Getting more and more frustrated. Intelligent Newbie

[burkeam]

At least I think so. I'm looking for some direction from ones that understand my situation and goals.

I built my NAS and had it ready to go in less than 2 hours but have been trying to configure it for the last week with no success. During this time I've been reading posts here, read the user manual for 9.3 and watching several videos. I'm very technical and a trainer-not in pc or IT. I believe my problem is I'm not in sync with the freeNAS / IT terminology. At times I feel like a deer looking into headlight. I was unsatisfied with proprietary simple NAS systems and decided to build one to spec from Brian Blog EconoNAS2014
http://blog.brianmoses.net/2014/06/diy-nas-econonas-2014.html except I have (4) WD Reds 3TB.

My goal is to:
1. create two folders to backup and ghost two different computers (Win 8.1 and 8.1 pro) and their drives - secured to my wife and I
2. have a central location for all family photos, videos - no security needed on the LAN
3. location and DNLA service for movies, music video and music for anyone in the house smart TV, iphone or androids.
That's it -
Not to be addressed now but the wish list is to add data collection and storage from home-built bee hive instrumentation -WIP. Maybe some remote access.

Any insight on setting up the desired configuration would be greatly appreciated. So far I can only see the Plex server on the win 8.1 machine. Nothing on the win 8.1 pro. I short I believe I'm trying to do very little with a lot of power/option and got in over my head -for now. I think a lot of the guides are covering options that don't apply to my simple needs which adds to the confusion.

Thanks in advance
Burke

 

[pirateghost]

Not really sure what your issue is...

 

[Ericloewe]

Plex? 8GB of RAM is too tight for that.

1. create two folders to backup and ghost two different computers (Win 8.1 and 8.1 pro) and their drives - secured to my wife and I
2. have a central location for all family photos, videos - no security needed on the LAN

Not much of a backup without ECC.

Now, do yourself a favor and forget every video you've seen. Chances are, they are full of disinformation. If following the quick start procedure from the manual doesn't work, you'll have to provide a lot more detail.

 

[burkeam]

Eric -Will do. I have no prob building a new unit. Saw the ecnoNAS as a good starting point to learn on. I'm actually planning on using the platform- less the Reds for my bee hive monitor box. I'll start over again. Saw the several comments about the ECC but assumed my usage was pretty simple. The DLNA isn't a must but reallying looking to get the data off the PCs. I just went though a major failure and now see value in keeping the PCs drive more clean/free.

I'll start over as I have been flipping several setting - and report back.

pirateghost - I can't get access to the nas on my lan (web gui is ok) to store files

Thanks for the quick replys

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Not really sure what your issue is...

This^

 

[pirateghost]

pirateghost - I can't get access to the nas on my lan (web gui is ok) to store files

Thanks for the quick replys

The problem here is that you haven't actually posted any information.

Have you set up your cifs shares?

Have you turned on the service?

What specifically doesn't work?

Your entire post is very vague with no detail

 

[9C1 Newbee]

And by the way, I would not follow that blog. But that's just me.

 

[burkeam]

Got it, but I did as it was a starting point. crawl before walk before run. I been reading about NAS on and off for 6 month and have yet to find a layman representation as to what I was looking for. I believe going with an out -of-the-box NAS would be more limiting but more easy. Seagate really screwed me with their backup methods and unable to do a proper restore. So I'm biting the bullet to learn freeNAS and will get there.

I can start posting screen shots and much more but let's start with the installation

I'm doing a factory reset and starting over again for the 3rd time. Last time I did follow https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/cifs-windows-sharing-guide.20948/

Again the issue is I set everything up in the NAS but unable to see it on the network ion the win 8.1pro system. I was able to see my shared folder and plex on the win8.1 system. I cannot copy any file to the nas or add folders.


.Questions:
1. When the nas is booting up with several lines flowing across the screen I see errors periodic messages during this process. Normal or not? - maybe I have a corrupt install?
2.Is there a log file I can retrieve to post here.

-pirateghost. I do all of that. I merely am looking for a reference point as there are soon many configuration setting and everything I've tried is not working. I'm hearing what to avoid but not what to research. Later tonight I'll follow eric's advice and try to keep it simple with the
FreeNAS 9 – The Ultimate Quick Start Guide
by Ryan Siegel | Oct 24, 2013 | Linux |

does someone have a more preferred guide to setting it up with my goals
My goal is to:
1. create two folders to backup and ghost two different computers (Win 8.1 and 8.1 pro) and their drives - secured to my wife and I
2. have a central location for all family photos, videos - no security needed on the LAN
3. location and DNLA service for movies, music video and music for anyone in the house smart TV, iphone or androids.
That's it -

Burke

 

[Ericloewe]

-pirateghost. I do all of that. I merely am looking for a reference point as there are soon many configuration setting and everything I've tried is not working. I'm hearing what to avoid but not what to research. Later tonight I'll follow eric's advice and try to keep it simple with the
FreeNAS 9 – The Ultimate Quick Start Guide
by Ryan Siegel | Oct 24, 2013 | Linux |

Woah, hold it there. I have never read that thing. At best, it's woefully out of date (A lot has changed since late 2013...).

Follow the link at the top of the page:

http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas.html

 

[burkeam]

There was no link so I googled a quick start guide. I have read the 9.3 user guide twice and using it. I'm downloading 9.3 and starting from scratch. Questioning I had a corrupt install as I do see error messages with the nas fires up.
Thanks Eric. Will advise

 

[pirateghost]

You say you are looking for a reference point...but everything you list is essentially in the FreeNAS documentation, and is very much the standard basic configuration for most people.

You have failed to mention what error message you get. You have failed to tell us where you are stuck. You have failed to tell us what SPECIFICALLY doesn't work.

Can you access the server by IP? \\ip.address.of.server\shareName

Do you get PERMISSIONS errors? Or you don't see anything?

Seriously, you are leaving out details that none of us can understand from your comments.

 

[burkeam]

- the error messages just flash by as it is booting. Everything works without error messages but I cannot access it on my network via "my computer/network" or through explorer using windows. I can use the web interface just fine and have gone through the setup up guide. Here is an example of someone coming in from the outside world getting confused by what is common knowledge to most of you and why I will continue to watch video tutorials. In the setup wizard it asks:
Directory Service:
Active Directory
Domain Name (DNS/Realm-Name):
Domain Account Name:
Domain Account Password:
To my point, what does it mean. The only time I used this nomenclature was setting up my web page. In what context - layman terms. Like how about setting up NAS for dummies. Now that I did a fresh install I forgot what I was putting in there. So not to waste your time I will watch more videos.

Let's go back and read the 1st sentence of my 1st post.
"I'm looking for some direction from ones that understand my situation and goals." I don't want to waste your time nor mine. I'm not looking for anyone to solve my problem - yet. I'm looking for direction so I can educate myself. The user guide is not intended for someone not trained in the industry nomenclature and for that matter neither is freenas. I understand this and that why I waited a few days to post. Been trying to figure it out on my own.

 

[pirateghost]

You don't have an Active Directory configured for your network....you don't need one either.

Forget about 'seeing' the server from 'My Computer/Network'. Just map the damn drive. Windows absolutely sucks at finding all the servers out on it's own network. This is true even for an Active Directory domain.

You ask for a 'setting up a NAS for dummies', yet this doesnt exist because there are too many factors at play here.

My goal is to:
1. create two folders to backup and ghost two different computers (Win 8.1 and 8.1 pro) and their drives - secured to my wife and I
2. have a central location for all family photos, videos - no security needed on the LAN
3. location and DNLA service for movies, music video and music for anyone in the house smart TV, iphone or androids.

Again, this is so vague that nobody can walk you through it. It is almost a standard configuration, nearly out of the box experience.

Create your zpool, volume, and datasets (covered in the documentation)
Create the CIFS/SAMBA shares you want (covered in docs), and this handles your number 1 and 2
Install plex plugin and read in the docs how to connect it to your media on your datasets. There is number 3

As for permissions issue, that is covered so extensively here in the forums that there is no way to dumb it down any more. there are guides all over the forums handling exactly this setup.

 

[burkeam]

sounds good. I did all that less the mapping. Maybe that is all was needed however I started over. I was assuming it would be seen on the LAN like any other device. Thanks for your patience.
will advise.

 

[Bidule0hm]

I was assuming it would be seen on the LAN like any other device.

It should, but half the time it doesn't show up on my computer so no worries here, it's just Windows crappiness :)

 

[HoneyBadger]

What I'm taking away from this is the need to write a proper blogpost on this and employ some SEO to outrank the old and busted stuff. ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

It should, but half the time it doesn't show up on my computer so no worries here, it's just Windows crappiness :)

Lucky you. NetBIOS hasn't worked for me for many months. I just gave up and just type \\freenas to access the server. Don't even bother looking for the server anymore.

This across workstations, network equipment and FreeNAS versions. You'd think Microsoft would've come up with something a little more reliable by now.

 

[pirateghost]

The same problem happens with active directory machines in the same domain too (nothing to do with Freenas at all). Doesn't happen with any of my Linux machines...

 

[Bidule0hm]

I use mapped drives so it doesn't bother me but it's ridiculous how the network management is broken on windows.

@Ericloewe have you tried to refresh the window? sometimes the NAS reappears after a refresh for me.

 

[Ericloewe]

I use mapped drives so it doesn't bother me but it's ridiculous how the network management is broken on windows.

@Ericloewe have you tried to refresh the window? sometimes the NAS reappears after a refresh for me.

Are you kidding? I spent a week messing around trying to get NetBIOS to work.

According to this neat guide, I spent way more time than it was potentially worth. It's visible now, after I just turned on network discovery (forgot to do so after messing with WiFi the other day, look how much I missed it ), but it'll probably be gone by tomorrow.