Upload
joellpa
View
222
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
7/26/2019 Build a NAS Device
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/build-a-nas-device 1/5
Search... SmallBusinessComputing.com
New s Networking Hardware Softw are Buyers' Guide Marketing Basics In-Depth About Videos Products Forums Tech Terms
October 08, 2010 Small Business Hot Topics:
SmallBusinessComputing Hardware & Equipment Read More in Hardware & Equipment »
Looking for a reliable printer? The HP LaserJet MFP also copies, s cans, andfaxes . Click here to learn more.
Post a comme nt
Email Article
Print Article
Build a NAS Device With an Old PC and Free
SoftwareIf you've ever considered purchasing a NAS (short for network-attached storage)
device to add storage to your home or small office network, you may have balked
due to the relatively high prices they can command. If you don't have hundreds of
dollars to spare on a commercial NAS product, but you do have an old or unused
PC lying around, you might consider pressing it into service as a NAS device.
If you have the time and are comfortable with basic network technology, one way to convert that spare
PC into a NAS server is with a free utility called FreeNAS. Like many commercial NAS products,
FreeNAS is built atop FreeBSD (a compact Unix-based operating system). FreeNAS offers pretty much
all the features common in a ready-made NAS device and then some, but best of all, it can run on pretty
modest hardware — the main requirements are a system with a minimum of 96 MB of RAM, a bootable
CD/DVD drive, and, of course, at least one hard drive (external USB drives are also supported).
There are a few versions of FreeNAS available, but here we'll focus on the basic setup of the LiveCD
version. The nice thing about this version is that you don't need to permanently install it onto your
system. Instead, you can boot FreeNAS directly off of a CD or DVD — it will run from a RAM drive
(using only around 32 MB of memory) and can save its configuration data to either a USB Flash drive or
even an old-school floppy disk.
To get FreeNAS, go here and download the most recent version listed under FreeNAS ISO (as of this
writing, it was version 0.686b2, dated 11-18-2007). After you've downloaded the approximately 44 MB
file, you'll need to c reate a bootable CD from the ISO image file (as opposed to simply burning the file to
a disc). Windows built-in burning tools won't do this for you, but pretty much any commercial burning
software such as Nero Burning ROM or Roxio Easy Media Creator will. (If you need it, ISO Recorder is
a free utility that works with XP and Vista — you'll find it here.
Before loading FreeNAS, make sure your system's set to boot directly
from its CD or DVD drive. You can do that from the system BIOS,
which you can access by pressing a key when prompted — usually
F2 or Del — right after powering up the system. The exact menu
options will vary slightly by system or BIOS vendor, but you're looking
for settings that refer to boot order; when you find them, make sure
that CD/DVD or optical drive is listed as the first boot device. (If you
have any external drives you want to use with your FreeNAS system,
you can either connect them now or wait until later.)
Installation and Network Configuration
After you've configured the system's boot order, insert a blank formatted floppy disk (or connect a Flash
drive), insert the FreeNAS CD and then reboot your system. FreeNAS will start loading and eventually
display a boot menu on a 5-second timer. Leave the default option selected, and within a few seconds a
splash page will appear. After a few more moments there will be high-pitched beep, which means
Free Newsletters : Small Business Tech Daily
Developing a Storage Backup StrategyeBook: With storage requirements moving into the tera-,
peta- and exabyte ranges, companies need to refine their backup strategies to ensure availability of their grow ing
data stores. >>
Deduplication with Symantec Backup Exec 2010The Deduplication Option in Symantec Backup Exec 2010
enables several capabilities that can greatly benefit Administrators looking to control storage grow th. There
are three different methods of deduplication that areavailable w ith the Deduplication Option. >>
Small & Mid-size Business Protection GuideTo close their protection gaps, small and midsize
businesses need reliable, comprehensive pro tection that
have compatibility designed in; are sized r ight; are easy
to install, configure, and use; and come from a source
they can trust. >>
Developers Solutions eBook Library Webopedia Login Register
January 4, 2008
By Joseph Moran
Send Email »
More Articles »
Most Popular Stories
IT Professionals
Windows Microsoft Accounting Social Net
1 Top 10 Social Media Tips for Small Business
Marketing
2 What's a MAC Address , and How Do You Find It?
3 Inkjet Versus Laser Printers
4 Build a NAS Device With an Old PC and Free
Software
5 Windows Wireless Zero Configuration: Five Steps to
Sanity
Share Articles
Today This Week All-T ime
08/10/2010 Build a NAS Device With an Old PC an…
smallbusinesscomputing.com/…/Build… 1/5
7/26/2019 Build a NAS Device
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/build-a-nas-device 2/5
Demystifying a Small
Business Network
Store, Secure and
Synchronize Data with
Seagate
Get the Most From Your
USB WLAN Adapter
FreeNAS is loaded and ready to configure.
After you hear that beep, press ESC to gain access to the Console setup menu. Select option 2, Set
LAN IP address, and you'll be prompted about using DHCP for IPv4 and then AutoConfiguration for IPv6.
Choose Y in both cases, and after a moment FreeNAS will display the addresses that have been
assigned for each. The IPv6 address isn't really important, unless you're running IPv6, but take note of
the address listed for IPv4 — this is the address you'll use to access and configure your FreeNAS
system.
You can test FreeNAS's network connectivity by returning to the setup menu and then selecting option
5, Ping host. Enter the address of your router, and if you get responses, you'll know your NAS
system's link is up. If so, point your browser to the FreeNAS system's IP address, enter admin as the
username and freenas as the password, and you'll be granted access to the configuration screen.
Preparing Disks and Creating Shares
There are three basic steps to preparing a disk for use with FreeNAS:
identifying it, formatting it and mounting it. Start by going to the Disks
menu, selecting Management, and clicking the plus sign button.
From the Disk pull-down menu — which will list all disks connected to
the system) select one that you want to use, click the Add button and
then click Apply changes.
Now go to Disks|Format, select the disk you just added, and click the
Format Disk button. (As you'll be warned, this will erase the contents
of the disk.) Then go to Disks|Mount Point, click the plus button,
specify the drive, type a volume name into the Name field, then click
Add. Again, Finally, click the Add Changes when it appears.
Now we need to activate file services and set up a share. Head over to the Services menu and choose
CIFS /SMB (this is the protocol used by Windows Networking, a.k.a. Network Neighborhood/Places).
Put a check in the Enable box in the upper right and give your server a name in the NetBIOSName
field. (You can also change the Workgroup name from the default of WORKGROUP if you use
something else.)
Click the Save and Restart button, and then return to the top of the page and click the Shares tab. To
create a share, click the plus button, enter a share name and description into the Name and Comment
fields, respectively, then point to your newly c reated volume in the Path field (you can use the ellipse
button to browse for it). Click Add and then Apply changes, and you're done. You can make sure your
FreeNAS share is visible from an Windows system by or browsing for it within Network Places. (If your
system has a software firewall and you can't reach the FreeNAS system, you may need to configure it
to allow Windows File and Printer Sharing.)
Wait, There's More
We've only covered a basic configuration of FreeNAS here, but there's a lot more you can do with it. For
starters, you can use it to share out multiple drives, including CD or DVDs. Like most commercial NAS
products, FreeNAS will let you set up user accounts and rights, or you can have it authenticate users
from an exist ing Windows domain (2000/2003 Active Directory only). You can also enable other network
services including UPnP, FTP, NFS (for Linux), or AFP (for older Macs) and set up encrypted volumes
or one using (software-based) RAID 0, 1, or 5. For more information on these and other FreeNAS
features consult the product manual, which is surprisingly useful (it's available in PDF format from the
download page).
Using FreeNAS to build your own NAS server won't necessarily make sense for everyone. As you can
see, it requires a bit more configuration effort than a commercial NAS product, so you have to have the
time and inclination to play with it and tweak it to your needs. It's also worth nothing that since a PCs is
usually much larger than a typical NAS device, it may be harder to tuck a FreeNAS system away
somewhere if space is tight. Also, that any PC-based NAS is likely to be nosier and consume more
power than than a ready-made NAS (worth keeping in mind considering your NAS device will probably
need to run 24/7).
But if you've got more time, space, and equipment than you do cash, FreeNAS is an excellent way to
set up effective and inexpensive network storage.
Joe Moran spent six years as an editor and analyst with Ziff-Davis Publishing and several more as a
freelance product reviewer. He's also worked in technology public relations and as a corporate IT
manager, and he's currently principal of Neighborhood Techs, a technology service firm in Naples, Fla.
He holds several industry certifications, including Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA).
Do you have a c omment or quest ion about this article or other small business topics in
general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com Forums. Join the discussion
today!
1
14 Comments (click to add your comment)
Partner With Us
Colocation
Business Liability
Phone Cards
Promote Your Website
Televisions
IT Legal Contracts
Dedicated Servers
Desktop Computers
Data CenterCell Phones
prepaid calling card
Business Email
Website Hosting
Calling Cards
SmallBusinessComputing
Ecommerce-Guide
Webopedia.com
WinPlanet.com
About
Site Map
Tech Terms
Products
The HP LaserJet MFP: Pays for itself in less than 1 year.
After that it pays your bus ines s. Calcu late your own
payback.
Webcast: Ensuring Performance Meets Busines s and
Web User Needs
Google Cloud Computing Resou rce Center
Related ArticlesMost Commented On
Partners More Small Business
On the Forums Visit the Forums »
Key IT Solutions
1 Search Engine Optimization: SEO Tips for Small
Business
2 The Small Business Cas e for CRM
3 Windows Wireless Zero Configuration: Five Steps to
Sanity
4 An Introduction to Windows Vista: Part 1
5 Word Mail Merge: It’s not Jus t for Letters
1 New Group for SBO's!
2 You can't fool a blonde
3 Home Page Look vs traffic
4 Anyone care to see
5 Top 7 Idiots of 2008 s o far
This Week This Month All-T ime
Latest M ost Vi ews M ost Rep li es
08/10/2010 Build a NAS Device With an Old PC an…
smallbusinesscomputing.com/…/Build… 2/5
7/26/2019 Build a NAS Device
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/build-a-nas-device 3/5
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
By anonymous November 5 2009 8:03 AMPDT
nas information is good
By Brian November 17 2009 9:23 PMPDT
Thank you for the report... good to know about homemade NAS
By IT Mark March 31 2010 12:10 AMPDTCan you provide another free NAS product other than FreeNAS and Openfiler? I need the one is
allowed to develop one more function mail services.
Reply by Bob April 26 2010 7:43 PMPDT
You can use any Linux distribution. I use Ubuntu now and have used Fedora before. Add
Samba for file sharing, or NFS, and a mail server program like Dovecot. But be warned, it
takes a lot of work to set up properly.
By Larry Huang May 1 2010 1:37 PMPDT
I am come from a business family and I am also a business road side salesman in many yearsago. I meet the computer task and start begin to study the world language since 2006 and begin
my first time to surf the internet since from the middle of 2007 But really have so many thing or
task too bother at me even is very steal my importances away and so I am still too late myself can
not catch up with my team. I am just for the money problem too waste me too much. how can I?
just encourage myself hope sometime or someday I am really c an sweat it out.
Reply by Roadside Romeo May 8 2010 10:40 AMPDT
??? What the heck is this ???
Reply by MS May 29 2010 7:46 AMPDT
He sounds like someone who does not speak english as his native language, but the whole
post is nonsensical and completely unrelated to the article.
By Raj May 6 2010 8:37 PMPDT
Excellent article. This can save couple of 100s of bucks. But can you please tell me what will be
the speed. Is it similar to an external disk, or slower than that?
Raj
magnatraining.com
By Dan June 7 2010 2:46 PMPDT
Hello,
Could you elaborate how one extend an old PC to add 4 sata hard drives?
i'd like to build my own NAS out of an old PC but am not sure about the hardware extensions
required.
Reply by Nick August 23 2010 3:48 PMPDT
Dan, if you want to extend your NAS to include more hard drives, you should get a controller
card. The majority of them use PCI, PCI-X, and PCI Express (and up), so i t depends on how
old you're talkin.
You can get them with internal connectors, external connectors, or both.
I hope this helps!
08/10/2010 Build a NAS Device With an Old PC an…
smallbusinesscomputing.com/…/Build… 3/5
7/26/2019 Build a NAS Device
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/build-a-nas-device 4/5
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
By George Kirk June 9 2010 9:22 PMPDT
A NAS built out of a PC will be considerably faster than any of the consumer-grade NAS devices
(eg: D-Link DNS-321 or 323) because it will have more memory, processing power and throughput.
I get about 20Mb/sec tops out of my DNS-321 on a gigabit network, but between my Windows
machines I'm getting over 170 Mb/sec xfer rates. I'm going to start using the DNS-321 as a backup
for the NAS I build using FreeNAS. Hope this helps.
By kanav July 27 2010 1:29 AMPDT
hi.. would like to know if i installeld scsi pci card on a older pc to support scsi hdds, would theserver os recognise and use the scsi drives installed on this system??
By gogojuice September 20 2010 4:14 PMPDT
would like to know how to access the drives to put files on them or to access to read from
networked computer..
By Krishna October 7 2010 2:38 AMPDT
Hi, I have an old system containing only IDE connectors for harddrives, is there a PCI slot provision
for adding SATA cables( since i have SATA harddrives and no IDE)
Comment and Contribute
Your name/nickname
Your email
XHTML: You c an use these tags : <b> <u> <i>
(Maximum characters: 1200). You have 1200 characters left.
Please type the alphanumeric char acters above and c lick "Submit" to continue.What's this?
I cannot read this. Please generate a New Image
See our comment policy.
Submit Your Comment
The HP LaserJet MFP
Pays for itself in less than 1 year. After that it pays your business. Calculateyour own payback.
Networkin Solutions
08/10/2010 Build a NAS Device With an Old PC an…
smallbusinesscomputing.com/…/Build… 4/5
7/26/2019 Build a NAS Device
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/build-a-nas-device 5/5
The HP LaserJet MFP: Pays for itself in less than 1 year. After that it pays your business. Calculate your
own payback.
Virtual Event: Overcoming the Top Inhibitors to Cloud Computing
Will weather shut down business on the Real (virtual) World or will virtualization save the day? See thedrama unfold with Citrix.
You're Not Ready For Internal Cloud : Check Out Why.
Discover the opportunities and risks involved with virtualization. Read more.
The Netw ork for Technology Professionals
Search:
About Internet.com
Copyright 2010 QuinStreet Inc. A ll Rights Reserved.
Legal Notices, Licensing, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
Advertise | News letters | E-mail Offers
Solutions
Whitepapers and eBooks
IBM Cloud Computing Development Center
Internet.com Cloud Computi ng Showcase
Microsoft TechNet Spotlight
Helpful Cloud Computing Resources
MORE WHITEPAPERS, EBOOKS, AND ARTICLES
Webcasts
Virtual Events in October: IBM Cloud Computing for Developers
All Abou t Clou d Comp uti ng
MORE WEBCASTS, PODCASTS, AND VIDEOS
Downloads and eKits
MORE DOWNLOADS, EKITS, AND FREE TRIALS
Tutorials and Dem os
Demo: Google Site Search
Virtual Event: Master Essential Techn iques for Leveraging the Clou d
Articl e: Expl ore App li catio n Li fecycle Man age ment Too ls in V isual Studi o
2010
Internet.com Hot List: Get the Inside Scoop on IT and Developer Products
New Security Solution s Using Intel(R) vPro(TM) Techno logy
All Abou t Botne ts
MORE TUT ORIALS, DEMOS AND STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES
08/10/2010 Build a NAS Device With an Old PC an…
smallbusinesscomputing.com/…/Build… 5/5