Bluefin Recommended Settings and Optimizations

[bacardi8]

The simple version is that the actual data itself is stored within whatever dataset you're using on your server, whereas chart host path mounts, SMB, and NFS are all different protocols for accessing that data externally to truenas (which is the case even for charts installed via truenas since they're containerized). Making changes to your configuration in regards to any of these three things doesn't actually alter the dataset itself so your data isn't going anywhere.

The Windows share you see is made available via SMB, which again since you aren't touching that means the share won't be lost either.

The only thing you're doing is changing the chart's access method to your data from a Host Path mount to NFS. Under the settings for your chart under Additional App Storage you should see the host path you created earlier which you can simply remove. At this point all that will have chaged is that this one chart only will have lost access to the data temporarily. You can then follow the NFS share steps above within the same settings panel to restore the charts access to your dataset via this other method. The settings you need to apply to the NFS section will be nearly the same as those that were in the Host Path section.

You should stop each chart you need to make this change to before proceeding and then start them again after the change has been made.

This is technically unrelated but be sure not to update any of your trucharts based charts until you've fully handled making these changes and have updated to 22.12.2 as truecharts is overhauling their chart implementation at the moment and there's been some road bumps along the way so you don't want to be dealing with multiple problems at once in case you do run into issues with the updates.

Thanks for a good explanation.
I will maybe try that out and I will let you know how it went.

Thanks

 

[bacardi8]

Thanks for a good explanation.
I will maybe try that out and I will let you know how it went.

Thanks

Hi again,

seems it went smoothly so far.
I was able to create NFS share and also got both apps (Emby and Plex) active right away. After that I updated scale to 22.12.2 and still all good.
Both apps again goes active right away and I have access to my files also, only thing now is that I cant update Emby and Plex to latest version, but I think I read somewhere around here that these apps has to be new installed,
can that be...???

 

[bacardi8]

Hi again,

seems it went smoothly so far.
I was able to create NFS share and also got both apps (Emby and Plex) active right away. After that I updated scale to 22.12.2 and still all good.
Both apps again goes active right away and I have access to my files also, only thing now is that I cant update Emby and Plex to latest version, but I think I read somewhere around here that these apps has to be new installed,
can that be...???

It was back on page 4 in this thread that I read uninstalling the apps is needed, then install again the new ones.

 

[bacardi8]

So far I didn't uninstall and reinstall Emby and Plex after my update to 22.12.2, they are still both running fine with the change to NFS share, but they can't be updated. But I'm still a little worried about loosing my access to them by doing so.

What I instead tried out so far is to install Jellyfin, just to check out if there is some issues with access and so on.
All installation and going active went fine by using similar settings as I currently have in Emby, means using NFS share.
I'm also able to see and point at my media folder in Jellyfin when trying to add library to Jellyfin, but it after I added a folder, in this case a folder that contains music albums, this folder then is empty, means Jellyfin don't see the media files inside that folder.

I guess this has something to do with permissions somewhere, because everything else seems to run smooth.
If somebody here have similar situation, or knows where I should look to solve this, I would love to hear from you.

 

[Daisuke]

My question now is, if im going to update to latest bluefin version, will i then still be able to access my files like current...???

I'm using the same setup, the only difference is your TrueCharts apps need to use the NFS shares, instead of HostPath. You will also need to delete the apps and re-install them, is a @truecharts requirement. With latest releases, you don't need to disable the shares or the HostPath validation, to properly update your apps.

My SMB and NFS shares have the same path, basically you need to add a set of NFS shares with an identical path to your SMB shares:

I need the SMB shares to access files from my Mac.

 

[bacardi8]

I'm using the same setup, the only difference is your TrueCharts apps need to use the NFS shares, instead of HostPath. You will also need to delete the apps and re-install them, is a @truecharts requirement. With latest releases, you don't need to disable the shares or the HostPath validation, to properly update your apps.

View attachment 66146

My SMB and NFS shares have the same path, basically you need to add a set of NFS shares with an identical path to your SMB shares:

View attachment 66147

I need the SMB shares to access files from my Mac.

Hi Daisuke,

Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate that.

I'm at work right now, I will try that out later when I'm back home, and let you know how it went.

 

[bacardi8]

Hi again,

NFS shares is created, app settings like the above mentioned, Emby updated, Emby gets active, so all seems good, but I ran into exactly the issue I was afraid off, means Emby want me to create a server from scratch, and not just logging in to my existing one.

NFS settings I set similar to SMB settings, but in my SMB settings I only have " /mnt/software/opt " so I set same in NFS.
I can see you have " /mnt/software/opt/downloads ", could this be the issue...??
Could it be something about permissions you think...???

 

[bacardi8]

I will here try to give some additional information from what I experience so far, maybe this could be a further help to identify the issues.

What I have is 3 different scenarios.

1. is the scenario mentioned above.
2. If I setup a Jellyfin server from scratch (means no current Jellyfin on my system and no existing Jellyfin server at all).
installing the app with the similar settings as Emby, means with NFS share (as picture above) all goes smooth, after it went active I can
open Jellyfin and start creating libraries. Jellyfin see all my folders under my media shared folder, but it don't see the media files themselves inside the folders (music-albums etc). Means now I have Jellyfin created so all good, I can restart the app or my system and Jellyfin is there and goes active right away. If I then delete the Jellyfin app and re-install it again, then it goes active and if I open the app my newly created Jellyfin server is there, BUT I can't login, something is blocking it, I can click on it and but it says not able to login.

3. I still have Plex installed without any changes, means it can still not update because I didn't delete it and re-installed it from the updated chart so far, but Plex is running smoothly and all is functioning.
If I change the settings in Plex to also use NFS share it still all runs smooth, no issues at all.
The 2 above mentioned scenarios tells me that if I would delete Plex and re-install it, I would get it updated, but I will for sure loose the access
like in the Emby and Jellyfin cases. I still guess that this could be relaying to something messed up in my permissions/settings/user/etc.

I'm still new to all this, so I'm very lost I must say, I really hope there is a kind of solution for this.

 

[Daisuke]

I can see you have " /mnt/software/opt/downloads ", could this be the issue...??

Related to permissions, make sure user 3000 (you) is assigned to each container. All this is explained into guide.

I mount inside container /opt/downloads, as NFS share /mnt/software/opt/downloads:

This is what the container sees in /opt/downloads:

I also mount inside container /media, as NFS share /mnt/default/media/center:

This is what the container sees in /media:

 

[Mark_the_Red]

Thanks Daisuke for putting this together. I leapfrogged Angelfish entirely and went straight to Bluefin from Core and its working flawlessly using your guide.

Two quirks I had were (may seem obvious to you):
(a) Don't set up the Datasets folder structure in your software drive beforehand like you wrote (i.e., software->ix-applications or software->home, tec.). Let the app install create the folders first; it caused a lot of problems trying to install Plex by doing it beforehand (permissions issue)
(b) You need to uncheck the plex disable "Enable Host Path Safety Checks" in order for it to find the media folder. Here is a reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/truenas/comments/12eskqq/community_plex_container_wont_deploy_after/)

Coming from Core, I can't get over just how much faster Plex works. Seeking, 4k encoding / transoding, etc. in the Kubernetes environment is WAY superior to the Core setup. Its night and day.

I didn't change the folder structure to Media/Center like you recommended because I have a lot clients in my home network using the default one I created. The upgrade didn't break this link so I saw little benefit in messing with it. If I have problems later, well, I only have myself to blame.

I just wanted to say thanks for putting it together, and it was very helpful.

 

[Daisuke]

You need to uncheck the plex disable "Enable Host Path Safety Checks" in order for it to find the media folder.

I don't have such issue, you should not disable the host path.

 

[anodos]

I don't have such issue, you should not disable the host path.

If plex and SMB are using same paths you should disable host path validation.

 

[Mark_the_Red]

^^^^^
This. It wasn't an either or decision for me. It was either disable host path validation or no plex media server.

 

[Daisuke]

If plex and SMB are using same paths you should disable host path validation.

I have host path enabled:

I'm using the following shares, SMB for my Mac and NFS for @truecharts Kubernetes apps:

Plex uses the NFS shares to connect to dataset:

@Mark_the_Red, see above configuration with host path enabled.

 

[Mark_the_Red]

Thanks for replying Daisuke. It would be an understatement to say that you have far more experience and skills with Freenas than I do. I'm going to let a sleeping dog lie and leave my working system as is. Unless there is a compelling reason to start tinkering with my working server, the risk reward ratio is near infinitely high for me. I still have PTSD from diagnosing permissions issues in Truenas/Freenas from builds past. It just werks right now for me.