Will install FreeNas on my HDD, possible?

[Elpee]

Plan to build my home Nas based on FreeNas. But I found, for many reasons, I'd better install FreeNas to a hard drive instead of running FreeNAS from a USB key as intended. Is it possible and how?

Thank you for your thoughts and inputs.

 

[bmh.01]

Why do you want to install it to a hdd?

 

[falkenbd]

sure its possible. Just burn the iso to a CD and then install it wherever you want.

Not sure what your many reasons are.

 

[Elpee]

sure its possible. Just burn the iso to a CD and then install it wherever you want.

Not sure what your many reasons are.

- Just in case usb drive dies, I don't know if my data is sill intact.
- Looks urgly when I (and many people) see it protruded.

A quick question here.
When I install FreeNas on my HDD (2TB), the OS should occupy about less than 100MB, so can I use the rest capacity of the hard drive to creat a new volume?

Thanks.

 

[sybreeder]

- Just in case usb drive dies, I don't know if my data is sill intact.
- Looks urgly when I (and many people) see it protruded.

A quick question here.
When I install FreeNas on my HDD (2TB), the OS should occupy about less than 100MB, so can I use the rest capacity of the hard drive to creat a new volume?

Thanks.

In case of usb fail data is still intact. You can import pool to other freenas box with no problem. Also when you have configuration file it will import everything including jails.
Older Version of freenas would work but i don't think that this configuration will work with current version. It is also not recommended. So i would stick with usb stick and from time to time i would do backup of freenas configuration.

 

[FnordMan]

- Looks urgly when I (and many people) see it protruded.

So don't plug it in the back, Get a usb bracket, strip off the backplate and run the thing internally off of one of the motherboard usb headers.

Option 2 is getting one of those uber tiny flash drives, some are roughly the size of a receiver dongle. (like the tiny logitech ones)

 

[SirMaster]

If you are building the server many server/workstation boards have a USB port inside the case directly on the motherboard for the OS for exactly this reason.

http://www.servethehome.com/wp-cont...permicro-X10SL7-F-PCIe-and-Internal-USB-3.jpg

See it right above the PCIe slot.

 

[falkenbd]

So don't plug it in the back, Get a usb bracket, strip off the backplate and run the thing internally off of one of the motherboard usb headers.

Option 2 is getting one of those uber tiny flash drives, some are roughly the size of a receiver dongle. (like the tiny logitech ones)

this is what I do.

having 2 spare 4gb USB keys is cheap cheap cheap

 

[DeathFromBelow]

When I install FreeNas on my HDD (2TB), the OS should occupy about less than 100MB, so can I use the rest capacity of the hard drive to creat a new volume?

Nope.

Straight from the FreeNAS documentation:

The FreeNAS® operating system is a running image. This means that it should not be installed onto a hard drive, but rather to a USB or compact flash device that is at least 2 GB in size. If you don't have compact flash, you can instead use a USB thumb drive that is dedicated to the running image and which stays inserted in the USB slot. While technically you can install FreeNAS® onto a hard drive, this is discouraged as you will lose the storage capacity of the drive. In other words, the operating system will take over the drive and will not allow you to store data on it, regardless of the size of the drive.