First server build

[IQless]

The Jails will usually live on the pool, unless you specify something else (I don't think you can place it on the OS drive).

The best way to transfer files to FreeNAS is over the network. It is a NAS after all.

 

[Mannekino]

I was assuming you would run your download client(s) also in a jail.

 

[julong]

I was assuming you would run your download client(s) also in a jail.

Oh I use my laptop running a VPN. I don't want to put VPN on my server cause it's been causing issues streaming to other devices

 

[julong]

The Jails will usually live on the pool, unless you specify something else (I don't think you can place it on the OS drive).

The best way to transfer files to FreeNAS is over the network. It is a NAS after all.

So when I download Plex media server on free Nas put it in the HDD? Will this cause issues when adding more HDD and telling Plex to also use those files for Plex? Is there a reason you can't put it on the HDD with the OS? Just curious. Wouldn't transferring over network take forever with somefile 30 to 50gb

 

[Mannekino]

Oh I use my laptop running a VPN. I don't want to put VPN on my server cause it's been causing issues streaming to other devices

This is where jails come in, they can have their own virtualized network stack and you can run a VPN client inside a jail and use a download client to connect to the outside over VPN.

So when I download Plex media server on free Nas put it in the HDD? Will this cause issues when adding more HDD and telling Plex to also use those files for Plex? Is there a reason you can't put it on the HDD with the OS? Just curious. Wouldn't transferring over network take forever with somefile 30 to 50gb

You have to assign a dataset to be used for the jail system. Inside this data set a whole bunch of other datasets will be created including one for each of your jails you create. You're not supposed to store any actual content inside the jail. You have a separate dataset for your movies. Then you create a link to that dataset inside your jail. You can do this through the GUI.

For example lets say you have dataset for your movies called tank/movies which is accesable through /mnt/tank/movies on your FreeNAS server. After creating your Plex jail you can mount that dataset inside the jail at /media. So when you are inside the jail you will see the movies in /media.

You can do all this with a single storage pool but I have the following setup:

• Boot Pool: 2 mirrored USB drives containing just the boot environments for FreeNAS (very little writes)
• System Pool: 2 mirrored SSDs containing the system dataset and I'm using this for my jails and virtual machines also
• Data Pool: 4x 4TB drives in RAIDZ1 containing my media content

 

[julong]

This is where jails come in, they can have their own virtualized network stack and you can run a VPN client inside a jail and use a download client to connect to the outside over VPN.



You have to assign a dataset to be used for the jail system. Inside this data set a whole bunch of other datasets will be created including one for each of your jails you create. You're not supposed to store any actual content inside the jail. You have a separate dataset for your movies. Then you create a link to that dataset inside your jail. You can do this through the GUI.

For example lets say you have dataset for your movies called tank/movies which is accesable through /mnt/tank/movies on your FreeNAS server. After creating your Plex jail you can mount that dataset inside the jail at /media. So when you are inside the jail you will see the movies in /media.

Wow that went over my head. Won't a VPN in a VPN severely slow download speeds.

So if I out Plex on one of the hard drives I can't use that drive for storing? Sorry if I'm being obtuse, but my specialty is medicine not computers.

 

[Mannekino]

Wow that went over my head. Won't a VPN in a VPN severely slow download speeds.

So if I out Plex on one of the hard drives I can't use that drive for storing? Sorry if I'm being obtuse, but my specialty is medicine not computers.

Depends on what kind of VPN service you have, you don't have to use that setup.

You can use the same storage pool for both your jail storage (your Plex instance) and your media content. You just don't want to actually store your content inside the jail but rather tie the media content dataset to the Plex jail so Plex has access to the media content.

https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/jails.html#additional-storage

I suggest taking 30-60 mins or so and read a bit through the manual.

This: https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/storage.html
And: https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/jails.html

All of this will be way easier to understand if you have the concepts of VDevs, Storage Pool and Datasets locked down a bit more.

 

[julong]

Depends on what kind of VPN service you have, you don't have to use that setup.

You can use the same storage pool for both your jail storage (your Plex instance) and your media content. You just don't want to actually store your content inside the jail but rather tie the media content dataset to the Plex jail so Plex has access to the media content.

https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/jails.html#additional-storage

I suggest taking 30-60 mins or so and read a bit through the manual.

This: https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/storage.html
And: https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/jails.html

All of this will be way easier to understand if you have the concepts of VDevs, Storage Pool and Datasets locked down a bit more.

Ok thanks I'll give it a read after I get off work. I use express VPN.

So the Plex media server is a jail? Or do I have to create a jail?! What exactly is a jail.

 

[Mannekino]

This is a cool video about extending an existing pool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76qnBjZF65g

A jail is like a virtual machine but it uses the kernel of the host. But conceptually you can think of it as a virtual machine or a container.

When you install a plugin through the GUI (like Plex for example) it automatically will create a jail for you where Plex will be running in.

 

[IQless]

Wow that went over my head. Won't a VPN in a VPN severely slow download speeds.

like @Mannekino said, this depends on the VPN service you use, but it should not be much slower than when you use the same service on your laptop.

 

[julong]

This is a cool video about extending an existing pool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76qnBjZF65g

A jail is like a virtual machine but it uses the kernel of the host. But conceptually you can think of it as a virtual machine or a container.

When you install a plugin through the GUI (like Plex for example) it automatically will create a jail for you where Plex will be running in.

Ok thank you. Sounds easy enough. Just download the server and freenas does the rest. Then I just tell Plex where the files are.

 

[julong]

Source: is the directory or dataset on the FreeNAS® system which will be accessed by the jail. FreeNAS® creates the directory if it does not exist. This directory must reside outside of the pool or dataset being used by the jail. This is why it is recommended to create a separate dataset to store jails, so the dataset holding the jails is always separate from any datasets used for storage on the FreeNAS® system

Is this saying that the Plex server should be outside the HDD? And put it on like an add? Or am I reading it wrong?

 

[IQless]

It says that the jail itself should be in a different dataset. IIRC when you install the plex plugin, it will generate a jails dataset and store the plex jail inside of that dataset.

I used this guide when I first set up my FreeNAS, it is on an older FreeNAS version, but It should not be much of a difference (I think).

 

[Mannekino]

Yeah, you reading it wrong. The datasets can be on the same storage pool. This is my setup as explained above with my different pools. I have a seperate pool for my system dataset but you can have it all on one pool

 

[Chris Moore]

Also I would put Plex server on ssd that I hold my OS on correct?

No. In FreeNAS, the boot media only holds the OS and configuration database, along with a tiny number of other system resource files. The storage is all in one or more other storage pools.
Jails is a Para-virtualization infrastructure in FreeNAS that allows you to run other software like the Plex plug-in in a container that is separated from the system OS.

 

[julong]

Yeah, you reading it wrong. The datasets can be on the same storage pool. This is my setup as explained above with my different pools. I have a separate pool for my system dataset but you can have it all on one pool

View attachment 28647

Ok,let me read some of the links you posted and I'll get back with questions I might have.

 

[Chris Moore]

Your board of choice supports Supermicro SATA DOM and @Chris Moore seems to be a big fan of that for the OS

https://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/SATADOM.cfm

Otherwise just get a good small sized SSD

I'm using 2 USB drives in a mirrored setup for FreeNAS itself.

I like the idea of the DOM (Disk on Module) but I think they are on the expensive side, so I usually suggest a regular, small capacity, SSD because it is more economical. Particularly if you are able to take advantage of quality used parts. The last time I built a new system for myself, I used a mirrored pair of 2.5" laptop style spinning disks in 40GB capacity. They have been working great for over two years now.
The last system I selected for work was configured with a mirrored pair of 120GB SSDs for the boot pool. It's the smallest set of disks I could order.
FreeNAS only needs about 8GB for the basic install but having more than that is recommended.

 

[julong]

I like the idea of the DOM (Disk on Module) but I think they are on the expensive side, so I usually suggest a regular, small capacity, SSD because it is more economical. Particularly if you are able to take advantage of quality used parts. The last time I built a new system for myself, I used a mirrored pair of 2.5" laptop style spinning disks in 40GB capacity. They have been working great for over two years now.
The last system I selected for work was configured with a mirrored pair of 120GB SSDs for the boot pool. It's the smallest set of disks I could order.
FreeNAS only needs about 8GB for the basic install but having more than that is recommended.

If I were to use a Dom? What would you recommend baised on the motherboard I want to use. And why are you mirroring the drive for the OS?

 

[Chris Moore]

If I were to use a Dom? What would you recommend baised on the motherboard I want to use.

The Supermicro SATA DOM (SuperDOM) has some reliability advantages, in my experience. Other brands, usually the very cheap ones, are not very reliable but the SuperDOM devices are pretty decent. I have not seen one go bad, but I have seen other brands go bad. Your mileage may vary.

Planning to buy
motherboard - supermicro atx X10SRL-F-O

The two yellow SATA ports on the system board are special in that they supply power so that you can use a SuperDOM in each of those two ports without any need for additional power connections. That is what you were being told here:

Your board of choice supports Supermicro SATA DOM

If you wanted to spend for that, this should be fine:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...dom-_-9SIA5EM56D9416-_-2&Description=superdom

What would you recommend baised on the motherboard I want to use. And why are you mirroring the drive for the OS?

Why I use a mirrored pair of drives, even for the boot pool. First, understand that FreeNAS, or more accurately ZFS (the file system) is handling the mirror of the boot pool. The OS can be installed that way from the beginning or you can add a mirror later. The thing about ZFS is that it uses parity data not only to recover from a failed disk but also to recover from any data error that may occur. If you have no parity (single disk) then ZFS can tell you that there was a data error because it is still recording checksum data, but it has no parity data to recover from. I use a mirror for the boot pool so it is more resilient and less likely to leave my system in a state where I need to work fix it. I know I could recover from a failed single disk, if I were to run that way. All you need to do is keep a backup copy of the config db, do a fresh install, restore the config, done. I have been through that a couple times, back when I was using USB sticks for boot media, but I have other things I would rather do with my time, so I build my systems to be as robust as possible, just so I don't need to fiddle with them.

I didn't look at all the other posts yet, so I don't know if anyone already addressed this:

( do i need a raid controller if so which one) - how do I get more than 10 hdd attached to this motherboard

The way I connect massive numbers of drives to my systems is by using SAS HBA cards. I have links to some very informative videos about them here if you want to learn more:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/informational-videos-mostly-about-sas-hardware.105/

 

[julong]

The Supermicro SATA DOM (SuperDOM) has some reliability advantages, in my experience. Other brands, usually the very cheap ones, are not very reliable but the SuperDOM devices are pretty decent. I have not seen one go bad, but I have seen other brands go bad. Your mileage may vary.

View attachment 28651
The two yellow SATA ports on the system board are special in that they supply power so that you can use a SuperDOM in each of those two ports without any need for additional power connections. That is what you were being told here:

If you wanted to spend for that, this should be fine:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...dom-_-9SIA5EM56D9416-_-2&Description=superdom

Why I use a mirrored pair of drives, even for the boot pool. First, understand that FreeNAS, or more accurately ZFS (the file system) is handling the mirror of the boot pool. The OS can be installed that way from the beginning or you can add a mirror later. The thing about ZFS is that it uses parity data not only to recover from a failed disk but also to recover from any data error that may occur. If you have no parity (single disk) then ZFS can tell you that there was a data error because it is still recording checksum data, but it has no parity data to recover from. I use a mirror for the boot pool so it is more resilient and less likely to leave my system in a state where I need to work fix it. I know I could recover from a failed single disk, if I were to run that way. All you need to do is keep a backup copy of the config db, do a fresh install, restore the config, done. I have been through that a couple times, back when I was using USB sticks for boot media, but I have other things I would rather do with my time, so I build my systems to be as robust as possible, just so I don't need to fiddle with them.

I didn't look at all the other posts yet, so I don't know if anyone already addressed this:

The way I connect massive numbers of drives to my systems is by using SAS HBA cards. I have links to some very informative videos about them here if you want to learn more:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/informational-videos-mostly-about-sas-hardware.105/

Thank you. I'll definitely watch it. Is there any way to run two SSD or more than 1 hdd off a single stata port?

Can I use raidz2 with an HDD connected to the motherboard and those connected to a hba?