Few recent trends in storage have had as much momentum as Network Attached Storage (NAS). A NAS device can make a network more efficient and secure by supplying file-based data storage services to networked devices, or it can be used for applications such as streaming media. FreeNAS is free, lightweight, open source network-attached storage server software, based on FreeBSD. You can find a good tutorial on how to set up a free NAS server with it here. We recently caught up with Olivier Cochard-Labbe, FreeNAS founder, and Volker Theile, project administrator.

OStatic:  Who is your typical user? How do you support your users?

Volker Theile: I think the typical user is the person who simply wants to use the product without deeper knowledge of the OS and the services. In other words, he simply wants to stream music or videos via UPnP or DAAP, or share data on a network via CIFS/SMB. As far as support, it’s done via our forums and the knowledge base.

OStatic:  How did you get involved in FreeNAS?

Volker Theile: Two years ago I had a hard disk crash and lost some of the data that had been stored on it–photos and documents. I began to search for a solution to store data more securely. I did not want to buy a commercial NAS.
I had some hardware components lying around in the cellar, and I searched the web for an free NAS solution. OpenFiler was a little bit too big for what I was looking for, so i came across FreeNAS. It was easy to install and use.

OStatic: How have you monetized your project thus far?

Olivier Cochard-Labbe:  Google Ads provides the main revenues for this project. This generated, in the begining, over 300 Euros per month. I gave all the revenues to the main developer, because I don’t want this money to corrupt my relation to FreeNAS by pushing me to add lots of ads on the website, for example. The donations we get are very small, but a lot more valuable to us than the Google ads, because the donations come from happy users who choose to pay.

OStatic: How do you benefit from the particular license you’ve chosen?

Olivier Cochard-Labbe:  The BSD licence is the most open license from my point of view. I didn’t have time to read (and understand)  all the concepts in the GPL, and I needed a simple license. BSD is simple. One benefit to the license is that a company can sell FreeNAS embedded in their servers without any problem.

OStatic: What does the open source movement need?

Olivier Cochard-Labbe:  It needs contributors and time. Regarding contributors, it’s very easy to contribute (sending a patch, giving advice, providing documentation), but very few people do it. When I chose to create FreeNAS, I was not a developer. I discovered PHP and FreeBSD by looking in the m0n0wall code (it was the model that was the closest to my needs). And in only one week, I created the first alpha release of FreeNAS.

Regarding time, one of the best things for open source would be for our employers to give us time to work on our open source projects. I’ve had to stop my contribution to FreeNAS because I have no more free time for it (but I have lots of ideas for improving it).

Step 1. Servers
I will use the following FreeBSD servers that are all in the same network (192.168.1.* in this example):Management (MGM) node 192.168.1.1
MySQL server (SQL) node 192.168.1.2
Data (NDBD) node “A” 192.168.1.3
Data (NDBD) node “B” 192.168.1.4

Step 2. Setting Up the Management Node
Using FreeBSD, installation using ports is pretty simple.

cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql50-server

Then,

shell>make –with-ndbcluster
shell>make install

After installation, we will be insterested in the file /usr/local/libecex/ndb_mgmd.
That is the ndb management executable.

Next, we must create the cluster configuration file, /usr/local/mysql/var/mysql-cluster/config.ini:

The path may differ in Linux or other distributions.

3. Setting Up the SQL Node
shell>/usr/local/etc/mysql-server start

4. Setting Up the Data Node
(in /etc/rc.conf make sure mysql_enable=”YES”)
>>/etc/my.cnf

shell>cd /usr/local/libexec/
shell>./ndbd

shell>ndb_mgm ]]> http://blog.saido.org/2008/08/20/howto-setup-mysql-cluster-on-freebsd-quick-guide/feed/ http://blog.saido.org/2008/08/10/what-is-better-than-iphone/ http://blog.saido.org/2008/08/10/what-is-better-than-iphone/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:56:23 +0000 saido http://blog.saido.org/2008/08/10/what-is-better-than-iphone/ Samsung debuts Omnia, the all-in-one maxi-phone fully loaded with top-of-the line multimedia enhanced smartphone features:

OMNIA, meaning ‘everything’ in Latin and ‘wish’ in Arabic, goes beyond the current top-of-the-line features available in today’s mobile phones. The OMNIA will be available to the market from June 2008.
(more…)

If you want to pull the distfile directly from a FreeBSD repository, you can specify MASTER_SITE_FREEBSD=YES. The distfile probably exists there. Most FreeBSD mirrors are already heavily loaded, so please avoid this.

Probably the most useful option for maintainers of large FreeBSD networks is MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE. The network administrator can build a central repository of important distfiles on a local server. The site listed in MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE is checked for distfiles before any remote sites are contacted. This saves on exterior bandwidth and makes fetching distfiles more reliable.

For more details go here.

setenv HTTP_PROXY http://your_proxy_server:port

or add the line to your .cshrc

If the proxy need authentication, add HTTP_PROXY_AUTH :

setenv HTTP_PROXY_AUTH ‘basic:*:<username>:<password>’

then reboot your machine.

mpack -s ‘the subject’ -c application/octet-stream filename_to_attach  destination@domain.com

1. Background

Briefly go over their general requirements. Example: XYZ Company would like a local area network installed to connect all of the computers in their office to share disk space and printers and automatically do tape backups.

2. Scope

Discuss in detail each item in the RFP and how you intend to tackle it. Use diagrams to illustrate your configuration. This will be the longest section of your proposal and will probably have several subsections.
3. Schedule

When do you anticipate starting? How long will each task take? Make a table of your expected schedule for completing the project.

4. Staff

This is an optional section. Some firms like to see who will be working on the project. This is more important for government projects. Put the resumes here.

5. Cost

Breakdown the cost by equipment and personnel time to come up with your expected budget. Include payment terms, discounts for early payment, and other cost or payment information.

6. Supporting Information

Add any supporting info here (for example, if you’re trying to convince them to use a specific type of networking technology, back up your reasoning here with third-party quotes, research, test results, etc.). You can also add information about similar projects you have completed for other firms and what the results were of those. Include testimonials from clients, clippings from news papers, etc.
Found at: morebusiness.com