How to Install and Configure FreeNAS 9.10 Storage on VMware Tutorial

FreeNAS 9.10 Installation and Configuration on VMware

This tutorial shows how to install, configure and review FreeNAS 9.10 Storage on VMware Workstation/Player step by step. We also configure RAID-5 Storage Volume and setup NFS and Samba/SMB/CIFS shares. This tutorial is also helpful to installing FreeNAS 9.10 on physical computer hardware or bare-metal server.

FreeNAS 9.10 Installation Steps:

1. Download FreeNAS 9.10 ISO
2. Create VM on VMware Workstation/Player
3. Start Installation
4. FreeNAS Initial Configuration
5. Creating RAID-5 Volume
6. Configure NFS and CIFS Shares
7. FreeNAS 9.10 Review

Install and Configure FreeNAS 9.10 Storage on VMware

What is FreeNAS Storage?

FreeNAS is a free and open-source software network-attached storage (NAS) system based on FreeBSD and the OpenZFS file system. It runs on  x86-64 hardware. FreeNAS supports Windows, OS X and Unix clients and various virtualization hosts such as XenServer and VMware using the SMB, AFP, NFS, iSCSI, SSH, rsync and FTP/TFTP protocols.
FreeNAS Website: http://www.freenas.org/

FreeNAS 9.10 New Features and Improvements

FreeNAS 9.10 is based on FreeBSD 10.3, FreeNAS 9.10 combines hundreds of FreeBSD improvements with dozens of bug fixes and feature requests, while retaining the familiar user interface. Topping the list of FreeNAS 9.10 features are greater speed and scalability, dozens of new hardware drivers, USB 3.0 support, and the addition of the bhyve hypervisor.

Intel Skylake CPU and I219-V and I219-LM Gigabit Ethernet controller support stand out from a platform perspective and users can now use USB 3.0 storage and network controllers. FreeNAS plugin jails have been upgraded to FreeBSD 10.3 templates, which are binary compatible with existing jails. For the more adventuresome, FreeNAS 9.10 also includes FreeBSD’s bhyve hypervisor, opening the door to hosting virtual machines on FreeNAS with operating systems such as GNU/Linux and SmartOS.

Hope you found this FreeNAS 9.10 Storage installation and configuration tutorial helpful and informative. Please consider sharing it. Your feedback and questions are welcome!