Purpose of FreeNAS Shell

[Giutarrio]

Hi,

maybe this is a silly question but I don't get what the point of the FreeNAS shell is since every change made is resetted after reboot.

Maybe there is a way to safe the configutation database manually to keep the changes?

As far as I can see right now you can only make configurations via the web interface.

Thx for your help.

 

[Chris Moore]

As far as I can see right now you can only make configurations via the web interface.

That is how it is supposed to work.

I don't get what the point of the FreeNAS shell is since every change made is resetted after reboot.

There are many troubleshooting activities that the shell is useful for, even better to setup SSH access so you can have a full terminal session. You can also setup scripts to monitor the FreeNAS and it is often useful to have a full terminal window for editing or running those scripts manually and you can schedule those scripts to run through the task scheduler in the GUI.

Maybe there is a way to safe the configutation database manually to keep the changes?

What kind of changes did you have in mind to make?

 

[Chris Moore]

Github repository for FreeNAS scripts, including disk burnin
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...for-freenas-scripts-including-disk-burnin.28/

More tips on things you can do from a terminal window here:

Uncle Fester's Basic FreeNAS Configuration Guide
https://www.familybrown.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=fester:intro

Then there is mc (Midnight Commander) which is available from a terminal window on FreeNAS, here is a demo video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWu2R9cn_b8

 

[Giutarrio]

Hello Chris,

thanks for the fast answer.

There are many troubleshooting activities that the shell is useful for, even better to setup SSH access so you can have a full terminal session.
What kind of changes did you have in mind to make?

I tried to setup SSH via shell and every change made was deleted after reboot. I tried it directly on the PC and on the web interface shell (it is propably the same)

To be honest i'm not quite sure which part of the files include the configuration database but since all configurations and files needed for SSH were deleted I thought these files were also included in the configuration database. This got me thinking, all things made via CLI are thrown away and there is no purpose of the shell.

 

[anodos]

Hello Chris,

thanks for the fast answer.



I tried to setup SSH via shell and every change made was deleted after reboot. I tried it directly on the PC and on the web interface shell (it is propably the same)

To be honest i'm not quite sure which part of the files include the configuration database but since all configurations and files needed for SSH were deleted I thought these files were also included in the configuration database. This got me thinking, all things made via CLI are thrown away and there is no purpose of the shell.

If you want to edit your sshd config, you need to make changes through the webui.

 

[Chris Moore]

I tried to setup SSH via shell and every change made was deleted after reboot. I tried it directly on the PC and on the web interface shell (it is propably the same)

Why would you try to setup SSH through the shell? There is a setting in the GUI:
https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/services.html#ssh

I am guessing that you have previous experience with either Linux or BSD and configuration from the CLI. This is not how FreeNAS works. FreeNAS is intended to be configured through the WEB UI (GUI) and those changes are saved in the configuration database. It is possible, but highly discouraged, to make direct changes to the database, but you can easily break things that way, which is why it is not a good way to go. Please review the manual and make all configuration settings there.

 

[Giutarrio]

Ok, I see that I need to use the GUI to make some changes to the system.

So to activate features and services on FreeNAS I need to configure them under "Services" or "Plugins". Is there a way to install Plugins/Applications besides the ones listed in the GUI?

I would like to install a VPN Client on the System so I can connect to it over internet safely. Is there a way to install for example ProtonVPN Client permanently? (I already managed to install it via Shell but it got deleted like the rest)

 

[danb35]

Is there a way to install Plugins/Applications besides the ones listed in the GUI?

Yes, jails. A jail is pretty much a base FreeBSD system, and you can install whatever software you want in there. There are a number of how-tos on OpenVPN, for example.

 

[Giutarrio]

Thank you very much for the answers. This is exactly what I was looking for.