Trying to figure out the best strategy for Dataset and home folder

[stevehammond]

Hello all,

I’ve been posting a bit recently in this forum, and I had great help so far. Like I mentioned, I’m coming from a Synology DiskStation, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to implement Datasets, which is something that has no equivalent on Synology. The Storage Pool is equivalent to the Volumes, and shares are shares, but there is nothing that compares to datasets… So before jumping into it, I want to make sure I adopt the right strategy. My TrueNAS server will be for data sharing, sure, but also usage of apps from TrueNAS or TrueCharts.

1- I saw a video tutorial, can’t remember which one, but the person was suggesting to create a dataset specifically for apps storage, as it will be easily share with the apps group and may prevent issues. Makes sense to me, so I already plan one for this.

2- I think in the same video, it was suggested that when installing an app, to put the app configs on a different dataset than the one created for apps (ix-applications), arguing that transferring apps to a new system may be easier. I’m really not sure about that one.

3- On Synology, all users had a home folder. Not sure if I really need that, as I may change my storage strategy on TrueNAS, but still, if I decide to go that way, is there any concerns or suggestion on datasets?

4- also, if users don’t have home folders, and I SSH to the account, where are stored the default SSH keys and login scripts (.profile or such depending on the shell)?

So far, I was planning the following:

1. A dataset for apps, with multiple folders as below:

• A Media folder, where I will put my videos and music
• A Picture folder for my images and photos
• I may or not dedicate a folder for apps preferences

2. A second dataset for data archival

• Home folder will be here if I decide to do so
• I’ll probably create folders for each type or archival I want to do

In all of that, each folders will be a shared by itself, so it should be easy to manage access depending on the needs.

I’m sure I’ll get real good advise here again, so thank you for your help in advance.

[Loransea]

Hi Steve,
I have the same issue/question concerning datasets.
I think I’ve watched the same video
I tried like this blog suggested to have a dataset per se for user A, B and C, one public and one for home users media but ended with invisible children datasets of public dataset

Hence I’ve deleted my pool and started again from sgratch but I’m still wondering what would be best solution for my NAS usage?
1 torrenting safely
2 data storage for family members (music, photos, videos and documents) accesible from local network and from school or work and with different ACL permission depending on the sensitivity of the data

I’d aprecilove any suggestion. I joint my ideas.

2x10Tb mirror on a Lenovo M83 core i3 with SSD boot and 8Gib RAM running Scale 23.10

[Loransea]

Hi Steve,

Our issues don’t seam to rally many around

Did you find the answers you were looking for?

I’ve set up both designs

Comb like pros : datasets are unique «containers»
Comb like cons : anyone accessing the network will see all datasets. Am I right?

Tree like pros : personnal datasets are invisible fer user that do not have access to the parent dataset.
Tree like cons : matryoshka puppet style datasets. would daughters dataset still be accessible if parent fails?

I’m also wondering who would/should be owner to each dataset?

[stevehammond]

Hi Loransea

You’re right, it is not a subject that fascinated the planet for sure. I tried doing a few datasets like I proposed in my first message, and went into some issues that I could not resolved. Don’t remember exactly what. I’ve talked to some friends who said, there is not much benefits to doing multiple datasets. I finally ended up creating only one dataset for all my data, and moved everything there for now. I don’t say I’ll never try to do multiple datasets eventually for my data, but for now, it fits the bill.

I only created another set of datasets as I wanted to install NextCloud and that is what was suggested in the tutorial.

[Stux]

Sharing datasets that have children leads to issues.

Sharing datasets that are children does not.

I use generic datasets to collect other datasets, but I share the childless ones.

Ie, I might have a bunch of docker related datasets in a ‘docker’ dataset. And the might snapshot recursively the docker dataset…

[sfatula]

There are endless strategies for datasets, no right answer. For me, I basically have 3 datasets:

DATA
ARCHIVE
NOBACKUP

Underneath those are directories (not datasets), you can share those directories. I organized it this way to make backups trivial as backups are the most important part of the NAS other than the data to me. NOBACKUP meant a good part of what I have and I don’t snapshot or back those up at all, it’s things like transcoding files, temp files, handbrake work space, etc. ARCHIVE means stuff that rarely changes once written. DATA means stuff that changes a lot. Actually, I have a virtual machine pool also on SSD.

I found backups were much more complicated otherwise as I was backing up stuff I really didn’t want to, etc. With 21 apps now, it’s just too complicated to organize by application for me at least. Simple example, Emby. I have recordings from a TV antenna that I do not want to backup and that change daily. I have a library of permanent content. And then there is the emby database and other more dynamic stuff. So, I use all 3 datasets as I don’t back up TV recordings since I could find a way to get them, I backup using one method for the media library. And I definitely snapshot and otherwise backup the Emby database and related data. 3 different backup (or lack thereof) techniques. That would be very hard to do if simply organized by app.

Note I am generally different than most here on the ways I do things. So, it may or may not make much sense to anyone else.