Documentation

Everything you need.
All in one place.

Comprehensive guides covering installation, configuration, and administration. From getting started to advanced operations.

🚀

5-Minute Storage Setup

New to OviOS? Go from a freshly booted node to SMB, NFS and iSCSI storage in about five minutes. No storage skills required.

Start Here →
📥

Installation Guide

Boot from ISO, install to a dedicated USB/SSD, configure networking, and prepare your system for storage operations.

Read Guide →
📖

Admin Guide

The complete reference for day-to-day administration: pools, datasets, shares, clustering, and troubleshooting.

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⚙️

Options Guide

Understand boot options, kernel parameters, and OviOS-specific configuration flags to tailor your deployment.

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💾

Live-OS & Stateless Guide

Run OviOS from USB, ISO or PXE without installing it. New in 6.2: every node restores its own configuration from your pools at boot.

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🌐

ovios-web Guide

Access the web-based management console for pool monitoring, dataset management, and service configuration.

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🔁

Replication Guide (retadm)

Set up automated replication between OviOS systems using the retadm tool for backup and recovery: read-only destinations, promote, demote and changing the destination.

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🔗

Cluster Guide (ovios-cluster)

Build a high-availability cluster: a mirrored secondary (even at your DR site), a floating IP, witnesses, fencing, manual or automatic failover, manual demotion, and the Cluster Stats page.

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🪣

S3 Object Storage Guide

Turn a ZFS dataset into S3-compatible object storage: guided setup, web console, and connecting the AWS CLI or rclone.

Read Guide →
📰

Release Notes 6.2.1

What is new in OviOS 6.2.1 "Polaris": stateless operation, CHAP, thin LUNs with UNMAP, security fixes and more.

Read Notes →

Quick Reference

Common commands and workflows at a glance.

Using smb commands

ovios-shell ➤ smb-user list
smbuser:1001:
ovios-shell ➤ smb-export list

Active SMB Shares
Dataset                                  Status
-------------------------------------------------------
data/ns                                  on
data/smbshare                            on

ovios-shell ➤

Show LUN mappings

ovios-shell ➤ lun mappings
ID   TARGET IQN                                 LUN   PATH         STATUS
--   ----------                                 ---   ----         ------
1    iqn.2026-03.org.ovios:0xo30fecif1y-tg-01   1     /esx/lun34   ACTIVE
5    iqn.2026-03.org.ovios:5nm5h6nlgaap-dwqe    1     /esx/lun4    IDLE
9    iqn.2026-03.org.ovios:9yoz69ixbnft-tg2     1     /esx/lungf   IDLE

Show all services status

ovios-shell ➤ service status-all

[ OviOS System Dashboard ]
SERVICE      STATUS             WORKLOAD / DETAILS
-------      ------             ------------------
SNMPD        OFFLINE   -
SNMPTRAPD    OFFLINE   -
AUDITD       OFFLINE   -
NFS          OFFLINE   -
ISCSI        ONLINE    6 Active Sessions
SSH          ONLINE    Listening on port 22
OVIOS-WEB    OFFLINE   -
MULTIPATHD   OFFLINE   -
COCKPIT      OFFLINE   -
SMARTD       OFFLINE   -
S3           ONLINE    -
SMB          OFFLINE   -
CRON         OFFLINE   -
NTP          OFFLINE   -

ovios-shell ➤

Enabling iSCSI

ovios-shell ➤ options iscsi
option iscsi.address           None
option iscsi.debug             off
option iscsi.enable            off
option iscsi.port              3260
ovios-shell ➤ options iscsi.enable 1
Configuration iscsi.enable updated.
ovios-shell ➤ options iscsi
option iscsi.address           None
option iscsi.debug             off
option iscsi.enable            on
option iscsi.port              3260
ovios-shell ➤
ovios-shell ➤ service iscsi status
Service iscsi is: Running
ovios-shell ➤