyte” File System). We also discuss ZFS, which is the primary filesystem used in FreeNAS and a significant source of its power. In this article, we introduce FreeNAS and provide an overview of those features most relevant to enterprise users. However, a surprising number of maverick sys admins do use FreeNAS in business and enterprise environments, because it can be quite effective when employed with the necessary skill and care. TrueNAS adds enterprise features like hardware failover, performance tuning, reporting, 24/7 support, and other high-reliability enhancements that are made possible by having complete control of both software and hardware. Based on FreeNAS, TrueNAS is an enterprise-grade unified storage appliance also created by iXsystems, designed with the mission-critical IT environment in mind. ![]() ![]() Today, FreeNAS is under very active development, with hundreds of thousands of downloads for each release – more than 5.5 million in total since its inception.Īlthough FreeNAS was designed for home and small office environments, it does have a true business-class counterpart: TrueNAS. ![]() The user interface was completely reimplemented, and features like disk encryption for ZFS pools and a third-party plugin system to support the installation of non-core services were added. A period of considerable development effort followed, which involved updating and modernizing the software and improving the project infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing FreeNAS development community. It came to include a range of services, from file sharing to media streaming.īy 2010, however, Cochard-Labbé was no longer able to commit sufficient time and resources to keep the FreeNAS project going, so he transferred control of it to iXsystems, a company well-known for its support of open source software in general and FreeBSD in particular. Much coding and configuring ensued, and he spawned FreeNAS – Free, as in freely available (open source) and based on FreeBSD, and NAS, as in Network Attached Storage.īefore long, a vibrant community formed around the project, and FreeNAS began to take shape as an actual product. In 2005, after an inordinate struggle to set up his own home networked file storage, Olivier Cochard-Labbé decided to create a solution to streamline the process.
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