I started out looking at FreeBSD based on a draw from FreeNAS, which then led to ZFS, the primary file system that FreeNAS and FreeBSD use. At work, I am looking at the regular handling of enormous archival files and the further along I went the more I realized that I would also need storage for a long time. There are a lot of ways to ensure that archival files remain viable, error correcting codes, using the cloud, rotating media. So all of this has led me to learn more about ZFS.

I have to admit that at first, ZFS was very strange to me. I’m used to HFS and EXT3 and EXT4 type file systems with their usual vocabularies. You can mount it, unmount it, and check it with an option to repair it. ZFS adds a whole new universe of vocabulary to file systems. There are two parts, the zpool creates the definition of the devices and files you want to use for your file system, and the zfs command allows you to manipulate it, in terms of mounting and unmounting. When it comes to error-checking and repair, that is the feature called scrub. The commands themselves aren’t difficult to grasp but the nature of this new file system is very different. It enables the administrator to perform actions that other file systems just don’t have. You can create snapshots, manipulate them, and even draw older snapshots – even out of order – forward as clones. So let us say that you have a file system, and you’ve been making regular snapshots every 15 minutes. If you need something from that filesystem at snapshot 5 out of 30, you don’t have to roll back the file system manually; you can just pluck snapshot 5 and create a clone. The cloning procedure feels a lot like “mounting” a snapshot so you can access it directly. If you destroy a clone, the snapshot is undamaged, it just goes back into the pile from whence it came. The big claim to fame for ZFS is that it is regarded by many as the safest file system, if one of the parts of it, in the zpool should fail the file system can heal itself. You can tear out that bad part, put in a new part, and the file system will rebuild and recover. In a lot of ways, ZFS is a lot like RAID 1, 5, or 6. Apparently there is a flaw with RAID 5 when you get to big data volumes and from what I can gather, ZFS is the answer to those problems.

So I have ZFS ported over to my Macbook Pro, and I’ve been playing around with it for a little while. It works as advertised so I’ve been enjoying that. One of the biggest stumbling blocks I had to deal with was the concepts of zfs mounting, unmounting and how they relate to zpool’s export and import commands. I started with a fully functional ZFS file system, created the zpool, then mounted it to the operating system. Then the next step is to unmount the file system and export the zpool. Exploring the way you can fully disconnect a ZFS file system from a host machine and then reverse the process. While doing this, I was reticent on using actual physical devices, so I instead used blank files as members in my zpool. I was able to create, mount, and then unmount the entire production, and then export the zpool. When I looked over how to reverse that, import the zpool I just had the system told me that there weren’t any pools in existence to import. This had me thinking that ZFS was a crock. What is the point of exporting a zpool if there is no hope on importing it afterwards? It turns out, there is a switch, -d, which you have to use – and that’s the trick of it. So once I got that, I became much more comfortable using ZFS, or at least exploring it.

So then today I thought I would explore the source of FreeNAS, which is FreeBSD. BSD is a kind of Unix/Linux operating system, and so I thought I would download an installation image and try it out in my VirtualBox on my Macbook Pro. So, I started with the image FreeBSD-10.2-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso and got VirtualBox up and running. The installation was very familiar and I didn’t run into any issues. I got the FreeBSD OS up and running and thought I should add the VirtualBox Guest Additions. I thought I could just have VirtualBox add the additions as an optical drive and that the OS would notice and mount it for me in /mnt or /media. No. So that was a no-go. I then looked online and searched for VirtualBox Guest Additions. I found references to procedures to follow in the “ports” section of the FreeBSD OS. I tried it, and it told me that it couldn’t proceed without the kernel sources. So then I searched for that. This turned into a fork/branch mess and I knew that familiar sinking feeling all too well. You try and fix something and that leads to a failure, so you look for help on Google and follow a fix, which leads to another failure, and then you keep on going. This branching/forking leads you on a day-wasting misadventure. The notion that you couldn’t get what you wanted from the start just sits there on your shoulder, reminding you that everything you do from this point forward is absurd. There is a lot of bullshit you are wading through, and the smart move would be to give up. You can’t give up because of the time investment, and you want to fight it out, to justify the waste of time. The battle with FreeBSD begins. At the start we need the kernel sources, okay, use svn. Not there, okay, how to fix that? Get svn. Sorry, can’t do it as a regular user. Try sudo, command doesn’t exist, look for su, nope, not that either. Try to fix that, can’t. Login as root and try, nope. So I pretty much just reached my limit on FreeBSD and gave up. I couldn’t get VirtualBox Additions added, svn is impossible to load, sudo is impossible to load. Fine. So then I thought about just screwing around with ZFS on FreeBSD, to rescue some semblance of usefulness out of this experience. No, you aren’t root, piss off. I even tried SSH, but you can’t get in as root and without sudo there is no point to go forward.

So, that’s that for FreeBSD. We’re up to version 10 here, but it is still firmly bullshit. There are people who are massively invested in BSD and they no doubt are grumpy when I call out their OS for its obnoxiousness. Is it ready for prime time use? Of course not. No kernel sources included, no svn, no sudo, no su, no X for that matter, but honestly, I wasn’t expecting X.

It points to the same issues that dog Linux. If you don’t accept the basic spot where you land post-install then you are either trapped with Google for a long while or you just give up.

My next task will be to shut down the FreeBSD system and dump all the files. At least I only wasted two hours of my life screwing around with the bullshit crater of FreeBSD. What have I learned? Quite a lot. BSD I’m sure is good, but to use it and support it?

Thank god it’s free. I got exactly what I paid for. Hah.