1st storage server - FreeNAS!

[Sir SSV]

So when I go into storage -> volumes -> volume manager

Create a volume name (such as "tank") and under Volume layout do I only select 8 disks then press Add Extra Device and add another 8 disks until I have 3 vdev's of 8 disks?

Also, can this be done via the manual setup?

 

[Ericloewe]

Yes to both questions.

 

[Stux]

You can create and destroy datasets whenever you want, with no real restrictions other than what you're willing to deal with.

And move/rename too :)

 

[Sir SSV]

And move/rename too :)

With the datasets, are these essentially folders that will have my files in? For example, I need 4 folders (movies, music, photos, apps). Do I need to create 4 separate datasets (giving each one a record size of 1M?)

 

[Stux]

With the datasets, are these essentially folders that will have my files in? For example, I need 4 folders (movies, music, photos, apps). Do I need to create 4 separate datasets (giving each one a record size of 1M?)

They are filesystems. They can have fundamentally different properties each, and can be shared/replicated/shapshotted and cloned separately.

It may make sense to have a 1M record size on your movies, but it does not on your music directory. Ergo that'd provide a good reason to use a dataset.

A good way is to think about your backup policy. If you will be treating the set of data differently to another set.... then they should be in different datasets ;)

But TV and Movies? Both Media to me and would be folders in a media dataset.

 

[Ericloewe]

It may make sense to have a 1M record size on your movies, but it does not on your music directory. Ergo that'd provide a good reason to use a dataset.

It might for music too.

 

[Sir SSV]

They are filesystems. They can have fundamentally different properties each, and can be shared/replicated/shapshotted and cloned separately.

It may make sense to have a 1M record size on your movies, but it does not on your music directory. Ergo that'd provide a good reason to use a dataset.

A good way is to think about your backup policy. If you will be treating the set of data differently to another set.... then they should be in different datasets ;)

But TV and Movies? Both Media to me and would be folders in a media dataset.

Ok this makes a lot of sense. Now this might be a really dumb question, once I have created a dataset for media, to add sub folders inside that dataset for each category ie. movies, tv shows, etc do I just create folder on my windows machine (once SMBs shares has been completed)?

 

[danb35]

to add sub folders inside that dataset for each category ie. movies, tv shows, etc do I just create folder on my windows machine

Yes, or you can do it from the command line in FreeNAS if you want.

 

[Stux]

Ok this makes a lot of sense. Now this might be a really dumb question, once I have created a dataset for media, to add sub folders inside that dataset for each category ie. movies, tv shows, etc do I just create folder on my windows machine (once SMBs shares has been completed)?

Yes. Or on the command line.

Btw, experiments on record size:
https://www.joyent.com/blog/bruning-questions-zfs-record-size

 

[Arwen]

Ok this makes a lot of sense. Now this might be a really dumb question, once I have created a dataset for media, to add sub folders inside that dataset for each category ie. movies, tv shows, etc do I just create folder on my windows machine (once SMBs shares has been completed)?

In my case, I did something like this, with only Media being the separate dataset. All the children are folders / directories, for the sole reason to make sanity out of chaos .

Media
Media/Videos
Media/Videos/Action
Media/Videos/Action/MacGyver
Media/Videos/Action/MacGyver/1
Media/Videos/Action/MacGyver/2
...
Media/Videos/Fantasy
Media/Videos/Fantasy/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer
...

 

[Sir SSV]

Thanks for all the help guys! I have 2 more questions, in my situation if I create 2 datasets (media and general where all movies, tv shows etc will go in media and music, apps go in general) under Share Type I should set this to Windows as this will be the primary computers connecting to it?

And when I create the smb shares, will these 2 datasets appear in the shares and then I can create sub-folders under the relevant dataset?

If I delete a dataset, does this mean all files stored in that dataset will be deleted?

 

[Stux]

Thanks for all the help guys! I have 2 more questions, in my situation if I create 2 datasets (media and general where all movies, tv shows etc will go in media and music, apps go in general) under Share Type I should set this to Windows as this will be the primary computers connecting to it?

Seems like a good idea

And when I create the smb shares, will these 2 datasets appear in the shares and then I can create sub-folders under the relevant dataset?

Yes

If I delete a dataset, does this mean all files stored in that dataset will be deleted?

Yes. Gone for good too.

 

[Sir SSV]

Seems like a good idea



Yes



Yes. Gone for good too.

Thanks :) I'm starting to make progress! I've made 3 separate datasets being

* Media (with 1024k record size)
* Music (with default record size)
* General (with default record size)

Now I need to set users or permissions as when I try to map the network drive in Windows, the log in credentials are incorrect. Should I create a new user or use the standard "root" and add this somewhere in permissions of the share?

 

[Stux]

@m0nkey_ has a good video tutorial on this

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas-and-samba-smb-permissions-video.8/

 

[Sir SSV]

@m0nkey_ has a good video tutorial on this

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas-and-samba-smb-permissions-video.8/

Perfect! That fixed all my permissions, etc and I now have full mapped network drives on my Windows 10 machine :)

Because I have 3 datasets as per my previous post, is it normal for all 3 datasets to be identical in size?

 

[Stux]

Perfect! That fixed all my permissions, etc and I now have full mapped network drives on my Windows 10 machine :)

Because I have 3 datasets as per my previous post, is it normal for all 3 datasets to be identical in size?

You mean available space?

 

[Sir SSV]

You mean available space?

Yes. Currently mine says 119TB free of 119TB across 3 shares (General, Music, Media) in Windows 10

 

[nightshade00013]

If all the datasets are on the same pool they will show the same free space. The datasets are not pre provisioned and limited to only a portion of it but the space used from one will subtract from another.

 

[Stux]

Unless you set quotas on the dataset, but there is no reason to do that on a personal system

 

[Sir SSV]

Unless you set quotas on the dataset, but there is no reason to do that on a personal system

Ok, this all makes sense now :)

I am still contemplating whether I should have 3 separate datasets or if I just create 1 dataset and place subfolders for media/music/general