I’ve been looking around for file syncing. I used to use SyncThing, but the fact it was file syncing and did not merge files at the block level made dealing with conflicts/collisions/duplicates cumbersome (for code, password files, etc). It might have changed in the few years since I used it to sync at the block level, but I’m not sure.
Most people say they use SyncThing for their file sync needs with TrueNAS, which seems a little strange given the above and the lack of a mobile app.
What other options are there for this kind of software on TrueNAS? I know there is limited ability to install things on TrueNAS, but I’m looking for a list of things that are known to work.
I’ve looked at Seafile, but I think it’s Cloud only and requires payment. I’ve seen people mention NextCloud with TrueNAS, but I thought that was its own server that would be seperate.
I don’t know why anyone would care about a mobile app for syncing files from one device to another, when neither of those devices is the mobile device in question.
Neither of these things is true.
Nor is this.
But what, specifically, are you trying to accomplish? Because “file syncing” could mean many different things to different people, and it’s hard to make a recommendation without better understanding your needs. Bidirectional server-to-server file sync? I think Syncthing is the best answer. Unidirectional sync, where both ends are TrueNAS servers? ZFS replication. Server-based file sync with multiple clients on a given account? Nextcloud, running the server on TrueNAS and clients on whatever devices you want. And so forth.
Edit:
Only kind of true. There’s extremely limited–best to consider it nonexistent–ability to install things on the TrueNAS base OS. But there’s an extremely broad ability to install anything that can run from under Docker.
It took me a couple read throughs to figure out what you were talking about. You have made several incorrect assumptions, but I did eventually figure out where you went.
Syncthing, and a mobile app, in the context of file synchronization, are indicative of endpoints where users make files to be sync’d with other endpoints. Having a server online 24/7 like TrueNAS will facilitate that, and sometimes make it faster. In my case, my endpoints will primarily be laptops and maybe a phone or two.
My intended use-case for this is to keep some files synchronized between laptops (and maybe phones), just like I used to do back in the day with SyncThing. The point of inserting TrueNAS into the mix is for a 24/7 server to minimize the problems of file-based synching of SyncThing that I encountered when I sued it in the past. I’ve asked the SyncThing forum if they still do file based sync, or if they have moved to block based sync, but my post is still stuck in a spam filter.
The installation I’m referring to is not in the base OS, but the built-in app ecosystem accessible in the web UI. It probably uses docker, but I haven’t looked into it aside from the intro documentation and noting it was kind of weird people want to cram so much stuff into a NAS. From what I recall, there’s some kind of picker/chooser in the TrueNAS web UI to install things.
As far as putting NextCloud on TrueNAS, I would have never thought to do that. I found 2 interesting links:
I’ve only read the intro, but now I kinda wanna do that. However, I’ll have to build a new environment to test that out, rather than risk borking my main storage.
If the NextCloud app finally has 2 way sync, then that might fill my file sync needs. Here’s hoping it can do it on the SD card.
Unless it’s ZFS to ZFS, it’s file-based. There’s no way SyncThing can be block-based, unless it invokes zfs commands under the hood. (It would be sending snapshots instead of individual files and folders, if that was the case.)
Even with ZFS to ZFS, if the tool or mediator is file-based, you won’t leverage block-based replications between devices.
OK that’s two people now pinging my tech support sense that a miscommunication is afoot. I really don’t know what angle you guys are coming from.
SyncThing is an officially supported app for TrueNAS, and I was looking for a list of other similar apps to then research each in turn. So far, NextCloud seems to be the only other viable option.
You can install and use any software and tool on TrueNAS, whether directly on the server (Apps, VMs, Containers) or with a client over a network share.
Unless it’s ZFS to ZFS, it’s all file-based. This also applies to official software from the Apps catalog.
I don’t know what “angle” you’re perceiving; it’s a simple statement of fact–anything you’re doing with any of the apps–Syncthing, Nextcloud, Seafile, Owncloud, or anything else–will be file-based. And, whether file- or block-based, if you’re doing n-way sync where n > 1, conflicts will be a fact of life, because a data unit (be it a file or a block) can be changed on more than one device in between sync intervals. ZFS replication avoids this problem by being a simple one-way sync–if anything’s been changed on the destination, it’s just overwritten. You cannot avoid this entirely in Syncthing, nor in Nextcloud, nor in Owncloud, and I’d wager not in any other system that does anything like what you’re asking for.
As to Nextcloud’s four-year-old announcement, best to forget you read it; it’s announcing the plugin for CORE which was never worth using. But Nextcloud has been an available app for SCALE since SCALE’s release.
Note that, in contrast to Syncthing, Nextcloud (and Owncloud, and Seafile, and Opencloud) runs strictly on a client-server model; there’s no communication/file sharing among clients, even if they’re on the same network.
I should know better than to step into this. But: is it possible that you intend “block-based” to mean syncing files at a more granular partial/diff level, rather than repeating each file (however large) each time as a whole?
In this way you retain the benefit of block-level copy-on-write. But the sync algorithm and its wire protocol are still exclusively (and self-evidently?!) concerned with the file level.
