New FreeNAS/SlimNAS Build

[ik632]

I just did a test build last night on vmware (there are blank machines you can download from the internet as well as blank virtual drives).

Here's what I did:

SlimNAS 1.1.3
FreeNAS 0.69RC2 (i386)
SqueezeCenter 7.3.1

Installed FreeNAS on virtual machine. I created a 2gb "OS" drive and installed FreeNAS to that using the "full" install because I planned on adding SlimNAS to it and I've had the best luck with running off a hard disk. The 2gb drive was broken into 1gb for OS install and 1gb for remainder data (I'll get into this more later). I setup two virtual IDE drives 20gb each and made a raid 1 drive out of them. I created 4 512mb SCSI drives and created a 1.5gb Raid5 array (wanted to test this while I was at it). Finally mounted the drives as follows:

1gb remainder - mounted as "/mnt/osd" short for os drive (SlimNAS is installed here)
20gb raid1 array - mounted as "/mnt/raid1" (I know, I'm not original).
1.5gb raid5 array - you guessed it, mounted as "/mnt/raid5"

Next I created the appropriate shares so I could copy stuff to the machine. I created a media folder on the 20gb share then a SlimNAS folder on the 1gb osd share. I ran the install per the instructions.

1. Run a command from the FreeNAS web gui to run "/bin/sh /mnt/osd/slimnas/slimnas-install.sh"
    a. you have to wait a little while here for things to finish. I went and had a sandwich.
2. When you refresh the web gui there will be a new "extensions" tab across the top (for those of you that haven't seen it yet 0.69rc2 has a new web gui).
3. Go to extensions and squeezecenter
4. This is the important part here that you have to pay attention to that nobody seams to do so.
5. Click on SqueezeCenter 7.3.1 in the list for install and pick Save
    a. This will install squeezecenter. This took about 5 minutes for things to settle down after it was done.
    b. You can go have another sandwich at this time because you don't want to rush it.
6. Once you have given it plenty of time to install, you will want to start the service.
7. Click on "enable" and keep existing install.
8. This will take another 5 minutes to run and finish starting up.
9. You should wait here, just be patient.
10. Go to the ip address of your server:9000 and you'll have the nice squeezecenter startup page greeting you.
11. Log into your squeeze account if you want and then scan for music.

[ik632]

Some observations about this setup:

1. My current install is an old Celeron 600 with 512mb of ram.
2. The "virtual install" has 1gb ram and 1.9ghz modern AMD processor (I'm running a 32 bit os and 32 bit FreeNAS install).
3. The setup is incredibly fast across the network (maybe double the speed of my current setup).
4. I suspect that this is due to a very small database since I only copied over 25 or so songs before scanning.
5. The new FreeNAS is very nice, there are some new services which may make it very usable.
6. SlimNAS 1.1.3 was very easy to install wiht 7.3.1. I know I've done it a few times now, but it was easier than in the past.

[richidoo]

That's cool   

So you installed all this on the celeron machine? The vm has more performance than the host? Nah, that can't be.   Or the software running in vm just thinks it has 1G RAM and 32 bit OS?  Or most likely, I am confoosed

http://www.freenas.org/
http://www.herger.net/slim/detail.php?nr=1026

[ik632]

I'm using my regular desktop as the host:

Athlon XP 64 1.9ghz dual core
3gb ram
300gb hdd
37gb raptor hdd

So, the guest machine thinks it's a 1.9ghz single core with 1gb ram. It's all getting installed on a Celeron 1.2 with 1gb ram when I finish the real build so I suspect the performance won't be quite as good, but should be better than the celeron 600 with 512mb ram.

I really like the new FreeNAS interface and the integration with SqueezeCenter is better now.

[richidoo]

Got it! Thanks for the clari

[ik632]

Testing on the virtual machine is done. Now to finish the case and get my hard disks ready. I'll post pictures of the case as I get it together.

[Carlman]

Speaking of hard disks.. I have a 400, 300, and 250.. sorry none match.  Let me know if you need them.
BTW, I'm out of town this weekend for yet another funeral.

-C