FreeNAS is probably one of the easiest installations out there. I can’t believe that it takes only a few minutes to perform a complete installation of an operating system.
This article will walk you through the installation process for FreeNAS. If you successfully follow the instructions in this article, you will have completed everything needed from the actual computer. Once these steps are done, you will be able to remove the monitor, keyboard, and mouse from the system as everything else will be done from the webUI (web-based user interface)! There is also a video showing an actual FreeNAS installation on VMWare.
Getting FreeNAS
FreeNAS is available as a free download from the FreeNAS SourceForge site. Download the latest ISO image file. Be aware that this is a 34 MB file so it may take some time if you are on dial-up.
For those of you not comfortable with burning an ISO, I have also created a self-burning ISO. Simply download, run, and follow the instructions. If it does not run properly, you can compare the MD5 checksums. I recommend using the freeware program MD5 Summer for this task.
Selecting and Preparing Your Hardware
If you are like me, hardware selection is a pretty easy. The FreeNAS system will be made from whatever I have lying around. Fortunately, this is usually good enough for FreeNAS since it’s hardware requirements are quite low. (For a detailed look at the FreeNAS hardware requirements, see FreeNAS System and Skill Requirements).
There are two very important task that you need to complete in order for your FreeNAS server to boot properly. If you do not, then you will not be able to successfully install and run FreeNAS the way it was intended. Both of these tasks need to be configured in the BIOS of your system. If you are not comfortable with editing your BIOS, please carefully check your motherboard manual for proper procedures. (There is a section about working with the BIOS in Installing Ubuntu Desktop Part 2. Look for Booting From The Ubuntu CD. )
The first thing that you need to do in the BIOS is make sure that the system is set to boot from CD. This is crucial because you install FreeNAS by booting the system from the CD-ROM. How to do this varies from BIOS to BIOS so you will need to consult your motherboard manual.
The other task that you need to do is disable the halt on keyboard error setting. This is usually on the very first page of the BIOS settings. If you do not change this setting, your system may not come back up when it is rebooted and the BIOS does not detect a keyboard. Typically, you would see an error something like, “Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue or F2 to enter setup.” (Yes, ironic, I know.) But, since the FreeNAS system will be a headless system, you will not see the error and it will just stop without starting up properly.
Making the Boot CD
In order to start the FreeNAS installation, you will need to create a boot CD from the ISO you downloaded earlier. For those of you who have never created a CD from an ISO, this may be a bit of a daunting task because not all CD burning software supports burning from an ISO image. The built in burning software that comes with Windows XP does not allow you to burn an ISO. I recommend using the wonderful freeware software package CDBurnerXP Pro.
If you are not comfortable with burning a software, I suggest you download my self-burning ISO and then simply follow the instructions.
Installing FreeNAS
Now that we have all of the preliminaries out of the way, we can begin installing FreeNAS. If you are new to FreeNAS and you would like to get an idea as to what to expect during the installation process, I would suggest you first watch my Installing FreeNAS video (14 MB). It’s not going to win any Oscars (in fact, it is almost entirely in black & white without any sound) but you can at least watch the boot process and see the options that I picked when I installed my system.
Your first task is to put the FreeNAS boot CD into the system and boot from the CD. This will take a couple of minutes depending on your system configuration. Once you get to the console setup screen, you will have nine options:
Since we are going to be creating a permanent system, you will want to select option 7) Install on HD/CF/USB Key. This will let you install the FreeNAS operating system on a hard drive (HD), compact flash card (CF), or a USB drive.
Just a side note. If you have a system that will support booting from a compact flash or USB drive, this is a cool way to “limit” access to your data. Say, for example, you wanted to only give access to this data to people on the network while you are at the office. All you need to do is install FreeNAS on a compact flash or USB drive and then store your data on the FreeNAS server as normal. When you go home for the day, simply shut down FreeNAS, take the CF or USB drive with you. It would take a lot more effort to access the data without the CF or USB drive.
Once you get the setup screen, you will have three options.
Select option 2) Install on HD: Create 2 UFS partitions (FreeNAS and DATA).
You will now be prompted for two pieces of information, where you are installing from and where you are installing to.
This is where things tend to get a bit dicey for people who are not familiar with any other operating system other than Windows. FreeBSD names devices such as CD-ROM drives and hard drives completely differently. For example, in Windows, all drive devices are referred to by letter (e.g. D:). But in FreeBSD, they are referred to by device type and number (e.g. acd0).
Don’t let this rattle you. The FreeNAS developers have thought about this and provide you with some very good cues.
The first thing that you are asked is the name of your CD-ROM drive. They then list the detected CD-ROM drives. All you need to do is type the name of the drive that appears on the screen. In our example, this is acd0. One tip that I can give you is to only have one CD-ROM drive on the system. This way, you do not have to guess as to which drive you want to install FreeNAS from.
The next thing that you are prompted for is the name of the hard drive to install FreeNAS on. Just like with the CD-ROM selection, it will list all of the drives that are available. In our example, we are going to install FreeNAS on the first drive (ad0). This is typical for many operating systems to install the OS on the first drive. Simply type the drive name and press
Once the installation is complete, you can now remove the CD from the CD-ROM drive and reboot the system. This is important because if you do not, it may reboot from the CD and you will be no further ahead.
Getting FreeNAS on the Network
Upon rebooting FreeNAS, you will now need to connect it to our network. I like to work with the webUI as much as possible because it is the easiest way to perform tasks. Because of this, all I do to get FreeNAS on the network is get it to grab an IP address from DHCP. I can then connect to this IP address from a web browser and fine tune the configuration from there.
To configure the system for with DHCP, simply select option 2) Set LAN IP address from the console setup menu. When you are prompted whether or not you wish to use DHCP type y and press
Once it retrieves that address, it will display it and a web address on the screen. Write down this web address as you will need it in the future to access your system. Press
You have now completed the installation and network connection on your FreeNAS server. This is where I typically shut down the server and prepare it to sit somewhere on my shelf out of the way. I remove the CD-ROM drive, monitor and keyboard. I then fire it back up and let it do its job!
Conclusion
When you compare the amount of time and effort required to perform a basic installation for many other operating systems, FreeNAS is a dream. You just need to be willing to get past the fact that there are no fancy buttons to click for the base installation. Once that is done, there are tons of buttons and graphics in the webUI.
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November 22nd, 2006 at 1:15 pm
This is looking like it’s turning into a nice guide, it’s certainly given me reason to look at FreeNAS.
One thing I noticed in your article involves turning off the keyboard error so it will boot without a keyboard attached. At work I’ve come across a few machines that don’t have this option. A trick I found to get around it is if you have a spare USB to PS2 adapter normally used for mice, stick that in the keyboard socket and I’ve found it (at work at least) will then boot.
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:30 pm
David,
Thanks for the compliments.
Very cool trick with the adapter. I’ve used that one myself a couple of times back when most machines were the old IBM style. Good to know it works on PS2 as well.
Tim
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:36 am
I know it has to be possible. But, do you know if it’s possible to install the FreeNas “software” on an existing linux box, Ubuntu for instance. OH man, if that is possible I’d love it. The reason I ask is because I LOVE free NAS and I also LOVE my Ubuntu box. And I’m trying to figure out how I can configure the two services on one box. I use the Ubuntu box as a media server, so it’s already using Apache, PHP, and MySQL. Do you know how I could do this. Particularly I want do be able to RSYNC my data on my WinXP notebook to the Ubuntu box on a schedule basis using DeltaCopy.
December 23rd, 2006 at 12:54 pm
The majority of what is in FreeNAS is already in Ubuntu, including RSYNC. The only thing that you are missing is the web interface.
But, if you are set on using FreeNAS on Ubuntu, the easiest way would be to download a virtualization package such as VMware and then install FreeNAS as a virtual server. I know this works quite well because I do the same thing with my Windows box.
Tim
December 23rd, 2006 at 2:51 pm
I actually thought about that, but I kind of figured I’d be able to install the packages and have a FreeNAS feel. How then would I be able to use RSYNC with my Ubuntu box on a scheduled bases the way FreeNAS can? Any ideas?
Thanks.
Scott
September 25th, 2007 at 2:39 am
for what its worth - 64 MB runs out of swap space on the install - guess I should have read the requirements first (128MB)
September 25th, 2007 at 2:58 am
FreeNAS Server - yes, its almost 3 am…
Tim over at Daily Cup of Tech has got me motivated once again to get around to some of the projects that were previously overwhelming. Thanks guys for breaking it down for me and saving me tons of the research.
……
February 21st, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I’m not a tekky but can usually get around and make things work but I keep getting the no bootable system found error on my dell demension 4100. I’ve burned the ISO using the burning program you recommeded. I set the BIOS to boot only from the CD. But I have not disconnected my keyboard and my bios does not have the feature to turn off the keyboard error.
My question is do I have to disconnect my keyboard? Or do I have to use some other work around to get it to recognize the CD, like maybe the usb-to-ps2 adapter?
Thanks for any help.
Lewis
March 16th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Lewis,
The keyboard being plugged in has nothing to do with booting the CD…in fact you would have to have it to press the keystrokes to install FreeNAS :).
March 26th, 2008 at 7:48 am
With your Dell - make sure the bios is booting from the cdrom. It must recognise the cdrom first before you can boot from it. I don’t know what bios you have but you have to set the boot order to someting like CDROM,C,A (for example) then hopefuilly there is an IDE detection utility to set up the hard drive and cdrom. However, this may not set any parameters for the CDROM so it still won’t boot. Is there in you bios a screen to manually set the parameters? On my 1999 Amibios I found there was on the same screen you set the date and time. I set IDE-2 primary to “Auto” and it worked.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I use a floppy with GRUB loader( or syslinux) on it to boot the CD on older pc, it work like a charm
May 5th, 2008 at 3:51 am
I have somne problems with freeNas. I want to run it from a USB stick, so I downloaded the live CF as that is the only ISO file i can find (the rest are IMG files). After burning the CD and starting up. I do not get the 9 option console, but a 6 option menu that basically offers me several boot options. If I do not choose anything, it continues to a FreeNas screen that allows me to do …nothing.
So my questions is: What file do I exactly need to burn on a CD to come to the 9 option startup console that oofers me the possibility to install on a USB key.
No doubt this FreeNAs is fantastic but it is very very unclear what file one exactly needs and what to do with it. Any help is appreciated
May 5th, 2008 at 11:54 am
My problem is solved already. Apparently if I leave it long enough omn the FreeNas screen and press escape, it comes into the 9 option menu that allows me to install the Freenas on USB stick. Sadly I found out that my miniboard does not startup from a USB stick. Oh well, I’ll have to shell out 7 euro’s fro a CF to IDE adapter and try that.
August 26th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Hi
thanks for very fine dicription on hove to install freenas.
i have a ?
i have a Acer power Ap1000 i’m thinking to install freenas becaurse i will buy a Squeezebox and use the Acer as a storage for my music files.
1. is it best to format the hardisk or to keep XP pro on it?
2. can the computer power down in freenas, when im not using it?
hope someone can/will help
October 25th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Hello Guys
I am using FreeNAS since quite some time. It is good and rliable.
I am unabke to configure DC ROM because it is not show up in Management menu so I can not add it and set mount point.
Can any one help me out
S. Ahmad
December 1st, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Boot Question
I am using an older celeron based system as a host with on its onboard ide channels (2) - works great!
Currently I use two drives as a raid one set and would like to add two more (also Raid 1).
Unfortunately, my bios does not support booting from a usb and so I boot from the ata cd and store my config on usb - this config will only allow three hardrives (+ the cdrom).
If I move the config and os to a harddrive, can this drive be part of a raid set?
If so, what config would work fastest? Two drives in a raid set on the same ide channel or on different channels?
Thanks!
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:42 am
You can buy a IDE RAID PCI Controller Card. Adaptec makes a nice one.
June 4th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Hello,
Do I have a chance to apply Freenas to a NAS System via Network or Serial port?
And how can I do it.
I have an allnet 6400+ which is an Thecus OEM
Regards
Ralf
August 31st, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Thanks for you excellent series, using your tutorials I got FreeNAS up and working in a short time. It worked great but I ended up using Ubuntu because of its full server capabilities. I have recommended your series in an article I am in the process of writing for my site.
Thanks,
Mike
December 30th, 2009 at 7:22 am
installed FreeNAS and connected in my windows network..around 30 users sharing data from…FreeNas..my Question is…if system fails what are the possibilities to take data from Hard Disk..kidly reply anyboady..Many THANKS..