FreeNAS sounds like a neat idea, unfortunately it's not quite what I had in mind for this backup computer. I was going to write a cron job for this computer so that every night (or maybe once a week) it would turn on(the BIOS has an auto-boot function), and use smbtar to grab all of the files from a fileserver and back them up on that computer, then it would shutdown. If the disk got too full, it would delete older backups to make room for new ones. Right now the file srver is running windows XP, so I can't really tell it to send its files to that backup computer at a specific time.
What about that jumpering thing, though? I remember from linux that if you have a drive jumpered to be smaller than its actual size, you need to have hdx=stroke as a boot parameter so linux can use all of the space. Well I've gotten off topic perhaps. I'll do some reading in the FreeBSD pages. Thanks! Anthony ----- Original Message ----- From: "Holger Bauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <discussion@pfsense.com> Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 9:34 PM Subject: RE: [pfSense-discussion] pfSense merge with freebsd? I doubt that a bios flash will make that drive usable at that old machine. And for these utilities... I don't like them too much. I have used such a utility a very long time ago to bypass bios limitations. It actually went in the bootsector to get loaded before anything else (like the old evil masterbootrecord viruses ;-). It worked fine for some time until I needed to reinstall my OS as it was broken. The OS replaced the tool in the bootrecord and all my data stored at all partitions was gone with that. There was no way to reinstall the tool without doing a full preperation of the disk again whiping everything that existed there. In business environments things like these are really the worst ideas one can come up with. However I might have a solution for you to try. First find out what the max size limit is that box is natively supporting for hdds. Then get a bunch of these and run them with http://www.freenas.org/ . You even can build RAIDs with this (stripes and mirrors should be supported afaik), however I haven't tried it out personally. Just a suggestion. Holger > -----Original Message----- > From: DarkFoon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 6:24 AM > To: discussion@pfsense.com > Subject: Re: [pfSense-discussion] pfSense merge with freebsd? > > > > The "god box" is always a bad idea. > > Yeah, I told him the "God Box" idea was a bad one. Figured I > should look > into it anyways. Right now his pfSense box is a Dell pentium > III 866Mhz > (same as the box I'm using right now to make this email) with 256Mb > SD-100 ram and 5 added in Nics (plus the integrated, for a > total of 6). > I had a similar box running a SAMBA domain server and it was > alright, so > I thought I'd try to combine the two. But I digress. The God > Box is out. > Got that. > > As a matter of fact (this is probably a generic BSD question) he wants > me to do the impossible again: He has an old K6-2 box laying > around and > he wants me to put in a 300GB seagate drive to do a network > back up to. > I told him the tech is too old to support 300GB (its ATA/UDMA66 or > whatever; too many titles for the same thing) > But he read some tidbit on Seagate's site that a mobo BIOS flash or > using the seagate software will make it so the drive can be used, and > apparently that means I can do it (completely ignoring the > fact that the > hardware came years before even 100 GB drives) and I'm a > slacker for not > making it happen. > So the question is, if I jumper the drive to limit it to 32GB so the > darn computer will actually boot (the BIOS freezes detecting > the drive), > can I get FreeBSD to recognize all 300GB? I probably should check the > FreeBSD man pages, but being as ill as I am right now, I feel like > asking you guys first (ya'll seem nice enough ;) ) > > thanks for the help! > Anthony > (stupid flu!) > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Andrew Burnette" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <discussion@pfsense.com> > Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 6:49 PM > Subject: Re: [pfSense-discussion] pfSense merge with freebsd? > > > > DarkFoon wrote: > > > I am curious if it is possible to "merge"-for want of a better > > > word-pfSense with a FreeBSD install. Why? Well, I have a > client who > > > wants to integrate everything into 1 box if possible. I > told him its > not > > > possible, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't > check to see if > I > > > am wrong. > > > > You could of course snag the pf rules out of a pfsense box > and put in > a > > *bsd box if absolutely required. > > > > The "god box" is always a bad idea. Generally does everything poorly > > (think of what a fantastic pair of scissors are included in a swiss > army > > knife). I have very very large clients that think the same > of optical > > long haul gear, routers, and switches and how they all belong in one > > box. Invariably, they get burned by lousy functionality and cost > > overruns. (yes, think US DoD...) > > > > boxen sufficient for a pfsense firewall are $100 or so from many > sources > > (I paid $109 on ebay for the first one, then $100 for a > rack mount job > > that fit in my cabinet better). Same size/capacity box > should do for > an > > SMB server (sans Big Fantastic Disks of course). > > > > if that's too much $$, then the client likely can't afford you ;-) > But, > > isn't that what they pay you for in the first place? > > > > Good luck, > > andy > > > > > > > > -- > > No virus found in this incoming message. > > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > > Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.2.1/278 - Release Date: > 3/9/2006 > > > > > > ____________ Virus checked by G DATA AntiVirusKit -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.2.1/278 - Release Date: 3/9/2006
