Plugins Outdated?

[Andreas Corneliussen]

Works with jails also

Yes, but it does not work with anything else but the plex media server. What I would like to help update is the nextcloud plugin.

Why have this discussion taken the form of a war between a fraction thinking that this isn't an issue at all and that we should all just install our own functionality in a normal jail and a fraction that just wants to say that the plugins are not up to date? I think we need to aknowledge that iXSystems have a lot of work to do to make all the missing features available for the 11.1 release (read docker support and a fully implemented new frontend) and that they have decided to go with an iocage solution going forward and that they therefore most likely will not focus on updating the old plugins at all.
Therefore we have the following options:

• Install our impliances ourselves in a normal jail and keep them uptodate ourselves
• Find a way to help update the old, mostly abandoned, plugin system (Please if someone knows how to contribute to this I still am wondering how to help update the existing plugins)
• Wait for the 11.1 release where we have two options

1. Use Docker images (which as I understand also includes the overhead of an operating system but maybe I have the wrong understanding of this)
2. Use iocage plugins (which is both more uptodate and also easier to help update with pull requests for the github repositories for recipies)

Lets keep the discussion productive please, no need to bash each other for their opinions. We have the plugin system and some of us like to use it and therefore it is relevant how to help update them. If, however, you are expecting the work of updating the plugin to be done for you, you have only the option to hope that someone steps up or wait for 11.1 as I see it.

 

[Jailer]

If you are dead set on updating the old plugins instructions have been posted in the forum on how to do that by @Joshua Parker Ruehlig. You'll have to search for his posts as i dont recall where he posted it.

 

[raidflex]

I didn't make that assumption at all. My experience is that with CLI work, things rarely go as simply as following the guides. There are quite often things about your system that vary from the one the guide was based on. So, various permissions issues have to be sorted out, etc. It's always something. And that isn't a complaint at all. It's just factoring in a realistic assessment of time.

I think that the best outcome here would be for a faster update plan to be implemented by iX. It improves the quality of product and is a more efficient use of effort.

If that's not possible, I'll have to weigh my options between finding some time to re-do the jails for the 50th time. Or, switch over to running the volumes on Ubuntu Server.

While it is true that different configs can cause problems, generally due to the nature of jails vs VMs this is not really any issue. The standard jail template ensures that everyone starts with the same environment. You can have permission problems with plugins also, you still need to give access to your data, so really this is not specific to standard jails.

 

[indivision]

While it is true that different configs can cause problems, generally due to the nature of jails vs VMs this is not really any issue. The standard jail template ensures that everyone starts with the same environment. You can have permission problems with plugins also, you still need to give access to your data, so really this is not specific to standard jails.

Then there are different network configurations. Different hardware. Different things that people are trying to do with the applications. Guides that are based on old versions.

Sometimes things can go smoothly. But, when you're making a decision about what you can afford to spend your time on, it's a good idea to consider the average (if not worst case scenario) rather than the best case scenario.

While it's true that plugins can be work too, my experience has been that, on average, diving into a CLI guide is more time consuming.

 

[JoshDW19]

There is a new plugin system that is coming in FreeNAS version 11.1 that is going to address this issue @indivision. The way that the plugin system works now is what I've been told by the developers as "impossibly difficult" to maintain. For that reason the developers have opted to do a bit of a revamp of the plugin system and integrate iocage as part of the framework to build on. The entire idea driving this revamp is to keep plugins up-to-date and not having to use any additional scripts. Hope this helps!

 

[indivision]

There is a new plugin system that is coming in FreeNAS version 11.1 that is going to address this issue @indivision. The way that the plugin system works now is what I've been told by the developers as "impossibly difficult" to maintain. For that reason the developers have opted to do a bit of a revamp of the plugin system and integrate iocage as part of the framework to build on. The entire idea driving this revamp is to keep plugins up-to-date and not having to use any additional scripts. Hope this helps!

That does help. Thank you for passing on "the official word". Sounds promising.

 

[Andreas Corneliussen]

JoshDW19 I have just taken a look at the iocage system as it is included in freenas 11, but I have found a couple of problems when installing the nextcloud plugin using this functionality:

• The iocage plugin seems to download from a different pkg server than the other jail systems since the nextcloud version available in the iocage nextcloud plugin is only 11.something whereas the nextcloud version available in a normal jail is the newest one 12.0.0
• I can't get to mount any datasets into the jail since the mount -t nullfs have a limitation on the dir path length which is almost exceeded just by the jail folder name which seems to be a long hash value of sorts?
• The plugin does not install itself as a https plugin and I haven't been able to figure out how to make it work on https

Is the above something that will be looked at for 11.1 release of freenas?