Download FreeNAS 8.0 RC 3

The development of version 8.0 of FreeNAS has arrived at the third release candidate. With this package, a computer included in the network can be used as a network attached storage machine, so purely for storing data. The whole is based on FreeBSD version 8.2 and provided with a clear web interface. The system requirements are low. For example, 128MB of space is needed for an installation and 256MB of memory is enough to run it. FreeNAS supports many network protocols and can also be used as a UPnP, web and iTunes server, or to download BitTorrent files. The release notes for this version look like this:

Release Notes for FreeNAS 8.0 Release Candidate 3

Release Candidate 3 contains both bug fixes and new functionality over previous Release candidates and betas.

FreeNAS 8 should be installed to a USB stick or Compact Flash device. It requires a device of at least 1 GB in size. In a departure from FreeNAS 0.7 releases, the OS drive can not be used as a component for a volume, nor can it be partitioned for sharing.

New in 8.0-RC3:

There is a volume importer in the storage application. This has been tested in scenarios that are limited to what can be devised in our labs. It has in no way been subjected to the conditions in may encounter in the wild. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. The process is believed to be non-destructive, and where it’s been observed to fail it has not touched the volumes. That being said, valid verified backups are recommended for volumes that are used for this. In real world conditions it may, in the words of pjd@, “Hurt your teddy bear.”

Since the ZFS upgrade procedure is non-reversable, this must be run manually. Please do not upgrade your pools unless you are absolutely sure you’ll never want to go back to other systems.

For clarity, zpool upgrade is a ONE-WAY street. There is no reversing it, and there is no way for a system with an older version of ZFS to access pools that have been upgraded.

Support for 3ware 6bps RAID controllers has been added, as has the CLI utility tw_cli for managing 3ware RAID controllers.

The GUI supports access via HTTP or HTTPS protocols.

Link Aggregations can be created and configured from the CLI interface.

Notable bug fixes:

• A bug that prevented AFP from properly sharing ZFS Datasets has been fixed.
• The firmware upgrade via GUI process is more streamlined and bugs in it have been fixed.
• iSCSI support has been thoroughly tested and improved.
• Split anonymous/authenticated access to CIFS shares is now supported.

FreeNAS 8.0 screenshot, click on the image for a larger version.