How to setup working home directories?

[John45622]

Hi there,

I can't for the life of me figure out how to setup home directories for my users. I've search the web for days, read the FN manual which only very briefly mentions home shares and I can't get them to work.

Here's what I've tried to far:

1) I setup a dataset on my main pool called "home_shares" where I want the home share data to live for all users.
2) I've pointed the user account setting to that dataset (where FN says it would create a sub-folder per user automatically if it doesn't exist).
3) I then setup an SMB share for the home share dataset.

So now when I try to connect via SMB as that user I can see my home directory (named by my user name) but when I connect I get an "item can not be found" as if I I don't have permissions.

So here's what I don't understand: Since all user's home directories essentially live in the same dataset, how do I setup ACLs so that only each user sees their own home directory and can access that but not anyone else's?

Is there a good walk-through on how to set this up? Or do home directories simply not work?

(I'm on the latest stable FN version)

Thanks!

 

[Alecmascot]

I then setup an SMB share for the home share dataset.

When you do that did you use the "purpose field" and set it to "Private SMB Datasets and Shares" ?
I have not used it myself but I came across another post where this was used erroneously and made unwanted home shares !!

 

[John45622]

Hm, where are you seeing that purpose field? I have it setup like this for the SMB share settings.

 

[Alecmascot]

(I'm on the latest stable FN version)

You're on 11.3 then ?
I spoke about the 12.0 setup.

 

[John45622]

Yes FreeNAS not TrueNAS, sorry.

 

[John45622]

I am giving up on this feature. Will manually create private datasets for my users manually. More fuss but I found no way to get home directories to work.

 

[Alecmascot]

So looking at the docos, the usernames need to be all lowercase.
Does the homeshare dataset have permissions/acls that are set to "inherit" so that new objects in the dataset might have the wrong permissions ?

 

[John45622]

yeah, they are all lower case. dataset was set to inherit. I'm a bit confused how a single dataset for all home shares can carry multiple private home directories that only each user can access with regards to ACLs. I got them all working to the point where I can see a given user name when trying to mount an SMB volume. But every time I try to mount that share I get an "object not found" message which is typical for no permission. For that user I even tried to set everything to read/write/execute in the user settings for the home directory but same problem.

 

[Alecmascot]

I would think having "inherit" set on the home dataset would be a bad thing ?

 

[John45622]

Could be. I wonder why there is no documentation that would make this a bit less of a guess work.
I have now started to setup "regular" manual private shares for my users that only each one of them can access. Much more work setting this up but I've already wasted days on trying to get home shares to work and I'm now giving up. Thanks a lot for chiming in and trying to help me. Home directories would obviously make this a lot more comfortable and less messy.

 

[John45622]

So I did one last attempt using this manual wich actually refers to TrueNAS:

Sharing |

Sharing

www.truenas.com

Unfortunately it doesn't work. Same result. I can see my home directory when I connect via SMB but can't mount it. No permissions. (set read/write/execute for myself as per the instructions) and used the HOME preset for the share's ACL.
Maybe it just doesn't work under FN, only on TN v12.x...