Setting up a new FreeNAS - New to it all (and Linux)

[robertdistefano]

Okay, so I've got the hardware set up and FreeNAS on a thumb drive. Can remote in using a web browser and all seems well.

However, I'm pretty overwhelmed with a few things.

Groups
There are a whole bunch of groups preset by FreeNAS (wheel, etc). What are they for? Are they needed? My application will be this - home use, with only one user - me - accessing it (at this point). Do I create a "users" group and put my user in there?

ZFS and ZFS Intent Log
Here is my setup, and what I would like to achieve. I have 4x 2TB drives and a 1x 800GB drive. The 4x 2TB drives will be set to a RAIDZ1 ZFS structure. The 1x 800GB drive will be completely separate and used as a Time Machine drive (take this out of the picture for now). Creating the Volume was fairly straight forward - I selected the 4x 2TB drives, selected ZFS, and RAIDZ1, and 4K support (as my drives support this). However ZFS Extra is where I got stuck, and even after reading and reading, I'm still confused. My understanding is that a ZFS Intent Log is stored (what that log does, is beyond me) somewhere. I have the option of None - I don't know if this means that there will be no log (unlikely because it's needed) - or that the log will be stored on the same drives as the Volume. Then the other options which utilize another drive(s) to store the log. I've read that this practice is the best - can someone explain why? I have a 250GB 2.5" drive that I can pop in the NAS that I can use for the ZIL. Will this do, or provide any benefit at all? I don't want to dedicate one of the 4x 2TB drives as that will take a chunk of space away. I also need the 1x 800GB drive for the Time Machine.

Then I created a single volume for my Time Machine backup. I don't need this striped as the likely hood of my Macbook dying and my Time Machine are rare, so I will be able to replace either without data loss.

Does it matter what I call the Volumes? Will this name reflect on the client end, or is it strictly for FreeNAS purposes?

ZFS Volumes and ZFS Datasets

Okay this is where I got even more lost. With that 4x 2TB ZFS RAIDZ - I want to create two volumes - one called "Media" to store, well, media - and another called "Data" to store files (images, apps, etc). I created the first ZFS Volume called "Media" and allocated 4TB of the 5TB or so available on the RAIDZ volume for it. Then I created "Data" and allocated the rest. So now I have the following:

ZFS RAIDZ1 - 5.2TB (comprised of 4 disks)
|____"media" volume (4TB)
|____"data" volume (1TB+)

From my very basic understanding of shares. I imagine that when I AFP into my freenas on my Mac, I will be asked which Share to connect to - media or data - and start doing my thing. Is this correct?

Okay. Then what are ZFS Datasets? Where do they come in, and do I use them for my application?

Sharing

Initially for this exercise, I will just be sharing with AFP (but will do NFS and SMB later). I did what I imagined to be create the AFP protocol and set the Volumes. However, when I went to connect to the FreeNAS from my Mac - when it did connect (only once) - it gave me a list of "media" and "data" - great! - but they were only around 30GB each. It seemed to be accessing the leftover space on the Volumes, and not the actual Volumes themselves.

As you can see, I'm fairly clueless with all of this - and would love some guidance. So basically my end result would be this:

4x 2TB drives RAIDZ split into two volumes - "media" (4TB) and "data" (1TB+) and shared via AFP.
1x 800GB drive set up solely for Apple Time Machine share.

I didn't think it would be this complicated. :\

Thank you

 

[cyberjock]

Some of your questions will be answered by reviewing the sticky. A link is in my signature.

Unless you want to set strict rules for your Data and Media, I'd just make them folders in the same zpool(volume). It would suck if you wanted more space on one than the other later down the road. If you are trying to set strict limits so your wife doesn't try to fill the drive with media or something simiar, I'd just do folders. You'll have more flexibility.

ZFS intent log is explained in my signature and in the manual. If you read only the manual you'd fully understand what the ZFS log is. (You did read the manual right? Not trying to take shortcuts and expect the answers to be handed to you, right?) You definitely do NOT want to use the 800GB for a ZIL. Again, my presentation and the manual will explain why one drive for a ZIL is a big no-no.

The name you give the volumes will not reflect on the clients at all. It will only be useful for the administrator of the FreeNAS server.

From my very basic understanding of shares. I imagine that when I AFP into my freenas on my Mac, I will be asked which Share to connect to - media or data - and start doing my thing. Is this correct?

Correct.

Initially for this exercise, I will just be sharing with AFP (but will do NFS and SMB later). I did what I imagined to be create the AFP protocol and set the Volumes. However, when I went to connect to the FreeNAS from my Mac - when it did connect (only once) - it gave me a list of "media" and "data" - great! - but they were only around 30GB each. It seemed to be accessing the leftover space on the Volumes, and not the actual Volumes themselves.

I do not own a Mac and have never used AFP, but you must setup the shares independently of the volumes. You should read the portion of the manual regarding volumes and AFP and better understand how the two are independent of each other. You theoretically could create a share named "data" that really points to your "media" and vice versa.

Here's another tidbit of information: FreeNAS is NOT linux. FreeNAS is FreeBSD. It's confusing at first(even I made that mistake initially).

 

[ProtoSD]

Groups
There are a whole bunch of groups preset by FreeNAS (wheel, etc). What are they for? Are they needed?

They are needed by various system services (daemons) etc. and have been a part of Unix for a long time. Don't mess with them or delete them or you may have unintended consequences. Adding a user to certain groups gives that user privileges that that group has. It can be complicated and overwhelming for beginners.

 

[robertdistefano]

Thanks for the link. I've had a read over it. Also, I know it may seem like I didn't check out the FreeNAS wiki, but believe me, I did. Some points were just wither vague, or went right over my head.

From your document I've gathered that I should not put the ZIL on a separate spindle drive as if that drive fails, I'm buggered. It'll also degrade performance being a laptop drive. So I should select "none" to store the ZIL on the zpool.

What I did wrong initially was create zvol's on top of the Volumes. I don't need to worry about zvol's at all, right?

So I should just create the zpool - call it "files" and create two shares (folders) called "data" and "media" on the large zpool (5.2TB). Then when I browse to the NAS via my machine, I will be given those two shares to connect to?

I might have a better idea once I'm in front of it tonight.

Also about the Linux thing, I used it loosely, and I meant Unix as a lot of FreeBSD's commands are Unix based - which I have little to no experience with. I know FreeNAS isn't either Linux or Unix - but share common traits :)

They are needed by various system services (daemons) etc. and have been a part of Unix for a long time. Don't mess with them or delete them or you may have unintended consequences. Adding a user to certain groups gives that user privileges that that group has. It can be complicated and overwhelming for beginners.

Ah, makes sense. So my best bet is to just create a new group (call it "users" or something) and pop users in there?

 

[ProtoSD]

Ah, makes sense. So my best bet is to just create a new group (call it "users" or something) and pop users in there?

Yup, that should do the trick ;)