advantage of plugin over jail

[path]

I've seen several guides with iocage to get the system up and running with various services in jails. Some of these also exist as plugins. What's the advantage if any of a plugin over a jail?

 

[nojohnny101]

both are jails. plugins are simply an more automated way to install software inside of a jail.

Some reasons I can think of people picking plugins:
- they want as little work as possible
- they do not have complex setups
- they are fine with waiting a bit longer than most for updates
- don't want to manage the jail

Some reasons people install the software themselves
- want more control over how things are installed
- much easier to troubleshoot problems
- quicker updates
- more granular control and flexibility with having multiple jails interact with each other

I'm sure others will share as well. I have always setup my jails manually. Previously the plugins left a lot to be desired and were too reliant on other people to update them (this may change with the new system, so granted it I have not tried since the warden days). I also just liked the more granular control with networking, permissions, etc. I have never found it incredibly difficult to build the jail myself and I am far from an expert.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

What drew me to FreeNAS was that I could do most things through a relatively easy to use web interface. The complexities of its Unix-like FreeBSD heritage were mostly hidden. Plug-ins continue to support that philosophy.

 

[path]

thanks both of you

 

[diedrichg]

Jails: you can install multiple software packages to allow simpler communication between each application. e.g. SABnzbd talking to Sonarr