In the past two articles, we have talked about FreeNAS hardware and skill requirements plus howto perform the installation and network connection. Now that we have the basics covered and our FreeNAS servers are actually running, we can start to configure them so they are useful.
Log Into The WebUI
One of the favorite parts of the FreeNAS system is the webUI. A webUI is simply a web based user interface. You use a web browser to access the system and make any configuration changes.
To access the webUI, you simply open up your favorite web browser (cough…cough…Firefox). In the address bar, type in the website URL that you wrote down when you got the network IP address from DHCP in the previous article.
In our example it was http://192.168.202.54.
You will now be prompted to log into the FreeNAS server. The default username is admin and the default password is freenas. Click OK.
Note: One of the first things that we are going to do is change these!
You are now in the FreeNAS system status page of the webUI.
The webUI is broken into two sections. On the left had side is the menu where you will select different options. On the right is where you will set and configure the options.
For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on the top three main sections of the menu.
System Configuration
Lets start to configure the system. Under the System menu, click on General setup. You will see a list of several options available here. We are not going to talk about all of them but I would like to focus on a few that you should set.
At the top of the page is the Hostname. This is the name the your FreeNAS server will be known by on your network. There really is no restrictions here except that it can’t contain any spaces or special characters. So FreeNASServer, FileServer, NY-FS-01, and JustenCase are all legitimate host names. It really is up to you.
Next is the Domain. This is the internal domain name that exists on your network. This should match so that the FreeNAS server knows how to communicate properly.
The third item to set is DNS servers. This is very important, especially if you are using them inside your network. It is less important if you are not but it is still useful if the system needs Internet access (e.g. if you set time servers). Set the DNS servers to the same settings as the rest of the local subnet.
If you are not sure about what some of these previous entries should be, you can download a tool that I wrote which will attempt to gather this information from your computer and display it so that you can then just enter it into the screens.
The next two items are the most important. Even if you leave the other three items the same, you should definitely change these items. The first is username. The default is admin. I suggest you change it to something obscure but memorable.
This also goes for the password. There are tons of articles on howto write better passwords. Please read one and create a great password. If you are having trouble creating a password, feel free to use this one that has been randomly generated (it changes every time you reload the page):
HvY2XpDYj66GV2j
Now enter your twice into the password field so that you do not accidentally write the wrong password and lock yourself out of the FreeNAS server.
Once you are done you can save the information by clicking the 
button. In the end, this is how my setup looked:
LAN Configuration
Next, we are going to work on fine tuning the network. Click on LAN under Interfaces.
There are a few options that we want to change here. The first is Type. Since there is a possibility of the IP address changing when it is set to DHCP, it is always recommended that the FreeNAS server be set to Static. This way, it will always be available.
When selecting a static IP address, make sure that the IP address is not in use or will not be used in the future. You can check to see if your IP address is presently being used by using the ping command.
This does not guarantee that the IP address is not being used but it does tell you it is not being used write now and that your IP address is still a good candidate. You should also check to see that the IP address is not in your DHCP scope because it could then potentially be used in the future. Most well designed IP network infrastructures has a static IP section in the subnet reserved for these IP addresses.
The subnet mask should match the subnet mask for the rest of the network. This can be retrieved using the ipconfig command.
Since Windows typically will give the mask in dotted decimal notation (e.g. 255.255.255.0) and FreeNAS uses CIDR notation (e.g. /24), you will need to convert your subnet mask into CIDR notation.
The final entry is the Gateway. This should be set to the same as the default gateway on your own computer system. This information can also be retrieved using the ipconfig command.
When you have made your changes, click the button.
Note: If you have changed the IP address from the one that was assigned to you in DHCP to something different, you will need to close your web browser and then reconnect to the new IP address once you click .
My final settings look like this:
Conclusion
There are a number of other settings and tweaks that we could do in these areas but I think that we have talked about the most critical ones. The next step will be to set up actual disks for use in FreeNAS.
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January 29th, 2007 at 11:49 am
As promised, I installed FreeNAS this weekend and am really enjoying it. I haven’t mapped out how I want all the boxes backing up to it (would like rsync client on all FreeBSD, Linux, Windows XP and Mac OSX boxes to talk to the NAS server) but I can already mount via Samba from Windows and Linux very easily. I transfered data over for an initial test, and it seemed fast enough for me, but I haven’t backup up much via the network before. Regardless, I suspect rsync will be much faster; and ideal for how I want things to be backed up.
One funny thing, after all the network config and such, I noticed my gateway wasn’t set, so I set it to the router it is on and after that I couldn’t hit it via the webUI…I don’t really understand why because I’m still calling it by IP, but once I had the gateway in place and rebooted, you cannot hit the webUI. I can reconfigure easily, just need a monitor and keyboard at the box and monkey with the console again, but I just thought it was weird.
Once that’s solved I want to add my wireless card and then just use that as my primary NIC on that box so I can put the box out of the way, and free up a port on my router. Another thing, it’s an old box (P2 266mhz) that has USB, but won’t boot from USB. My other beater box that I can ‘upgrade’ to is a 500mhz, but I don’t see a USB boot option in that BIOS either, and the updated BIOS doesn’t list that as an added feature. Would like to solve that, but not if it’s a matter of buying a new machine for it. Wonder if a bootable CD would work, just have it boot and drop off to the USB drive…I have extra CD drives and it would spin down after it’s done booting, so that could work.
I’ll write more soon, thanks again for the comments and your instructions!
fak3r
February 4th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Back again, redid my FreeNAS setup, and everything is working great. Have a Raid1 using gmirror across 2 120Gig drives, which is enough for my server (email/databases/websites), my workstation, my wife’s laptop and the kids computers. Everything is backed up to the NAS mirror via Samba (win, osx) or Unison (*bsd, linux), this is a great solution - I can’t recommend it enough.
Thanks again, I’ll keep checking in.
fak3r
September 26th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
fak3r,
it may have been that you ran into the same thing as I did - my IP was not static prior to this step, so when I changed it in the Web interface, I had to go over to the box and hit 2) Set LAN IP Address - I changed it here as well, then logged in at the new IP and its working fine without reboot or anything.
November 19th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Please Help. Trying to set up FreeNas but during Dhcp setup i keep getting 192.168.0.2 Can ping out but the Nas can’t get pinged. The 0 should be a 1. Tried static but then can ping neither. webGUI can not be reached. What am i doing wong. Using Latest version.
November 24th, 2007 at 2:06 am
A1ius,
What device is the DHCP server on your network?
From what device are you trying to ping TO the FreeNAS? Windows? Another Linux/Unix box?
How do you know the IP address should be 192.168.1.2?
November 24th, 2007 at 2:14 am
A1ius,
Do you know which device on your network is acting as the DHCP server?
When you say you can ping out, what IP address are you pinging to from FreeNAS? And what is the device you’re pinging?
How do you know that it should be 192.168.1.2?
What device are you using to ping TO the FreeNAS server? A Windows PC? Linux box? Something else?
What is the IP address of the PC you’re using to access the webGUI?
November 25th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Thanks for the response, but i got working, the router i got from the voip phone service was causing the problem with the ip address.
By plugging directly to dhcp linksys router, fixed the problem.
thanks anyway.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:57 am
I am having problem in LAN config. I am trying FreeNas latest version. I tried to ping from FreeNas ,which is installed on my USB stick, to another pc but not pinging. However, I can see the web interface of FreeNas ,which has been set up with static IP address ,on my laptop connected directly through CAT5e cable. How do I solve this pinging problem? Do I have to switch off my antivirus software from my host laptop or just switch off windows firewall? Answers will be appreciated
Cheers