How do I point a media server app like plex or emby to my files that are shared via samba?

[holzy843]

Hi all, first post!

I'm new to using any kind of NAS so apologies if I'm asking dumb questions. I did try reading in the documentation and on google before posting but there's so much conflicting info out there, it's hard to know what to trust.

I've set up my datasets as such:

When trying to add the movies, music, tv directories to the emby app it complains that they are already being used by smb. I have to have smb or how else do I add more files to the directories from windows or linux?

Again I've never used NAS software before and this is a test run to see if I can get it to do what I need, at which time I'll buy proper hard drives (currently using some old WD greens lol)

 

[HoneyBadger]

When trying to add the movies, music, tv directories to the emby app it complains that they are already being used by smb. I have to have smb or how else do I add more files to the directories from windows or linux?

Hello @holzy843 - you're bumping into the hostPathValidation checkbox right now.

This setting is on by default to prevent the simultaneous sharing of a dataset over a file-level protocol (SMB/NFS) while also being presented as hostPath storage to Kubernetes. This safety-belt check prevents a Kubernetes application from having the ability to accidentally perform a change in permissions or ownership to existing data in place on a ZFS dataset, or overwriting existing extended attribute (xattr) data, such as photo metadata on MacOS files.

If you're comfortable with the risk, you can uncheck this box under Apps -> Settings -> Advanced Settings - note that you may still need to provide the Apps user (uid 568) with Read-Only access to the files.

 

[holzy843]

Thanks for the fast response. Is there a way to configure what I'm trying to do without the risk you mention?

 

[HoneyBadger]

I'm reasonably confident there's a way to allow SCALE Apps to connect to shares from the host over SMB - but it requires some networking changes and the use of a bridge interface. What that is exactly though, I can't recall at the moment.

If you're only using this to store your media for playback though, "well-behaved" and generally well-coded applications shouldn't be attempting to claim ownership of your own data. If it's a single-user or small-scale TrueNAS setup, using a limited selection of vetted applications, I'd feel perfectly comfortable unchecking that box and setting up the hostPath settings for my media folders.

 

[holzy843]

Thanks for the clarification, much appreciated. Would installing truenas scale on proxmox with scale doing smb/nfs only and then pointing a media server to those from outside of truenas (on proxmox via linux VM for example) get around that? Might be fun to try anyway!

 

[HoneyBadger]

Yes, it's just the "loopback" style networking that fails, because the app doesn't have a communication path back to the TN SCALE shares.

Emby can mount SMB network paths as a library, provided that it has read access of course.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Yes, it's just the "loopback" style networking that fails, because the app doesn't have a communication path back to the TN SCALE shares.

Emby can mount SMB network paths as a library, provided that it has read access of course.

Just to come back to this @holzy843 - it looks like the in-app SMB mounting for Emby only speaks SMBv1, which requires an additional checkbox under the TrueNAS SMB configuration (Services -> SMB -> Edit/Configure) to enable - clearing that check immediately broke music playback on a test share.

Given the choice of running SMBv1 on my NAS or exposing the hostPath to Emby - I'd take the latter option!