Should I use both NIC's?

[tuit]

Hi I just setup my first iXsystems box, a Mini 3.0 X+. Despite not having ever seen TrueNAS before, I was able to setup users, groups, datasets, ACL's and SMB shares, and was able to retire an old Mac Mini file server in under a day and migrate the data from old server the next. It was pretty smooth sailing although the UI is a little hard to find some things, like where's static IP? (I just used pfSense to set static DHCP.) Setting up home folders was a little bit of a stumble but I got it. I created a specific user to be the POSIX owner and group for all datasets because I heard it's not a good idea for root to own them. I wonder why the web UI uses root, it seems like it should be abstracted to a service account.

So my question is should I use both NIC's? They seem to both hold the same subdomain that I set in pfSense.

I am wondering because when I use the SMB connection string on a mac, it usually fails the first time but works the second time I attempt.

Thanks and thanks for this board!

 

[ChrisRJ]

Using multiple NICs is for special situations/requirements. So basically, if you are not sure. the automatic answer, at least from me, would be no.

 

[jgreco]

Be aware that if you do connect multiple interfaces, you need to use LACP. You cannot have two separate interfaces on the same network, it won't work the way you might think.

Please read the following articles.

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/multiple-network-interfaces-on-a-single-subnet.45/

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/lacp-friend-or-foe.43/

 

[tuit]

Thanks, I appreciate the responses. It ships with two CAT-6's, so it seemed to imply that I should use both. But perhaps they should state one is for console, not dual NIC.

 

[jgreco]

Perhaps it ships with two ethernet ports so that you can hook it up to more than one network easily. This is quite common in the server world.

 

[tuit]

True. Well, I made a newbie mistake but I think quick setup guides and the like should prevent such newbie mistakes. Thanks again!

 

[Cloudified]

Be aware that if you do connect multiple interfaces, you need to use LACP. You cannot have two separate interfaces on the same network, it won't work the way you might think.

Please read the following articles.

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/multiple-network-interfaces-on-a-single-subnet.45/

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/lacp-friend-or-foe.43/

Do these articles also apply to TrueNAS SCALE as well? I only ask because it’s based on Debian. I was planning on connecting one interface to one UniFi switch and the other interface to another UniFi switch both of which are on the same untagged VLAN. I was going to do it this way so if one switch died the Mini XL+ would still stay connected for the rest of the network on the good switch. If not, then I’ll just use both interfaces with LACP on one switch. This won’t really add much value for my home network. I was mainly looking for a way to have network redundancy to the edge.

Please note I have not received my TrueNAS hardware yet.

 

[jgreco]

Do these articles also apply to TrueNAS SCALE as well? I only ask because it’s based on Debian.

Is there something magic about SCALE or Debian? I would imagine that IEEE standards remain standards and network stack designs don't significantly devolve just because you substitute in a different OS.

I was mainly looking for a way to have network redundancy to the edge.

I was planning on connecting one interface to one UniFi switch and the other interface to another UniFi switch both of which are on the same untagged VLAN. I was going to do it this way so if one switch died the Mini XL+ would still stay connected for the rest of the network on the good switch.

You can definitely do this on FreeBSD with LAGG and failover mode. There is discussion on the forum of how to configure this somewhere.

Linux has chosen to misname link aggregation as "bonding", because, well, you know, "link aggregation" was already the term generally used, so in typical fashion, never mind, just gripin' at the dilution of terms ... Anyways, there should be support for failover there. I know I've used it on Vyatta and Ubiquiti platforms in the past.