Global Configuration of Jails

Before setting up any plugins on the server we must first configure the global settings for all Jails.

Go to the “Jails” page (1) and click on the “Configuration” button (2).

There is no need to change anything here, just click the “Advanced Mode” button.

In advanced mode we can now control the IP address range available to the jail/s. This is important because we want the IP address range to be separate and outside the IP address range of the DHCP server in the router. Jails did not work properly for me until I did this.

Type into the “IPv4 Network Start Address:” text box (1) the beginning of the IP address range for the Jails (in Fester’s case this is 192.168.0.9, this keeps the Jails away from the IP addresses assigned to the server’s NICs which are 192.168.0.5 – 192.168.0.8).

Now type into the “IPv4 Network End Address:” text box (2) the end of the IP address range for the Jails (in Fester’s case this is 192.168.0.49, the end IP address of the range we set aside in the router).

Now click the “Save” button (3).

Fester does not use IPv6 addresses so this does not need configuration.

That’s global configuration of the Jails done.

Next we need to install some plugins into the Jails.

Incidentally you are not confined by the plugins on offer in FreeNAS. It is technically possible to configure programs that work in FreeBSD so they will work in FreeNAS Jails. This requires a lot of manual configuration and probably some things Fester is completely unaware of at present. You will also need a good knowledge of FreeBSD commands and UNIX permissions in order to work this way. It offers a great deal of flexibility but is not easy.

Plugins however, are designed so that you can do everything you need from within the FreeNAS GUI.

Fester uses the supplied plugins in FreeNAS as I don’t know enough at present to install and compile programs by hand for Jails.