Windows libraries & search - best solution?

[chief_banana]

I have a running FreeNAS system, some CIFS shares, and Windows clients on my network.

When adding the shares to Windows machines, I discovered a snag - FreeNAS doesn't index the files, and Windows won't allow unindexed folders into its Libraries.

Workarounds:
1) Tell Windows to relocate my documents, music, etc. folders to the NAS. This circumvents the Library restriction. However, each time I open the library, I'm warned that the lack of indexes is not optimal. (Irritating). Also, it's not clear to me whether this forces Windows to index the remote files, or not. Search usability will be low if there's no indexing.
2) Turn on 'available offline', (which caches the entire share locally), add it to library, then turn off the caching before local HDD gets filled up. (Still probably missing indexing/search performance)
3) There is a solution floating around the web whereby one uses mklink to connect a local directory to the share. The local indexing service will then actually index the files, thinking they're local. Each client will have to maintain their own index.
4) Connect a Windows server to the NAS shares, enable indexing on the server, then re-share from there. Downsides; probably performance, power usage.
5) Third party search tools on the client. Not as integrated as the Start Menu search and still doesn't make Windows happy about the non-indexed shares in its libraries.

Wish list:
5) FreeNAS native functionality or plugin. I don't see any though (?) This would be a fantastic option to have and the most logical implementation.

Just dealing with it:
6) Accepting the 'no index' warnings and doing with out search might be OK for the time being.

What do other Windows users running a FreeNAS do to deal with this? My solution will have a wife acceptance factor to contend with too. Thanks :)

 

[cyberjock]

Well, #3 is what I've recommended for similar situations.

#4 is far from smart. resharing a share is just "suck" on the performance side of the house.

Never thought about #5 because I prefer to not starting using new tools to solve a problem unless the new tool is superior for a bunch of other reasons.

Your wish list isn't going to happen. Very unfortunate, but also true. The next best thing is doing file searches with ssh.... find /mnt/pool -name "somefile.txt"

Your "dealing with it" option is an option, but why deal with it when you could do #3? If you are a good scripter you could write a script to setup everything on bootup automatically.

 

[aran kaspar]

I have a running FreeNAS system, some CIFS shares, and Windows clients on my network.

When adding the shares to Windows machines, I discovered a snag - FreeNAS doesn't index the files, and Windows won't allow unindexed folders into its Libraries.
. . .
3) There is a solution floating around the web whereby one uses mklink to connect a local directory to the share. The local indexing service will then actually index the files, thinking they're local. Each client will have to maintain their own index.
. . .

Hey guys, thanks for starting this. Having the same concern for indexing.
Do you think you could drop in a link here for a site that has the how-to on creating this mklink business?

 

[anodos]

Hey guys, thanks for starting this. Having the same concern for indexing.
Do you think you could drop in a link here for a site that has the how-to on creating this mklink business?

https://social.technet.microsoft.co...-network-mapped-drive?forum=w7itpronetworking

See the top response in the above-linked thread.

 

[bobpaul]

Workarounds:
2) Turn on 'available offline', (which caches the entire share locally), add it to library, then turn off the caching before local HDD gets filled up. (Still probably missing indexing/search performance)
3) There is a solution floating around the web whereby one uses mklink to connect a local directory to the share. The local indexing service will then actually index the files, thinking they're local. Each client will have to maintain their own index.

It seems neither of these work on Windows 10.

5) FreeNAS native functionality or plugin. I don't see any though (?) This would be a fantastic option to have and the most logical implementation.

I think the Samba project is working on this. They've certainly discussed the Windows Search Protocol on their mailing list as far back as a decade ago. If it's added to Samba, FreeNAS will get it.