Learning Free NSA - Preface

Preface
FreeNAS is a free piece of software that turns a PC
into Network Attached Storage (NAS). It supports
connections from Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X,
Linux, and FreeBSD. It supports RAID, has a simple
web GUI, and modest system requirements. Since
FreeNAS is an embedded operating system, it is
compact, efficient, and dedicated to just one task.
This book shows system administrators, as well as
home network users, how to quickly install and
configure FreeNAS.
FreeNAS has a full range of advanced features
including support for Redundant Array of Independent
Disks (RAID), Microsoft Active Directory, and iSCSI.
The goal of this book is to show administrators how
to use these advanced features and exploit the full
potential of the FreeNAS software.
The FreeNAS software is suitable for home use as
well as enterprise deployment and as such this book
also covers the planning and administration tasks for
both types of environment. This book also has a
chapter dedicated to problem solving, and much
more...
What This Book Covers
Chapter 1 is a high level look at Network Attached
Storage (NAS), and more specifically, the FreeNAS
software. We will cover the basic idea behind NAS
and the philosophy of the FreeNAS server. This
chapter is less hands-on than the others in this book,
but it is important to understand the concepts of
Network Attached Storage and where the FreeNAS

server fits into your business.
Chapter 2 will look at the basic planning points
including: Capacity planning, Hardware requirements,
Planning for backup, Redundancy needs, and
Network infrastructure.
Chapter 3 will install the FreeNAS server, and we'll
start looking at the basic configuration.
Chapter 4 shall look at the different services and
protocols supported by FreeNAS, and we'll also see
examples of how various platforms like Windows, OS
X, and Linux can use the FreeNAS server for file
sharing, backup, and streaming multimedia.
Chapter 5 will look at the different system
administration tasks for the FreeNAS server as well
as user administration.
Chapter 6 will look at how to manage hard disks in
the FreeNAS server and how to configure them to
form RAID sets that improve fault tolerance and
increase drive performance.
Chapter 7 shall explore the different options that exist
to back up the data on the FreeNAS server including
using RSYNC to a second local disk as well as to a
remote machine.
Chapter 8 looks at Advanced System Configuration
like disk encryption, adding a swap space, and
tweaking FreeBSD.
Chapter 9 is a guide on how to solve problems with
your FreeNAS server. It covers where to look for
information about the problem as well as how to hunt
down problems by being methodical. It also looks at

the common problems people have with their
FreeNAS servers including networking problems and
problems with RAID.
Chapter 10 will look at some simple FreeBSD
commands and also some fundamental FreeBSD
administration tasks, including stop and starting
different services as well as controlling RAID from the
command line.

What You Need for This Book
To get the most from this book you will need a copy of
the FreeNAS server software and one or more PCs
on which to install it. You will need the ability to burn a
CDROM and you will possibly need a USB flash disk.
You will need a network and a separate client PC with
a web browser. The client PC can use Windows, OS
X, Linux or any other OS that support web browsing.
FreeNAS can be administered using almost any web
browser including Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer.
Since the FreeNAS server is configured via a web
interface, it is assumed that the reader has a basic
knowledge of using browser software.