FreeNAS setup similar to onedrive

[T_T]

Hello !
I have recently put together a computer to run freeNAS. 32TB of storage and just wondering how to set it up. Here is a list of my goals from most important to least important:
- share media files with different users and be able to create user account for my family use also (something similar to onedrive where I could just have an account and login using a computer or a phone and access the file anywhere). I have done some research and found that nextcloud or owncloud would be able to do this. But I do not know how to set it up so that I can access it anywhere. Also, I'm a newbie and do not want to port forward because of security reason. ( I would still do it if there is a safe way. I just dont want to leave it open to the public)
- running a plex media server. Again I do not know how to set it up so that I can access from outside of my house
- this is the least important and I might not do it any time soon but I want to have the ability to do it in the future is to run VMs
So I guess what's I'm really struggling with is finding a way to safely access my files from anywhere. The main thing I want to do is to have something like onedrive.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[danb35]

do not want to port forward because of security reason.

Then you will not be able to do what you're wanting to do.

 

[garm]

Well it’s still doable using a tunnel between an external reverse proxy and FreeNAS, but it’s a lot more work.

 

[danb35]

You're still going to need some port forwarding...

 

[garm]

Not if the tunnel is initiated from FreeNAS, then the connection will be passed through the firewall and kept open by the connection?

 

[T_T]

Then you will not be able to do what you're wanting to do.

Sorry about the confusion. But what I mean is I do not want to just port foward and leave it open to the public. But I guess there would be something like openVPN come in to play. I would port forward as long as it’s safe

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

I would port forward as long as it’s safe

Port forwarding is not safe as FreeNAS isn't a hardened system. That might be less bad if only allowing certain IP's is possible for you.

 

[danb35]

Port forwarding is not safe as FreeNAS isn't a hardened system.

That really is too broad a statement, as it depends very much on what you're forwarding, and to where. If you're forwarding a random high port to port 22 on a jail, running an SSH server that only allows public key logins, that's pretty safe. If you're forwarding port 80 to the FreeNAS box itself (i.e., exposing the web GUI to the Internet), that's very unsafe. Forwarding 80 and 443 to a well-secured Nextcloud jail is toward the "pretty safe" end of the scale, though keeping it behind a VPN would be safer (at the expense of some usability, as safety almost always is).

 

[T_T]

That really is too broad a statement, as it depends very much on what you're forwarding, and to where. If you're forwarding a random high port to port 22 on a jail, running an SSH server that only allows public key logins, that's pretty safe. If you're forwarding port 80 to the FreeNAS box itself (i.e., exposing the web GUI to the Internet), that's very unsafe. Forwarding 80 and 443 to a well-secured Nextcloud jail is toward the "pretty safe" end of the scale, though keeping it behind a VPN would be safer (at the expense of some usability, as safety almost always is).

I think you’re talking about right where I wanted to go. Could you please help me on how to setup the nextCloud or owncloud to access it outside of my home network ?

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

That really is too broad a statement, as it depends very much on what you're forwarding, and to where.

Agreed on that and your subsequent points. I opted for a broader response since the level of discussion in the thread was fairly high and seemed to only be talking about FreeNAS itself. The devil is always in the details.

 

[danb35]

For the Nextcloud installation itself, see https://github.com/danb35/freenas-iocage-nextcloud. IMO, it works well, but I make no guarantee about its security. To make it accessible, the simple answer is to forward ports 80 and 443 to the jail where you're running Nextcloud.

 

[eldo]

For what it's worth, I had to give up nextcloud/owncloud in favor of seafile because I needed background android sync, as well as only synching the changed files.

It's a bit more complex to get set up, but has been serving my use case quite well.

 

[T_T]

For what it's worth, I had to give up nextcloud/owncloud in favor of seafile because I needed background android sync, as well as only synching the changed files.

It's a bit more complex to get set up, but has been serving my use case quite well.

Thanks for the reply. I have nextcloud install and still trying configure it. Running into some problem when I created folder in nextcloud. it won't give me permission to upload or create any file. Do you have any idea?