FreeNAS 11.2 new GUI suggestions and discussion thread

ChaosBlades

Contributor
Joined
Jul 4, 2015
Messages
137
The new UI is pretty, slick and visually refreshing. However, usability wise it is a downgrade in some areas and feels less responsive. Less information is displayed or takes more clicks to access. Items are tucked away into drop down menu requiring more clicks. Information sometimes uses too much empty space.

For example, the storage view.

https://i.imgur.com/cSOSF9p.png
Old UI a single click shows all the relevant information for each pool/datasets

https://i.imgur.com/ULFJsGW.png
New UI a single click gives you this

https://i.imgur.com/NMv1Mot.png
Takes 4 additional clicks to get same information as the old UI since everything is neatly collapsed. Maybe neat if it can remember the state it was last in. If you edit options of a dataset, everything is once again collapsed.
To be fair, if you only have a few pools this is fine but once you get to a certain number of pools it turns into information overload and you go cross-eyed trying to find what you want. The design has its pros and cons.
 

AlcSi

Dabbler
Joined
Sep 20, 2019
Messages
41
  1. Table columns + selection (4): The ability to customise the displayed tables columns (and a larger range of data columns for those who want to see additional data), so people with narrow screens can choose to see fewer columns but those with larger displays are not prevented from seeing more (and can choose just those exact columns useful to them).

  • Yes, that.
    While organizing my rsync tasks, which are my main tool, I'm raging that I'm not able to add the "cron-style" schedule to make sure tasks are running at given times. With 10+ tasks, going in "Edit" to see the schedule and compare it to others can be a real pain-**-***-***.
    This can apply to many table layouts in FreeNAS (another example is Dataset Permissions). Adding much more choice in the "Columns |v|" drop-down menu would be great to give more "power"/choice to the user.
  • I don't like the fact that widening columns widens them both directions, left and right. Excel-style looks more generic and helpful to me.
  • In a given session, I'd like to see the pools stay unfolded when I edit a Dataset and save it. Right now, the UI closes all the pools.
    Also, maybe, pools could unfold with a click anywhere on their row. Not sure about this one.
  • Finally, I'll also say I really like how the design looks and reacts. Congrats on this.
 

eshwayri

Dabbler
Joined
May 29, 2016
Messages
18
Not sure if I should open a bug report about this. Everything is working fine; this is a visual issue. In the new GUI under iSCSI/Initiators, when I got to edit a group, the "Initiators" line is one long run-on. In the old GUI it shows them one per-line. It would be nice if there is a space or comma to delimit them. Also, I don't dare edit them in the new GUI because I am not sure what the end result will be when it saves them.
 

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FooisOP

Cadet
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
7
I dig the new UI. It is fantastic.

I do want make a note about Plugins, and Jails. This is quite annoying, and I don't understand why there is two different tabs with same intent. Plugins/installed should be moved in Jails. The only thing that sets apart from Jails is two features in plugins/installed are "management, and update." That should be moved to Jails tab. This way Plugins has one intent, that is to install. Remove the "available" tab because plugins itself is a collection of available plugins. Nothing more. Jails is a place that one manage the installations, updates, and configurations. Keep it simple, and stupid. KISS.

Keep up the good work, devs.
 

Bes

Cadet
Joined
Jul 11, 2020
Messages
2
Hi, folks!
First off - thank you for your great and underestimated efforts in FreeNAS project.

Let me add some thoughts andsuggestions.

1. Being more or less newbie in terms of huge arrays i would like to keep my eyes on disk condition.
So would it be possible to output main SMART parameters of disks in existing interface, there are a lot of free space?
Снимок экрана 2020-11-17 в 17.14.23.png
Say, total Tb written for SSDs (as main wearing factor) and Reallocated/Pending sectors for classical HDDs?

2. There are a beautiful script for tracking system temperature and appropriately tune rotating speeds of the fans.
But there are no builtin interface function in "setup and forgot" style nor easy way to check if the script runs in its way.
All existing "command line" tools are good for handful tuning but aren't helpful for checking real use.
 
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