File Management on FreeNAS

[Mark WatIng]

Hi All,

Quick question - whats the best way of managing files on FreeNAS volumes?

I have a Mac and share my volumes using AFP.

I recently moved from Xpenology (Sysnology DSM) to FreeNAS and one think I miss most is the graphical/web based file management and the ability to close the browser knowing that the task was running in the background - really useful for disk backups to external devices and moving around large volumes of files.

Perhaps I missing something easy here?

Many thanks,
Mark.

 

[m0nkey_]

All file managed in FreeNAS is done remotely, unless you want to manipulate files over SSH or something.

I also suggest switching from AFP to SMB since Apple is deprecating the AFP protocol.

 

[Mark WatIng]

Hi Monkey -

All file managed in FreeNAS is done remotely, unless you want to manipulate files over SSH or something.

I also suggest switching from AFP to SMB since Apple is deprecating the AFP protocol.

Thanks Monkey - wanted something that I could do locally with a nice graphical interface especially as I use my Macbook for work so. Was thinking about setting up a VM and using a FreeBSD/Linux distro - seems overkill. - might check out docker container.

re AFP could switch to SMB although I use Time Machine so don't think that works over SMB?

Thanks
Mark.

 

[m0nkey_]

I use Time Machine so don't think that works over SMB?

Support for Time Machine over SMB is coming. As far as I know, most of the work has been done upstream in the Samba project. I could be wrong, but it may be one of the features of FreeNAS 11.1.

 

[Mark WatIng]

Just read about it - cool - need to think through my shares to my Mac - do I go SMB or NFS...... (thats another thread).

 

[danb35]

File management through the web GUI is often requested, but thus far the devs haven't decided to add that feature, citing security concerns. They did add the Midnight Commander a few versions back, which helps a bit (especially if run in a tmux session), but it isn't near as nice as a web-based file manager.

 

[Mark WatIng]

ok thanks for the update danb35!

 

[SweetAndLow]

winscp? This would let you manipulate files on the server with a gui, kindof.

 

[Mark WatIng]

winscp? This would let you manipulate files on the server with a gui, kindof.

thanks but looking for a local GUI manager for FreeNAS that is asynchronous

 

[Ericloewe]

local GUI manager for FreeNAS that is asynchronous

What on earth is the asynchronous bit supposed to mean here?

 

[danb35]

What on earth is the asynchronous bit supposed to mean here?

Presumably that it will return control to the user before completing the desired operation--if you tell it, for example, to copy 3 TB of data from one location to another, it will execute that task while allowing you to perform other operations. You know, like the web GUI doesn't do.

 

[Mark WatIng]

correct - you kick off a file transfer move etc.... and then it runs as a background task - so you can either carry on with other tasks or close the browser and we connect later on to check on progress - I believe the new UI is being rewritten with this principle in mind which could be step one to this file management fucntionality - I've raised a feature request - see what happens.

Thx
M

 

[Satyricon]

thanks but looking for a local GUI manager for FreeNAS that is asynchronous

Maybe late in the game, but try screen + midnight commander trough SSH

https://www.freshports.org/misc/mc

https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=screen&sektion=1

 

[danb35]

Maybe late in the game,

Just a little bit, since I mentioned mc in October. Though I think tmux is preferred over screen for FreeBSD.