unable to browse to network shares from FreeNAS MBS

[grizlyadams 15]

hi - trying to configure an IBN path on my server that is accessible by both the server and the clients (on a CIFS share)

 

when clicking the magnifying glass to browser for a path and then selecting "network" I get nothing from the whole network (there are loads of shares on the network,not just the ones on the freenas box) - if I specify the unc path with server name or ipaddress I get "directory does not exist"

 

if I choose the "/" I can browse the jail directory structure.

 
any ideas?

 

cheers

 

Griz

 

[Luke 36997]

you can only access paths that are available to the jail. also, fyi, the visual browser is not implemented for bsd yet so you have to enter the path manually.

 

keep in mind - clients do not access IBN directly so if that's the only reason i would just skip it

[grizlyadams 15]

hi - thanks for the reply.

 

obviously my jail can't see the rest of the network - is that a default FreeNAS thing?

 

Yeah - I figured all the clients didn't need direct access and that the images are serverd from the server and I've moved the IBN folder to a directory inside the jail now (I have the 7MC machine able to access that directory inside the jail as I run Media Center Master to do various metadata update and file moves/renames automatically post download)

 

if I enable meta fetcnhing in mediabrowser does it get all metadata or can I restrict it to IBN data only?

 

[grizlyadams 15]

Hi,

 

i've had this problem since I set-up freenas, but have had workarounds that got me round the issue, but I'm trying to setup LiveTV with serverWMC and i need to fix my problem for that to wrk

 

the problem is that I cannot get to any SMB shares on my network from the freenas box. In library config, if I try to add a share that  is \\1x.x.x.x\<sharename> - i get a "path does not exist" error. The path and share most definitely exist the share is "everyone" "fullaccess" 

 

I'm also getting a "not accessible" error message in the LiveTV tab of MBS which I guess is a symptom of the same problem.

 

it doesn't even get to the point of asking for a login ID (would it do that ? what credentials does MBS use to connect to the recorded tv folder?)

 

freenas plugin version 

3.0.5490.2

 

cheers

 

Griz

Edited January 27, 2015 by grizlyadams

[Luke 36997]

it can only access paths that the operating system can access. you would have to map it in free bsd first, although i am not an expert on bsd so i can't offer guidance on how to do this.

[grizlyadams 15]

it can only access paths that the operating system can access. you would have to map it in free bsd first, although i am not an expert on bsd so i can't offer guidance on how to do this.

thanks Luke - I'll investigate more on that, but I had assumed that its just an SMB share and that freeNAS wiht samba running should be able to acces any smb share on the network. . . 

 

 

As I said, i'll have a look at freenas and connecting to smb shares and report back. . .

 

cheers

[grizlyadams 15]

it can only access paths that the operating system can access. you would have to map it in free bsd first, although i am not an expert on bsd so i can't offer guidance on how to do this.

 

i can see the windows share from freebsd (and mount it and see the files in it) but i can't see the share from the MBS running in the jail on freebsd (freenas)

 

if i then try to set up a mount point inside the MBS jail to mount the newly mounted bsd mountpoint (that points to the windows share) I get an error "no such file or directory" even thought I've told freenas to create the directory.  (and this seems like a crazy way to do things anyway -> mount a windows share on the freenas box, then mount that mountpoint inside the MBS jail. 

 

Surely I should just be able to specify the windows share from the MBS config page ?  I can't get to ANY unc paths from the library config on MBS, the only libraries I can specify are the libraries that are mounted inside the jail. 

 

is there something I have to do to the MBS plugin/jail to let it see shares on the network?

Edited January 27, 2015 by grizlyadams

[Luke 36997]

i am pretty sure you will have to mount them inside the jail. that's the way the jail works. i don't freebsd myself so i cannot advise on the procedure to do that.

[grizlyadams 15]

Hi Luke,

 

I can't mount the smb share in the jail (operation not permitted), but for LiveTV with serverWMC that won't work anyway because the path to the recordedTV is specified in serverWMC config  (which runs on the 7MC box) and that config is what the liveTV addin in MBS uses to look for the files. So MBS can "see" 7MC from inside the jail, as in its on the same network. And I can do a dirty cludge that allows the jail to actually see and list the files (from the command line in the jail), but as I said, that really doesn't help the serverWMC/LiveTV problem . . .

 

all this pain for the advantage of ZFS isn't looking so clever on my part now - storage on ZFS and MBS on windows is where I'm headed I think. . . .or maybe everything on windows, bollox to this FreeNAS malarky, as wonderful as ZFS is.

[Luke 36997]

i thought server wmc had a config setting to handle this. i could be wrong. if not you'll have to request it from the developer in that section of the forum.

[grizlyadams 15]

Luke, on 27 Jan 2015 - 10:37 PM, said:

i thought server wmc had a config setting to handle this. i could be wrong. if not you'll have to request it from the developer in that section of the forum.

 

 

ok - perhaps I missed it, thought I'd looked at every setting in serverWMC. Thanks again Luke, but, tbh, freenas/MBS has been an interesting aside but I'm kinda at the learning curve/frustration/boredom/time/value threshold so will probably just go back to what doesn't cost me hours and hours of my life.

[josh4trunks 70]

@@grizlyadams

 

you need to mount in your media dataset using freenas Storage mount menu for the MB jail, not a CIFS mount.

e.g. ~ /mnt/tank/media > /mnt/media

 

Create your CIFS share for that dataset.

e.g. ~ \\freenas_IP\media

 

you then use MB's path substitution to replace the MB's jails relative path to the dataset with the networked location.

e.g. ~ /mnt/media > \\freenas\media

[woodsb02 17]

@@josh4trunks and @@Luke do you think these instructions should be formalized with screenshots on the mediabrowser webpage somehow?

 

Perhaps also how to add the mediabrowser user to the FreeNAS host to allow metadata storage in the media folders?

 

These seem to be common questions.

[Luke 36997]

Yea that would be helpful for sure.

[grizlyadams 15]

josh4trunks, on 28 Jan 2015 - 12:45 AM, said:

@@grizlyadams

 

you need to mount in your media dataset using freenas Storage mount menu for the MB jail, not a CIFS mount.

e.g. ~ /mnt/tank/media > /mnt/media

 

Create your CIFS share for that dataset.

e.g. ~ \\freenas_IP\media

 

you then use MB's path substitution to replace the MB's jails relative path to the dataset with the networked location.

e.g. ~ /mnt/media > \\freenas\media

 

Hi,

 

I've done that for the libraries that reside on the FreeNAS box - but that does not work for LiveTV from the 7MC pc that has serverWMC running on it.

 

so its like this

 

freenasBOX + MBS plugin. all my media loaded into freenas storage. All media available to all the network via a UNC paths so non MBS needs are cattered for, even if MBS plugin stops (I need this for automated tasks that run outside of the MBS environment, All the media is available to the MBS plugin via freenas mounts inside the MBS jail, all MBS libraries configured that way. All media available to MB clients on the LAN for direct play via path substitution.

 

7MC box - the lounge pc that runs Win 7 Media Center, with TV cards and all the PVR / media center goodness that 7MC (and XP MC before it) brings with it (including xbox extenders throughout the house) and of course MBC runs there too. 

 

in order to get livetv thru MBS I run "serverWMC" on the 7MC box in the lounge - this serves up the liveTV aspects (guide, recorded TV, live TV etc) of the 7MC box to any serverWMC client, one of which is the plugin for MBS.

 

the serverWMC clients are told where to look for the recordedTV folder - which resides on the 7MC lounge pc - so is a SMB share. serverWMC needs to be able to see this share when you configure it, if it cannot see the share, it will not allow you to save the config. so that location is a true SMB (windows) share completely outside of the freeNAS-with-MBS-jail realm. The serverwmc client (which in this case is running as as an addin to MBS, which is of course inside its jail on the freenas box) needs to be able to see that recordedTV SMB share  . . . that's where it all falls apart - it can't see a plain and simple SMB share (well it can actually - by setting up a convoluted mount_smbfis in the freenas box then mounting that in the jail  I can see the recoredTV from an console session in the MBS jail and list the files - but that's the MBS going out of its jail via a freenas jail mount, thru a freenas smbfis mount. I even tried setting up a path substitution to make that location available as a CIFS share to the network, but then when I tried to tell serverWMC that that's where the recordedTV folder is (so out from the 7MC box, to the MBS subst path, thru the freenas jail mount, thru the freenas smbfis mount back to the 7MC box!) and at that point it had an access denied/permissions failure. 

 

 . . . whereupon I had no more time to spend in troubleshooting it. I haven't even begun trying to see if MBS will bring the 7MC box out of sleep if a liveTV or recored TV request is made from an MBS client (like an MC extender does)

 

I get the idea of a jail - what I don't get is why you can't tick a box that says "yes, yes, I understand that by ticking this box all the pita-ness of a jail goes away and I am at risk of contamination, blah blah"  - and then be able to use it like a normal entity on my network.

 

I like ZFS - but not enough to go thru this pain to make it work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[woodsb02 17]

It is not the jail that is preventing you from seeing SMB shares on your network. I think it is that SMB share paths such as \\server\share are not valid file locations on FreeBSD/FreeNAS. They need to be passed through the samba software. Since this is trying to get mediabrowser to access SMB shares, the mediabrowser software needs to build in samba support (using samba as a dependency). I don't think it has this support.

 

The alternative, as you have discussed, is to mount the SMB share locally on your FreeNAS using the interface. You can get around having to then also mount it inside the jail, by ensuring when you mount the SMB in the first place it is in a file location inside the jail.

 

Regardless, it sounds like you are almost there. You just need to troubleshoot this permissions issue a bit further.

[josh4trunks 70]

Well, what I posted works for media stored on freenas. It would be a good idea if someone wrote it up better, made sure to mention you can do the same thing with NFS and possibly make an accompanying video. I don't plan on doing this any time soon though so someone else is free to document this.