CIFS

[Nick Howard]

I finally got round to configuring the system today after 40 hours of having to format the drives due to freeNAS being unable to during volume creation. Any way a few little things I've come across and not sure if it's the norm. Once I'd created a volume and datasets along with a couple of users and a group I found I was unable to see the share on my windows 7 machines. The problem was that I'd set the 'Type of ACL' to Windows as seemed logical, but once I changed it back to Unix I could see it?

The other thing on permissions that threw me a little was that I presumed I could set a permission for a user in the home volume and that would give full permissions to all the datasets residing in it. I soon found out I had to set permissions for each individual dataset.

 

[cyberjock]

Permissions are not simple. That's the plain and simple truth. The reality of it is you nee to understand how ACLs and Unix permissions either complement or conflict with themselves. I am planning to write a guide when 9.2.1.6 comes out on how permissions work and how what you set in the webGUI for permissions does or doesn't matter and how it matters. Other than that the only advice I can give is google your brains out and figure out how all this stuff works. Samba4 handles ACLs and unix permissions differently from Samba3, so anything from the 9.2.0 or older versions doesn't necessarily apply with 9.2.1+.

 

[Nick Howard]

It is a fairly steep learning curve and definitely not for your average home user. Synology and the like definitely have their place but if you're willing to get stuck in I think ZFS is the better choice for sure. I've actually done nothing but google freenas and read post after post on here for the last few weeks. I'll get there, it's just great to finally be able to have a play with it. You can do all the reading you like, but I find until you actually get your hands dirty, that's where the real learning starts. I'm just trying to get my head around one thing at a time. This place has been a great help though and I look forward to your guide on ACL's and permissions.

 

[cyberjock]

When I first started playing with FreeNAS in February 2012 I had no clue what FreeBSD was, virtually no understanding of anything outside of Windows and a little bit of linux. I spent about 3 weeks reading nonstop about FreeNAS, then about a week in a VM, then 3 more weeks on some spare hardware I had before i built the first system. My first real FreeNAS build wasn't even for myself, it was for a friend. He had lots of cash to burn and i didn't. I told him I'd either figure it all out or we'd move him back to Windows if I couldn't figure it out. So he bought the hardware and I figured out the software.

Now more than 2 years later I'm one of the resident experts, I do sidework on FreeNAS when its offered, and I generally know how to stay out of trouble with FreeNAS. Thanks to playing with FreeNAS I've expanded my knowledge into FreeBSD(less than I'd like but I am getting there) and i'm much more comfortable with linux on my desktop since most of the commands are almost the same if not identical.

It's definitely something you will work on long-term. I think it's a good decision for storing data safely. I also think it's an amazing stepping stone of you want to get into CLI stuff like what FreeBSD and Linux expect. I think that the reason why FreeNAS makes a great stepping stone is because you do have the ability to do all sorts of stuff from the CLI in FreeNAS, but can always fall back to the WebGUI if things get totally out of control. Having that crutch you can lean on in an emergency is very very useful.

 

[Nick Howard]

I've been in IT myself for 12 years now, I worked as a desktop/server engineer fixing PC'S, printers, laptops etc. Then two years ago I landed a job with Hitachi Data Systems. It was completely new to me as I'd had no dealing with storage before but I'm now going through certification to become a storage engineer on the HDS range of enterprise equipment. I've mainly been working on the SAN side of things, modular and more recently enterprise, they do have a HNAS product but I'm yet to get on the course for that or even see it out in the field. I've taken so much information in over the last two years and I'm only now putting it all together and getting a better understanding. I'd had a synology box before this but I really wanted to get my hands into something different. I've not had much exposure to UNIX or software for that matter, I've always been at the hardware/install side of things. Working in the data centres though on the big Storage arrays is great. I started off initially just swapping disks but at the same time getting out on installs and seeing arrays such as the USP-V and the newer VSP's being installed. Learning Freenas and ZFS is just another angle that adds to it all really. Surprisingly though when I've mentioned Freenas and ZFS to some of the more experienced HDS engineers they've had no dealings with it and generally know very little about it.