In the previous articles we have seen how to deploy and install NAS4Free on a VMware ESXi host. In this part we are now ready to start configuring the operating system with regards to the networking and partitions setup. The process is very quick and straight forward. A detailed walk through will show the steps.
After removing the LiveCD iso and rebooting we are now back to the main console. We’ll start configuring the network with option 1
If we see a screen similar to this then this is good news as the network card is supported and the OS has already the drivers to operate with this network card. during step 1 I would advice to stick with the recommended devices based on OS template. Also in some cases it might be more difficult either to find or install appropriate device drivers. Luckily NAS4Free already ships with built-in Open-VM-Tools so no need to install them. It might be worth checking when updates are available though
Let’s accept the default
Now that we have specified which network card to use (you can have multiple network cards to separate different types of traffic) we are going to setup network addresses with option 2
I prefer not to use DHCP for servers. I will go for a static address. Also I always make sure the correct DNS entries for Forward and Reverse zones are created also testing FQDN name resolution
Let’s specify an IP address
and a subnet mask
Let’s specify a gateway for the network where the server will be located
Let’s also provide a DNS server address. From the Web GUI will be possible to add more if needed
I personally do not use IPv6 at the moment so this option can be ignored
When going back to the main console the new changes will be reflected. Next step is to configure who or better from where the Web GUI can be accessed. Let’s go for option 10
This rule will ask if Everyone or specific IP Addresses or Networks can access the Web GUI. Personally I like to leave this enabled
In order to specify to restricted IP Addresses let’s choose No
We can now enter from which IP addresses the Web GUI can be accessed
At this point from any browser we can access the Web GUI as shown here.
Default credentials are user “admin” and password “nas4free” of course it is recommended to change them at the first visit to the Web console
We now have access to the Web Console from where we can operate lots of configurations conveniently stored in different menus.
From System > General we can start reviewing the basic information and amend them
As a first time configuration I would change the default password as shown below
Next is to mount the Swap partition. this can be easily done from the menu System > Advanced > SWAP. Let’s enable the configuration and set the device as shown below. This has been created as the second partition on the first drive so will appear to something like /dev/da02b and hit save
Next is to mount the Data partition. Do do this let’s go to Disks > Management > Disk Add to add the first disk to the Management panel and let NAS4Free this disk exists!
This will appear here as per screenshot below
Next let’s navigate to Disks > Mount Point > Add to mount the third partition to the DATA mount point as a name. Feel free to use any name you find appropriate. Also let;s make sure we are selecting the MBR partition and “3” as partition number. Description is optional
Now going back to the Home page we can see CPUand Memory usage along Swap partition consumption and the available space on Data partition mounted at /dev/da0s3b
This concludes the initial deployment, installation and configuration part of NAS4Free on VMware ESXi. Next articles will cover preparing storage to NAS4Free server and creating iSCSI LUNs to be mounted to Windows Cluster serving a SQL Failover Cluster.
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