FreeNAS with a Mac-only home

[NightHawk.ATL]

I have been trying to do multiple searches on the forum and on google trying to find my answers with no real luck. I have a couple of issues that seem to not want to go away or fix.

1. Setting up a new FreeNAS system to use Mac AFS file system (After getting my Macs to see the share, I will get an error on my desktop saying that I don't have permission to access some of the files)

-OR-

2. Setting up a new FreeNAS system to use Windows CIFS to access on a Mac will yield slightly better results but the system will drop off the network after about 75GB worth of transfer.

3. Transfer of all my data from USB3.0 external drives over my wired gigabit network is very slow and there doesn't seem to be a good option of connecting drives directly to my FreeNAS system and doing a "data dump" onto the internal drives for duplication on the OS X Extended (Journaled) file system.

4. Getting Nextcloud to use the 2 other disks for the "Jail" and not use my main storage.

Here are the specs for my machine:
ASUS M5A97LE R2.0 - Motherboard
AMD FX 4300 Quad-Core x64 - Processor
32GB DDR3 1600MHz - Memory

AData SU800 SSD 128GB - Boot Disk (On-board SATA)
Hitachi HTS542 250GB - Mirrored Boot (On-board SATA)
DVD-RW (On-board SATA)

Realtek Gigabit LAN (On-board)

4 drive SATA Backplane (Main Storage - Using SI Labs 3124 SATA card):
2 WD 2.0TB HDD
2 Seagate 2.0TB HHD

2 WD 250GB HDD (for Nextcloud use later) (On-board SATA)

Once I get the system working, I would be adding the two 2.0TB external USB 3.0 drives to add to my main storage to increase its capacity. Later on, I will replace those with 4 more 2.0TB 3.5" drives in an external USB 3.0 SATA 4 bay enclosure.

Am I crazy for thinking this could work or am I missing something?

 

[nojohnny101]

Can you post the appropriate logs that are relevant when the connection drops out after 75gbs are transferred? What type of errors are you seeing?

Stabbing in the dark here, but the first thing I would look at is the Realtek LAN port. Realteks are notoriously buggy and unstable. I would go out and buy a cheap Intel LAN port add-on to confirm if that is or is not the problem. Then, go from there.

 

[NightHawk.ATL]

Where do I get the logs from? I have only been getting the errors on my Mac Mini. I have no income right now so I can't go out and just buy something. I am trying to do this all on parts I already have from when I was using WHS2011 from Microsoft.

 

[nojohnny101]

If you do a simple google search you would have found the answer:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/where-are-the-screen-console-logs-written-to.18701/

Do a transfer that breaks (drops out) and then post the relevant log entries in "code" tags.

If it is your Realtek NIC, then you have no choice but to buy something else because hoping something will work that doesn't work doesn't fix anything. Just being straight with you!

But let's find out if my suspicion is correct first.

 

[NightHawk.ATL]

OK, so I am not going to mark this as solved yet but it seems that enabling an FTP server to access the /var/log/messages file has increased reliability on the FreeNAS connection somehow. I have started a few other projects and will return to the transfer tomorrow to test the transfer of my 4TB of data but as of now, I was successful in transferring up to 200GB of the files without error. I am using a windows CIFS share and not an AFP share still but as long as I have reliable access, I am ok with that as long as Final Cut Pro X doesn't have any issues down the line.

I have also destroyed the original data set and created the NextCloud data set first since there isn't a way to specify the location of the storage on setup or config so that it will only use the two 250GB drives in a mirror for redundancy. Then I created my main data set for the other 4 2TB drives in a mirror config.

Once I get the files to the NextCloud server, I will start my main data transfer and let it run overnight to see if it completes or gets further than the 200GB I stopped it at earlier.

Thanks for the assistance and sorry to blab without trying more things first. I just got a little inundated at first with all the options and settings and a new interface but I am slowly starting to learn my way around things. Linux/Unix is somewhat my kryptonite with CLI and terminology but I am forcing myself to learn a little more each day.

 

[pirateghost]

Why would you use ftp to access the logs?

You have a Mac. You have terminal and ssh right there at your fingertips...

 

[NightHawk.ATL]

because I am a N00b with CLI and do not know how to transfer the files from one server to the next by command and device name. Laugh all you want, I am trying to learn.

 

[pirateghost]

because I am a N00b with CLI and do not know how to transfer the files from one server to the next by command and device name. Laugh all you want, I am trying to learn.

You don't need to transfer files to look at them.

 

[nojohnny101]

I don't think he is laughing, people on here are frank at times, which I think is perfectly warranted.

You don't have to transfer anything or download anything when viewing the logs through the CLI. You simply view them in "terminal" then you could copy and paste the actual text that comes up in the window.

FreeNAS is a steep learning curve, hang in there.

 

[NightHawk.ATL]

I don't know any other way to open a file in a graphical interface to view the plain-text to be able to copy and paste what was requested earlier..

 

[pirateghost]

I don't know any other way to open a file in a graphical interface to view the plain-text to be able to copy and paste what was requested earlier..

Through terminal.

Ssh root@freenasip

Cat /var/log/messages

You are making it a lot more complicated than it really is

 

[NightHawk.ATL]

I don't think he is laughing, people on here are frank at times, which I think is perfectly warranted.

I understand frankness since I am an Aspie, and because I am, things take on different meanings to me. I am grateful for everyone's patience in assisting me.

 

[NightHawk.ATL]

Through terminal.

Ssh root@freenasip

Cat /var/log/messages

You are making it a lot more complicated than it really is

If I had known the "Cat" command, I would have used it. I know "cd" "cd .." "ls" "dir" "ssh" "ping" and a few other general commands. I am still learning and GUI interfaces are my crutch when I just need to get info quickly.

 

[pirateghost]

If I had known the "Cat" command, I would have used it. I know "cd" "cd .." "ls" "dir" "ssh" "ping" and a few other general commands. I am still learning and GUI interfaces are my crutch when I just need to get info quickly.

Just ask or search around. This topic is well covered in the forums.

It's a pretty well known command in the Unix world, and doing a search for "view log files Unix" probably would have uncovered this and "tail"

 

[NightHawk.ATL]

Code:

Dec  2 17:43:47 freenas siisch0:  ... waiting for slots 7c000000
Dec  2 17:43:47 freenas siisch2: Timeout on slot 24
Dec  2 17:43:47 freenas siisch2: siis_timeout is 00040000 ss 7b000000 rs 7b000000 es 00000000 sts 801b0000 serr 00000000
Dec  2 17:43:47 freenas siisch2:  ... waiting for slots 7a000000
Dec  2 17:43:47 freenas siisch1: Timeout on slot 26
Dec  2 17:43:47 freenas siisch1: siis_timeout is 00040000 ss 7d000000 rs 7d000000 es 00000000 sts 801d0000 serr 00000000

So the messages file has a log string of these errors from Dec. 1 at 23:10 to Dec. 2 at 17:43. I have just returned home from an errand and last time I looked, the system had transferred about 800GB of files and I return home to see an error message saying that "the finder can't complete the operation because some of the data in 'filexxx.mp4' couldn't be read or written. (Error code -36)"

And I found this as an answer to what it is and how to repair it but if I were to get an AFP share to work correctly, wouldn't I just be able to skip this and have it work correctly?

"The problem is observed when folders from a Windows-compatible volume get moved to a Mac and then back again. The dreaded “Error Code -36″ message is the result. If you are experiencing this problem, you can run a simple dot_clean utility to remove the hidden "dot-underscore" files from your flash drive or memory card."

 

[pirateghost]

Do you have a port multiplier installed? That sounds like a bad multiplier or connection to the disk

 

[NightHawk.ATL]

The "si" part of the description makes me think that it could be the Si Labs 3124 SATA controller but it is a new part that I bought at the same time as the board about a year ago when the machine was a WHS 2011 device. But when all the drives were in an external SATA enclosure about 6 months ago, I had issues with a drive that would have read/write failures when configured in a software raid. I am unsure which drive it could be now and didn't mark it in any way to know. I just had better luck with them as separate drives. I may just be doomed to waiting for a job and replacing all drives with WD NAS drives down the road...