Angel's Place

A little from everything

FreeNAS – Setting up ZFS

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Angel

I always was curious about ZFS but haven’t played with it until very recently. I thought it was too complicated and I was afraid it will use up too much space because of the snapshots capability.

Few days ago I installed the latest beta of FreeNAS 8 on a USB stick (here how it is done) and decided to give a try to ZFS finally.

I use an old laptop and 120GB USB hard-drive. The goal is to create the file system (ZFS) and some Windows (CIFS) shares on top of it that will be available for data storage on my local network.

I will start with creating a group (HomeUsers) and user (john). These will be used later when setting the shares owner. The next two screen-shots show just that:

The newly created group is associated with the user (through the Members button).:

The next step is to create the file system on the USB hard-disk. From the left navigation expand Storage -> Volumes and click on Volume Manager. This will show a pop-up where you type the volume name, select the disk (in this case ada0), the file system type (ZFS) and click Add Volume button:

This will also automatically create a ZFS Scrub for the volume. ZFS has a repair tool called “scrub” which examines and repairs Silent Corruption and other problems. The default interval between consecutive runs is 35 days.

With the new ZFS volume in place you can create either ZFS Volume or ZFS Dataset.

A zvol (ZFS volume) is a feature of ZFS that creates a device block over ZFS. This allows you to use a zvol as an iSCSI device extent for example.

In contrast ZFS datasets allow for more granularity when configuring which users have access to which data. A dataset is similar to a folder in that you can set permissions; it is also similar to a filesystem in that you can set quotas and compression.

NOTE: if your goal is to share an entire ZFS volume, you don’t have to create datasets. If you wish to divide up a ZFS volume’s data into different shares, create a dataset for each share.

The next screen-shot shows creation of a dataset named Backup:

Let’s set the permissions for the new dataset from Storage -> View Volumes -> Change Permissions:

The next thing will be to set up a periodic snapshot for the ZFS volume. The lifetime will be 2 weeks, it will run between 9:00 and 18:00 every hour from Monday to Friday:

Having a periodic snapshots is like having a time machine – you can go back and restore the data to a previous state. This is illustrated in the next article

FreeNAS 8 Series

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Angel

This is a collection of posts related to FreeNAS 8 (ver 8.2 BETA 3). I am just capturing my experience and would be glad if it is helpful for anyone else.

* Installing FreeNAS to USB stick (new and simpler way)

FreeNAS – Windows (CIFS) Shares on ZFS

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Angel

In the previous article we talked about Setting up ZFS.

Here we are going to create a Windows (CIFS) share that will be accessible on the local network and will demostrate how to use the ZFS snapshots to restore lost data.

Let’s Add Windows (CIFS) Share from Sharing -> Windows (CIFS) Shares:

Creating a CIFS share will automatically start the service if it is not running already. Alternatively you can manually start or stop the service from Services -> Control Services.

We also have to configure the CIFS service (Services -> CIFS) by providing the NetBIOS name, Workgroup, etc:

Now we can try to access the newly created share by typing \\freenas2\Backup in Windows Explorer:

We have to provide username and password in order access the share. The username is freenas2\john and the password is the one you set up when creating the user:

If you look at the security settings for the share you can see something similar like this:

Now let’s create a simple text file in the share, type some text and save it:

We are going to manually create a snapshot because we do not want to wait an hour for the periodic one to just demonstrate how it works:

We are going to add some more text to the file we created earlier:

Now let’s roll back the snapshot we created – this should bring back the first version of the text file:

Indeed we got the first version of the text file:

This is really a simplistic look at the ZFS snapshots but it at least gives you some idea about how things work. I would personally experiment with bigger files (movies, pictures, etc.) to see how fast snapshots will eat up the disk space.

FreeNAS – Initial configuration

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Angel

This article is about configuring FreeNAS (v. 8.2 BETA 3).

If you haven’t yet installed FreeNAS have a look at Installing FreeNAS to USB stick first.

We will assume that FreeNAS was installed and running on a remote computer with IP address of 192.168.1.210. Your installation most probably will have a different address. It also happens I have another installation of FreeNAS 7 and the computer is named freenas. Therefore the FreeNAS 8.2 computer is named freenas2.

If I type the IP address mentioned above in a web browser I will see the web interface home screen for FreeNAS as shown below:

You will notice the blinking button that says “Alert” on the right side of the screen. It prompts you to change the admin password (by default there is no password and anyone can access the FreeNAS GUI). Click it and it will take you to the form when you can change the password. You also can reach the form by using the tree-like navigation on the left part of the screen – expand Account -> Admin Account -> Change Password

Next time you will be asked for username (which is admin by default) and password (the one you set up above).

If you check the Change root password as well it will set the root password with the password you typed above.

Next expand Network -> Global Configuration. Here fill in the Hostname, Domain, Default gateway, Nameserver 1 and press the Save button:

You can find most of this information if you open a command prompt (DOS prompt) and type ipconfig /all:

FreeNAS can send you status reports about the system. In order this to work you need to configure the Email settings. From the navigation on the left expand System -> Settings and click the Email tab. The configuration shown below will work if you have a GMail acount. You should be able to figure out what to put in the boxes if you want to use a non-GMail account. Save the settings and click Send Test Mail to confirm it works:

These are some of the settings that I would typically adjust on a newly installed FreeNAS. There are additional setting and I encourage you to explore them. If you need more information you can always click the Help button on the tool bar.

Please make sure to check the next post

Installing FreeNAS to USB stick (new and simpler way)

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Angel

This is the current article that describes the simplest way of installing FreeNAS on USB stick in Windows without burning installation CD first.

There is an old post about installing FreeNAS on USB stick which is available here but it is more complicated and I encourage you to use this one instead.

Here is how it works:

1) Download 7-zip and install it. If you have another program installed that can work with compressed files you may want to use it instead of 7-zip.

2) Download Image Writer for Windows. Make sure to get the file that ends in binary.zip. I copied the file to C:\Temp and extracted the files into C:\Temp\win32diskimager-binary.

3) Download the FreeNAS from SourceForge The latest stable version at the moment of writing is 8.0.4. I however decided to go with the 8.2 BETA 3 which is the latest available at the moment. You need the file ending in .img.xz

FreeNAS files

I downloaded the file and placed it in C:\Temp

4) Open the file you downloaded in the previous step with 7-zip and extract its content:

It produced a file named FreeNAS-8.2.0-BETA3-x64.img

5) Write the .img file to your USB stick using the Image Writer:

Note: You need 2GB USB stick or bigger.

That’s all. Reboot your computer and make sure the boot from USB is the first choice in the BIOS.

Here is the FreeNAS Documentation Project page that gives you additional information about how to install FreeNAS on USB stick in Linux or OS X:

Burning an IMG File

CodeProject

QR codes

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Angel

A QR code (short for Quick Response) is a two-dimensional code originally designed in Japan and initially used in the auto industry. You can use them to encode and store textual information, link to a web site, a vCard, etc. For more information refer to Wikipedia

In order to be able to read QR codes with your smart phone you need to install a QR code reader. Here are some suggestions:

iPhone – Bakodo – Barcode Scanner and QR Bar Code Reader

Android – i-nigma Barcode Scanner

Windows Phone 7 – NeoReader

BlackBerry – ScanLife Barcode

There are many QR readers out there – it is up to you to choose the one you like the best.

So what about generating your own QR codes? You can do this as well. Go to http://goqr.me and start creating your own QR codes for free.

Here is some video on you tube about how to use QR code with vCard:

Google Music on Android Phone

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Angel

Google Music is a service that allows you to buy, organize and play music online. Among other things you are allowed to upload up to 20,000 songs from your personal music collection for free. The bad thing is that it is officially offered only in US. The good thing is that there is a work-around.

I cannot comment on whether it is illegal or not to use the work-around and I am just providing information that can be found elsewhere and I am not suggesting you should use it. If you do it is at your own risk.

Step 1) Sign up for Google Music and upload your music to the cloud (Google Music servers)

Google Music will check whether your computer’s IP address is an US one only the first time (when you register for the service). You need to get a temporary US IP address. One easy way is to download and install Hide My IP (http://www.hide-my-ip.com/). You can use it for free for 14 days – more than enough.

Run the program. Open it from the system tray, check the “Request US Based IP” check-box and press “Hide My IP” button. After few seconds you will be given a new US based IP address as shown below:

Now go to http://music.google.com
Accept the terms of service and click the “Download Music Manager” button:

Install the application on your computer, run it and tell it where you store your music collection – there are several choices (iTunes, Music folder, etc.). The application will start uploading your music to Google Music in the background (you need to be connected to internet). You are done with this step.

Now you can play your music from any computer connected to internet directly within your browser. Just go to music.google.com, log in and start streaming (you do not need US IP address to play or upload music – it was necessary just when you signed up).

Step 2) Install Google Music on your Android-based phone.

It is even better if you can play your music on your mobile phone – after all it is always with you. If your phone is not US based you will not be able to install Google Music app from Android Market. Again there is a work-around. Download the application package file (.apk) for Google Music from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1350348. Download it to your Android phone – it will be saved to the SD card.

Next install AppInstaller from https://market.android.com/details?id=com.funtrigger.appinstaller on your phone.

Run it and use it to install the .apk file you downloaded earlier. This will install Google Music app on your phone and you can listen to your music stored online.

Tip: To make songs available offline, click on the triangular menu button in the corner of the album or track title and check the “available offline” box.

That’s it.

log4net contextual properties and ASP.NET

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Angel

I just found this article that helped me to find the answer about the weird results with my log files produced by ASP.NET application:

log4net contextual properties and ASP.NET

Big thank you to the author!

Script to restore SQL Server database

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Angel

A lot of people know how to restore an SQL Server database using the SQL Server Management Studio. Sometime it will not work if the database is in use. You have to close all active connections or even to take database offline and then online again.

It is much easier to restore the database via the attached script. Just unzip the file to a folder called C:\RestoreDB and copy the backup file to the same folder. Then edit RestoreDB.bat file and update it with the appropriate information – server name, user name, password, backup name, etc.

The last step is to run RestoreDB.bat – you can double-click it in Windows explorer or can oped a DOS prompt change the folder to C:\RestoreDB and run the script by typing its name and pressing “Enter” key.

RestoreDB_Script

How to install FreeNAS to USB stick

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Angel

Note: This post is more than an year old. You can still use it to install FreeNAS on USB but I strongly recommend you to read the new one first which is much simpler:

Installing FreeNAS to USB stick (new and simpler way)

FreeNAS is an Open Source Storage Platform based on FreeBSD and supports sharing across Windows, Apple, and UNIX-like systems. It comes with a lot of protocols and services