How to organise data in the vdev/Pool ?

[VladTepes]

On a Windows machine it's normal to have a directory on a drive for documents, another for photographs, another for music etc.

Is data saved the same way for FreeNAS? If someone could point me to some info about this, and/or tell me how they have gone about structuring their own systems, I'd appreciate it.

Essentially I am probably just a few days from setting up my 6 disk Raid Z2 vdev.
I'll need to know how and where to copy the data across from my windows machine's disks.

Thank You

 

[pirateghost]

You can create datasets or just create one dataset and use Windows to create folders in that share, just like you would on a Windows machine.

There's nothing really special about a network share. You can do many of the same things as if it was a local directory on your PC

 

[VladTepes]

I assume in order to create those folders I would need to first create a CIFS share and go from there?

Elsewhere I read that using datasets is "more flexible" ?

so I could have datasets like
/documents
/media etc

If I wanted media to contain
/music
/photographs
/movies
/etc
Would that be best done with more (nested?) datasets or folders within that dataset?

I'm just trying to get my head around this....

 

[pirateghost]

I assume in order to create those folders I would need to first create a CIFS share and go from there?

Yeah. You can't access the directories without some sort of network share capabilities.

 

[VladTepes]

Yeah. You can't access the directories without some sort of network share capabilities.

Cheers, thought so.
I altered my above post to ask another question, would appreciate if you could revisit it and have a look. :)

 

[pirateghost]

Cheers, thought so.
I altered my above post to ask another question, would appreciate if you could revisit it and have a look. :)

Each dataset is its own filesystem. You will probably want to share out the root dataset and create folders from your Windows machine on the share.

 

[VladTepes]

So if I want certain groups or users to have access to say, the movies but NOT the phots, would those have to be in different datasets, or can that be managed at a folder level?

Can datasets be nested, and is there any problem in doing so?

 

[pirateghost]

You can nest datasets. No problem there. The only thing to understand is permissions on the datasets. I prefer datasets and nested datasets for my environment.

You can manage permissions at a folder level or dataset level. It's up to you. I would recommend setting up some tests to see what you prefer. My main reason for using datasets is so that I can see each datasets used space much easier via the web GUI. It helps me organize and manage.

 

[VladTepes]

Cheers, so I wonder what the most popular approach is? Is there a downside to using datasets rather than folders?

In my situation I will have the data on the FreeNAS (obviously) and have permissions for users on various other devices - laptops, a tablet, and mobile phones.

Permissions are set via the webgui and/or SSH direct ot the FreeNAS console, yes?


And lets say I set up some nested datasets... where do I actually copy the media TO, and how?

That is, I have a bunch of movies, music etc on my windows computer which I will need to copy across to the FreeNAS computer.

Sorry if it seems I'm asking stupid basic questions; it's just that the more I think about it the more confused I am getting.
A case of not seeing the forest for the trees....

 

[pirateghost]

Permissions are set depending on how you set up your dataset. 99.99% of the time, you would manage the permissions from Windows. No SSH, no web gui. Just classic windows file permissions.

To copy files, you create your share, connect to it from your desktop, and copy the files.

The web GUI is how you create your datasets, manage tasks, and plugins. You don't do any file management from the web GUI.

 

[VladTepes]

Thanks I appreciate your patience....

I was reading about 'import disk' somewhere but evidently that's not the way to go for this purpose.... ?

Also, once data is in a particular dataset (on the FreeNAS server) can it be moved to another dataset easily/quickly)?

 

[pirateghost]

Import disk has nothing to do with transferring data from your Windows desktop to the server. It's for importing data from a disk to your pool (don't muddy the waters with this). Just use the standard method of accessing your NAS (via FILESHARES).

From the client side, aka your desktop, the datasets will look like another folder. You just copy/cut and paste from one folder to another.

You appear to be thinking too deeply on the concept of a fileshare. You create the storage, share it out (typically via CIFS) and connect to it from your client machine. Then it just looks like folders on your computer....

 

[VladTepes]

Thank you for that. I am definitely over-thinking it. :)

I'm now thinking of a structure along these lines...

Volume: REMUS_Data

Datasets:
/backups
/documents
/photographs

/media
/media/music
/media/movies
/media/tv

 

[SweetAndLow]

I have 5 datasets, jails, media, backup, isos, homes. Then directories under those. Hope this helps you see what other people do.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[VladTepes]

Thanks S&L.