2. Installing and Upgrading FreeNAS®¶
Please note that the FreeNAS® operating system must be installed on a separate device from the drives which hold the storage data. In other words, with only one disk drive, the FreeNAS® graphical interface is available, but there is no place to store any data. And storing data is, after all, the whole point of a NAS system. Home users experimenting with FreeNAS® can install FreeNAS® on an inexpensive USB thumb drive and use the computer’s disks for storage.
This section describes:
- Getting FreeNAS®
- Preparing the Media
- Performing the Installation
- Installation Troubleshooting
- Upgrading
- Virtualization
2.1. Getting FreeNAS®¶
The latest STABLE version of FreeNAS® 9.10.1-STABLE can be downloaded from http://download.freenas.org/.
Note
FreeNAS® will only install to 64-bit hardware and the installer will not work on 32-bit hardware.
The download page contains these types of files:
- .iso: this is a bootable installer that can be written to either a CD or USB flash as described in Preparing the Media.
- .GUI_Upgrade.txz: this is a compressed firmware upgrade image. To upgrade FreeNAS®, download this file and see the section on Upgrading.
Each file has an associated sha256.txt file which should be
used to verify the integrity of the downloaded file. The command to
verify the checksum varies by operating system:
- on a BSD system use the command sha256 name_of_file
- on a Linux system use the command sha256sum name_of_file
- on a Mac system use the command shasum -a 256 name_of_file
- Windows or Mac users can install additional utilities like HashCalc or HashTab
The value produced by running the command must match the value shown
in the sha256.txt file. Checksum values that do not match
indicate a corrupted installer file that should not be used.
2.2. Preparing the Media¶
The FreeNAS® installer can run from either a CD or a USB thumb drive.
To burn the .iso file to CD, use a CD burning utility.
The command which is used to burn the .iso file to a compact
flash card or USB thumb drive depends on the operating system. This
section demonstrates utilities for several operating systems.
Note
to write the installation file to a USB stick, two USB ports are needed, each with an inserted USB device. One USB stick contains the installer. The other USB stick is the destination for the FreeNAS® installation. Take care to select the correct USB device for the FreeNAS® installation. It is not possible to install FreeNAS® onto the same USB stick containing the installer. After installation, remove the installer USB stick. It might also be necessary to adjust the BIOS configuration to boot from the new FreeNAS® USB stick.
After writing the .iso file to the installation media, make
sure that the boot order in the BIOS is set to boot from that device,
then boot the system to start the installation.
2.2.1. On FreeBSD or Linux¶
On a FreeBSD or Linux system, the dd command can be used to
write the .iso file to an inserted USB thumb drive or compact
flash device. Example 2.2a demonstrates writing the image to the first
USB device (/dev/da0) on a FreeBSD system. Substitute the filename
of the .iso file and the device name representing the device
to write to on your system.
Warning
The dd command is very powerful and can
destroy any existing data on the specified device. Make
absolutely sure of the device name to write to and do not
mistype the device name when using dd! If you are
uncomfortable using this command, write the .iso file to a
CD instead.
Example 2.2a: Writing the .iso file to a USB Thumb Drive
dd if=FreeNAS-9.10-RELEASE-x64.iso of=/dev/da0 bs=64k
6117+0 records in
6117+0 records out
400883712 bytes transferred in 88.706398 secs (4519220 bytes/sec)
When using the dd command:
- if= refers to the input file, or the name of the file to write to the device.
- of= refers to the output file; in this case, the device name of
the flash card or removable USB drive. Note that USB device numbers
are dynamic, and the target device might be da1 or da2 or
another name depending on which devices are attached. Before
attaching the target USB drive, use ls /dev/da*. Then
attach the target USB drive, wait ten seconds, and run ls
/dev/da* again to see the new device name and number of the target
USB drive. On Linux, use
/dev/sdX, where X refers to the letter of the USB device. - bs= refers to the block size, the amount of data to write at a time. The larger 64K block size shown here helps speed up writes to the USB drive.
2.2.2. On OS X¶
Insert the USB thumb drive. In the Finder, go to . Unmount any mounted partitions on the USB thumb drive. Check that the USB thumb drive has only one partition, or partition table errors will be shown on boot. If needed, use Disk Utility to set up one partition on the USB drive. Selecting “free space” when creating the partition works fine.
Determine the device name of the inserted USB thumb drive. From TERMINAL, navigate to the Desktop, then type this command:
diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 499.2 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *8.0 GB disk1
1: DOS_FAT_32 UNTITLED 8.0 GB disk1s1
This shows which devices are available to the system. Locate the
target USB stick and record the path. If you are not sure which path
is the correct one for the USB stick, remove the device, run the
command again, and compare the difference. Once you are sure of the
device name, navigate to the Desktop from TERMINAL, unmount the USB
stick, and use the dd command to write the image to the USB
stick. In Example 2.2b, the USB thumb drive is /dev/disk1,
which is first unmounted. The dd command uses
/dev/rdisk1 (note the extra r) to write to the raw device,
which is faster. When running these commands, substitute the name of
the installation file and the correct path to the USB thumb drive.
Example 2.2b: Using dd on an OS X System
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
Unmount of all volumes on disk1 was successful
dd if=FreeNAS-9.10-RELEASE-x64.iso of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=64k
Note
If the error “Resource busy” is shown when the dd command is run, go to , find the USB thumb drive, and click on its partitions to make sure all of them are unmounted. If the error “dd: /dev/disk1: Permission denied” is shown, run the dd command by typing sudo dd if=FreeNAS-9.10-RELEASE-x64.iso of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=64k. This will prompt for your password.
The dd command can take some minutes to complete. Wait until the prompt returns and a message is displayed with information about how long it took to write the image to the USB drive.
2.2.3. On Windows¶
Windows provides the USB/DVD Download Tool to create a USB bootable
image from an .iso file. Follow
these instructions,
but enter the name of the downloaded .iso into the
“SOURCE FILE” box.
2.3. Performing the Installation¶
With the installation media inserted, boot the system from that media. The FreeNAS® installer GRUB menu is displayed as is shown in Figure 2.3a.
Figure 2.3a: FreeNAS® Grub Menu
Note
If the installer does not boot, verify that the installation
device is listed first in the boot order in the BIOS. When booting
from a CD, some motherboards may require connecting the CD device
to SATA0 (the first connector) to boot from CD. If the installer
stalls during bootup, double-check the SHA256 hash of the
.iso file. If the hash does not match, re-download the
file. If the hash is correct, burn the CD again at a lower speed or
write the file to a different USB stick.
Wait for the menu to time out or press Enter to boot into the
installer. After the media has finished booting, the console setup
menu is displayed as shown in Figure 2.3b.
Figure 2.3b: FreeNAS® Console Setup
Press Enter to select the default option, “1 Install/Upgrade”.
The next menu, shown in Figure 2.3c, lists all available drives. This
includes any inserted USB thumb drives, which have names beginning
with da.
In this example, the user is performing a test installation using VirtualBox and has created an 8 GB virtual disk to hold the operating system.
Figure 2.3c: Selecting the Install Drive
Use the arrow keys to highlight the destination USB drive, compact
flash device, or virtual disk. Press the spacebar to select it.
To mirror the boot device, move to the second device and press
spacebar to select it as well. After making these selections,
press Enter. FreeNAS® displays the warning shown in
Figure 2.3d, a reminder not to install the operating system on a drive
that is meant for storage. Press Enter to continue on to the
screen shown in Figure 2.3f.
Figure 2.3d: FreeNAS® Installation Warning
Note
At this time, the installer does not check the size of the install media before attempting an installation. A minimum size of 8 GB is required, but the install will appear to complete successfully on smaller devices, only to fail at boot. When using mirrored boot devices, it is recommended to use devices of the same size. If the device sizes are different, the mirror is limited to the size of the smallest device.
The installer recognizes existing installations of previous versions
of FreeNAS® 8.x or 9.x. When an existing installation is present, the
menu shown in Figure 2.3e is displayed. To overwrite an existing
installation, use the arrows to move to “Fresh Install” and press
Enter twice to continue to the screen shown in Figure 2.3f.
Figure 2.3e: Performing a Fresh Install
The screen shown in Figure 2.3f prompts for the root password which is used to log in to the administrative graphical interface.
Figure 2.3f: Set the Root Password
Setting a password is mandatory and the password cannot be blank.
Since this password provides access to the administrative GUI, it
should be hard to guess. Enter the password, press the down arrow key,
and confirm the password. Then press Enter to continue with the
installation.
Note
For security reasons, the SSH service and root SSH logins are disabled by default. Unless these are set, the only way to access a shell as root is to gain physical access to the console menu or to access the web shell within the administrative GUI. This means that the FreeNAS® system should be kept physically secure and that the administrative GUI should be behind a properly configured firewall and protected by a secure password.
The message in Figure 2.3g is shown after the installation is complete.
Figure 2.3g: FreeNAS® Installation Complete
Press Enter to return to the first menu, shown in Figure 2.3a.
Highlight “3 Reboot System” and press Enter. If booting from
CD, remove the CDROM. As the system reboots, make sure that the device
where FreeNAS® was installed is listed as the first boot entry in the
BIOS so the system will boot from it. FreeNAS® boots into the
“Console Setup” menu described in
Initial Configuration Wizard.
2.4. Installation Troubleshooting¶
If the system does not boot into FreeNAS®, there are several things that can be checked to resolve the situation.
Check the system BIOS and see if there is an option to change the USB emulation from CD/DVD/floppy to hard drive. If it still will not boot, check to see if the card/drive is UDMA compliant.
If the system BIOS does not support EFI with BIOS emulation, see if it has an option to boot using legacy BIOS mode.
When the system starts to boot but hangs with this repeated error message:
run_interrupt_driven_hooks: still waiting after 60 seconds for xpt_config
go into the system BIOS and look for an onboard device configuration for a 1394 Controller. If present, disable that device and try booting again.
If the system starts to boot but hangs at a mountroot> prompt, follow the instructions in Workaround/Semi-Fix for Mountroot Issues with 9.3.
If the burned image fails to boot and the image was burned using a Windows system, wipe the USB stick before trying a second burn using a utility such as Active@ KillDisk. Otherwise, the second burn attempt will fail as Windows does not understand the partition which was written from the image file. Be very careful to specify the correct USB stick when using a wipe utility!
2.5. Upgrading¶
FreeNAS® provides flexibility for keeping the operating system up-to-date:
- Upgrades to major releases, for example from version 9.3 to 9.10, can still be performed using either an ISO or the graphical administrative interface. Unless the Release Notes for the new major release indicate that the current version requires an ISO upgrade, either upgrade method can be used.
- Minor releases have been replaced with signed updates. This means that it is not necessary to wait for a minor release to update the system with a system update or newer versions of drivers and features. It is also no longer necessary to manually download an upgrade file and its associated checksum to update the system.
- The updater automatically creates a boot environment, making updates a low-risk operation. Boot environments provide the option to return to the previous version of the operating system by rebooting the system and selecting the previous boot environment from the boot menu.
This section describes how to perform an upgrade from an earlier version of FreeNAS® to 9.10.1-STABLE. After 9.10.1-STABLE has been installed, use the instructions in Update to keep the system updated.
2.5.1. Caveats:¶
Be aware of these caveats before attempting an upgrade to 9.10.1-STABLE:
- Upgrades from FreeNAS® 0.7x are not supported. The system has no way to import configuration settings from 0.7x versions of FreeNAS®. The configuration must be manually recreated. If supported, the FreeNAS® 0.7x volumes or disks must be manually imported.
- Upgrades on 32-bit hardware are not supported. However, if the system is currently running a 32-bit version of FreeNAS® and the hardware supports 64-bit, the system can be upgraded. Any archived reporting graphs will be lost during the upgrade.
- UFS is no longer supported. If your data currently resides on one UFS-formatted disk, you will need to create a ZFS volume using other disks after the upgrade, then use the instructions in Import Disk to mount the UFS-formatted disk to copy the data to the ZFS volume. With only one disk, back up its data to another system or media before the upgrade, format the disk as ZFS after the upgrade, then restore the backup. If your data currently resides on a UFS RAID of disks, you will not be able to import that data to the ZFS volume. Instead, back up that data before the upgrade, create a ZFS volume after the upgrade, then restore the data from backup.
- The initial configuration wizard will not recognize an encrypted ZFS pool. If your ZFS pool is GELI-encrypted and the Initial Configuration Wizard starts after the upgrade, cancel the wizard and use the instructions in Importing an Encrypted Pool to import the encrypted volume. You can then rerun the wizard afterwards if you wish to use it for post-configuration, and it will recognize that the volume has been imported and will not prompt to reformat the disks.
- DO NOT upgrade the ZFS pool unless you are absolutely sure that you will never want to go back to the previous version. For this reason, the update process will not automatically upgrade the ZFS pool, though the Alert system shows when newer feature flags are available for the pool. Unless you need a new feature flag, it is safe to leave the ZFS pool at its current version and uncheck the alert. If you do decide to upgrade the pool, you will not be able to boot into a previous version that does not support the newer feature flags.
- The mps driver for 6 G Avago SAS HBAs is version 20, which requires phase 20 firmware on the controller and the mpr driver for 12 G Avago SAS HBAs is version 13 which requires P12 firmware. It is recommended to upgrade the firmware before installing FreeNAS® or immediately after upgrading FreeNAS®, using the instructions in Alert. Running older firmware can cause many woes, including the failure to probe all of the attached disks, which can lead to degraded or unavailable arrays. While you can mismatch your firmware version with a higher version and things will “probably still work”, there are no guarantees as that driver and firmware combination is untested.
- If you are upgrading from 9.3.x, read the FAQ: Upgrading from 9.3 to 9.10 first.
2.5.2. Initial Preparation¶
Before upgrading the operating system, perform the following steps:
- Back up the FreeNAS® configuration in .
- If any volumes are encrypted, make sure that you have set the passphrase and have a copy of the encryption key and the latest recovery key. After the upgrade is complete, use the instructions in Importing an Encrypted Pool to import the encrypted volume.
- Warn users that the FreeNAS® shares will be unavailable during the upgrade; you should schedule the upgrade for a time that will least impact users.
- Stop all services in .
2.5.3. Upgrading Using the ISO¶
To perform an upgrade using this method,
download
the .iso to the computer that will be used to prepare the
installation media. Burn the downloaded .iso file to a CD or
USB thumb drive using the instructions in
Preparing the Media.
Insert the prepared media into the system and boot from it. Once the
media has finished booting into the installation menu, press
Enter to select the default option of “1 Install/Upgrade.” The
installer will present a screen showing all available drives; select
the device FreeNAS® is installed into and press Enter.
The installer will recognize that an earlier version of FreeNAS® is installed on the device and will present the message shown in Figure 2.5a.
Figure 2.5a: Upgrading a FreeNAS® Installation
Note
If you choose a “Fresh Install”, the backup of your configuration data must be restored using after booting into the new operating system.
To perform an upgrade, press Enter to accept the default of
“Upgrade Install”. Again, the installer will remind you that the
operating system should be installed on a disk that is not used for
storage. Press Enter to start the upgrade. The installer
unpacks the new image and displays the menu shown in Figure 2.5b. The
database file that is preserved and migrated contains your FreeNAS®
configuration settings.
Figure 2.5b: FreeNAS® will Preserve and Migrate Settings
Press Enter and FreeNAS® will indicate that the upgrade is
complete and that you should reboot. Press “OK”, highlight
“3 Reboot System”, and press Enter to reboot the system. If
the upgrade installer was booted from CD, remove the CDROM.
During the reboot there may be a conversion of the previous configuration database to the new version of the database. This happens during the “Applying database schema changes” line in the reboot cycle. This conversion can take a long time to finish, sometimes fifteen minutes or more, so be patient and the boot will complete normally. If database errors are shown but the graphical administrative interface is accessible, go to and use the “Upload Config” button to upload the configuration that you saved before starting the upgrade.
2.5.4. Upgrading From the GUI¶
To perform an upgrade using this method, go to .
After the update is complete, you will temporarily lose your connection as the FreeNAS® system reboots into the new version of the operating system. The FreeNAS® system will normally receive the same IP address from the DHCP server. Refresh your browser after a moment to see if you can access the system.
2.5.5. If Something Goes Wrong¶
If an update fails, an alert is issued and the details are written to
/data/update.failed.
To return to a previous version of the operating system, physical or IPMI access to the FreeNAS® console is needed. Reboot the system and watch for the boot menu. In the example shown in Figure 2.5e, the first boot menu entry, FreeNAS (default), refers to the initial installation, before the update was applied. The second boot entry, FreeNAS-1415259326, refers to the current version of the operating system, after the update was applied. This second entry is highlighted and begins with a star, indicating that this is the environment the system will boot unless another entry is manually selected. Both entries include a date and timestamp showing when that boot environment was created.
Figure 2.5e: Boot Menu
To boot into the previous version of the operating system, use the up
or down arrow to select it and press Enter.
If a boot device fails and the system no longer boots, don’t panic. The data is still on your disks and you still have a copy of your saved configuration. You can always:
- Perform a fresh installation on a new boot device.
- Import your volumes in .
- Restore the configuration in .
Note
You cannot restore a saved configuration which is newer than the installed version. For example, if you reboot into an older version of the operating system, you cannot restore a configuration that was created in a later version.
2.5.6. Upgrading a ZFS Pool¶
In FreeNAS®, ZFS pools can be upgraded from the graphical administrative interface.
Before upgrading an existing ZFS pool, be aware of these caveats first:
- the pool upgrade is a one-way street, meaning that if you change your mind you cannot go back to an earlier ZFS version or downgrade to an earlier version of FreeNAS® that does not support those feature flags.
- before performing any operation that may affect the data on a storage disk, always back up your data first and verify the integrity of the backup. While it is unlikely that the pool upgrade will affect the data, it is always better to be safe than sorry.
- upgrading a ZFS pool is optional. It is not necessary to upgrade the pool if you do not need newer feature flags or if you want to keep the possibility of reverting to an earlier version of FreeNAS® or repurposing the disks in another operating system that supports ZFS. If you decide to upgrade the pool to the latest feature flags, it will not be possible to import that pool into another operating system that does not yet support those feature flags.
To perform the ZFS pool upgrade, go to and highlight the volume (ZFS pool) to upgrade. Click the “Upgrade” button as shown in Figure 2.5f.
Note
if the “Upgrade” button does not appear, the pool is already at the latest feature flags and does not need to be upgraded.
Figure 2.5f: Upgrading a ZFS Pool
The warning message reminds you that a pool upgrade is irreversible. Click “OK” to proceed with the upgrade.
The upgrade itself only takes a few seconds and is non-disruptive. It is not necessary to stop any sharing services to upgrade the pool. However, it is best to upgrade when the pool is not being heavily used. The upgrade process will suspend I/O for a short period, but is nearly instantaneous on a quiet pool.
2.6. Virtualization¶
FreeNAS® can be run inside a virtual environment for development, experimentation, and educational purposes. Please note that running FreeNAS® in production as a virtual machine is not recommended. If you decide to use FreeNAS® within a virtual environment, read this post first as it contains useful guidelines for minimizing the risk of losing data.
To install or run FreeNAS® within a virtual environment, create a virtual machine that meets these minimum requirements:
- at least 8192 MB (8 GB) base memory size
- a virtual disk at least 8 GB in size to hold the operating system and boot environments
- at least one additional virtual disk at least 4 GB in size to be used as data storage
- a bridged network adapter
This section demonstrates how to create and access a virtual machine within VirtualBox and VMware ESXi environments.
2.6.1. VirtualBox¶
VirtualBox
is an open source virtualization program originally created by Sun
Microsystems. VirtualBox runs on Windows, BSD, Linux, Macintosh, and
OpenSolaris. It can be configured to use a downloaded FreeNAS®
.iso file, and makes a good testing environment for practicing
configurations or learning how to use the features provided by
FreeNAS®.
To create the virtual machine, start VirtualBox and click the “New” button, shown in Figure 2.6a, to start the new virtual machine wizard.
Figure 2.6a: Initial VirtualBox Screen
Click the “Next” button to see the screen in Figure 2.6b. Enter a name for the virtual machine, click the “Operating System” drop-down menu and select BSD, and select “FreeBSD (64-bit)” from the “Version” dropdown.
Figure 2.6b: Type in a Name and Select the Operating System for the New Virtual Machine
Click “Next” to see the screen in Figure 2.6c. The base memory size must be changed to at least 8192 MB. When finished, click “Next” to see the screen in Figure 2.6d.
Figure 2.6c: Select the Amount of Memory Reserved for the Virtual Machine
Figure 2.6d: Select Whether to Use an Existing or Create a New Virtual Hard Drive
Click “Create” to launch the “Create Virtual Hard Drive Wizard” shown in Figure 2.6e.
Figure 2.6e: Create New Virtual Hard Drive Wizard
Select “VDI” and click the “Next” button to see the screen in Figure 2.6f.
Figure 2.6f: Select the Storage Type for the Virtual Disk
Choose either “Dynamically allocated” or “Fixed-size” storage. The first option uses disk space as needed until it reaches the maximum size that is set in the next screen. The second option creates a disk the full amount of disk space, whether it is used or not. Choose the first option to conserve disk space; otherwise, choose the second option as it allows VirtualBox to run slightly faster. After selecting “Next”, the screen in Figure 2.6g is shown.
Figure 2.6g: Select the File Name and Size of the Virtual Disk
This screen is used to set the size (or upper limit) of the virtual disk. Increase the default size to 8 GB. Use the folder icon to browse to a directory on disk with sufficient space to hold the virtual disk files. Remember that there will be a system disk of at least 8 GB and at least one data storage disk of at least 4 GB.
After making a selection and pressing “Next”, a summary of the configuration options chosen is shown. Use the “Back” button to return to a previous screen if any values need to be modified. Otherwise, click “Finish” to complete the wizard. The new virtual machine is listed in the left frame, as shown in the example in Figure 2.6h.
Figure 2.6h: The New Virtual Machine
Create the virtual disks to be used for storage. Click the “Storage” hyperlink in the right frame to access the storage screen seen in Figure 2.6i.
Figure 2.6i: The Storage Settings of the Virtual Machine
Click the “Add Attachment” button, select “Add Hard Disk” from the pop-up menu, then click the “Create New Disk” button. This launches the Create New Virtual Hard Drive Wizard (seen in Figures 2.2e and 2.2f). Since this disk will be used for storage, create a size appropriate to your needs, making sure that it is at least 4 GB. To practice with RAID configurations, create as many virtual disks as needed. Two disks can be created on each IDE controller. For additional disks, click the “Add Controller” button to create another controller for attaching additional disks.
Create a device for the installation media. Highlight the word “Empty”, then click the “CD” icon as shown in Figure 2.6j.
Figure 2.6j: Configuring the ISO Installation Media
Click “Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file...” to browse to the location
of the .iso file. If the .iso was burned to CD, select
the detected “Host Drive”.
Depending on the extensions available in the host CPU, it might not be
possible to boot the VM from .iso. If
“your CPU does not support long mode” is shown when trying to boot
the .iso, the host CPU either does not have the required
extension or AMD-V/VT-x is disabled in the system BIOS.
Note
If you receive a kernel panic when booting into the ISO, stop the virtual machine. Then, go to “System” and check the box “Enable IO APIC”.
To configure the network adapter, go to . In the “Attached to” drop-down menu select “Bridged Adapter”, then choose the name of the physical interface from the “Name” drop-down menu. In the example shown in Figure 2.6k, the Intel Pro/1000 Ethernet card is attached to the network and has a device name of em0.
Figure 2.6k: Configuring a Bridged Adapter in VirtualBox
After configuration is complete, click the “Start” arrow and install FreeNAS® as described in Performing the Installation. Once FreeNAS® is installed, press “F12” when the VM starts to boot to access the boot menu and select the primary hard disk as the boot option. You can permanently boot from disk by removing the “CD/DVD” device in “Storage” or by unchecking “CD/DVD-ROM” in the “Boot Order” section of “System”.
2.6.2. VMware ESXi¶
Before using ESXi, read this post for an explanation of why iSCSI will be faster than NFS.
ESXi is is a bare-metal hypervisor architecture created by VMware Inc. Commercial and free versions of the VMware vSphere Hypervisor operating system (ESXi) are available from the VMware website. After the operating system is installed on supported hardware, use a web browser to connect to its IP address. The welcome screen provides a link to download the VMware vSphere client which is used to create and manage virtual machines.
Once the VMware vSphere client is installed, use it to connect to the ESXi server. To create a new virtual machine, click . The New Virtual Machine Wizard will launch as shown in Figure 2.6l.
Figure 2.6l: New Virtual Machine Wizard
Click “Next” and enter a name for the virtual machine. Click “Next” and highlight a datastore. An example is shown in Figure 2.6m. Click “Next”. In the screen shown in Figure 2.6n, click “Other”, then select a FreeBSD 64-bit architecture.
Figure 2.6m: Select a Datastore
Figure 2.6n: Select the Operating System
Click “Next” and create a virtual disk file of 8 GB to hold the FreeNAS® operating system, as shown in Figure 2.6o.
Figure 2.6o: Create a Disk for the Operating System
Click “Next” then “Finish”. The new virtual machine is listed in the left frame. Right-click the virtual machine and select “Edit Settings” to access the screen shown in Figure 2.6p.
Figure 2.6p: Virtual Machine’s Settings
Increase the “Memory Configuration” to at least 8192 MB.
Under “CPUs”, make sure that only one virtual processor is listed, otherwise it will not be possible to start any FreeNAS® services.
To create a storage disk, click . In the “Device Type” menu, highlight “Hard Disk” and click “Next”. Select “Create a new virtual disk” and click “Next”. In the screen shown in Figure 2.6q, select the size of the disk. To dynamically allocate space as needed, check the box “Allocate and commit space on demand (Thin Provisioning)”. Click “Next”, then “Next”, then “Finish” to create the disk. Repeat to create the amount of storage disks needed to meet your requirements.
Figure 2.6q: Creating a Storage Disk
For ESX 5.0, Workstation 8.0, or Fusion 4.0 or higher, additional configuration is needed so that the virtual HPET setting does not prevent the virtual machine from booting.
If you are running ESX, while in “Edit Settings”, click . Change “hpet0.present” from true to false, then click “OK” twice to save the setting.
For Workstation or Player, while in “Edit Settings”,
click .
Locate the path for the Configuration file named filename.vmx.
Open that file in a text editor, change “hpet0.present” from true to
false, and save the change.
