Jails or VM?

[Sokonomi]

Ive been scoping out options on how to do what I want, and I keep hearing 2 distinct options; Jails, or a VM.

For jails I see there are some negatives; mainly 'don't bother with native plugins because the updates are slow', and 'Jails are annoying with permissions on new files'.

For VMs there are also a few of them; It unnecessarily sucks up resources (of which I dont have a whole lot), and if it goes down it will take all applications down with it because it usually shares a single container.

I would like to run the following;
- SabNZBd (or similar usenet handler)
- Transmission (or similar torrent handler)
- Sickrage
- Couch potato (optional)
- Plex
- Some sort of cloud or FTP service for WAN access

Baring in mind that I am a greenhorn with anything except windows/DOS, what would be the best course of action for me to accomplish it? I can follow along some tutorials and guides (uncle festers guide is pure gold), but I have no clue on how to handle things beyond guides without extensive googling. Are there any "This is how you install/update an app" beginner guides that follow a similar fashion as uncle festers?

 

[danb35]

IMO, if the software you're wanting to run will run well under FreeBSD, you're better off putting it in a jail. Only if not does a VM make more sense. Everything on your list will run just fine under FreeBSD, though Plex lacks a few features that are there under Linux and other OSs--you'd need to see if those are important to you. Permissions are a factor either way.

NB: Couch Potato is long dead, as I understand it. Radarr is one replacement; there may be others.

 

[Sokonomi]

I would assume those applications would run well on freeBSD, they are all available as native plugins; HOWEVER.. Is it true that updates are rolled out few and far between, for the FreeNAS' own native plugins? Ive read a few tutorials mentioning its better to manually install them in a jail yourself using pkg install, since these direct depository versions are more commonly used and updated far more often. Is there a directory of tutorials that are being kept up to date somewhere? The ones I find are often outdated, and wont work unless you know a few tricks in freeBSD. That, or the author didn't write their tutorial with beginners in mind.

People have said radarr and sonarr are a good pair, though I have found them lacking many times (poorly handles anime). I merely tossed couch potato in the mix for movies, as sickrage handles TV shows with near perfection.

 

[danb35]

Is it true that updates are rolled out few and far between, for the FreeNAS' own native plugins?

This has been the case, though the plugin system is changing. Under warden, plugins were a single compiled blob that contained all the software necessary, and it seems that only one person (@Joshua Parker Ruehlig) understood how that was done. Therefore, they got updated when he got around to it. Under iocage, my understanding is that the plugins are more of a manifest of FreeBSD ports/packages that need to be installed along with configuration information, so they should be much more up-to-date. Neither of those affects a jail you build yourself, which isn't generally very hard to do.

Is there a directory of tutorials that are being kept up to date somewhere?

Unfortunately there isn't. The Resources section is the closest I know of, but lots of stuff doesn't get posted there. iX used to host a FreeNAS wiki, but they've since taken it down. I wouldn't be adverse to hosting how-tos on my own wiki (link in my sig), but it really would be better to have something "official".

People have said radarr and sonarr are a good pair

They are, though they're completely independent applications. Sonarr does TV, Radarr does movies.

 

[Sokonomi]

Is there a standard procedure to setting up a jail and installing a pkg from freeBSD?
Or does each application require its own special grooming to function properly?
I remember a sabNZBd tutorial requiring you to dig up its config file to set host IP to 0.0.0.0 or else it wouldn't work.
I eventually managed to get sabNZBd semi up and running, but the storage part still has me largely confused.
How do I get it to deposit finished files into a folder on my media dataset, for example.

Pinning a few guide threads for common applications in this subforum would be a good start.
Anyone want a guinea pig to make sure its idiot proof? ;)

 

[danb35]

Is there a standard procedure to setting up a jail and installing a pkg from freeBSD?

In general, it's create the jail, call it what you want, then from inside the jail do pkg install appname. If the app is something that's supposed to run as a service (which almost everything we'd be looking at is), you'd then do sysrc appname_enable=YES. The issue is configuration, and every app is different in that regard. Some are more straightforward than others. Some have defaults that will work just fine, while others need more work. Some, like Nextcloud, involve lots of moving pieces such that a plugin or script is often a better way to go.

 

[Sokonomi]

Basic things that barely change such as cloud services are no problem to install as native plugins.
Its things like sickrage and sabnzbd that often need to change to adapt to the sites they work with.
I don't want to end up having an app down for weeks.

Whats the deal with assigning storage to jails though? I have no concrete idea behind the mechanics of that bit.
Say sabNZBd downloads something, I guess it does that to the jails media folder or something. Then what?
I cant reach my media dataset outside the jail from the settings in sabNZBd itself, as it sees the jail as its root.
So it has to be done through jail settings, and im guessing thats what storage assigning does?
Does assigned storage simply mirror/move between jail and not-jail as a kind of mediator?
This is mostly where the permission headaches stem from, I presume.

 

[diedrichg]

You should ditch Sickrage and CouchPotato and go with Sonarr and Radarr, I think you will be very happy with both.

 

[Sokonomi]

You should ditch Sickrage and CouchPotato and go with Sonarr and Radarr, I think you will be very happy with both.

I just might. Its just a little unfortunate that you cant set release groups, according to a friend of mine who is using Sonarr.
Would the pair of them be ok if I installed them as native plugins (FreeNAS 11.1), or does it pay to go manual on them too?

 

[diedrichg]

I just might. Its just a little unfortunate that you can't set release groups, according to a friend of mine who is using Sonarr.
Would the pair of them be ok if I installed them as native plugins (FreeNAS 11.1), or does it pay to go manual on them too?

With plugins your only limitation is the update time being at the discretion of of the maintainer. However, Sonarr & Radarr both have internal update systems, so I'm not sure if they function as expected (when being ran from a plugin environment). I don't run mine on FreeNAS.

 

[diedrichg]

I just might. Its just a little unfortunate that you can't set release groups, according to a friend of mine who is using Sonarr.

What is a release group?

 

[Sokonomi]

With plugins your only limitation is the update time being at the discretion of of the maintainer. However, Sonarr & Radarr both have internal update systems, so I'm not sure if they function as expected (when being ran from a plugin environment). I don't run mine on FreeNAS.

SabNZBd and Sickrage both also have internal update systems, atleast on the windows version, though they seem to suffer from slow updates as well.

What is a release group?

Among favorites are [HorribleSubs] and [BakedFish], they are groups who release Japanese TV shows. Sickrage lets you whitelist groups so it will avoid releases from poor quality groups.

 

[diedrichg]

SabNZBd and Sickrage both also have internal update systems, atleast on the windows version, though they seem to suffer from slow updates as well.


Among favorites are [HorribleSubs] and [BakedFish], they are groups who release Japanese TV shows. Sickrage lets you whitelist groups so it will avoid releases from poor quality groups.

Ah. I understand now, thanks. I have never had a use for such a feature as I just go for individual series.

 

[Sokonomi]

Upon further inspection, the native plugins only include Sonarr. If I want radarr im going to have to find a tutorial for it.

 

[Rusty!]

Radarr is included as an iocage plugin.

 

[diedrichg]

I didn’t see mention of what version FN you are running. If it’s 11.2-beta then I’d suggest reading the new docs for FN and roll a new iocage jail and then pkg install radarr

https://www.freshports.org/net-p2p/radarr/

In that same jail you can then

pkg install sonarr

and

pkg install sabnzbdplus

to make it much easier to pass files between those programs.

 

[Sokonomi]

I didn’t see mention of what version FN you are running. If it’s 11.2-beta then I’d suggest reading the new docs for FN and roll a new iocage jail and then pkg install radarr

https://www.freshports.org/net-p2p/radarr/

In that same jail you can then

pkg install sonarr

and

pkg install sabnzbdplus

to make it much easier to pass files between those programs.

This is why beginners don't understand half of whats in the tutorials.
Roll an iocage? Do I use a D20?

For what its worth, in 11.2 the plugins just throw errors when I try to install them. No clue whats wrong, google doesn't know either. And theres no Festers guide for it, so id rather not touch with 11.2 entirely.

 

[diedrichg]

Roll an iocage?

That was slang for "install a iocage jail". I don't install beta FreeNAS versions and usually wait until at least the first Update for them to get the major bugs fixed. But, if you are the adventurous type, 11.2 promises many improvements over 11.1. Here is the documentation for 11.2 iocage jail installation.

http://doc.freenas.org/11.2/jails.html

 

[Sokonomi]

When trying to install any of the plugins. Quite the improvement!
Literally everything I try doing with this is fighting me tooth and nail.
Why is this so difficult?

 

[diedrichg]

Because this new iocage system and UI are new and still very buggy. We are in a limbo situation where the Warden jails and plugins of old were solid and stable but we are now in new territory and the devs will just have to get things fixed for things to settle down. It is nothing you are doing wrong.