Rik's Blog

As promised, first up is FreeNAS.

First off a bit of research was needed. Make sure I can run everything I want... Quick recap

• Squeezecenter for my Squeezebox
• MediaTomb or other for UPNP DNLA Server
• Bittorent Daemon with XMLRPC or Web front end
• iTunes server
• Samba/CIFS Server
• Provides remote access into my LAN via SSH (possibly VPN over time)
• ZFS reliable storage.
• Boot from USB Pen Drive

First up I looked at the 8.0 based RC releases that are currently being worked. Unfortunately they are just RCs and with a major change underway the RC (4) doesn't hit all the boxes.. And unfortunately there are no addons right now to add the support.

On the plus side - it installs fast and easily, and your up and running real quick. Once installed and booting from the USB drive it allows you to log in via the web interface. Everything is easily configurable, and setup is a doddle. Which makes the failures even harder to bear - so nice, so close - but missing what I need.

So I looked at 7.x series. And while now every box is ticked there is one annoying issue - the Squeezebox server is enabled through installing the slimNAS package - but it only supports 32bit and thus I can't make use of my lovely 8GB of memory. Besides - surely with ZFS I want to use that as much as possible.

Now, there is one solution. Install FreeBSD on a PC and then create the packages I need for running Squeezebox server or whatever I want. It's defintely an option.. however I would be missing some of the slick menus that are there in freeNAS.

And unfortuantely that's where we must part ways with FreeNAS. It's so close to being exactly what I need, but is just difficient in a few parts. If I had more time I'd definitely put in the effort to get it fully up to speed - but I want to get the server running asap. I will come back once it hits 8.1 or something, but for now it's not for me....

Nexty Entry - FreeBSD.