Fangtooth Apps and Multiple Nics

NexGen3D · May 7, 2025, 8:56pm

Is there anyway to have certain apps use a specific network interface?

I have system with a couple of 10G Nics, 1 I use for filesharing, management and standard access, the other I would like to use with specific apps.

This doesn’t seem to be an option when configuring the apps, on some all I can select is “host network” but not a specific host network.

I also find that even selecting that, apps like the Ubiquity app still wont work as they are not bridged, but a NAT’ed instead, which makes them kind of unusable.

If someone has some insite on this, it would be of great help.

Currently I have 2 separate machines running TrueNAS, 1 has a set of apps running and is tunnelled through a VPN, the other machine has different apps, running on my main network, I would like to eliminate one of these machines and have it all in one box, but if I cant select which network interface the app is routed through, I’m stuck with running 2 machines at the moment.

I feel there should be a selection in the app config to choose which network interface you want to use, including a vlan if you have one configured.

afrosheen · May 7, 2025, 9:34pm

Yeah this is totally possible. On June 1st or after, it will be easier, but for now you can use a docker hack. I’ll wait until the dude that knows it to chime in or you can dig around in some other IP address app posts that mention the method.

I wanted an uninterrupted path between 2 of my hosts with no switch just for SMB transfers because the apps on Scale were using mount points on my Core box. So I basically dedicated a 10g link to all those mounts that were the secondary port on that card. But this is kinda the same idea.

Also take note, once you assign a new interface, some stuff (like the GUI) likes to bind to all interfaces automatically, and you have the option to disable certain things on certain interfaces. Worth looking at that next. You can pin system services like smb and nfs to addresses also.

NexGen3D · May 7, 2025, 10:01pm

Yes, I did see you can install Portainer and start messing about, but to be honest, I don’t want to mess about with that, I really dislike Docker and containers (personal opinion), its just a witchcraft I don’t have the energy for, I know and understand VM’s, but I just don’t have the time to dig into Docker properly, I know enough to screw it up, this is why I use TrueNAS, If I was proficient with Docker, I would probably run Ubuntu or Debian with just Portainer on it instead.

If something is coming for Fanftooth to give us some additional control or features for networking that’s fully supported through the GUI, I’ll hold off until then, for me this the only major piece to my puzzle that’s missing.

afrosheen · May 7, 2025, 11:34pm

Calling Macvlan guy, saw you this morning.

But yes to your last sentence, the new release in June will give you a host ip field in the gui per app. All you do before that is feed a handful of ip’s you want to use to your network setting so you have aliases to choose from. It’s nice.

NexGen3D · May 7, 2025, 11:54pm

This sound perfect, everything else so far in Fangtooth has been really solid and quite smooth to setup, I just built this new machine to replace the previous 2 I had running, one was sitting on top of Proxmox, I wasn’t a big fan of that, but it was still quite reliable, so I look forward to being able to move everything over to this new machine.

I’ll continue to chug a long with getting everything else setup, and just leave the other services on the older second machine until next month.

I just started watching the T3 videos, in my usual fashion, backwards new to old, and I think this was mentioned at some point a few episodes back.

NexGen3D · June 4, 2025, 11:17pm

I need some serious help with this networking in TrueNAS, I for the life of me, cant work out what is going on.

I have 2 Nics

eno1np0 - Not connected

eno2np1 - Connected DHCP

No matter what I do, I cant get both nics to connect to my switch, in the past I have always ran dual nics, one is used for internet access the other for local lan access, this has never been an issue, I would have normally configured them this way as example:

eno1np0:
Gateway: N/A
IP: 192.168.0.20
DNS: N/A

eno2np1:
Gateway: 192.168.0.1
IP: 192.168.0.21
DNS: 1.1.1.1

So the server access internet through eno2np1 and I access the server from lan side on 192.168.0.20.

This has never been an issue until I started using TrueNAS, the networking in the GUI does not really give me this control to set these values, its DHCP or its the highway.

If I connect both nics to my L3 switch, obviously the one with DHCP gets its IP served up, and I have specified my switch to reserve 192.168.0.21 for that interface, but eno1np0 when I connect that, it never has an IP, even if I specify one via an alias in the GUI like 192.168.0.20, this connection never shows up on my switch, its always showing no ip address, it does show as a device connected, but no address, if I try to assign it the same address as the alias, it still will not show up as having an address.

Its extremely funky behaviour

I have also tried to tie eno1np0 to one of my vlans, I have assigned the port on the switch to only be on that vlan, the vlan uses 10.1.95.0/24 I have given the nic an alias of 10.1.95.5/24 I have also given the device connected to the port that same address, but still same behaviour, no ip given or shown on my L3 switch, all traffic on that vlan goes through my VPN, I set the app on truenas to use that ip and it doesn’t work, all traffic still goes through eno2np1 no matter what I do.

I have also removed the second nic from the equation, and I have tried vlan’s on eno2np1 and bridge connections, nothing ever routes the way I expect, nothing appears to work.

I expect when creating a bridged network device, that it should appear as a separate ip address on my switch, but it doesn’t, I did this:

eno2np1:
Gateway: 192.168.0.1
IP: 192.168.0.21
DNS: 1.1.1.1
br01 Alias: 192.168.0.50

And yes I can connect to 192.168.0.50 from my lan and bring up the GUI, but this address never shows up in my switch as a device connected on my lan, its just bazar behaviour.

What I’m desperately trying to do is have 2 x IP addresses for TrueNAS, 1 is for everything, GUI, SMB, and lan services, the other is purely for certain apps traffic only, and I cant route that connection on my L3 switch if I don’t have an IP do it with.

I would like to have 1 or 2 docker apps use 1 NIC and that 1 NIC only, and everything else use the other NIC.

The only way I can do this is to have 2 separate machines running, one that just runs those apps, and the other running everything else, or run 2 instances of TrueNAS on top of Proxmox, both of these options I think should not be required, there has to be a way of managing multiple nics on TrueNAS.

jjcv · June 5, 2025, 12:31am

You might find this video helpful:

NexGen3D · June 5, 2025, 1:58am

Thanks bud, I’ll give it a watch later today.

NexGen3D · June 5, 2025, 6:49am

I’m seem to be missing something here, this guy already has a bridge, and his NIC has no IP address???

My NIC has an IP address, I can create a bridge connection with a new IP address, and I can access the GUI through that IP address, but the IP address fails to show up in my Ubiquity Layer 3 Switch, it just never shows up, its so odd, if it does not show up on my switch, I cant do anything with that link, its like its being NAT’ed in TrueNAS.

This is what he has:

And this is mine:

So how does his have no ip showing for his NIC and I do?

I already did all of this multiple times, the ip of the bridge adaptor, never shows up in my switch, its like it doesnt exist??

Here is a screen shot from my switch, no ip address showing for 192.168.0.20:

This is all that shows up in my switch, no IP at all:

NexGen3D · June 5, 2025, 8:22am

For me, adding bridge alias IP’s ends up with a non working network connection every-time and I have to connect a monitor and use the terminal to remove them and reset the nic, I’ve never had so many issues, I have just routed the entire server through my VPN for now, at least that will work just fine, but it just means the internet has limited speed for the rest of the system.

EtienneB · June 5, 2025, 9:53am

What I have understood and always have done is, that you create the bridge, without an IP, save it. But DO NOT test changes.
Then open the NIC, copy the IP address from it (and delete it). Save it, but again DO NOT test the changes.
Then open the bridge again, paste in that IP Address.
Then save it, test it and do the final save.
You have then effectively moved the IP from the NIC to the bridge.

NexGen3D · June 5, 2025, 11:07am

That’s not possible as there’s no address to copy/delete, the main NIC is DHCP, there is no fields at all.

The network setup in the GUI is quite lack luster to be honest.

I don’t like using DHCP I prefer to manually assign everything but that doesn’t seem possible in TrueNAS, there needs to be an advanced check box so we can configure the nic properly.

EtienneB · June 5, 2025, 11:44am

What if you disable DHCP on the NIC and enable it on the Bridge? Only Test Changes and Save Changes after changing BOTH.

I have my main NIC for GUI and SMB Shares with a fixed IP.
Then I have a bridge with DHCP enabled with a second NIC as member, the second NIC has no DHCP enabled (actually has nothing in there but default settings). The bridge works fine with the Apps.

NexGen3D · June 5, 2025, 7:46pm

Thanks for the help guys.

I’m sure this will will work, but still doesn’t explain what I’m seeing in the video linked here, I will continue to try things, but personally, I don’t really want to use DHCP at all, I would prefer to manually assign everything, this is not a Laptop, tablet or Phone, that’s jumping on and off networks, this is fixed equipment, I would prefer permanent/persistent networking, anything fixed in place on my network is done this way, that way if my gateway goes down, the network stays functional, with DHCP, some devices lose their sh#$ when the internet goes down and become unresponsive.

Just getting frustrated with it as the networking just doesn’t respond the way I’m expecting, could be something related to the 10G nics as this is the first time I have been using these.

DjP-iX · June 5, 2025, 7:52pm

You just need to disable DHCP: Interface Configurations | TrueNAS Documentation Hub

NexGen3D · June 5, 2025, 7:57pm

Yes, I have just now disabled DHCP, added a bridge assigned an alias to the bridge of 192.168.0.21, tested saved and this seems to be functioning now as expected, I see that the other settings I would normally find under a network device are under “Global Settings”

I will have a good read through the link provided before I progress.

NexGen3D · June 5, 2025, 8:15pm

First thing I see in the documentation that does not match my experience:

" You can changes this to a static, or fixed IP address using the Console Setup menu before accessing the web UI"

This is not what I’m experience, you can disable DHCP from option 1, but there is no way to provide a fixed IP address from option 1, 2 or 3 in the console.

Configure network interface - > Can enable disable DHCP create interfaces, like bridge, vlan but you cant assign IP’s here
Configure network settings - > This is basically global settings, so gateway and name servers go here, you can assign IP’s to an interface.
Configure static routes - > I dont know what this is yet, but very sure, its not for assigning fixed IP addresses.

DjP-iX · June 5, 2025, 8:22pm

Select the interface to edit it, set ipv4_dhcp to No then enter the static ip in aliases

neofusion · June 5, 2025, 8:48pm

Having a system with two interfaces on the same network like that, 192.168.0.20 and .21, will result in issues, essentially undefined behaviour.

NexGen3D · June 5, 2025, 8:51pm

Ahh got it, I see it now, domestic blindness syndrome…

I have now got static IP working on my main nic, added 2 alias:

192.168.0.21/24
192.168.0.142/24

Tested, both now appear in my switch, I have now locked down those IP’s in my switch, so thats solid now.

Not to sure how to tell TrueNAS which of the two alias to use as the main interface as both appear to work for the GUI.

I have now gone into the app and assigned it to use the 192.168.0.142, started the app, and it doesn’t use it, all data is still be funnelled through 192.168.0.21.

App assigned interface

Confirmed, I can only access the web interface for this app on 192.168.0.142, and cannot access it anymore on 192.168.0.21:

Screenshot 2025-06-06 044500

And as you can see here, all data from this app is being funnelled through 192.168.0.21 still

I had been through all this yesterday, I just thought I wasn’t doing something right, as I was constantly getting this behaviour.

If I shut the app down, that activity goes to zero, so the app is not doing as its told??

Would be a nice feature under an alias in network settings to say which is for what use case, tell TrueNAS to only use 192.168.0.142 for app or VM use case and only use 192.168.0.21 for GUI and Services.