We can use FreeNAS for file sharing. Every major operating system is supported with SMB/CIFS (Windows file shares), NFS (UNIX file shares) and AFP (Apple File Shares) as well as FTP, iSCSI (block sharing) and other methods of sharing data over the network are available. Most operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, many Linux distributions, and PC-BSD® can connect using SMB shares with little or no additional configuration needed on the client side. AFP is primarily used by Mac OSX and is well suited for a network environment that only connects with Macintosh clients.

FreeNAS system can be managed from a Web User Interface. A setup Wizard further simplifies configuration at installation time or later in the setup process. Volume creation, or the setting of permissions on individual shares or performing software updates, can be done without missing a critical step or encountering a silent failure.

FreeNAS uses ZFS because it is an enterprise-ready open source file system and volume manager with flexibility and commitment to data integrity.

Snapshots of the entire filesystem can be made and saved at any time. As long as a snapshot exists, administrators can access files as they were when the snapshot was made. At any time, the entire filesystem can be rolled back to the most recent snapshot. Older snapshots can be cloned and accessed to recover data from that version of the filesystem. From the web interface, users can see how much space a particular snapshot is occupying on the volume and delete, clone, or roll back to individual snapshots as needed.

FreeNAS provides Backup Services like Windows Backup ,rsync etc.