Looking for Help - Napp-it Main Site Guide

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Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Team,

Looking for someone to write a series of guides on using napp-it for the main site. This is something that I have wanted to do for some time, but the current backlog I have for the site is getting to be a bit too much.

If anyone is interested please let me know. gea and team have a great platform and I want to showcase it a bit more on STH.

Regards,
Patrick
 

sboesch

Active Member
Aug 3, 2012
467
95
28
Columbus, OH
I would be willing to do a series.
What I would I would have in mind would be the basic "Installing and Using Openindiana and napp-it" covering general usage, then cover a couple slightly more advanced topics like "Configuring napp-it with Comstar as an iSCSI Target Server for Windows" or something like that. Was this what you had in mind?
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
12,511
5,792
113
I would be willing to do a series.
What I would I would have in mind would be the basic "Installing and Using Openindiana and napp-it" covering general usage, then cover a couple slightly more advanced topics like "Configuring napp-it with Comstar as an iSCSI Target Server for Windows" or something like that. Was this what you had in mind?
That's exactly what I had in mind. Let me know if you need hardware and I can look around.
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,141
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DE
Hello Patrick and sboesch

Thanks about the idea of such guides.

Oracle offers excellent manuals. But they are sometimes no longer valid for Illumos based systems
and they are more a documentation for experienced Solaris admins.

Guides around ZFS on Illumos based systems, especially for beginners or people moving from
other systems are rare and well demanded. My own guides about How to setup a ZFS server and
How to setup a All-In-One system with ESXi were downloaded over 40000 times in december and
the interest in sites like zfsbuild.com are showing such interests.

Such guides especially from a user view are helpful for other user as well as for a developper as it
shows problems and opens eyes for things that can be improved for a better usability.

Basic setup, mirror of rpool, concept of pools, File-services like SMB, NFS, AFP with user or ACL problems,
advantages of Solaris based systems compared to other systems like ACL, Crossbow, the Solaris CIFS server
or blockbased services like iSCSI are of common interest as well as hints for daily management or
error handling on failed disks. Especially for pro-user, the use of OmniOS instead of OI seems
also an option. OmniOS is free and based on newer bits from Illumos and reduced to a minimal server
distribution. Omni offers a stable release with the option of payed support and bi-weekly updates.

I am on the way to move my own installations from OI to Omni for new installations as well - especially
since there is a solution and guide from Thomas Geppert howto patch ESXI 5.1 and install vmware-tools on Omni.

Let me know, if I can help.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
12,511
5,792
113
gea said:
Guides around ZFS on Illumos based systems, especially for beginners or people moving from
other systems are rare and well demanded. My own guides about How to setup a ZFS server and
How to setup a All-In-One system with ESXi were downloaded over 40000 times in december and
the interest in sites like zfsbuild.com are showing such interests.

...

Basic setup, mirror of rpool, concept of pools, File-services like SMB, NFS, AFP with user or ACL problems,
advantages of Solaris based systems compared to other systems like ACL, Crossbow, the Solaris CIFS server
or blockbased services like iSCSI are of common interest as well as hints for daily management or
error handling on failed disks. Especially for pro-user, the use of OmniOS instead of OI seems
also an option. OmniOS is free and based on newer bits from Illumos and reduced to a minimal server
distribution. Omni offers a stable release with the option of payed support and bi-weekly updates.

...

Let me know, if I can help.
Thanks gea! That is the goal. Get some easy how-to guides for users that may not have experience with Solaris.

On my list of items for 2013 is to actually get this done instead of just talk about it, and sboesch now has a login to the main site.

If there is anything in particular that you or a university student wants to write about (such as a more advanced topic or a paid feature) feel free to let me know.
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,141
1,182
113
DE
Thanks gea! That is the goal. Get some easy how-to guides for users that may not have experience with Solaris.

On my list of items for 2013 is to actually get this done instead of just talk about it, and sboesch now has a login to the main site.

If there is anything in particular that you or a university student wants to write about (such as a more advanced topic or a paid feature) feel free to let me know.
I am currently low on free time but some documentation on internal structures, how to extend or modify menus, howto bugfix etc are planned this year. But I cannot offer a date.
 

sboesch

Active Member
Aug 3, 2012
467
95
28
Columbus, OH
I have started to compose the first in a series of how to guides featuring napp-it on OI. I will be starting the series with the above goals in mind, starting with an easy how-to featuring installing and preparing Openindiana for napp-it, installing and configuring napp-it and creating your first pool. The first guide will be applicable to the Desktop and Server versions of Openindiana.
Each in the series will cover a bit more about napp-it and its abilities, ZFS concepts around RAIDZ, Mirrors, Pools, and File Services.
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,141
1,182
113
DE
hello Sboesch and Patrick

Really nice guide for beginners.

For most installations and napp-it 0.9 it is also possible to skip the manual network config at CLI (only needed with OmniOS).
Install napp-it with the dhcp default settings and switch to static and network:default with napp-it menu system-network when needed.