FreeNAS w/ Thunderbolt-3 peer-to-peer transfer?

[Jeremtorres]

i want to build a FreeNAS to work with the new MacBook Pro. I want to do editing directly from the NAS and I want fast speeds. I know that there is support for the MacBook Pro thunderbolt3 to 10gbe adapter to a 10gbe equipped nas, but I rather not do it this way. New motherboards are coming equipped with thunderbolt3 now and so I want to connect the MBP directly to a NAS via thunderbolt3. Everything I find is that it would only be supported on Windows for peer to peer. But there is no zfs on Windows, And for my needs FreeNAS is perfect. Does anybody know if FreeNAS supports thunderbolt3 networking?

 

[Ericloewe]

Nope, this needs a driver which is not available on FreeBSD. In fact, I don't think it's even available in Linux.

 

[Vito Reiter]

That thunderbolt3 to 10GbE will be perfect, even though you don't want to do it that way, there are some awesome docks for TB3 that will get you 10GbE and a couple other awesome features so you can get excellent NAS speeds and a ton of other features like extra 3.0 ports, display ports (which may help you with editing if you need something bigger than a laptop screen.

Here's a LTT video on a dongle review, one of the best I've seen around so far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pqp8Tz_eEQ

 

[VolumeTank]

I know this is a very old thread, but I'm wondering if you were able to achieve your goals. If you haven't I have a solution for it that I use for my iMac and 2016 Macbook Pro

 

[Constantin]

The only company I know doing that (direct Thunderbolt connection) is QNAP with some of their NAS'. They DO NOT offer a true DAS experience, however (sorry for the lengthy review but the implementation has serious drawbacks). I tried it out (see the review), was not impressed, went FreeNAS and never looked back.

For my MacBookPro (2016), I use a inexpensive Myricom SFP+ transceiver housed inside a Highpoint Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. For the transceivers, I bought two used SFP+ modules on eBay (pay attention to the fiber type, frequency, etc.) that matches the respective OEM locks (Myricom on one side, Mikrotik on the other). Cheap fiber connects the two. The Mikrotik switch is also connected via a twinax to the FreeNAS.

My FreeNAS is unlikely to ever saturate that connection.

 

[VolumeTank]

The only company I know doing that (direct Thunderbolt connection) is QNAP with some of their NAS'. They DO NOT offer a true DAS experience, however (sorry for the lengthy review but the implementation has serious drawbacks). I tried it out (see the review), was not impressed, went FreeNAS and never looked back.

For my MacBookPro (2016), I use a inexpensive Myricom SFP+ transceiver housed inside a Highpoint Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. For the transceivers, I bought two used SFP+ modules on eBay (pay attention to the fiber type, frequency, etc.) that matches the respective OEM locks (Myricom on one side, Mikrotik on the other). Cheap fiber connects the two. The Mikrotik switch is also connected via a twinax to the FreeNAS.

My FreeNAS is unlikely to ever saturate that connection.

I actually did it a different way since the Mikrotik switch is on back order. So I went and got 2 pairs of the SuperMicro x540IntelChip one for my FreeNAS box and one for my Windows machine. Also I got a pair of the Sonnet Presto I installed on a Sonnet Echo and I’m getting amazing speed. I give it a different IP subnet to each port on the FreeNAS and connect both of my computers peer-to-peer. I know is a little more expensive, but at least once prices for RJ45 10gbe switch drops (which I know it will soon Asus already have one very affordable, but with only 2 10gbe ports) I’ll be ready when it happens. I will order another SuperMicro x540 IntelChip card just in case they are putting the prices up. Also the Sonnet Presto uses the same Intel chip but the 550.