Middleware fails with custom mountpoint within /mnt/

TrueNAS General
1

Just dropping this here, because I cannot submit feedback for my server, as it was set up with HexOS on top. Maybe someone here can confirm they have the same issue or maybe even post a ticket, should you be able to reproduce it. :slight_smile:

Creating a dataset on TTY with a custom mountpoint leads to the dataset not being correctly recognized in the web interface of TrueNAS.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Have an existing dataset, for example dataset1.
  2. Create a regular folder within dataset1, for example folder.
  3. Create a child-dataset from TTY, with a custom mountpoint:
zfs create -o mountpoint=/dataset1/folder/dataset2 dataset1/dataset2
  1. Open TrueNAS web-interface and click Edit permissions for the new dataset dataset2.

Expected result:
Dataset media is correctly recognised at the mountpoint and can be controlled from the web-interface.

Actual result:
Middleware fails to account for the mountpoint and tries to find the dataset at the mountpoint “/mnt/dataset1/dataset2” instead. Resulting in the error:

CallError
[ENOENT] Path /mnt/dataset1/dataset2 not found
2

Using the command-line to manually create datasets with custom mountpoints is exactly the type of user HexOS is targeting.

4 Likes
3

You are expected to use the GUI for almost everything. If you want to use CLI for admin, you would be better off with another solution.

4

I figured, yes. It does not seem very resilient for an advanced solution to not respect the mountpoint though. Hence why I wanted to at least report it somewhere.

As I am working on transitioning legacy data hoards into datasets, the CLI was and is the fastest way for me to work. This very issue aside, it has been a flawless process.

5

Custom mountpoints are not supported on TrueNAS. The UI / backend are explicitly designed to not allow using paths that are outside /mnt. We obviously don’t stop you from using shell tools to do what you want, but at this point as the MOTD in truenas says:

Warning: the supported mechanisms for making configuration changes
are the TrueNAS WebUI, CLI, and API exclusively. ALL OTHERS ARE
NOT SUPPORTED AND WILL RESULT IN UNDEFINED BEHAVIOR AND MAY
RESULT IN SYSTEM FAILURE.

e.g. “you break it, you get to keep the pieces” :slight_smile:

6

My example is within /mnt/, hence my surprise. And yeah, I do not expect support for this, I just wanted to share my findings. Maybe “custom mountpoints” was not the best way to title the topic, my main focus is on sub-directories within /mnt/.

The ix-apps dataset is at a custom mountpoint too, but I suppose handling for system datasets is done differently.

I am adapting my structure for what TrueNAS expects, yet would like the flexibility of using folders instead of datasets for structuring. Thank you for the considerate response. :slight_smile: