New to napp-itSolaris; somewhat confused

[knubbze]

I have been looking for a ZFS-based NAS solution with encryption support. FreeNAS is a good solution, and it seems to work well, but it is based on FreeBSD which currently only offers support for ZFS v28. I was curious about using the latest ZFS version which has native encryption as one of its features, which lead me to consider using napp-it.

However, I'm not quite clear on which version I should use. My NAS hardware is a HP N40L Microserver. I saw that there is a pre-build USB image to use with the Microserver, but it seems to be based on IllumOS (not Solaris 11), so is it limited to ZFS v28 (with no encryption?). The reason I am confused is that the napp-it website mentions encryption being available with any Solaris-based OS (not just Solaris 11).

 

[gea]

I have been looking for a ZFS-based NAS solution with encryption support. FreeNAS is a good solution, and it seems to work well, but it is based on FreeBSD which currently only offers support for ZFS v28. I was curious about using the latest ZFS version which has native encryption as one of its features, which lead me to consider using napp-it.

However, I'm not quite clear on which version I should use. My NAS hardware is a HP N40L Microserver. I saw that there is a pre-build USB image to use with the Microserver, but it seems to be based on IllumOS (not Solaris 11), so is it limited to ZFS v28 (with no encryption?). The reason I am confused is that the napp-it website mentions encryption being available with any Solaris-based OS (not just Solaris 11).

Encryption within ZFS is closed source Oracle Solaris 11 with nonfree ZFS > v.30 only.
You will never see this special solution on any free ZFS.

But you can create encrypted filebased-devices with lofiadm on any Solaris to build encrypted pools.
This is not as fast as encryption in ZFS and therefor not the best solution (but has no size limit) for a multi-Terabyte videoserver but perfect for office or enterprise data because you can backup and transfer these encrypted files with Raid-z data security and redundancy to any unsafe storage like webspace, email, USB sticks or cloud storage

 

[knubbze]

Well, my Microserver is populated with 2 x 2TB HDDs in raidz2 format, for a total of 3.6TB storage space. I have just installed Solaris 11 with napp-it in a VM, and it seems to work well using the built-in ZFS encryption. Solaris 11 is free for home/non-commercial use, right? Because the napp-it web GUI says 'napp-it eval':

 

[gea]

Well, my Microserver is populated with 2 x 2TB HDDs in raidz2 format, for a total of 3.6TB storage space. I have just installed Solaris 11 with napp-it in a VM, and it seems to work well using the built-in ZFS encryption. Solaris 11 is free for home/non-commercial use, right? Because the napp-it web GUI says 'napp-it eval':

Solaris 11 is free for demo, test and development use - production use not allowed -
The napp-it eval indicates, that you can evaluate the nonfree napp-it extensions (acl, monitoring and remote replication) for 30 days. After this you have a free version without extensions.

 

[gea]

Well, my Microserver is populated with 2 x 2TB HDDs in raidz2 format, for a total of 3.6TB storage space. I have just installed Solaris 11 with napp-it in a VM, and it seems to work well using the built-in ZFS encryption. Solaris 11 is free for home/non-commercial use, right? Because the napp-it web GUI says 'napp-it eval':

Solaris 11 is free for demo, test and development use - production use not allowed -, see Oracle download page.
The napp-it eval indicates, that you can evaluate the nonfree napp-it extensions (acl, monitoring and remote replication) for 30 days. After this you have a free version without extensions.

 

[knubbze]

Solaris 11 is free for demo, test and development use - production use not allowed -, see Oracle download page.
The napp-it eval indicates, that you can evaluate the nonfree napp-it extensions (acl, monitoring and remote replication) for 30 days. After this you have a free version without extensions.

OK. I would still like to use Solaris 11 with napp-it on my Microserver so that I can use the ZFS v31 encryption feature. Therefore, is it possible to run Solaris 11 from a USB flash drive?

 

[ci4ic4]

Download http://download.oracle.com/otn/solaris/11_1/sol-11_1-live-x86.usb .

 

[gea]

Download http://download.oracle.com/otn/solaris/11_1/sol-11_1-live-x86.usb .

This is a installer to install Solaris live from USB.
If you like to install Solaris to USB, you should not use a live edition but a minimal server edition.
You should als use a good and fast 16GB stick (I would prefer usb3 ones - even when currently used as USB2).
I would also mirror two sticks for reliability and performance and disable atime

 

[knubbze]

This is a installer to install Solaris live from USB.
If you like to install Solaris to USB, you should not use a live edition but a minimal server edition.
You should als use a good and fast 16GB stick (I would prefer usb3 ones - even when currently used as USB2).

Yes, I have a very fast Sandisk Extreme 32GB USB3 flash drive (in a USB2 port) that I want to install the OS onto (Solaris 11 text installer, not the live version).

I would also mirror two sticks for reliability and performance and disable atime

OK, how would I disable atime - is it something I should do prior to installing, or afterwards?

Many thanks for your help, it is much appreciated!

 

[gea]

Yes, I have a very fast Sandisk Extreme 32GB USB3 flash drive (in a USB2 port) that I want to install the OS onto (Solaris 11 text installer, not the live version).

OK, how would I disable atime - is it something I should do prior to installing, or afterwards?

Many thanks for your help, it is much appreciated!

You can set at any time via napp-it menu pools or
zfs set atime=off rpool

 

[knubbze]

Thanks gea! I now have Solaris 11 + napp-it installed and running from a fast USB drive. My next step will be to mirror the flash drive. Everything is working really well, and the system is very fast much faster than I expected. For comparison, before this I was using FreeNAS. But Solaris 11 + napp-it boots much faster, and I get MUCH faster CIFS file transfer speeds. I am using this system as a home NAS server, and because napp-it works so well, and you have been so helpful in setting this system up, I would like to purchase a licence - is it the 'Pro' licence that I would require for such an application?

 

[gea]

Thanks gea! I now have Solaris 11 + napp-it installed and running from a fast USB drive. My next step will be to mirror the flash drive. Everything is working really well, and the system is very fast much faster than I expected. For comparison, before this I was using FreeNAS. But Solaris 11 + napp-it boots much faster, and I get MUCH faster CIFS file transfer speeds. I am using this system as a home NAS server, and because napp-it works so well, and you have been so helpful in setting this system up, I would like to purchase a licence - is it the 'Pro' licence that I would require for such an application?

I am pleased that you like napp-it.
The Pro edition adds extra features like ACL management, Monitoring and Replication and access to newest releases and bugfixes.
See options at napp-it // webbased ZFS NAS/SAN appliance for OmniOS, OpenIndiana and Solaris (noncommercial home use)

 

[hagak]

Well, my Microserver is populated with 2 x 2TB HDDs in raidz2 format, for a total of 3.6TB storage space.

Am I the only one confused how he is able to do RAIDZ2 with just 2 drives and better yet how he is able to get 3.6TB of disk space with such a setup?

I suspect he actually is just striping the data ala RAID0, this is not a recommend configuration if you value the data on said drives.

 

[gea]

Am I the only one confused how he is able to do RAIDZ2 with just 2 drives and better yet how he is able to get 3.6TB of disk space with such a setup?

I suspect he actually is just striping the data ala RAID0, this is not a recommend configuration if you value the data on said drives.

seems all have overseen and looked at 2 x 2 tb like 4 disks.
Hope its 4 disks in a raid-10 or raid-z2 config, otherwise its critical

 

[knubbze]

Sorry, yes that was a typo, I meant 4 x 2TB drives in raidz2 configuration. Thanks again for your help, guys - very much appreciated. I will be purchasing a 'noncommercial home use' licence if I can fix the access problem that I am encountering (see my other thread).