The FreeNAS team at iXsystems released a much anticipated beta of FreeNAS. FreeNAS 10 Beta brings the new middle-ware and UI for the FreeNAS platform. The FreeNAS 10 development has been slowed by a re-platforming between Alpha 1 and Alpha 2. We are very excited for the new platform as STH has several FreeNAS 9.10 NAS systems online. We also have an extensive buyer’s guide that is up to date with FreeNAS 10 hardware recommendations.
What’s new with FreeNAS 10 Beta
From our discussions with iXsystems, the new 10 series platform should be a significantly easier to use UI compared to the older 9 series FreeNAS (currently on version FreeNAS 9.10). The maintainers are working on more automated setup and configuration of storage. We have heard Docker containers will replace the old plug-in system. Finally, we expect Behyve to be used more extensively with FreeNAS 10. If you are interested in learning more about where the FreeNAS 10 platform is going, check out the FreeNAS State of the Union #3 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TS6vvpP1yQ
That video will show off the Alpha 2 UI in process and show off features like Docker/ container integration.
In anticipation of this, we already have a small test system with 16TB of disk and 5x SSDs in our lab ready for the new release (see here.)
Expect to see content on STH as FreeNAS 10 matures. We have a fairly large backlog of content ready for the new release. FreeNAS is extremely popular with STH readers both for their home labs and in work production deployments. As a result, we plan to expand coverage significantly over the coming months and have dedicated hardware to accommodate this project. After our experience with FreeNAS Alpha 2 our suggestion would be to treat this release as purely a beta and not to run any production data on FreeNAS 10 Beta.
How to get FreeNAS 10 Beta
You can download the FreeNAS 10 Beta here. The download is below the latest stable release. Over time we expect this link to be updated as new versions come online.
