Hello.
I am a long time and current FreeNAS user. For many reasons, I am strongly considering a switch to OMV. But, I would like to do due diligence and have a solid transition plan before taking the leap.
I am actually surprised that there aren't several "how to switch from freenas", "freenas vs omv" threads. Did I miss them (I searched)?
I have already found partial answers to some of my questions in various threads. It is probably all in there somewhere. But, I feel that it would be helpful to a lot of people to consolidate this information within the context of my case (a user looking to switch from freenas to omv). So, I am hoping that the community can help out and fill in some of these blanks. Besides that, learning how helpful the community is is itself something I want to do.
My Questions:
- Is the hardware suitable for FreeNAS generally suitable for OMV? Or, are there key differences that a FreeNAS user should be aware of?
I built a system for FreeNAS based on the best practices recommended for it. (ie. plenty of ECC Ram, a SuperMicro board, WD Red drives, etc.). - Is OMV more or less demanding of the hardware in terms of RAM, CPU requirements?
- I see that there is a plug-in that allows running OMV from a USB. Does that mean that it can be run exclusively from USB, leaving the data storage completely untouched by the OS? Or, does it have to be installed onto the storage drives first and then set up with a plug-in that utilizes the USB?
- Is there a guide that explains step-by-step how to install OMV onto USB? F
- Assuming that OMV can run from USB, is there a way to have it run on a pair of mirrored USB drives like FreeNAS?
- Are there any differences between the ZFS support in FreeNAS and OMV? In other words, could I install OMV to USB, boot it up next to my ZFS drives (set up with FreeNAS) and start using the same volumes, data, etc.?
- Obviously, backing up key data first is important. But, are there any other safety precautions I can take to safely try out OMV with my FreeNAS-created ZFS drives? Or, once OMV works with those drives, will it prevent my current FreeNAS OS drives from working with them again?
- It looks like there are both plugins and docker available for OMV. That seems to be over-lap of functionality to some degree. Is OMV moving toward a docker model and dropping plug-ins? What are the pros and cons (performance differences?) within the OMV context?
- Has anyone else made this switch that can throw in 10 cents of wisdom/warnings? What has the relative experience been like? More or less CLI work? More or less stability, performance?