How to set FreeNAS/TrueNAS Storage System up

Everyone who is very far from the Linux environment could meet a lot of problems using Linux-based software. In this tutorial, 3 drives of 500 GB were used and the goal was to create something like a RAID 5. It should be noted that FreeNAS uses ZFS file system and analogues of classic RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, and RAID6. FreeNAS system can be created in two ways:

using virtual machine environment
hardware way

In this article I consider the virtual machine option. For the hardware way, please follow this link.

The first step is to download TrueNAS ISO file (TrueNAS Core is what formerly know as FreeNAS) from the Official site - www.truenas.org. At the time of writing this article, the latest version is TrueNAS Core-13.0-U3.1.

Virtual Machines were created using Oracle VirtualBox VMWare which is free to use; however, you can choose whatever VMWare you wish. After installing Oracle VMWare, it is time to create a Virtual TrueNAS machine.

Run Oracle and click Machine, then click New.

You need to name the new virtual machine. In our case, the name of the VM is after the version of the TrueNAS software used. Then you need to choose a folder where all your files and virtual images will be stored. In Type and Version fields specify BSD and FreeBSD (64-bit) version.

If BSD type is not displayed in the pop up menu, use this link to activate your virtualization in BIOS. It is the obligatory step that should not be ignored.

For the best performance I chose 8GB RAM. I can afford it because I have 32 Gb RAM on my PC, but if your PC has not much RAM, 1-2GB RAM is fine as well.

Just click Create to create a virtual hard disk.

Click Next leaving VDI intact.

You need to choose how disk capacity will be reserved for the FreeNAS OS. I selected Dynamically allocated.

Select the size of the virtual hard disk. I selected 26 GB and clicked Create.

If all is set up corretly, you should get the window showing successfully created TrueNAS. Now you need to configure your TrueNAS system. Click the Settings button.

Click the System tab in the left side of the window.

Unmark Floppy in the Boot Order.
Put the cursor on Hard Disk.

Click on the UP Arrow item to move the chosen Hard Disk to the top of the Boot Order.

In the Processor tab I added 1 CPU Thread and got value 2 CPUs (by default the value is 1). Your settings depend on the PC hardware - you can increase or leave this value as it is. Then mark Enable PAE/NX.

Go to the Storage tab and click on Empty disk. Then put the cursor on the Disk icon.

Choose a Disk File and then specify FreeNAS-11.3-U3.2.iso file.

Click Adds hard disk to launch Hard Disk Selector.

Click Create and then specify the parameters for the disk image file. As it was a test case for me, I created a 10 GB disk image file which then will be used to store test data. If you need to set the FreeNAS to store large amount of data, omit the stage and use physical disks which should be connected to the PC via SATA ports on the motherboard.

The virtual disk will be created in a few minutes. The number of created virtual disks depends on your disk capacity.

Then go to the Network tab to select where the FreeNAS attached to. In my case, I have a local network where all PCs are connected by the Ethernet cables. So I selected a Bridge Adapter. Then click OK and run FreeNAS.