about FreeNAS

FreeNAS is a free and open-source software network-attached storage (NAS) system based on FreeBSD and the OpenZFS file system.
It is licensed under the terms of the BSD License and runs on commodity x86-64 hardware. FreeNAS supports Windows, OS X and Unix clients and various virtualization hosts such as XenServer and VMware using the CIFS, AFP, NFS, iSCSI, SSH, rsync and FTP/TFTP protocols. Advanced FreeNAS features include full-disk cryptography and a plug-in architecture for third-party software.

The OpenZFS file system

FreeNAS supports the OpenZFS files system which provides data integrity checking to prevent data corruption, enable point in timesnapshotting, replication and several levels of redundancy including striping, mirroring, mirrored striping (RAID 1+0), and three levels of RAID-Z.

User experience

FreeNAS is managed through a comprehensive web interface that is supplemented by a minimalistic shell console that handles essential administrative functions. The web interface supports storage pool configuration, user management, sharing configuration and system maintenance.

As an embedded system appliance, FreeNAS boots from a USB Flash device or SATA DOM. This image is configured using a USB Flash/CD-ROM bootable installer. The FreeNAS operating system is fully independent of its storage disks, allowing its configuration database and encryption keys to be backed up and restored to a fresh installation of the OS. This separation also allows for FreeNAS system upgrades to be performed through the web interface.

History

The FreeNAS project was started in October 2005 by Olivier Cochard-Labbé who based it on the m0n0wall embedded firewall and FreeBSD 6.0. Volker Theile joined the project in July 2006 and became the project lead in April 2008. In September 2009, the development team concluded that the project, then at release .7, was due for a complete rewrite in order to accommodate modern features such as a plug-in architecture. Theile decided that the project best be reimplemented using Debian GNU/Linux and shifted his development efforts to the interim CoreNAS project and eventually OpenMediaVault where he continues as the project lead. Cochard-Labbé responded to community objections to "The Debian version of FreeNAS" and resumed activity in the project and oversaw its transfer to FreeNAS user iXsystems. iXsystems rewrote FreeNAS with a new architecture based on FreeBSD 8.1 and Django CMS, releasing FreeNAS 8 Beta in November 2010. The plug-in architecture arrived with FreeNAS 8.2 and FreeNAS versioning was synchronized with FreeBSD for clarity. FreeNAS 8.3 introduced full-disk cryptography and FreeBSD 9.1-based FreeNAS 9.1 brought an updated plug-in architecture that is compatible with the PC-BSD Warden jail management framework. FreeNAS 9.1 was also the first version of FreeNAS to use the community-supported OpenZFS v5000 with Feature Flags.

Architecture

The 8.0 reimplementation of FreeNAS moved the project from a m0n0BSD/m0n0wall/PHP-based architecture to one based on FreeBSD's NanoBSD embedded build system, the Python programming language, the Django CMS and the dōjō toolkit JavaScript toolkit. It also used the lighttpd web server but this was replaced with nginx in FreeNAS 8.2.

Features

• Web interface with optional SSL encryption
• Localized into over 20 languages
• Plug-in Architecture
• Included Transmission, MiniDLNA and FireFly plug-ins
• Performance graphing
• Email log and reporting notification
• Downloadable configuration file and encryption keys
• OpenZFS v5000 file system with Feature Flags
• Theoretical storage limit of 16 Exabytes
• File system snapshotting and replication
• Six levels of file system compression including lz4 and gzip
• Disk encryption with GELI and AESNI hardware acceleration
• Disk deduplication
• S.M.A.R.T. disk diagnostics
• UFS2, NTFS, FAT32 and EXT2/3 read support for data import
• CIFS, AFP, NFS, iSCSI, SSH, FTP/TFTP protocols
• LDAP and Active Directory client support with Windows ACLs
• Apple Time Machine support
• rsync replication
• Link aggregation and failover
• VLAN networking
• Dynamic DNS client
• Remote syslogd forwarding
• SNMP monitoring
• UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) support
• iozone, netperf, OpenVPN, tmux and other utilities

Plugins

• Bacula network backup server
• BitTorrent Sync distributed peer-to-peer file syncing application
• CouchPotato movie downloader
• Crashplan backup system
• CrucibleWDS Windows Deployment Solution
• Emby Media Server component
• Firefly Media Server
• Gamez automated downloader for video games
• HTPC-Manager graphical HTPC software manager
• LazyLibrarian eBook downloader
• Maraschino XBMC HTPC web interface
• MediaBrowser media center
• MineOS Minecraft server
• Mylar automated comic book downloader
• Owncloud personal cloud server
• Plex Media Server component
• s3cmd Amazon S3 backup utility
• Sabnzbd binary newsreader with Headphones audio download support
• Sickbeard PVR for newsgroup users
• Subsonic (media server)
• Syncthing file synchronization utility
• transmission BitTorrent client
• XDM eXtendable Download Manager

Uses

• SoHo, SMB and Enterprise file serving
• Virtualization server storage backing
• Media center audio/video serving and streaming to DLNA devices

Awards

• VMware — "Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge, Consumer"
• sourceforge.net — Project of the Month, January 2007
• InfoWorld — Best of open source in storage