network0

FreeNAS Update

Eric Kiel — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:34:00 +0000

FreeNAS 0.69RC2 has been released with some welcome fixes. I have updated the VMware ESX virtual machine. Download FreeNAS 0.69RC2 virtual machine for ESX.

On FreeNAS and ESX 3.5 Performance

Eric Kiel — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:48:47 +0000

I’ve looked at FreeNAS on and off for the past year or so and always end up trying to use it as a VM, but never found the performance good enough to be worthwhile for any type of storage needs I may have. I really don’t need another computer around the house when I have tons (read ~500gb) of extra storage in my ESX host so building a dedicated NAS box was pretty much out of the question. The recent versions of FreeNAS have come a long way in terms of functionality such as the inclusion of a torrent client and a UPnP media server. Combine the new features plus my need for usable (good performance), accessable (CIFS/SMB, SSH,RSYNC,and SFTP) storage I really wanted to use FreeNAS.

I figured out the root of my performance problem had to be network issue or more specifically the network card in the guest VM that ESX presented to it. It really isn’t possible to install VMware Tools inside FreeNAS as the only thing worth while would be the NIC driver, but that isn’t easily possible because Perl doesn’t ship with FreeNAS and to install it yourself defeats the purpose of being a ~32mb NAS OS. So over morning coffee, I had the idea of using a different virtual NIC now that ESX has a few more options. I did some research and found that the Intel E1000 NIC which is a “faithful virtual implementation of a physical network adapter” is natively supported in recent versions of FreeBSD (see 6.3 and 7.0 hardware compatibility list) that FreeNAS is based off of. I did a fresh install of FreeNAS and found that at a bare minimum, my network performance has doubled using the new virtual NIC.

I have put a VMware virtual machine together because there seems to be lack of any good or current information on running FreeNAS on ESX 3.5 Update 2. This VM has a modified vmx configuration file to use the E1000 network card. It is also running a “factory” install of FreeNAS 0.69RC1 so you will just need to add disks, format, mount and share. If you want to do this on your own, just create a new virtual machine and when in the OS Selection screen, choose Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit) and this will select the E1000 NIC for the networking option. If any other OS is selected, the default nic will be the “flexible” nic, and it will still work, but the performance will be degraded.

Download FreeNAS 0.69RC1 VMware Virtual Machine

If you have any other suggestions or thoughts, please let me know in the comments!

snap crackle pop

Eric Kiel — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:38:35 +0000

I’m on a music binge lately and consuming/finding too much. I blame Ohh! Crapp and now Hushie via makeuseof.

Flickr Panda

Eric Kiel — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:40:13 +0000

See a panda vomiting pictures.

If I post it I like it

Eric Kiel — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:23:40 +0000

Tversity media server - iPhone streaming with custom UI and excellent Xbox 360 support.

My new Skullcandy headphones. Affordable and surprisingly good sound. OH and very loud.

Slow by Tricky Totally cool.

My new position at work.

iTunes 8 Gripes and Praise

Eric Kiel — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:13:27 +0000

I want Genre column gone from the browse view and I miss the browse button in the bottom left. Luckily there is a fix to remove the Genre column for both OS X and Windows. Windows fix and OS X fix. I do like Genius though so its a worthwhile upgrade.

iPhone SSH Clients reviewed

Eric Kiel — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:03:05 +0000

Ben Gross has a review of the available iPhone SSH clients. For the record, I went with pTerm but it has a god awful icon.

What You See Is What You Mean

Eric Kiel — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:30:58 +0000

WMD would be perfect for my W2 installation, but damnit I want something that I host and doesn’t rely on anyone else. Just make it open source so I don’t need to rely on box6.wmd.com…
UPDATE: now wmd is freely downloadable. I love it.

Working from home syndrome

Eric Kiel — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:31:30 +0000

Eric: i havent shaved in 2 weeks and i work in my underwear now
Jerry: thanks for that visual, now i am screwed for the whole day

Is Windows 2008 Supported in ESX 3.5 Update 1?

Eric Kiel — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:24:32 +0000

I was installing ESX and creating some new VMs when I saw that Windows Server 2008 doesn’t have the usual experimental description next to it. According to the release notes it doesn’t say it is supported though.

I took a screenshot so you know I’m not crazy.