Running multiple plugins in a single jail (How to?)

[MortenSJ]

Hi guys

I'm fairly new to FreeNAS and messed with it a while ago. I'm expanding my disks and figure it would be a good time to redo the setup and do it the right way this time. After spending a lot of time reading about best practice i realize that the way i set it up before wasn't the best way.

Now i got to the plugins. Before i installed the plugins through the GUI and now see that it might not be the best solution if I always want to have the newest version of a plugin (Plex pass).

This time i'm going to do it manually with the pkg.

This leads me to the actual question. I see that some people prefer to have all the plugins in a single jail. Is that best practice or just a matter of preference? I can see the benefits of having everything run on the same IP. Is there other pro's / cons with this?

If i were to go this route, how should i approach this when creating the first jail?

Hope you guys can clarify this for me. Thanks in advance.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I see that some people prefer to have all the plugins in a single jail. Is that best practice or just a matter of preference?

I see it as a matter of choice. I chose to put media-related apps in one jail (Plex, SABnzbd, Sonarr) and others in their own jails (BTSync, VirtualBox). The benefit of fewer jails is reduced complexity and perhaps slightly lower resource usage. The benefit of more jails is the ability to destroy and recreate a jail independently.

If i were to go this route, how should i approach this when creating the first jail?

1. Learn how to SSH into your box, then jls to find a jail's number and jexec <jailnum> csh to get to a shell in that jail.
2. Create a standard jail.
3. Execute pkg update && pkg upgrade in the jail's shell.
4. Use pkg search <partofappname> to find the package you want.
5. pkg install <packagename>

 

[MortenSJ]

Thanks Robert. That makes sense. I think i'll organize my jails according to the type and purpose.

 

[adrianwi]

I'm in the each application in it's own jail camp, and even have separate VirtualBox jails for different things (one for a Windows VM, one for FreeBSD ones, one for Crashplan) :D.

I've currently got 16 jails (a couple aren't running) and find it easier to update them knowing I'm not going to break anything else in the process.

 

[MortenSJ]

I have another question related to the installments of plugins inside a jail.

I see there is different ways or different type of plugins.

Some is referring to ports - http://www.freshports.org/ and others are linking to https://download.freenas.org/plugins/9/x64/

What's the difference between the two?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

FreeNAS plugins are prepackaged, one per jail. You get the convenience of having most of the work done for you, in exchange for reduced flexibility.

Ports are one of the ways to install software on FreeBSD, which means you can use ports to install software in a jail. You can also use packages.

 

[MortenSJ]

So if i were to use FreeNAS plugins, i would not be able to put for instance Sabnzbd, SickRage and CouchPotato into a single jail? How much of reduced flexibility would i get?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

So if i were to use FreeNAS plugins, i would not be able to put for instance Sabnzbd, SickRage and CouchPotato into a single jail? How much of reduced flexibility would i get?

Plugins are one per jail, by definition. I think they can be combined manually, but I'm not sure why anyone would do that instead of just installing packages by hand.

I can't think of a good way to quantify the reduced flexibility of a plugin, except to say that any options you might have for choosing how to configure the installation when installing manually would not be available. The details depend on the specific software and the associated plugin. For example, with ownCloud, you might choose SQLite or MySQL for your database, but the plugin makes the decision for you.

 

[MortenSJ]

I see. The reason i want them in the same jail is because i want them on the same IP address.

So the only way to get them to all to run in the same jail is to use ports - http://www.freshports.org/ ? - I don't see SickRage, SickBeard or Couchpotato in there. Where would i find those if not there?

If i go with ports, do i then need to install python first just like if i were to do it on FreeBSD?

And thanks Robert. I really appreciate your help!

 

[Joshua Parker Ruehlig]

you can install multiple plugins per jail by uploading PBIs to a jail on the jails tab. PBIs are available here.
http://download.freenas.org/plugins/9/x64/

I do this for several plugins that interact with each other like transmission/sabnzbd/sickrage/couchpotato.

if you want ports for the plugins you mentioned they are on my github.
https://github.com/josh4trunks/freenas-plugins/tree/master/ports

 

[MortenSJ]

So from what I understand there is no real difference between the two methods?

Meaning. There is no reason for using ports over the PBI's other than reduced flexibility which I'm pretty sure I won't need anyways as I'm not what I consider a pro user.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

the only way to get them to all to run in the same jail is to use ports

No, you can use packages, which is the recommended approach in FreeNAS jails.

 

[MortenSJ]

Thanks guys! This is very helpful. Really appreciate it.