Will it TrueNAS (Scale)? Upgraded Huawei RH2288Hv.3 - pondering how to get things working

[SecCon]

@c77dk Yeh, I have been stuck in your country a couple of times after some beer rounds when they closed the bridge. Truly a nightmare.

Anyways I found the problem and I am a bit flabbergasted by it. Turns out the backplane was not properly inserted in the chassis. See that bend along the yellow line? That should have been placed behind a small metal hook, you can see it in the second picture.

The small hook and the backplane properly mounted, and now I see relevant drives.

I guess you can't trust an assembly and have to check everything by yourself. Sure, wise words, but sometimes you don't even know what to check.

Ok, plan might move forward.

 

[SecCon]

Doing some additional checks on apps I will need to run in TrueNAS.
Separate threads in respective forum.

 

[SecCon]

So after being caught up in a "nice conversation" in a thread that got locked I have looked a bit more towards the specs and descriptions of Scale . I know this is the wrong forum category for Scale, but gentleixian's, here we are...

I base this assessment on the fact that someone mentioned in the aforementioned locked thread that virtualization was not very good in Core.
So let me list the intended usage of my TrueNAS:

• Fileshare for Windows machines on SMB. Ehmm... like a NAS... anyone?
• Backup -mirror to a separate standalone NAS ( YES I have a REAL NAS as well, an Asustor), I was thinking Syncthing.
• The ability to have stable Virtual machines, primarily, Windows to run Lansweeper ( see my thread about that). I would setup a Windows or two and once installed connect to them via RDP, primarily. VNC during setup I guess (caveat about how Scale works with that)
• Some utilities as plugins, maybe monitoring or locally hosted web apps, like perhaps a documentation system, or maybe even something like Nextcloud, albeit I have bad experience with Nextcloud so maybe something else.
• I think that's all folks.. ah, coming to think of it, nothing will be externally accessible. Only on my local lan. AFAIK now.

So, no, I am not installing anything yet. So sorry. I know you were all excited about this, but additional questions were raised the last few hours. Should I thus consider Scale instead of Core? You see my hardware, its the Huawei server. What say ye?

 

[danb35]

Are you calling us oath-breakers? Not sure I like the sound of that...

In any event...

Fileshare for Windows machines on SMB. Ehmm... like a NAS... anyone?

Of course TrueNAS can do this, in either version. I don't think there's a particular reason to favor one over the other in this regard.

Backup -mirror to a separate standalone NAS ( YES I have a REAL NAS as well, an Asustor), I was thinking Syncthing

Either version of TrueNAS could do this as well via rsync. I'm not familiar enough with syncthing to address it one way or the other.

The ability to have stable Virtual machines, primarily, Windows to run Lansweeper

Either could do this also, but I believe the virtualization engine used on SCALE is more mature than that on CORE. With that said, @Patrick M. Hausen reports stable Windows VMs under CORE. I've never used either version of TrueNAS (or FreeNAS before it) as a virtualization platform, other than to run a small Ubuntu VM for Pi-Hole on my parents' CORE machine, though that works well enough.

Some utilities as plugins

This, IMO, is the big discriminator. If you want something like a "plugin"--where you click a button, provide a few configuration variables, and it's up and running--SCALE is the only way to go. Plugins under CORE are, in the words of the iX SVP of Engineering, "all but deprecated" and a "path to sadness." If you're open to creating a jail and installing software yourself in that jail, those work very well under CORE, presuming the software you're wanting to use works well under FreeBSD.

All is not sunshine and roses with SCALE; I had an intractable problem with the apps when I upgraded from 22.02 to 22.12 that ultimately required that I reinstall from scratch and manually reconfigure everything (not just all the apps, everything). Never was able to track down the cause. And memory management doesn't seem to work as well; I have over 32 GB of RAM sitting completely unused under SCALE, while CORE would use almost all of it (which is a funny complaint; I remember complaint threads of "FreeNAS is using all my RAM!")--though with an average ARC hit rate of over 90%, I guess that isn't too bad. SCALE is definitely the more actively-developed platform at this time, though whether that indicates that CORE is about to go the way of the dodo (as some folks here suspect), or just that CORE is the more mature and feature-complete platform but will still be actively developed and supported forever, we promise (as iX says) is unknown.

 

[SecCon]

@danb35 I appreciate your answers.
To clarify: Syncthing has an interface. That is a HUGE plus in my book.

I read what Mr @Patrick M. Hausen wrote, and I appreciate that. However, that brings me to the last item, the plugins and regardless of if I am using one or not, the circumstance you mention for Core, favours Scale.

As a slight comparison, I know a lot of people depending on CentOS for many applications, but the moment I heard it would cease development I dropped it like a hot potato. Before that I was running Webmin on it, testing out things...

Yes, I want that plugin functionality. Yet again Scale seems to be the way to go. But, I also read Scale 22.02 is rather different from 22.12? Angelfish vs Bluefin? What are they up to?

Just a word to those who might say stuff about ESXi. I come from there. Used two ESXi servers for 3-4 years and loved the system, but it could not do anything by itself. Wonderful host though. Reliable, but a annoying hassle to keep updated with VMWare changing CLI command syntax between updates. I tried implementing VCenter with a WMUG license, but the hardware was to old, well the CPU's. Despite having 32 cores at 3.2Ghz and 148GB DDR3 RAM, per server, it was not shiny enough for VMWare, so I dumped my 7.03 ESXi machines and sold the hardware.

 

[jgreco]

What if i just did not configure any RAID? Just leave it unconfigured? How would I see if that works or not in TrueNAS?

The 3108 is a RAID controller and will not be running under the proper driver, regardless of "JBOD" or "HBA mode". We'd love for the 3108 to work like an HBA but it doesn't.

 

[SecCon]

The 3108 is a RAID controller and will not be running under the proper driver, regardless of "JBOD" or "HBA mode". We'd love for the 3108 to work like an HBA but it doesn't.

It is not the one I intend to use. I got a replacement, as stated, have a Huawei SR130 LSI 3008 8i SAS 12 mezzanine controller on the shelf. IT flashed.

 

[jgreco]

That's fine, but I've been trying to include the correct reason in these threads, due to a major jump in the number of people arguing the point and pointing to old threads and then arguing that their ${RAID-controller} is just fine. I'd rather that people get the correct information.

 

[SecCon]

I understand. I specifically asked about my 3108, got a no, suggested another and got it via a pal at STH.
As for the technical reason for choosing one above the other I will not claim to understand it perfectly, I/O direct access I think, but I do know enough about hardware to get that some items will not work - insert reason - and respect that. It may be a nuisance, but one we have to deal with.

 

[SecCon]

So i got an e-mail about the Bluefin patch : https://email.ixsystems.com/major-announcements-new-truenas-new-mini-r-scale-update-and-dpg?ecid=ACsprvuA9gkJRYxKCNywTjdxdvA1uAUGkWu_EKx3D5uf-kK3yodHpLsDpUH8F3L8B4wt7nocaDiX&utm_campaign=Community Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=247187615&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_EC1fS3kkL6nRRAlJG5AiLDrYwFPinisL_crliSLqD8FCDrKT6XNuqy22nKjLhHvPh6vhiVKqAQiBcn8exEfEZXpvTTg&utm_content=247187615&utm_source=hs_email

In it was a Youtube tutorial about virtualisation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r24UGU24U4U

Scale it is.

(also got two new Samsung SSD's for system drive)

 

[SecCon]

Wait, what.. is Scale built on Debian?

Test setup to get a bit of feel in Hyper-V, please don't kill me.

 

[danb35]

Wait, what.. is Scale built on Debian?

Indeed it is. That doesn't mean it is Debian--don't expect to be doing apt update and such.

 

[SecCon]

@danb35 Will you believe I have not had a working Debian successfully running in 25 years?
Ubuntu-Fedora-CentOS-FreeBSD-OpenSUSE-Mandrake-Mandriva etc, sure yes, but never Debian. Always something that wouldn't work.

 

[SecCon]

After adjusting DNS to some of the recommended, 8.8.8.8 and 9.9.9.9 google and quad9, updatet to bluefin downloaded and installed. How hard is it for the setup script to ask for those dns settings "- because otherwise some things won't work" ... Gave it a bit more ram and CPU to chew on.

Now for a bit of testing, I have a few things in mind I can test without having this on the intended server and that is a bit of networking and other things.. Lets see if I can install Syncthing and get it to connect to my NAS share.

Ok, have to create another HDD and add a secondary pool before even looking at the apps... ah well I seem to recall that from FreeNAS...

 

[danb35]

Ok, have to create another HDD and add a secondary pool before even looking at the apps... ah well I seem to recall that from FreeNAS...

Not at all, it's perfectly valid to have apps (and jails, in CORE and FreeNAS) on your main storage pool. You may want a separate pool for reasons of performance, but it isn't required.

 

[SecCon]

Well, I did only have the system drive so I guess creating that extra pool was not really an extra pool but the only pool. I think I am moving this over to a backup SuperMicro server for remaining tests, since I fear Hyper-V might be causing too many glitches, not least in networking. The Graf Spee one in my signature.

Yeah, I play World of Warships and mostly the Kriegsmarine.

 

[SecCon]

After messing around a bit with a few other systems and installing them on aforementioned test server I must say OMV is really nice. Pretty straight forward, relevant error management, easy to setup, good setup dialogues and an internal file manager which came as a available plugin out of the box. I do however consider TrueNAS more trustworthy in the longer term and I aim for two decades at least. Once I get the hang of all I need to work.

I must read up on rsync or syncthing though. My current backup software is so much easier to use than these, but it only runs in Windows. Maybe I should keep running it in a virtual Windows instead. Would a virtual windows handle ZFS drives correctly?

This is still very much a "pondering how to get things done"-thread. But perhaps it could be moved to the Scale subforum? @Moderators
Changed the thread title accordingly

 

[SecCon]

The virtualization dialogues are a nightmare. You do know that Windows Server (2022) and ESXi (7.03) do not demand so many details about any CPU, at least not in the basic setup... no autodetection? No default CPU option?

Restarting the "guide" after deleting failed machine entry, that was not even started, gave different options and seemed to have worked

 

[SecCon]

Had a virtual windows running now for a day and it seems to be stable. The NoVNC is "adequate" to handle client settings that can't be done via RDP and it works very nicely indeed. After some adjusting and testing due to temps I now run it at

Virtual CPUs: 1
Cores: 2
Threads: 4
Memory Size: 4.00 GiB
Boot Loader Type: UEFI
System Clock: LOCAL
Display Port: 5901
Description: wx1

Keeping an eye on that. Performance wise I think it is slightly faster than my Hyper-V machines, with less resources. Is that even possible...?

Next thing is to create and share a share and doing some copying back and forth mapping it via SMB to regular Windows desktop.

 

[SecCon]

Trying to get ACL to work on a testuser for rwx on a local smb share, but failing miserably. Even med a dedicated thread about it, but no solution yet. https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/acl-is-driving-me-nuts.108201/

Earlier I mentioned OpenMediaVault which I had running for about an hour before overwriting it. I created a testuser there with zero issues. Click-click-click. Did not even have to read up in the manual.

I do not understand. Is this supposed to be so complicated? Why?