Release Notes for FreeNAS 9.3-BETA

There are so many new features and enhancements in FreeNAS 9.3 that this
BETA release will break them into categories.  In no particular order,
FreeNAS 9.3-BETA offers the following improvements:


** Installation / Booting: **

  FreeNAS now uses ZFS for the boot device(s), also supporting selection
and mirroring of one or more boot devices for greater reliabilty.
  The features of ZFS are also utilized to provide cloned "boot environments"
which allow the system to be rolled back (or even forked) to different OS
versions.

  A boot-time menu is provided for selecting and booting from a specific boot
environment, a new system->boot UI allowing the user to create, rename,
delete and select boot environments as well as running diagnostics on the
boot pool.

  Both the installer and the installed system use the grub2 boot loader to
provide boot menus and boot-time UI.

  An install-time "Setup Wizard" is now provided to lead users who may be
new to FreeNAS through the installation and setup process.  Everything
from the pool, shares, directory services, and initial settings can be
set up through the Wizard.  The Wizard is also careful to make no actual
changes to the system until a final confirmation step, making it harmless
to enter/exit the wizard at any time and simply explore its capabilities.


** Updating: **

  While the old manual, monolithic installation and update system is still
supported, the FreeNAS project has refactored its releases into
cryptographically signed packages, provided both as "deltas" from previous
release versions and as full packages, all of which are supplied from a
secure update server.  This server can be polled automatically (default:
once per day), any available updates being downloaded automatically.  When
new packages are available, the user will receive an alert and be given the
opportunity to apply them.

  Updates are also offered along multiple, parallel "trains" that the user
can select from the Update UI.  Older stable trains will offer minimal number
of updates, more current trains will offer new features and a faster rate of
change, and completely experimental trains with new, untested features under
development will be offered to interested pre-release testers.

  Any train can be selected at the user's discretion at any time, trains can
be freely jumped between and, combined with the ZFS boot environment roll-back
feature, the user can experiment with hosting multiple trains in parallel.


** File sharing: **

  WebDAV file sharing is now supported.

  Samba upgraded to 4.1.12.

  NFSv4 support added, including kerberized NFS.

  Kernel iSCSI (CTL) has completely replaced the old iSCSI code, adding support
for VMWare VAAI, MS ODX and Windows 2012 Clustering as well as much higher
performance and space efficiency (zero'd blocks can now be reclaimed).


** Directory Services **

  AD / LDAP configurations are validated immediately after input.

  Kerberos Realms and Keytabs have joined the Direcory Services UI.

  Directory Services now based on SSSD (System Security Services Daemon).


** User Interface: **

  The much hated interface tabs are completely gone and the UI refactored
to put most common UI options first, more esoteric options hidden behind
Advanced modes.

  Settings and Directory Services UIs completely revamped and streamlined.

  Many hitherto difficult to discover features have been moved into their
own sub-categories, new icons also being added where applicable.  The
tree menu and the top-level icons have also been synchronized.

  New UI for CA and Certificate management.

  All tunables have been merged - loader, sysctl and rc.conf variables can
be managed from the same UI.


** Security **

  Software updates are cryptographically signed, rendering the hashes
unnecessary for anything but manual updates.


** Miscellaneous **

  Jail templates have been simplified and only optional templates are
now listed.

  Jails can now use DHCP to acquire their IPv4 configuration.

  ZFS features added: Embedded Data feature flag, general performance
improvements.