Flexible Storage

Pool Setup

Next, you need to set up your pool (Figure 5). Pools are a core storage unit of ZFS. To do this, you simply give your storage pool a name and select your RAID configuration. In this case, provide a name of your choosing, and because you only have two disks (and you want fault tolerance), select Automatic .

Figure 5: You can choose from several redundancy options.

Several redundancy options are available when you create a volume. You can choose from the following:

• Automatic: Automatically creates a mirrored, RAIDZ1, or RAIDZ2 pool, depending on the number of disks. If you prefer to control the type of redundancy, select one of the other options.
• RAID 10: Creates a striped mirror and requires a minimum of four disks.
• RAIDZ2: Requires a minimum of four disks. Up to two disks can fail without data loss.
• RAIDZ1: Requires a minimum of three disks. Up to one disk can fail without data loss.
• Stripe: Requires a minimum of one disk. Provides no redundancy, which means that if any of the disks in the stripe fail, all data in the stripe is lost.

Again, because you have two disks here, you should choose Automatic . This setting will create a mirrored or RAID 1 configuration providing some fault tolerance at a less expensive price point compared with the many other options requiring many more disks.

Directory Options

Your FreeNAS system can easily integrate with your existing network directory services [12] or use its own local user configuration (Figure 6). If you are running Windows Active Directory, LDAP, NIS, or NT4 (I hope not!), you can pull the usernames/passwords directly from your directory. Because I am not integrating with Active Directory in this example, simply click Next to use local FreeNAS authentication and then click Next .

Figure 6: Configuring directory services.

If you are running Windows NT4 (Windows < Windows 2000) or NIS, please plan an upgrade with all due swiftness. These are antiquated, insecure technologies that should only be exhibited in museums.

Thanks to the powerful web interface, integrating FreeNAS into your environment is a trivial task. Now that you have configured your FreeNAS to use local authentication, you can continue setting up the network share.

Creating a Share

Using the wizard, it is very easy to create many kinds of shares (Figure 7). Supported share types include:

Figure 7: The wizard lets you create several types of shares.

• Windows (CIFS): This type of share can be accessed by any operating system using a CIFS client. Check the box for Allow Guest if users should not be prompted for a password to access the share. If you make any CIFS shares using the wizard, you can fine-tune them afterward using Sharing | Windows (CIFS) Shares .
• Mac OS X (AFP): This type of share can be accessed by Mac OS X users. Check the box for Time Machine if Mac users will be using the FreeNAS system as a backup device. If you make any AFP shares using the wizard, you can fine-tune them afterwards using Sharing | Apple (AFP) Shares .
• Generic Unix (NFS): This type of share can be accessed by any operating system using an NFS client. If you make any NFS shares using the wizard, you can fine-tune them afterwards under Sharing | Unix (NFS) Shares .
• Block Storage (iSCSI): This type of share can be accessed by any operating system using iSCSI initiator software. Input the size of the block storage to create in the format 20G (for 20GB). If you make any iSCSI shares using the wizard, you can fine-tune them afterward using iSCSI .

In this setup, you have a network of Windows and Linux machines, so you can create a CIFS share by doing the following. First, give the share a name and set any options you may need. Next, click on Ownership . In the field, add a new local username, password, and group that you will use to access this FreeNAS share. Under mode, change the permissions to fit your security needs.

The next screen sets a console message that can be configured to be forwarded to your email. Do so if needed. If not, click Next .