The developers of FreeNAS have announced version 9.10-RELEASE. This version features the base system as 10.3-RC3 going forward. Other notable changes are: experimental support for bhyve virtual machines, added support for various Intel hardware, SMB update, FreeBSD ports update to 2016Q1 branch, and more. Follow the link below for the full release notes.

The FreeNAS Development Team is very happy to announce that FreeNAS 9.10-RELEASE <http://download.freenas.org/9.10/RELEASE/> is now available!

This is an interim release between the 9.3 series and 10 (which is still a few months away), using the same UI and middleware that everyone is used to from 9.3 but with new OS underpinnings, specifically FreeBSD 10.3-RC3. 

Coincident with this release of 9.10, we are also placing 9.3 into maintenance mode and will only be pushing further updates to the 9.3-STABLE train in response to the most critical security advisories or product flaws. We therefore strongly suggest that all current users of 9.3 upgrade to 9.10 in order to continue to benefit from the ongoing maintenance and bug fix work we will be doing on the 9.10-STABLE Train.  Most, if not all, bug fixes will be made exclusively to the 9.10-STABLE train in reaction to tickets filed on http://bugs.freenas.org.  Again:  Users who choose to stay on the 9.3-STABLE train will see only the most critical bug fixes and no new features or non-essential enhancements.

To update to 9.10 from 9.3, go to System->Update and select the 9.10-STABLE train from the Train selection drop-down.  To update from any earlier release of FreeNAS to 9.10, simply grab the ISO image <http://download.freenas.org/9.10/RELEASE/x64/FreeNAS-9.10-RELEASE.iso> and boot it (from CD, IPMI or USB stick), selecting the Upgrade option in the installer.

Official announcement: http://lists.freenas.org/pipermail/freenas-announce/2016-March/000028.html

Softpedia: http://news.softpedia.com/news/freenas-9-10-open-source-storage-operating-system-adds-usb-3-0-skylake-support-502059.shtml

Larry the BSD Guy: http://fossforce.com/2016/03/busy-week-ubuntubsd-freenas-9-10-released/

Check out RAMSDENJ‘s home server build of FreeNAS, influenced by the user’s decision to use a FreeBSD based operating system.

I considered using plain FreeBSD to give myself complete flexibility, but considering this was my first server build and what I was intending to use the server for was basically network attached storage I settled on using FreeNAS for the ease of use and advanced features. FreeNAS is a variant of FreeBSD that has been altered in order to be an easy to use network attached storage server. It can all be managed from a web interface and is easy to use but is also filled with power features. Since it’s also basically FreeBSD under the hood, if you do want to accomplish something that can’t be done in the web interface, you can easily drop down into the command line to do whatever you’re trying to accomplish. The web interface makes it easy to manage your ZFS volumes and discs letting you easily attach new pools or export your pools, take snapshots, make datasets, and use ZFS replication. I figured this would be an easy way to get used to using all these features and that if I wanted to switch to FreeBSD at a later date it would be as easy as exporting my pool and installing FreeBSD.

See the entire build here: https://ramsdenj.github.io/server/2016/01/01/FreeNAS-Server-Build.html