Need CIFS client for Home use scenario

[ctbarker32]

Hi,

I have been using FreeNAS and now TrueNAS for a while now. I generally like what I see. I am using this exclusively in a Home network.

One of my main apps is Plex that I use for all my media needs. I already have my libraries stored on existing NAS shares by other hardware providers.

I desperately need support for CIFS Client (SMB) so that my Plex plugin on TrueNAS can connect my Plex server to my existing SMB shares on my other NAS drives.

TrueNAS makes this fairly impossible at the moment.

I think it is pretty ironic that TrueNAS has all sorts of plugins for sharing copyright compromised torrent files but cannot provide basic two way SMB support over a Home network.

Please figure out how to provide this functionality.

Thank you.

 

[joeschmuck]

I might understand what you are saying but I will say it again in my words to ensure I understand you correctly.

Are you saying that you are unable to attach an external shared library to the Plex server to provide content via Plex? This should be an easy thing to add so I'm not sure what is stopping your system from working. Maybe you have a firewall issue? Have you checked out the Plex Forum at all?

I think it is pretty ironic that TrueNAS has all sorts of plugins for sharing copyright compromised torrent files

While many people may abuse the use of torrents, many others use it legitimately. By your logic I could assume that people are abusing Plex to serve up illegal copies of video content, and I"m sure many people do but not all of us are like that. To be honest, I don't use torrents often, basically only when I find it difficult to grab a file and it keeps stopping for whatever reason, the torrent saves me aggravation. And I use Plex for movies I own for my grandkids. But with the advent of Disney+ the Plex TV has not had much use. Thankfully Disney+ is a cheap service.

Search out the Plex forums and also possibly install a fresh copy of Plex into a jail and run that, it will be a more current version of the Plex software.

Good Luck

 

[ctbarker32]

I might understand what you are saying but I will say it again in my words to ensure I understand you correctly.

Are you saying that you are unable to attach an external shared library to the Plex server to provide content via Plex? This should be an easy thing to add so I'm not sure what is stopping your system from working. Maybe you have a firewall issue? Have you checked out the Plex Forum at all?


While many people may abuse the use of torrents, many others use it legitimately. By your logic I could assume that people are abusing Plex to serve up illegal copies of video content, and I"m sure many people do but not all of us are like that. To be honest, I don't use torrents often, basically only when I find it difficult to grab a file and it keeps stopping for whatever reason, the torrent saves me aggravation. And I use Plex for movies I own for my grandkids. But with the advent of Disney+ the Plex TV has not had much use. Thankfully Disney+ is a cheap service.

Search out the Plex forums and also possibly install a fresh copy of Plex into a jail and run that, it will be a more current version of the Plex software.

Good Luck

Thank you for your response. I thought it would be obvious that torrents are used for both legitimate and more questionable uses. My point was to illustrate that the usual response to not provide CIFS client functionality as I request is for security, etc. Plex either uses locally stored shares or external shares using SMB. I do not know how to simply add an external NAS smb share to Plex with TrueNAS. The CIFS client functionality is not installed and I don't know how to install it without resorting to some OS hack etc. Most all other NAS products include this functionality.

 

[winnielinnie]

I can't figure out any way to do this based on Plex's own documenation and forums. Any reference to a "remote" or "network" folder is under the presumption you are running the Plex Server on your Windows (or Linux, Mac) computer. They instruct you how to map a network drive or access a network folder.

Since Plex is essentially running in a Jail on your TrueNAS box, you would need to mount the SMB shares (served by your other NAS device) within the Plex Jail itself, and then reference those mount points when you go to add a library from the Plex web GUI.

 

[ctbarker32]

I can't figure out any way to do this based on Plex's own documenation and forums. Any reference to a "remote" or "network" folder is under the presumption you are running the Plex Server on your Windows (or Linux, Mac) computer. They instruct you how to map a network drive or access a network folder.

Since Plex is essentially running in a Jail on your TrueNAS box, you would need to mount the SMB shares (served by your other NAS device) within the Plex Jail itself, and then reference those mount points when you go to add a library from the Plex web GUI.

Exactly, there is no way to currently map (mount) a SMB share into a jail because the CIFS client functionality is missing from TrueNAS.

 

[KrisBee]

@ctbarker32 AFAIK not only is TrueNAS designed to be a SMB server, but FreeBSD does not have a SMB2/3 client full stop ( see for example, https://wiki.freebsd.org/MateuszPiotrowski/AccessingSmbSharesWithSambaClient ). I suppose you could use a NFS cleint in a jail, but what's the barrier to storing all your plex data on TrueNAS?

 

[ctbarker32]

@ctbarker32 AFAIK not only is TrueNAS designed to be a SMB server, but FreeBSD does not have a SMB2/3 client full stop ( see for example, https://wiki.freebsd.org/MateuszPiotrowski/AccessingSmbSharesWithSambaClient ). I suppose you could use a NFS cleint in a jail, but what's the barrier to storing all your plex data on TrueNAS?

The barrier is I already have two existing NAS servers with my media files. I just want to run Plex on my TrueNAS sever and utilize my existing data. Both QNAP and Synology NAS devices support CIFS client support. What's the barrier to including CIFS client support as an addon option in a Home networking environment? The artificial barriers these distros throw up in the name of security in a controlled environment are frustrating to end users just trying to get something done.

 

[ctbarker32]

The barrier is I already have two existing NAS servers with my media files. I just want to run Plex on my TrueNAS sever and utilize my existing data. Both QNAP and Synology NAS devices support CIFS client support. What's the barrier to including CIFS client support as an addon option in a Home networking environment? The artificial barriers these distros throw up in the name of security in a controlled environment are frustrating to end users just trying to get something done.

On FreeBSD, the Samba client libraries can be installed using the net/samba413 port or package. The client provides the ability for a FreeBSD system to access SMB/CIFS shares in a Microsoft® Windows® network.

Chapter 32. Network Servers

This chapter covers some of the more frequently used network services on UNIX systems

www.freebsd.org

 

[anodos]

On FreeBSD, the Samba client libraries can be installed using the net/samba413 port or package. The client provides the ability for a FreeBSD system to access SMB/CIFS shares in a Microsoft® Windows® network.

Chapter 32. Network Servers

This chapter covers some of the more frequently used network services on UNIX systems

www.freebsd.org

The smbclient utility provides an FTP-like interface, and so it's not exactly suited to your purpose. libsmbclient is I believe used by smbnetfs (fuse), but I've not personally tested on FreeBSD and there are some reports in mailing lists of less than stellar results from it. The barrier to adding a kernel SMB2/3 client to FreeBSD is quite significant.

 

[KrisBee]

@ctbarker32 Where on your ref does it show mounting an SMB2/3 share in FreeBSD? I repeat mount_smbfs only supports SMBv1, see this thread: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/...-connection-syserr-operation-timed-out.73363/

10 secs of searching on this forum show the NFS way: https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/mounting-storage-not-on-same-freenas-server.73176/

Actually experience seems to show mounting a remote share in a FreeNAS jail has problems but it can work by mounting it directly in FreeNAS.
Other choices: run Plex on another host, or in a VM on FreeNAS accessing data from your QNAP & Synology NAS.

 

[ctbarker32]

@ctbarker32 Where on your ref does it show mounting an SMB2/3 share in FreeBSD? I repeat mount_smbfs only supports SMBv1, see this thread: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/...-connection-syserr-operation-timed-out.73363/

10 secs of searching on this forum show the NFS way: https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/mounting-storage-not-on-same-freenas-server.73176/

Actually experience seems to show mounting a remote share in a FreeNAS jail has problems but it can work by mounting it directly in FreeNAS.
Other choices: run Plex on another host, or in a VM on FreeNAS accessing data from your QNAP & Synology NAS.

I really care how it is implemented. I just want to be able to mount a remote SMB share from TrueNAS so I can use it in Plex.

 

[KrisBee]

@ctbarker32 Did you mean to say "I really don't care how it is implemented"? IIRC, as QNAP and SYNOLOGY both run a form of embedded linux their software is capable of simulataneously sharing the same data via SMB and NFS without problems (check that for yourself). So, AFAIK, NFS is the route to do what you want in FreeNAS/TrueNAS, unless you want to wait for a working RELEASE of linux based TrueNAS SCALE.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I'll need to check in a clean 12.0 install, but my upgraded one still has the mount_smbfs command present. After testing the parameters in an interactive shell you could add it as a post-boot command perhaps?

 

[KrisBee]

@HoneyBadger Isn't the whole point that mount_smbfs only supports SMBv1? Are you advocating using smb1 here? Does QNAP or Synolgy even allow their SAMBA server to run in that mode?

 

[HoneyBadger]

Does QNAP or Synolgy even allow their SAMBA server to run in that mode?

Maybe I'm being a bit snarky at their expense, but I'd be surprised if both QNAP and Synology don't default to allowing SMBv1 given the rest of their OS.

Not sure if the directory could be re-shared as SMBv1 under a new name with read-only permissions, but if they'll allow simultaneous SMB/NFS from the same directory that is definitely supported more gracefully and securely with TrueNAS as a client.

 

[KrisBee]

@HoneyBadger SMB1/2/3 is a whole server setting not a per share setting. Can't see it makes sense to switch to SMB1 to satisfy one use case when ther user's QNAP & SYNOLOGY NAS could be serving other Windows clents.

 

[ctbarker32]

Okay, here's another reason for the need for CIFS client functionality.

I use Silicondust's HDHomeRun to record OTA tv using a WDMyCloud Nas drive and SD's DVR software. DVR software doesn't run on TrueNas. The recordings are a SMB share on the newtork. I would like to integrate these recordings into Plex running on TrueNAS but I cannot because TrueNAS doesn't suppor CIFS client and cannot connect to the Silicondust DVR share.

 

[ctbarker32]

I'll need to check in a clean 12.0 install, but my upgraded one still has the mount_smbfs command present. After testing the parameters in an interactive shell you could add it as a post-boot command perhaps?

Okay that it is the type of info I am looking for. I used the following command in the shell and it seems to work.

root@slate[/mnt/hdr]# mount_smbfs -N //guest@wdmycloud/HDHomeRun /mnt/hdr

How do I "add it as a post-boot command" and add to a Storage Pool that I can then access from a Plex jail and gain access?

Thanks.

 

[Samuel Tai]

How do I "add it as a post-boot command" and add to a Storage Pool that I can then access from a Plex jail and gain access?

You can add it via Tasks->Init/Shutdown Scripts. Create a post-init command there with mount_smbfs -N //guest@wdmycloud/HDHomeRun /mnt/hdr .

 

[Samuel Tai]

BTW, you could also run HDHomeRun's FreeBSD DVR software in a jail, which is how I record from HDHomeRun.