[IndyGunFreak]

Very new, has been in development for almost 2yrs, based on Debian Linux. Apparently the guy leading the project, used to head up FreeNas, before iXsystems took over.

I'm running it in Vbox right now as a test, and while there were some quirks I had a bit of trouble figuring out (documentation is sorely lacking).

Needs a little work (the GUI seems a bit odd, or maybe I've just gotten used to SSH), but it works well.

http://blog.openmediavault.org/

 

[Batwing]

Any major differences between the two you can see so far that would make you change from one to the other?

I went with FreeNAS because of the amount of experience people are starting to have with it. I'm having good luck with it so far, so I am a bit hesitant to change.

 

[IndyGunFreak]

Any major differences between the two you can see so far that would make you change from one to the other?

I went with FreeNAS because of the amount of experience people are starting to have with it. I'm having good luck with it so far, so I am a bit hesitant to change.

If FN is working for you, don't change. My biggest problem w/ FreeNas, was version 8, was not working for me and just caused me a horde of issues. For some reason, .7 would not boot on my machine (despite the fact it ran .6 just fine)

Right now, my file server is running Ubuntu Server, and I'm fine w/ that, so if I change, it's not gonna be until I've tested this at least another week or so.... Biggest difference obviously, is FreeNas is based on BSD, while OpenMediaVault is based on Debian.

IGF

 

[Batwing]

Interesting.


Well I am always looking at new things for backup situations but I am always careful to roll them out too soon. I think I tested FreeNAS for like three months before I was comfortable pushing it into production.

 

[IndyGunFreak]

Interesting.


Well I am always looking at new things for backup situations but I am always careful to roll them out too soon. I think I tested FreeNAS for like three months before I was comfortable pushing it into production.

Yeah.. I'm usually pretty much a "gamer" when it comes to stuff like this.. I test a few days, then install if I like it. After getting burned on FN8, I'll be more careful this time and test this thoroughly in Virtualbox. After a couple of days though, it seems like a winner.

One thing you might notice compared to FN8.. is OMV has no support for ZFS. Currently, it only has support for ext3 and ext4. This is sort of a disadvantage, but it should allow easy migration to btrfs once it's finally rolled out.

 

[gemeinschaft]

Thank you IGF, I am trying it out right now. I will give some feedback in a couple of days - still migrating my data.

My first impression is that the interface is pretty slick.

 

[gemeinschaft]

I have been running OMV for 4 days and so far, it has been great.

Simple to configure, stable and once I installed MediaTomb via SSH, I was able to share my files to my son's PS3.

The only device in the house that I cannot access files with is my Apple TV, but that is not due to shortcoming of the OMV, it has everything to do with Apple's resistance to allowing you connect a media server without their ability to impose DRM restrictions.

 

[Nickotym]

How does one access their media when stored on an OMV server? Thanks for giving the newb question some answers.



Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine

 

[Nickotym]

Yeah.. I'm usually pretty much a "gamer" when it comes to stuff like this.. I test a few days, then install if I like it. After getting burned on FN8, I'll be more careful this time and test this thoroughly in Virtualbox. After a couple of days though, it seems like a winner.

One thing you might notice compared to FN8.. is OMV has no support for ZFS. Currently, it only has support for ext3 and ext4. This is sort of a disadvantage, but it should allow easy migration to btrfs once it's finally rolled out.

According to the wikipedia.org page OMV has support for ZFS.



Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine

 

[gemeinschaft]

How does one access their media when stored on an OMV server? Thanks for giving the newb question some answers.



Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine

I have shares set up on my OMV that are mapped to Directories that I have set up for Pictures, Music, Videos and Documents. I also have a Backup share that I use to backup my work laptop.

IGF walked me through installing MediaTomb as well which allows me to view my media files from my Playstation and other Plug and Play devices.

The User Interface is fairly easy and the overall installation/management is very easy. I haven't touched my OMV server since I set it up and it is purring like a kitten right now.

 

[Nickotym]

I have shares set up on my OMV that are mapped to Directories that I have set up for Pictures, Music, Videos and Documents. I also have a Backup share that I use to backup my work laptop.
So it just gets shared through the network like usual sharing of drives between computers on a windows network?
IGF walked me through installing MediaTomb as well which allows me to view my media files from my Playstation and other Plug and Play devices.

Gotta find out if my Samsung BD-D5700 bluray player can access trhough this, would it be listed on MediaTomb website?

The User Interface is fairly easy and the overall installation/management is very easy. I haven't touched my OMV server since I set it up and it is purring like a kitten right now.

Sounds cool overall. I need to get OMV downloaded.

 

[gemeinschaft]

Sounds cool overall. I need to get OMV downloaded.

The Shares show up on a Windows Machine just fine.

If you are on my LAN with a Windows box, you will see a device called "OpenMediaVault" and once you open that, you will see the shares.

I mapped each of the shares on my son's windows machine and he streams MP3s from my the OMV.

As far as the Samsung Blu-Ray Player, I would be surprised if it doesn't work - My Samsung Plasma TV finds MediaTomb using DLNA.

 

[IndyGunFreak]

According to the wikipedia.org page OMV has support for ZFS.



Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine

That post was written almost a month ago, but It's not supported yet, of that, I'm almost 100% positive. Mainly because, Linux support of ZFS as a whole, is very shaky.

The guy (he's 16) who did that wiki... He's a little off... he just copied the FreeNas wiki. I've not had much of a chance to really follow whats been going on w/ OMV, as I've been busy. You could probably try to set up ZFS via SSH (again though, be forewarned that Linux support of ZFS right now is shaky), but I'm 99% sure you can not do it via the webUI.

It might be better to wait until btrfs is fully supported, than to go w/ ZFS.

As for accessing your media... as gameinschaft pointed out.. if you have a UPNP player, you can use Mediatomb.. it's very easy to setup.

After that, there's Samba, NFS, AFP (i've not tested this yet, as I don't have apple stuff). If you're a Windows user (or even a Linux user w/ limited experience), Samba is dead nuts simple to set up. Then you access your stuff just like any other network drive.

 

[Nickotym]

The Shares show up on a Windows Machine just fine.

If you are on my LAN with a Windows box, you will see a device called "OpenMediaVault" and once you open that, you will see the shares.

I mapped each of the shares on my son's windows machine and he streams MP3s from my the OMV.

As far as the Samsung Blu-Ray Player, I would be surprised if it doesn't work - My Samsung Plasma TV finds MediaTomb using DLNA.

Thanks, Gemeinschaft. are you running it off a usb stick or did you put OMV on a hard drive? Any persistence issues?

 

[Nickotym]

Got OMV installed to my usb stick, now I just need to back up my current RAID with DriveImageXML so I can restore it if this doesn't work. Gonna hit the rack for tonight though.

 

[IndyGunFreak]

Thanks, Gemeinschaft. are you running it off a usb stick or did you put OMV on a hard drive? Any persistence issues?

You can put it on a USB drive, but OMV does a lot of disk writing, so don't expect the USB to last very long.

I put it on an old 80gig 2.5in sata drive I had laying around.

 

[Nickotym]

how about a laptop drive in a usb enclosure? I am not sure I want to put a SATA drive in this old server, no chasing good money after bad if it doesn't work out, you know.

 

[Nickotym]

any good tutorials for setting up OMV and mediatomb? Got OMV running, but can't get it usable yet.


I am also having trouble getting my hardware raid array with smart array 5i controller to be noticed by OMV either in the shell or in the GUI, any hints?

 

[IndyGunFreak]

any good tutorials for setting up OMV and mediatomb? Got OMV running, but can't get it usable yet.


I am also having trouble getting my hardware raid array with smart array 5i controller to be noticed by OMV either in the shell or in the GUI, any hints?

Unfortunately, my schedule is pretty backwards, so it'll be tough for me to help you much w/o specific questions and answers...

https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/openmediavault/

There's the support forum. If you're comfortable with IRC... get on the freenode network, and join the channel #openmediavault Note, the channel isn't terrible active (given this is a fairly new project), but there's some fairly smart individuals that are there sometimes.

If you don't have an IRC client, you can use this web based one... http://webchat.freenode.net/

 

[Nickotym]

Thanks IGF. I gotta try another distro of linux and see if my RAID problem is specific to OMV or if it is a linux problem. I was reading on a few forums last night and came across some info that indicated a possible linux problem with the Smart Array 5i hardware controller. May have to see if there is a way to bypass that and allow it to be a software controlled RAID.

Most folks don't get why we tinker with linux, but half the fun is figuring it out, the other half is using it w/o needing to make changes once you do figure it out.