SMB shares and Pool Datasets

[quist]

A simple question. Is it best practice to have a one to one mapping with Pool Datasets (of the Windows type) and SMB shares?
E.g. if one wants to create 3 separate Windows Shares, each with it's own properties, should one create 3 separate datasets?

 

[Basil Hendroff]

The question is a little ambiguous. You would use permissions on one share to determine how different groups and individuals access data in a single dataset. You would not duplicate the dataset and shares just to assign permissions to different users or groups.

 

[quist]

Let me clarify. Let's assume I want shares as follows:

MGMT: for users in the "management" group to create/read/write/modify/delete files
VIEW: for users in the "board" group to view only
VIDEO: for users in the "media" group to view and download
TMP: a temporary scratch area for all users to create/read/write/modify/delete files
HOME: a share for each users personal files, full permissions

My question was is it best practices to make one dataset under the same Pool for each share or to create a subdirectory path under the one dataset for each share.

 

[anodos]

Speaking in general terms, I create one dataset per SMB share. I find this simplifies administering the shares / data. You may find out down the road that you want to set a ZFS quota on one of the shares, but not the others (ditto for snapshot tasks and replication).

 

[Basil Hendroff]

MGMT: for users in the "management" group to create/read/write/modify/delete files
VIEW: for users in the "board" group to view only

Is this in reference to the same data? If it is, it's a single dataset. This is the point I was making in previously. The share will have appropriate permissions for board and management.

VIDEO: for users in the "media" group to view and download
TMP: a temporary scratch area for all users to create/read/write/modify/delete files

These look like unique datasets to me. The data appears to be self-contained. However, some individual/group still has to have full access to VIDEO to manage the videos contained within.

HOME: a share for each users personal files, full permissions

This is an interesting one. Personally, from a housekeeping perspective, I'd set this up using nested child datasets under a parent dataset.

 

[danb35]

VIEW: for users in the "board" group to view only
VIDEO: for users in the "media" group to view and download

Just to be clear, from FreeNAS' perspective, "view" and "download" are the same thing. Both involve the user reading the data in question, and FreeNAS has no control over what the client machine/user does with that data once it's read.

 

[quist]

Is this in reference to the same data? If it is, it's a single dataset. This is the point I was making in previously. The share will have appropriate permissions for board and management.


These look like unique datasets to me. The data appears to be self-contained. However, some individual/group still has to have full access to VIDEO to manage the videos contained within.


This is an interesting one. Personally, from a housekeeping perspective, I'd set this up using nested child datasets under a parent dataset.

Ah.... So when creating the the SMB share, do you use the HOME type radio button for the one parent dataset? I believe there can only be one of those.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

Ah.... So when creating the the SMB share, do you use the HOME type radio button for the one parent dataset? I believe there can only be one of those.

No. That's for home directories, which is something quite different. There are several reasons I tend to avoid home directories. They don't lend themselves to shadow copies and the recycle bin, and, unlike user datasets, you can't at a glance tell how much space individual home directories are occupying.

Create a parent dataset called home. Under it create your user datasets.

 

[quist]

Ok... Is there some documentation you could direct me to which clarifies the difference between the user dataset idea, described above and the SMB home directories, and while we're at it, the user home directory when they were to log in to FreeNAS using ssh.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

You can piece it together by studying the FreeNAS User Guide, but it's not consolidated in one spot. I don't believe that's the intent of the guide anyway. Googling FreeNAS home directories may get you a better result.