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What free NAS to use with ESXi? [ZFS, FreeNAS, XPEnology]

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If the SSD with your ZFS OS goes down, how will you access the ZFS volume without a backup drive to run the VM that will allow you to retrieve the backup? ;)

You could go the hot swap route and just disconnect the backup drive when not needed. Or (though I do not know if you can do this), I think ESXi can use USB devices as storage (not to run off, but at least for backups). A HDD in a USB enclosure should allow you to disconnect/power it down when you're not backing up.

I obviously wasn't thinking!! :D
 
Got my new PSU installed and everything I need physically installed. I'm moving files from one datastore to another (local disk) and man it's slow! 10 min for a 40gig VM that has a 25.6GB VMDK. Eww... and these are SataIII SSDs.
 
ESXi has always been a slow poke when it comes to transferring files in and out of it's datastore for some reason (I've never read any answer/reason that made sense to me). However, get a hold of Veeam Backup and FastSCP (it's free from Veeam), and it should speed things up abit, when it comes to transferring files in and out of the ESXi box/datastore. Not too sure about transfers between datastore/datastore on the same physical machine though.
 
ESXi has always been a slow poke when it comes to transferring files in and out of it's datastore for some reason (I've never read any answer/reason that made sense to me). However, get a hold of Veeam Backup and FastSCP (it's free from Veeam), and it should speed things up abit, when it comes to transferring files in and out of the ESXi box/datastore. Not too sure about transfers between datastore/datastore on the same physical machine though.

Will do.
I had downloaded the pre-built napp-it zip file and was using that for ZFS and for some reason it's broken. I'm thinking of just building out OmniOS from scratch and installing napp-it myself. The pre-built zip uses a thick provisioned disk of 30GB. I'm not sure I need that.

So many decisions, and they can all affect performance. I guess it's trial and error, but I just have such limited time to toy with these things. On my free time, if my 16-month old son is not following me around, I'm doing tons of work around the house still. My son is so damn fun (and funny) that it takes away my focus! That's why I am only really able to post here when I take a short break at work.

The good news is I do have all the tools I'll need for the project, and no more tinkering with the box physically. The room I'm keeping the server in is a bit hot/humid for my taste, so now I'm thinking of insulating that unfinished portion of my basement (in fact it's the only section I didn't finish and regretting not doing it ahead of time). Bah!!
 
Will do.
I had downloaded the pre-built napp-it zip file and was using that for ZFS and for some reason it's broken. I'm thinking of just building out OmniOS from scratch and installing napp-it myself. The pre-built zip uses a thick provisioned disk of 30GB. I'm not sure I need that.

What exactly is broken? yeah, I normally use 15Gb for the boot disk.
 
What exactly is broken? yeah, I normally use 15Gb for the boot disk.

Too late. Thanks for asking, though. There was a napp-it 14b anyway and saves 10GB on the thick-provisioned disk, so it was more appealing to me.

I haven't built out a zpool yet b/c I'm still reading up on ZFS and its warnings. One guy says to not build it as a VM, but I may just have to disregard that one warning, though it does get me thinking:
http://forums.freenas.org/index.php...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

I'm also wondering if I'm an idiot for not installing my ESXi whitebox system into a case that offers hot-swappable drive bays.

The good news is, I'm using ECC desktop memory :)
 
Ok, here is the issue I saw on the old 14a that I blew away, that is also appearing on 14b right now [see attachment].

One thing I did read in that PPT presentation was to not ignore error messages, but I need to still learn what they mean and learn the command line in OmniOS.
 

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Personally, I didn't use the prebuilt OmniOS/napp-it as I was also having problems with it (network settings would not stick/dropped). I went with installing OpenIndiana myself, then installing napp-it from within OI. Has worked flawlessly, even with screwing around with the networking.
 
Ok, here is the issue I saw on the old 14a that I blew away, that is also appearing on 14b right now [see attachment].

One thing I did read in that PPT presentation was to not ignore error messages, but I need to still learn what they mean and learn the command line in OmniOS.

Do you have Apple devices connected?
 
Personally, I didn't use the prebuilt OmniOS/napp-it as I was also having problems with it (network settings would not stick/dropped). I went with installing OpenIndiana myself, then installing napp-it from within OI. Has worked flawlessly, even with screwing around with the networking.

I've always preferred downloading the latest OS and doing it myself as well, although my hardware setup would mimic the prebuilt completely.
 
Do you have Apple devices connected?
I'd like to, if possible. I want the zpool to be available to as many devices as possible, but I could always resort to re-sharing from a Windows VM if it's too complicated, and just deal with slightly slower speeds (it wouldn't matter as I'd just be using WiFi for the iDevices anyway).

What made you ask?
I've always preferred downloading the latest OS and doing it myself as well, although my hardware setup would mimic the prebuilt completely.

You may have mentioned it before, but why did you decide against OpenIndiana?
 
I'd like to, if possible. I want the zpool to be available to as many devices as possible, but I could always resort to re-sharing from a Windows VM if it's too complicated, and just deal with slightly slower speeds (it wouldn't matter as I'd just be using WiFi for the iDevices anyway).

What made you ask?

First search result with those errors mentioned Apple devices


g0dM@n said:
You may have mentioned it before, but why did you decide against OpenIndiana?

Because I tried omnios at one point, upgraded the zfs pool, and the next time I tried to use openindiana the zpool version was too new and wouldn't work in OI. So I went back to OO, and never looked back.
 
Thanks for the info. Where can I send PP funds for your services. :)
 
You are going to have trouble with any Android device trying to access a ZFS share setup through napp-it. So in addition to possible problems with Apple devices, you will probably want to find another way to share any shares in the ZFS file system. I had to create a thin provisioned iSCSI device so that the Windows VM could share it to the network. I'd much rather just do a straight share through OI/napp-it, but it just wouldn't work with the droids. :/
 
I can easily destroy my zPool, but with 6x 3TB drives, I'm still afraid of Raid-Z2. I'm scared of striping altogether. Raid-Z3 wouldn't scare me, but that's 50% of my drives for redundancy, so I'm thinking if it's safe to just go with mirror.

Am I crazy for worrying about Z2? I just know the likelihood of another drive dying is quite common in striped setups, since so much data has to be rebuilt, or is ZFS really reputable for that? It was this one article that reassured my fear:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/162
 
Screw it. Raid-Z2 it is. I created the zpool as 6x 3TB (10.7TB usable).
Nice I'm creating volumes and unsure of block sizes. What I'd like to do is have a volume for:
- Movies (I assume bigger block sizes is best? 64 or 128?) -- 6TB
- Home Pictures and Videos (4k?)
- Music (4k?)
- Documents / files
- Misc (4k?) -- (ISOs, EXEs)

Too much to think about, and I know this project is taking forever, but I'd rather have it set up correctly from the start. My old NAS is still holding up in the meantime.

So one volume for movies with a bigger block size and another volume for all of the rest with 4k?
 
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Could anyone help me on how to set up the SMB shares, and ACLs (and/or Security Permissions)?
Do I just set up an SMB share, and then can I use NTFS security from a Windows machine with a user account that has full access on the share?

I've been looking around and cannot find information on how to do this. I'm a ZFS dummy.

I have been able to go to \\hostname and see one of the shares I've set up, but not sure if I MUST have a domain set up to set up the ACLs appropriate on the NTFS security perms. When I go to ZFS Filesystems > ACL extension > ACL on SMB shares, I'm unable to change perms or add local users. I get this error:
"You need the ACL extensions to use this function."

When I follow the link to the extensions that it provides, I'm asked to Request a quotation to buy or extend napp-it PRO. Not sure if I should be doing that... I'd obviously give some cash to the cause, but I thought I'd get to be cheap and set up a free NAS with ZFS.
 
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I might have to ditch napp-it.
I'm totally lost. All I've been able to do is set up an SMB share for everyone access. I have to pay for the ACL extension and was really looking for something free. In order to get a lifetime key, it's $300. The $50 key is only for a year. If it was $50 for a lifetime, that'd be a different story. On top of it, I keep trying to enable the NFS service and it won't turn on, even though I've set two ZFS filesystems to allow NFS.

I'd like a storage solution that'll give me the option to use NFS (I want local speed access to my VMs since it'll all be on the same ESXi host, and I believe this is the best method), and SMB.

My goal is to have a VM that acts as my MAIN server:
- FTP
- Remote Access into my network
- HTPC: Recording TV and/or downloading. The problem is I can't record b/c my C: drive is so small. I need to leverage ZFS to my storage.
- iCloud (saves all of my photos to my NAS when I snap pics on my iPhone)
- Whatever else I may use

I'm willing to try something else at this point. I've read the manuals and I'm just dumb to it. I can't make good sense of it. I'm a Windows guy. I understand SMB, and ACLs, just not able to get going with napp-it. I'm sick of it at this point. I haven't been able to get much help from anybody... and my patience has grown thin. I VERY BADLY want to be recording TV shows to my huge storage waiting to be used, as well as house all of my movies with PROPER ACLs.
 
tried openmediavault?

Nope. Whatever I use, as long as I could build it on a VM so that I can save myself from having to build another physical server, and so that I can create a volume that is LOCAL to my other VMs, I'm golden.

My requirements would really be:
- Must be a VM, as I already have a hypervisor setup (ESXi)
- Must offer high-speed transfers to other VMs within the host (only have a single ESXi host for now) -- NFS is probably the best option
- Must offer SMB access for Windows-based desktops in my home

I'd really like to do NFS + SMB in some way, so that a VM can have direct/local access to a volume, and other desktops can then access that volume over SMB.

I'm downloading the ISO now. Do they have a good tutorial, and do you think I can meet all of my requirements above?
 
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