FreeNAS 9 General Questions

[Faisal Karim]

OK, so I managed to start with a FreeNAS 9.2.1.4 via a USB on a Desktop (8GB RAM, 2x2TB Hard Drive). I got to the the Admin WebUI and setup the Global Configuration. I found a lot of guides online but i am still confused about a few settings and techniques. I will appreciate if you can help me with some of these questions. They are as follow:

• Static IP - Should i set it up on the NAS box or the router? or both? Which would be better for Remote access?
• Which share is better? I will have various end clients accessing this NAS (Windows, Apple, Android, Cell Phones, Tablets, etc) Which share should i use (AFP, NFS, or CIFS)? Can i have all three shares? Can all three share the same folder? I see CIFS easier to set up and map to windows but i hear NFS is fast. I will be the only one with edit rights, rest all will have read only rights to stream home videos or view slideshows, again from different end clients.
• What is the difference between mapping an NFS in windows v using FTP? which is better? I hear mapping has speed limitation if its a wifi setup.
• I would like to have a tree structure. A Root folder with folder like Document, Downloads, Music, Movies, Pictures, and Games. How do i create that in terms of ZFS Volumes and Dataset. My understanding is to create a ZFS Volume named MyNameNAS, then a Dataset named Root, then the above mentioned datasets within Root dataset. Is this correct? any other suggestion? I am planing on using the NAS for media streaming and a personal cloud as well.
• Should i use miniDLNA or PLEX or both? Which is better/faster? Do i need both?
• Jails - How do i setup jails for miniDLNA? I get confused with the source mapping in Jails. Do i share each dataset such as documents, music, movies, etc, separately or i can just share one folder (dataset) and create additional folder inside this folder? Or please suggest a better setup.
• Do i need users and groups? What is wheel group? What username should remote viewers use?
• How can i login remotely over the internet to my NAS to write files? read files? copy files?
• What should be the sequence of steps? Configure Storage, then permissions, then users/groups, and then sharing or first sharing then users and groups?

Please help me with these issues ot direct me to the right thread/post.

Thanks in advance

 

[joeschmuck]

You have a lot of questions of which many answers are personal preferences and some answers are better discovered when you establish your own FreeNAS. I'd recommend you setup a Virtual Machine of FreeNAS using something like VMWare Player or VirtualBox, either is fine but my personal preference is VMWare Player, both are free. These are fantastic tools to get you fully acquainted with FreeNAS.

I will answer one thing... Datasets could be thought of as separate hard drives in the sense they are separated logically and there is no cross talk between them, so it's not really nesting them at all. If you want to nest then you should create a single dataset and then treat it like a normal hard drive share, create subdirectories as needed.