Install Freenas On Usb Drive
FreeNAS guide on “burning” the FreeNAS installation.ISO file onto a USB drive creating a bootable FreeNAS USB install stick. This is not a complete FreeNAS install guide, but simply a 1st-step in the direction of getting FreeNAS onto your new DIY server. Jun 17, 2012 The quickest and easiest way to get a FreeNAS server running is to write the image directly to a USB drive. After imaging the drive you can plug it into the computer, set the bios to boot from the drive, and watch FreeNAS boot directly from USB. I like to run FreeNAS directly from USB. Moreover, before using the FreeNAS as the commercial or permanent solution you can install it on the USB storage/pen drive too; so that you can use your computer hard drive for storage purpose. Other best way to test or use the FreeNAS is the Virtual environment where you can install FreeNAS for testing and learning purpose.
Creating a secure and reliable NAS Device.
Install Freenas On Usb Drive
Recommended Hardware:
* A 64-bit Intel or AMD processor. (While FreeNAS does support 32-bit environments, you'll want 64-bit to utilize the ZFS file system to it's potential).
* At least 4GB of RAM. I would recommend at least 8GB of RAM for best performance with ZFS. A general rule of thumb is 1GB of RAM for every 1TB of storage.
* At least three SATA hard drives.
* One CAT5/6 cable.
* USB thumb drive to install the FreeNAS OS image.
* One blank CD-R / CD-RW for writing the FreeNAS ISO in preparation for the installation.
* The 64-bit FreeNAS ISO image, which you can download from http://www.freenas.org/download-freenas-release.html
3 Steps total
Step 1: Creat bootable usb thumb drive
Download UNetbootin from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
After installing, burn the downloaded FreeNAS ISO image to the thumb drive.
1. Select radio button 'Diskimage' within UNetbootin
2. Select the button with the '..' and browse to the ISO image you downloaded
3. Make sure your thumb drive is selected under drive pull down menu
4. Select ok
Step 2: Boot from usb thumb drive
Plug usb thumb drive into the computer/server you have chosen to use as your freenas device. Start the PC and enter the BIOS. Change boot order to boot from USB. Save and exit the BIOS.
Step 3: Installing FreeNAS
The bootloader comes up following the restart after making the BIOS changes. It will ask you to install FreeNAS; make sure you install it to the usb thumb drive NOT the drives you will be using for storage.
After installing it will just be a black screen with white text.
Note the ip address it gives.
Type that ip address in the address bar of a different
computer and you will be able to manage FreeNAS through the WebGui Interface.
You have now installed FreeNAS.
NOTE: At this time you have no storage as you have not created a volume or datasets..etc.
I may do a tutorial on configuring FreeNAS in the near future; however, the needs will be different for each individual/company. For now I will instead provide links to a couple resources that can help with the configuration process.
http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Quick_Start_Guide
http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/freenas-9-1-setup-guide.14774/
Here is a youtube video in which a FreeNAS Tech demonstrates how to do a proper configuration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB3WPlZfx8k
References
- freenas.org