FreeNAS Newbie with questions

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

See sig for build. I have a FreeNAS system up and running at the company I work at. It's extremely basic at this point and I'd like to understand how to maximize it's usage for my environment. Here's some questions I've come up with I'm hoping the community will be able to educate me on:

1) My initial config is simply one volume with 4x Apple Shares and 1x Windows Share. This seemed a pretty close facsimile to the previous setup. However, since then I've become aware of datasets and I'm wondering if I should utilize that or if there is a way to better arrange the volume(s) shares? Should I be using datasets? That may be too little info to go on, so any assistance in that area would be appreciated.

2) I have 3x 2TB drives for storage. Currently, I'm using two in RAID1 with the 3rd not being utilized. My thought was to have it setup as a replication/redundancy drive, as it was in the old file array. Is there benefit to that arrangement or is adding the unused 2TB drive to the primary volume the better alternative? How would I go about replicating the RAID to that additional 2TB drive?

3) I created an automated snapshot for the RAID and there are now over 60 snapshots. However, only the original snapshot has a Rollback Snapshot. Shouldn't all of the snapshots have this button?

 

[Ericloewe]

1) My initial config is simply one volume with 4x Apple Shares and 1x Windows Share. This seemed a pretty close facsimile to the previous setup. However, since then I've become aware of datasets and I'm wondering if I should utilize that or if there is a way to better arrange the volume(s) shares? Should I be using datasets? That may be too little info to go on, so any assistance in that area would be appreciated.

You're talking about two different layers. Each share should be its own dataset.

Also, AFP is on its way out, so definitely look into migrating to SMB.

2) I have 3x 2TB drives for storage. Currently, I'm using two in RAID1 with the 3rd not being utilized. My thought was to have it setup as a replication/redundancy drive, as it was in the old file array. Is there benefit to that arrangement or is adding the unused 2TB drive to the primary volume the better alternative? How would I go about replicating the RAID to that additional 2TB drive?

You can add it to the existing mirror to create a three-way mirror. You'd have to do it manually, though, since the GUI doesn't support it yet. Search the forums for detailed instructions.

3) I created an automated snapshot for the RAID and there are now over 60 snapshots. However, only the original snapshot has a Rollback Snapshot. Shouldn't all of the snapshots have this button?

New GUI or old GUI?

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

You're talking about two different layers. Each share should be its own dataset.

Also, AFP is on its way out, so definitely look into migrating to SMB.


You can add it to the existing mirror to create a three-way mirror. You'd have to do it manually, though, since the GUI doesn't support it yet. Search the forums for detailed instructions.


New GUI or old GUI?

I think you're advice is coming with some assumption that I know more than I do about FreeNAS. I'm in 9.2.1.9; no idea if that's old or new GUI, though I assume old, considering there are several versions newer.

I recall reading that AFP was on it's way out, especially since the macs in the office are now running on AFPS. Is it possible to create datasets and apply them to the existing shares? Or should I create the datasets, create new SMB shares for those and then migrate the data from the Apple shares to the new SMB shares?

I'm not sure I'd really want to go through a manual process of adding the additional drive to the existing RAID. So, how can I utilize it as a redundancy drive?

 

[Ericloewe]

I'm in 9.2.1.9; no idea if that's old or new GUI

That's the old GUI. 9.2.1.9 is positively ancient and not a good place to start.

Is it possible to create datasets and apply them to the existing shares?

A dataset is a filesystem, you don't apply it to anything. You share its contents.

I'm not sure I'd really want to go through a manual process of adding the additional drive to the existing RAID. So, how can I utilize it as a redundancy drive?

It's not a difficult process, you just need to follow the instructions for everything to end up as FreeNAS would've done it. The only realistic alternative is to replicate to that disk, but that's slower and doesn't give you much of a benefit in typical scenarios. It's more of a local backup, with all that implies (not particularly safe, but relatively convenient still).

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

Well, 9.2.1.9 is what worked on the system I had available. As I stated in my initial post, the setup I built is in my sig. I do intend to upgrade, but the system is stable, so it's not on my initial to-do list.

I'm guessing I need some basic instruction on what datasets are and how they factor into what I should be doing with this system.

I'll look into the instructions, as you've suggested. I know you said I could search the forums, but do you have a recommended link for these instructions you're referring to?

 

[Ericloewe]

but do you have a recommended link for these instructions you're referring to?

No, but someone might pop in with the link.