Newbie setup questions

[Raggedyman]

Hi, got 9.3 running on an old Shuttle box but having problems with finding what buttons to hit to make it work as I want.

Have looked through the documentation and forums but not been able to find the answers so if anyone can help with these I would be most appreciative. Even if it's just a link to a guide that I've not yet found I would be incredibly grateful, as I'm very new to all this so am quite possibly looking using the wrong words.

1 - Can you change the admin username to something other than 'root'? I would like to do this for added security.

2 - Is it possible to format a volume and share? I've got the basics set up and okay but having permission problems (it keeps on locking me out of folders) so would like to do a partial reset without doing a full re-install.

3 - What is the simplest way to set up a shared volume for Windows PCs and a Kodi Raspberry Pi, where you need to have a user login to get into the volume and can then do anything once in there. I think I know how to set up users and permissions but I'm not sure if I'm doing them right (if you get what I mean). Volumes and shares I'm still fingers and thumbs with.

Thanks in advance ^_^

 

[anodos]

Hi, got 9.3 running on an old Shuttle box but having problems with finding what buttons to hit to make it work as I want.

What are the hardware specs for this "old Shuttle box"? They may be inadequate for running FreeNAS. I recommend reading the following:
http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas.html
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

1 - Can you change the admin username to something other than 'root'? I would like to do this for added security.

That doesn't really add any security. If you're network is set up so that someone can hammer away at your webgui then you have bigger fish to fry.

2 - Is it possible to format a volume and share? I've got the basics set up and okay but having permission problems (it keeps on locking me out of folders) so would like to do a partial reset without doing a full re-install.

post output of "zpool list -v"

3 - What is the simplest way to set up a shared volume for Windows PCs and a Kodi Raspberry Pi, where you need to have a user login to get into the volume and can then do anything once in there. I think I know how to set up users and permissions but I'm not sure if I'm doing them right (if you get what I mean). Volumes and shares I'm still fingers and thumbs with.

Create a CIFS share, configure permissions via Explorer.

 

[Raggedyman]

What are the hardware specs for this "old Shuttle box"? They may be inadequate for running FreeNAS.

1.6Ghz Athlon with 2GB RAM. Being used to stream media and backup files (which it does fine so far).
Not much but it's what I've got.

That doesn't really add any security. If you're network is set up so that someone can hammer away at your webgui then you have bigger fish to fry.

I have the wi-fi hub/router that the cable company well me, so 'network' might be too grandiose a title.

post output of "zpool list -v"

how does one do that?

Create a CIFS share, configure permissions via Explorer.

What permissions would you advise I go for to have the result I'm after?

 

[anodos]

1.6Ghz Athlon with 2GB RAM. Being used to stream media and backup files (which it does fine so far).
Not much but it's what I've got.

Your hardware is insufficient for running FreeNAS. On 2GB RAM behavior can be so erratic that it's not even really worth the effort to troubleshoot. You should probably look into a different OS or upgrade your hardware.

See here: http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_intro.html#hardware-recommendations

Recommended minimum is 8GB ECC Ram (this means server hardware).

 

[danb35]

1.6Ghz Athlon with 2GB RAM. Being used to stream media and backup files (which it does fine so far).
Not much but it's what I've got.

Unfortunately, that's 6 GB short of the minimum RAM requirement (i.e., you only have 25% of the minimum required RAM). You will have problems. How bad and how soon, nobody knows, but you will have problems.

I have the wi-fi hub/router that the cable company well me, so 'network' might be too grandiose a title.

Unless that device is configured very oddly, none of the devices on your LAN are exposed to the Internet. Keep it that way unless and until you know what you're doing. Security on your FreeNAS server is then only a matter of whatever internal threats you may have (which I'm guessing are few). But to answer your direct question, you can't change the username from root.

how does one do that?

Using the Web GUI, go to the shell (click "shell" in the left-hand gutter), type in the command, copy and paste the output here.

 

[Raggedyman]

Unfortunately, that's 6 GB short of the minimum RAM requirement (i.e., you only have 25% of the minimum required RAM). You will have problems. How bad and how soon, nobody knows, but you will have problems.

What sort of thing are we talking about? It's going to be very low/simple usage and so far everything has been firmly in the green on CPU and RAM whilst streaming/shifting files.

Unless that device is configured very oddly, none of the devices on your LAN are exposed to the Internet. Keep it that way unless and until you know what you're doing. Security on your FreeNAS server is then only a matter of whatever internal threats you may have (which I'm guessing are few). But to answer your direct question, you can't change the username from root.

Our biggest internal threat is the cat eating the power cable.
Thanks for the answer :)

Using the Web GUI, go to the shell (click "shell" in the left-hand gutter), type in the command, copy and paste the output here.

NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE EXPANDSZ FRAG CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT
HGPool 230G 15.9G 214G - 3% 6% 1.00x ONLINE /mnt
gptid/a3d5fcc1-8d25-11e4-9e68-00301bb69427 230G 15.9G 214G - 3% 6%
freenas-boot 7.44G 941M 6.52G - - 12% 1.00x ONLINE -
gptid/b3f0fc4c-7f52-11e4-a72d-00301bb69427 7.44G 941M 6.52G - - 12%
[root@HGNas ~]#[/QUOTE]

 

[Raggedyman]

Your hardware is insufficient for running FreeNAS. On 2GB RAM behavior can be so erratic that it's not even really worth the effort to troubleshoot. You should probably look into a different OS or upgrade your hardware.

See here: http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_intro.html#hardware-recommendations

Recommended minimum is 8GB ECC Ram (this means server hardware).

As a hardware update isn't on the cards could you advise a different OS I could look at?

 

[anodos]

As a hardware update isn't on the cards could you advise a different OS I could look at?

I can't advise, but you can look at openmediavault.

 

[danb35]

As a hardware update isn't on the cards could you advise a different OS I could look at?

If you want to use ZFS, you can look at NAS4Free (http://www.nas4free.org/), which I understand will work with fewer system resources, or ZFS Guru (http://zfsguru.com/), about which I know nothing other than that it's another ZFS-based NAS distribution. If you don't want or need the web GUI, you could set up a FreeBSD server (www.freebsd.org) using ZFS. If you're not so concerned with that filesystem, you might want to look at XPEnology (http://xpenology.com/forum/), which is an open-source version of the Synology operating system.

ZFS is a great filesystem, and it would be worth your while to use it if possible. This video from Dru explains why:

NAS4Free used to be called FreeNAS, and was designed (or at least often used) to recycle old hardware into a NAS. This is the source of all the web articles and YouTube videos along the lines of "build a NAS out of junk hardware using FreeNAS!" iXSystems bought the name FreeNAS, built an almost-completely-different product, and in the process did a considerable disservice to everybody concerned, IMO (the product is great; the confusion not so much). I used old FreeNAS and it worked adequately for me at the time.

I've played with XPEnology a little bit, and it has a pretty, shiny interface. I haven't used it enough to have any real feedback on how well the server works.

Ultimately, there are a lot of Linux distros out there (and at least a couple of BSD ones) designed to run a NAS. Which one is best for you will depend on a lot of factors.

 

[anodos]

If you want to use ZFS...

That may not be a wise idea long-term on a system with only 2GB non-ecc ram.

 

[cyberjock]

That may not be a wise idea long-term on a system with only 2GB non-ecc ram.

+1. I'd look at a totally different OS that doesn't use ZFS. As old as that hardware is, i'm not sure there are any relatively modern OSes that will work on that hardware.