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UPDATE- Read more here on setting up windows 2008 R2 cluster in VMware workstation using this iSCSI disks.

VMware is one of the coolest virtualization software. It supports most of the operating systems as guest
operating system. Microsoft Server operating systems such as windows 2008 and windows 2008 R2 also can be
installed in VMware workstation. Here I’m going to show how you can install FreeNAS server onVMware
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Workstation with iSCSI disks which can be used for your host and guest operating systems. This method will be
used to install and configure MS Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2 cluster in VMware workstation.

What is NAS (Network Access Storage)?

Physically NAS is a hardware device with hard drives, and its accessible via network port.  In production
environment there are famous NAS brands, such as,

HP
Synology
iomega

These NAS devices support iSCSI, which is required for cluster and high availability setup for servers.  But for
the testing purpose in VMware we can’t have expensing physical NAS devices to configure cluster ot high
availability servers in VMware. So, there is some free open source NAS software where you can use a computer
as NAS. These free storage virtualization software make your computer hard disk as network access storage and
allow other clients to access the disk directly through network.

I found these two free NAS softwares can be installed in computer and make NAS.

Openfiler
FreeNAS

This article explains how you can install FreeNAS on VMware workstation virtual machine to enable iSCSI
target disks. Why I avoided Openfiler is, because of we will be using this NAS for Windows 2008 or Windows
2008 R2 server clusters. Openfiler doesn’t support SCSI-3 persistent reservation disks which is required for
Windows 2008 and windows 2008 R2 server clusters but FreeNAS supports SCSI-3 persistent reservation disks.

How to Install FreeNAS Server on VMware workstation?

1)      Download the stable FreeNAS live CD ISO file here. It’s just 75MB ISO file.

2)      Create a virtual machine in VMware workstation, with following configuration.

Guest Operating System – Other – FreeBSD

Maximum disk size – 2GB

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Memory – 2GB

Processor – 1 or 2 ( it doesn’t matter)

Network Adapter – Which ever work with your client computers.

3)      Select the downloaded FreeNAS ISO file under ISO image file in CD/DVD settings, and boot  the virtual
machine with CD drive as first boot device.

4)      Boot the system with first option ( default)

5)      If the virtual machine settings and downloaded file is correct, then you next screen will the below one.
That’s it, NAS operating is loaded and ready to use.

You can see the network address on NAS which will be given by VMware DHCP. Since this is Live CD version, its

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running from CD and RAM only. When you boot the NAS operating next time, it will disappear. So we have
install it permanently on the virtual machine hard disk. It can be installed on external devices also, including
flash device and USB drives.

6)      To install FreeNAS permanently on hard drive, type number 9 and press enter in above screen.

7)      Select the first option in first screen and press OK.

8)      Press OK for warning/instruction message.

9)      Installation media will be your virtual machine CD drive where we mounted the ISO file. Press OK in the
next screen.

10)   Select the 2GB hard disk we created during the virtual machine setup. Once we installed FreeNAS on this
hard disk, then it cannot be used for create volumes or share data. So how to create disks for cluster or as iSCSI
targets. Do not worry; we will add hard disks later to virtual machine in live.

11)   Confirmation message will be shown as below after the installation succeeded.

12)   Shutdown the system by pressing number 8. Then un mount the installation ISO file under CD/DVD drive,
then start the FreeNAS virtual machine.

13)   Now you can’t see the number 9 option. Type number 2 and press enter to change the IP address of
FreeNAS network virtualization software.

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14)   Select ‘No’ for DHCP option, give IPv4 address, you can select the Subnet mask by typing 24 or 16 or 8 in the
next screen. Gateway, DNS and IPv6 are optional setup as per your requirements.

15)   One network settings confirmation message will be shown as below with accessible address.

Installation of NAS on VMware workstation and network setups is done. Now, interesting part; configuring
disks, volumes and LUNs in your Network Access Storage (NAS).

16)   Access the above address in internet explorer from other client computer. You will be getting login screen
for FreeNAS.

User Name is – admin

Password is – freenas

FreeNAS user name and password can be reset in console setup by selecting number 3.

17)   Welcome screen will give the information of NAS. Still no disks configured in your NAS.

18)   Let’s add the disks to FreeNAS now.  Just for example we will add two disks. One with 512MB for quorum
disk and other one 10GB for data share.

19)   Add the above hard disks to FreeBSD virtual machine where we installed FreeNAS. You do not need to
shutdown the FreeNAS. It can be added when it’s working. I’m assuming you know how to add additional hard
disks to a virtual machine is VMware. (Select SCSI disk type, better select ‘Allocate disk space now’ to improve
the performance.)

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20)   To add a disk in NAS, Click on Disks on the menu and select management. Click + sign at right side in next
screen.

21)   Select the newly added disk to virtual machine from drop down box. Lets add our quorum disk 512MB.

You can give any description also for your reference. Since we are preparing NAS on VMware workstation as
iSCSI target for Windows 2008 server cluster, select ZFS Storage pool device in file system as shown above.
Press Add.

22)   Every time after any changes in FreeNAS you have press Apply changes button. Press the button in next
screen.

23)   Once the disk added successfully, the below screen can be seen.

24)   Go to Disks in main menu and select ZFS.

25)   Click on Virtual devices in next screen menu and Press + sign at right side. Give a name, leave the type as
Stripe, and select the disk under devices. Then apply changes.

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26)   Click on Management tab next to Virtual Device in same screen. Give a name; leave others options blanks
(you can add description). Press Add and Apply.

27)   Now go to iSCSI Targets in Services (main menu)

28)   Enable the check box at right side and press save and restart button. It will start the iSCSI service in your
FreeNAS virtual machine.

29)   Click on portals tab. It will pick up your FreeNAS IP address with 3260 port number. Do not change
anything here.  Just press add and apply changes buttons.

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(I’m writing this article from two computers, so IP address of my FreeNAS is different than installation and
configuration, ignore it)

30)   Now click on initiators tab and leave the all settings as it is and press add, apply changes.

31)   No go back to Targets tab and press + at right side under Extend. Press browse button as shown below.

32)   It will bring the pool you created as a directory. Click on it and press OK button at top right side.

33)   You have to type a name for the extending disk. In this example I have typed ‘ quorum’ after the selection. It
better to give slightly lesser the actual size. That’s why I have given 500 MB.

Press add and apply changes.

34)   To add the iSCSI target and LUNs in NAS, click on + mark at the right side under target in targets. Give a

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name for target, make sure Read/Write is selected under flags. Under LUNs, select the extended disk you
created in earlier step. Leave the other settings and press add, apply changes.

35)   iSCSI target in your NAS VMware workstation settings will be appeared as below if all setup are correct.

Other clients including Windows 2008 server and windows 2008 R2 servers looking for iSCSI disks will be
finding the disks in the name mentioned above.

Repeat the same steps to add disks to FreeNAS and configure NAS  iSCSI targets in VMware workstation.

I will be updating soon about how to do windows 2008 R2 cluster in VMware workstation using this iSCSI
targets.

FreeNAS Server iSCSI disks in VMware Workstation – Download the FreeNAS now.

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Filed Under: Server Virtualization, VMware

Tagged With: Virtualization technology, VMware, Windows Virtualization

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Comments

Rrh says
February 28, 2011 at 7:20 am

Hello. I have configured my win 2008 r2/freenas clustering environment in vmware wkst 7. When I
run the cluster validation test on each indiv node separately (I have 2 nodes) it passes all tests. When I
run the validation test and select the 2 nodes together the test fails on storage and networking. Can
anyone tell me why this may be happening? Thanks.

Guruprasad says
March 8, 2011 at 6:11 am

Hi Dinesh,

I have follows your steps to install NAS OS, however am not able to access the Web GUI.

My host machine subnet is 255.255.248.0 accordingly whine configuring LAN for freeNAS i gave 21 as
subnet (As this the CIDR no for the above mentioned subnet)
Please let me know how to solve this.
Thanks,
Guru

cin takvimi says

April 5, 2011 at 3:10 pm

Very fantastic info can be found on site .

Anton Kolomyeytsev says

June 5, 2011 at 11:06 am

Geat job! Do you have any plans to review Openfiler when guys would catch up with SCSI-3
reservation thing?

Anton

Pramod says

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June 8, 2011 at 1:03 pm

I have downloaded freenas latest version and tried installing the iso file in vmware workstation by
creating new VM as other freeBSD 32bit/64 bit. It pops with initial screen and ends with BTX halt.
How can i solve this issue? My LAPtop OS is windows 7. Please help me.

Raul B. says
July 6, 2011 at 4:26 am

The images has been lost ¿Problems?

Saludos

Alex Reyes says

July 8, 2011 at 10:55 pm

hi Dinesh, thank you so much for this article, it is very useful.

It seems to be that only available download of freeNAS is version 8.0 from RC1 to release version.
I installed this and after installation and configure NICs I am unable to see web page giving an error as
done but with errors.
I tried different browsers but still unable to see web admin page.

Thank you!

Dinesh says
July 9, 2011 at 4:27 am

Alex,
I hope the below two articles will be helpful for you in FreeNAS 0.8.

http://www.sysprobs.com/guide-install-freenas-8-virtualbox-4
http://www.sysprobs.com/guide-how-to-create-iscsi-storage-disks-freenas-08

vivek says
March 27, 2012 at 9:29 am

hi

It is very good for cluster but i am not get the last part of setup like
while selecting this option( File path (e.g. /mnt/sharename/extent/extent0) used as extent. ) my path
does not showing current disk.So could you help what was wrong thing i did my freesan set ..

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kaveh says
May 6, 2012 at 3:32 am

so helpful ………………

Lena says
May 30, 2012 at 12:40 pm

Interesting tutorial, but so much has changed in the latest version of FreeNAS.

Would love to see an update. Please e-mail me if you want comments and I’ll give you feedback on it
from a newbies perspective..

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