Upfront, I will say this is not the Docker version if that is what you are looking for. Its a stop gap way to make Channels work on TrueNas for those of us that don't understand Docker enough to make it work.
This is kind of rough but it should help people with some Linux knowledge and some TrueNas Scale knowledge through the Channels installation. Its not perfect and may need revision or additions at some point. Also, the access control list may not restrict SMB share access enough for some folks and may need revision. This should get people started though.
I will not be adding to this as I have decided to go back to using my older Dell PC for Channels. I did not feel like the AMD 2600X running TrueNas Scale performed well enough with mirrored disks. I think it performed terribly in fact and did not want to waste the CPU and motherboard. Channels worked well in TrueNas with one hard drive but I wanted redundancy in case of drive failure. I will figure out another way for myself. Others may have different experience. TrueNas is more than I need at this time for storage. The Dell system is running one drive and Windows and works great.
Install Channel on TrueNas Scale:
- Create a pool and give it a name.
- Create a Dataset within the Pool. Give it a name.
- Create a Windows Samba share using the name of your Dataset. Enable guest access.
- Enable Samba services under the Services tab. Make sure it autostarts.
- Create a user and give it all permissions including write. Also, allow SSH access.
- Go to System > Settings and enable SSH. Also, click autostart and then Save
Steps 7 through 10 may be optional. I do not know.
7. Go to the Apps menu > Manage Applications after selecting a storage pool to use for the applications.
8. Add the Truecharts app catalog by clicking Add.
9. Give it a name like Truecharts
10. Paste the following URL into the repository block: https://github.com/truecharts/catalog
11. Make sure the tag “stable” is in the Preferred Trains block. Branch Should be “main.” Click Save and acknowledge any messages. Wait for the process to complete. Before moving on.
12. Logout and use a remote SSH session or the root Shell within TrueNas. Under root or the newly created username via remote session, install Channels DVR server following the Linux directions given on the Channels website.
13. Logout of the SSH session or Truenas shell.
14. Access the Channels server using the IP address of your Truenas server and port number 8089 Example: 192.168.2.25:8089
15. Configure Channels normally. If you have issues accessing the share, you will need to change the Access Control List (ACL) in Truenas. View the permissions of the data share and then edit those permissions to make the folder writeable. This must be done to use the restore wizard in Channels. Change the owner from root to the user name you created. Click the Apply User box and then also click all the read and write boxes to the right. Change the group name to the user name you created and then click Apply Group. Under Advanced, click the Apply recursively and Apply to child folders boxes. Acknowledge the warning. This should only give the user permission s for the channels share you created. Click “save’’
CPU load numbers in channels are low when using one hard drive with TrueNas. Two hard drives cause high CPU loads when performing other operations along with Channels tasks. Don’t destroy another instance of Channels that runs well until you are satisfied wit the performance of your TrueNas Scalebased Channels instance.