FreeNAS is a popular operating system that is designed for server use. It’s based on BSD system that is believed as a rock solid OS. The new version of FreeNAS 11.2 has been around for a while but I just had a chance to give it a spin recently. The new FreeNAS offers a brand new, redesigned UI. Even though we can choose the legacy UI, I would recommend you to try the new UI.
I tried many operating systems for server including ClearOS, Univention Corporate Server (UCS), NAS4Free and some others. But, the new FreeNAS 11.2 seems to be my new favorite. There are many reasons for me to fall in love with FreeNAS. If you are new to FreeNAS, I would recommend you to try it using VirtualBox or VMWare.
New Login Screen
Even this feature is not essential, I think it is good to have a modern login screen style. FreeNAS 11.2 web interface introduces a brand new login screen. We can switch to legacy interface at anytime by clicking the Legacy Web Interface button.
New Web Dashboard
After a successful login, the FreeNAS Dashboard will give you a summary of the entire system. You will see some important information about your system, network performance, memory and CPU usage, CPU temperature and usage.
I was looking for a way to customize the dashboard. But I don’t think we can do that in this version. We cannot add or move the information blocks manually.
Better Storage Management
Managing disks, pool and virtual devices is very easy and interactive in FreeNAS 11.2. We can easily create new pools and configure the disks.
FreeNAS is capable to handle many disks without hassle. It also supports disk encryption. We can choose strip or disk mirroring from the storage menu. We can also add and configure cache or spare easily.
Better User Account Management
Dealing with many users and group could be a painful task. But that’s not the case in FreeNAS 11.2. The built-in users and group management comes with a simple interface.
FreeNAS 11.2 is all you need to power up your network with a rich features file server, domain controller, SCSI server and much more.
Download FreeNAS 11.2
The easiest way to find the power of this operating system is by installing it on your own platform. In this case, you don’t need to install FreeNAS on a dedicated machine. VirtualBox or VMware guest machine is sufficient to try all the features of FreeNAS 11.2. Get the ISO file from this link and then boot it up.
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