Openfiler

The Openfiler code base was developed by Mukund Sivaraman at Xinit Systems in 2001. The company created and sponsored the project in October 2003. The first available release appeared in public access in May 2004.

Minimum

Openfiler requires a minimum of 500 MHz CPU , 256 MB of RAM , 1 GB of free disk space for OS installation, an optical drive and an Ethernet network for installation over a network ^[1] .

Optimal

A 64-bit processor with a clock frequency of at least 1.6 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, 10 GB of free disk space (8 GB for installing the OS and 2 GB for the swap file) and a hardware RAID hard disk controller. These conditions are necessary to ensure optimal performance ^[2] .

Openfiler supports the following network protocols: Network File System , SMB / CIFS , HTTP / WebDAV , FTP and iSCSI (target and initiator), FC (target and initiator). Openfiler also supports the following network directories: NIS , LDAP (with support for SMB / CIFS encrypted passwords), Active Directory (in normal and combined mode), Windows NT 4 domain controller and Hesiod . It includes the following authentication protocols: Kerberos . Openfiler supports ext3 , ext4 , JFS and XFS as default file systems, allows you to take “snapshots” of a disk at any given time, set quotas for disk space, and a single management interface for joint administration, which makes it easy to allocate file systems.

Below are just some of the features that are now available in Openfiler:

1. Block virtualization
   1. System snapshots are available on schedule.
   2. Disk size expansion on a working system (tested).
   3. Disk usage notifications.
   4. Supports multiple disk groups for optimal allocation of resources.
   5. iSCSI initiator (only through the console).
   6. FC initiator (only through the console).
   7. Migration and replication of disk partitions (only through the console).
2. Account management
   1. Authentication using PAM , configurable from the web interface.
   2. NIS , LDAP , Active Directory , NT4 domain controller.
   3. Support for guest / public accounts.
   4. Setting quotas for disk space and files for groups.
   5. Setting quotas for disk space and files for users.
   6. Setting quotas for disk space and files for guest users.
   7. Support for quota templates for users and groups.
3. Distributed management
   1. Create distributed volumes.
   2. Multi-level tree of distributed directories.
   3. Multiple access for groups in distributed management.
   4. Multiple access for hosts / networks in distributed management.
   5. Each volume has its own activation service (NFS, SMB / CIFS, HTTP / WebDAV, FTP)
   6. Supports auto-create home directories for SMB.
4. Industry Standard Protocol Set
   1. CIFS / SMB support for Windows clients.
   2. NFSv3 support for all UNIX clients, with support for the ACL protocol.
   3. Support for NFSv4 (tested).
   4. FTP support.
   5. Support for WebDAV and HTTP 1.1
   6. Background support for Linux features for other settings.
   7. Open source software that allows you to modify and develop software as you wish.

Free Software

• Freenas
• NAS4Free
• Zfsguru
• Gluster
• NASLite
• OpenMediaVault

Commercial Software

• Open e

• Bill Childers (May 2009) OpenFiler: an Open-Source Network Storage Appliance , Linux Journal issue 181
• Jennifer Schiff (June 24, 2009) Linux-Powered Enterprise Storage: Openfiler , LinuxPlanet
• Rick Grehan (February 24, 2009) More specialty Linuxes to the rescue. OpenFiler , Computerworld
• Cory Buford (September 10, 2008) Turn your machine into enterprise storage with Openfiler , Linux.com
• Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, (Sep. 20, 2006) Openfiler simplifies Linux NAS and SAN (inaccessible link) , Linux-Watch
• Chris Mellor (Nov 4, 2003) Open Source NAS with SAN possibly coming , Techworld

• Darrell Dunn (October 19, 2007) Low-Cost Storage Tools: Open-Source Projects Provide Increasing Choices , Processor (magazine) , Vol.29 Issue 42, Page 12 in print issue
• Deni Connor (February 23, 2007) 10 free storage utilities. Some software is truly offered without strings , Computerworld

• Openfiler official homepage
• Openfiler project website (inaccessible link)