Connecting to the FreeNAS

Chapter 4. Connecting to the FreeNAS The strength of the FreeNAS server is that so many different operating systems can connect to it and use its services. In this chapter, we shall look at the different services and protocols supported by FreeNAS, and see examples of how various platforms like Windows, OS X, and Linux can use the FreeNAS server for file sharing, backup, and streaming multimedia. Introduction The FreeNAS server is "multi lingual" in that it can talk to many different types of computers system using a variety of protocols. Before looking at each of these protocols individually, it is worth looking at them as a whole and seeing why each protocol exists and for which job is it best suited. The table below lists each protocol along with which type of computer (Windows, Apple Mac etc) can connect to the FreeNAS server using that protocol. Some protocols are native to a particular platform, for examples CIFS is native protocol for Windows machines, but other operating systems like OS X can "talk" CIFS as well. Also listed, is the main use of that protocol. Windows OS X Linux/UNIX Usage CIFS Yes. Native. Yes. Built in. Yes. Built in. File sharing NFS Yes. Requires 3rd party software. Yes. Native. Yes. Native. File sharing FTP Yes. Built in or you can use 3rd party software. Yes. Built in and you can use 3rd party software. Yes. Built in and you can use 3rd party software. Uploading and downloading files RSYNCD Yes. Requires 3rd party software. Yes. Built in and you can use 3rd party software. Yes. Built in. Backups and synchronization. Unison Yes. Requires 3rd party Yes. Requires 3rd party Yes. Requires 3rd party Backups and synchronization. software. software. software. AFPNo. Native. No. File sharing for Apple UPnP Yes. Requires 3rd party software. Yes. Requires 3rd party software. Yes. Requires 3rd party software or a specialized distribution (see below). Streaming media iSCSI Yes. Built in to some versions of Windows, e.g. Windows Vista. Yes. Requires 3rd party software. Yes. Built in. Connecting to remote raw disks with the SCSI over IP protocol. In this chapter, we are going to look in detail at the various protocols. To help you in this, it will be best if you have a test FreeNAS server up and running and you have followed the quick installation and configuration guide in Chapter 2. Connecting via CIFS The Common Internet File System (CIFS) is the standard way in which files are accessed on a remote Windows computer. Developed and maintained by Microsoft for use on their Windows platform, it has also been implemented on most major operating systems including OS X and Linux using 3rd party software, the most popular of which is called Samba. Samba is open source software that provides remote file access services to CIFS clients on a variety of platforms (including to Windows clients). Samba is included in the FreeNAS server. The abilities of CIFS are actually larger than just accessing files. With it, other resources like printers can also be shared on the network, but for FreeNAS, CIFS is used to share disks on the server and make them available to other computers that understand the CIFS protocol. This means that Windows, Linux, and OS X machines are all capable of accessing files on the FreeNAS server via the CIFS protocol. Sometimes, when reading about CIFS, you might read the term SMB or Server Message Block. SMB was the original name of the CIFS protocol and was the result of work done by IBM and then later Microsoft. In 1996, SMB was renamed CIFS. Configure CIFS on the FreeNAS Server Before attempting to connect another computer to the FreeNAS server via CIFS, you need to be sure that CIFS is correctly configured on the FreeNAS server. 1. 1. Go to Services: CIFS/SMB. This page contains two tabs, first, the settings page and then the shares page. First of all, make sure that the service is enabled by ticking the "Enable" box in the title bar of the configuration table. 2. 2. To get CIFS working with the default settings, you need to set as a minimum the Authentication system, the NetBios Name, and the Workgroup. Authentication should be left at Anonymous for the moment. We will look more at authentication and user management in FreeNAS in the next chapter. The NetBios Name is the name that the FreeNAS server will have on the Windows network. When you want to access the server, Windows lets you use a friendly name rather than the IP. For this example, we will use the name FreeNAS. Finally, you need to enter the workgroup. All Windows machines belong either to a workgroup or a domain. Workgroups and Domains Home networks and small office LANs use workgroups, which are essentially collections of computers that share a similar tag or designation. On a home network, there is normally only 1 workgroup called "WORKGROUP" (or MSHOME if you mainly have Windows XP machines. For the small office environment, there might be 2 or 3 workgroups, maybe "SALES", "ENGINEERING", and "ACCOUNTS". The workgroup links the machines together so that when the network is viewed, these machines will be grouped together. There are typically no more than ten to twenty computers in a workgroup and all the computers must be on the same local network. Larger business networks use domains rather than workgroups. In a domain, there is a server (called the domain controller) that controls the resources and security in that domain. Once a user has a domain account, they can log on to any computer in the domain without needing a local account on any particular machine. Domains can have thousands of computers spread across several networks. 3. 3. Enter in the workgroup name for the FreeNAS server. It will probably be WORKGROUP or maybe XPHOME if you have many Windows XP machines on your network. 4. 4. The next step is to configure what disks are shared on the network. Click on Save and Restart at the bottom of the page and then click the Shares tab at the top. Here is where you add disks to be shared on the network via the CIFS protocol. You can only share previously configured disks. If you have disks that need to be added to the FreeNAS, go to the Disk: menu. For more information, see the quick start guide in Chapter 2 or for advanced information, go to Chapter 6. 5. 5. Click the add circle. You are now in Services: CIFS/SMB: Share: Add. The minimum data here is the Name you want to give the share, a Comment or description about the share and where the share is, the Path. 6. 6. Name and comment should be easy enough to fill in. For this example, we will use store and a storage place respectively. Now, for the path. In FreeNAS, all disks are mounted under /mnt. This means that the path will be something like /mnt/diskname. To find the right path name, click on . This will bring up a new window. At the top, you will see /mnt and then further down store. This is the name of the disk that was configured in Disks: Mount Point: Add. Click on store and the path will change to /mnt/path. 1. 7. Click on OK, then on Add, and finally, apply the changes. At this point, CIFS is configured and ready to go. Before looking at how the different versions of Windows, as well as OS X and Linux, can connect to FreeNAS using CIFS, let us look in details at the other parameters. CIFS Settings Explained Parameter Meaning Description Server description. This can be left blank but you may find including a description useful. Dos charset This is the charset FreeNAS uses when communicating with Windows 9x/Me clients. It will talk Unicode to all newer clients. The default is CP850, which is perfect for English and other Western European Languages. Unix charset This is the charset used internally by FreeNAS. The default is UTF-8, which is fine for most systems and covers all characters in all languages. Log Level Sets the amount of log/debug messages that are sent to the log file. These can be read in Diagnostics: Logs: System. You should leave this on Minimum unless you are trying to solve a [...]... on the FreeNAS server via FTP This is particularly useful if there are large files to be downloaded that don't need to reside on the web server FTP also supports the uploading of files to the server Here, those responsible for the Intranet or file repository upload the files to the FreeNAS server and then those needing the files can download them as described above To configure the FTP service, go to. .. directly in the address bar of the My Network Places window To map a drive from My Network Places to the FreeNAS server, find the Freenas machine either through the workgroup or by entering its name in the address bar 1 1 Right-click the shared folder that you want to map, and then click Map Network Drive 2 2 Click the drive letter that you want to use, and then specify whether you want to reconnect... machines on the network including FREENAS Also, to access the FreeNAS server without using the Network and Sharing Center, click Start, and type \ \freenas and then press Enter This will bring up the shares available on the FreeNAS server directly To map a network drive, click Start, and type \ \freenas, and then press Enter Right-hand click the shares you wish to map (e.g store) and click on the Map Network... refresh the display Another way to get to the FreeNAS server is to click on View workgroup computers in the Network Task panel which is on the left side of the window This will show you all the computers in your workgroup that should include the FreeNAS server From here, you can drill down and find the network share store Like Windows Millennium and Windows Vista, you can enter the address of the FreeNAS. .. machines to use NFS resources, NFS has remained most dominant on the UNIX/Linux operating systems To configure the NFS service, go to the Services: NFS page As with all the other services, to enable it you need to tick the Enable box There are few parameters for NFS, but they are important The following instructions are for the 0.68 series of FreeNAS releases The 0.69 and 0.7 versions of FreeNAS treat... called Freenas Now double click on it and you will see a list of available shares on the FreeNAS server 3 4 If you are using a test FreeNAS server setup according to the quick installation guide in chapter 2 then you will only see one share called store If you double click on store, you will have access to that storage space on the FreeNAS server You can try copying some files to store and see the FreeNAS. .. transferred from the server to the local machine or vice-versa Any changes you make to the files once downloaded to your computer, will not be reflected in the files on the server The main use of the FTP protocol is for downloading files from the server onto the local computer Files can be uploaded once to the server (also by FTP) and then downloaded many times by those who need the files This can be useful... able to manage on Linux and so on For this example we will use Apple's OS X To start, you need to open a terminal window (on OS X or Linux) or a command prompt (on Windows) To connect to the FreeNAS server you type: ftp 192.168.1.250 Where 192.168.1.250 is the IP address of the FreeNAS server, you will need to enter the IP address of the FreeNAS if yours is different The first thing you need to enter... you don't need to add each disk individually; all the disks mounted are available If you click store, you will be taken into the store folder and you will see something like this: From here, you can click on the Service Pack and the web browser will start to download it for you NFS The Network Filing System is the UNIX equivalent to the CIFS protocol Although there are 3rd party packages to allow Windows... instruct it to advertise itself as an SMB time server to Windows clients WINS (Windows Internetworking Name Server) allows the FreeNAS server to discover the friendly CIFS name of machines on other networks You can set up FreeNAS to use a WINS server somewhere else on the network by simply pointing it to the IP address of the WINS server If you are using FreeNAS just for machines on the local LAN, then you . access to that storage space on the FreeNAS server. You can try copying some files to store and see the FreeNAS server in action. To save time finding the FreeNAS. minutes to collate the list of all available resources in the workgroup) and press F5 to refresh the display. Another way to get to the FreeNAS server is to