Architectural Questions in specific on Network configuration of Apps

[paule96]

My understanding is every App in truenas is deployed via docker compose at the end.

DNS configuration

The official documentation mentions that an app can use a different DNS configuration, that should be configurable over the network section of the app.
The problem is, if you are doing a quick search over this repository you will see that the only app template that uses the feature is the ix-app. (also known as Custom App)

All other Apps don't support this option.
Now my question:
Is this because of a technical limitation? Or is it just because nobody requested / made a pullrequest for it?
If later I would be happy to contribute that.
It looks just like adding to all apps basically these two changes:

apps/ix-dev/stable/ix-app/templates/docker-compose.yaml

Lines 11 to 13 in 015d681

	"dns_opts": values.dns_config.get("options", []),
	"dns_searches": values.dns_config.get("searches", []),
	"dns_nameservers": values.dns_config.get("nameservers", []),

apps/ix-dev/stable/ix-app/questions.yaml

Lines 364 to 404 in 015d681

	- variable: dns_config
	label: Custom DNS Setup
	group: Network Configuration
	description: |
	Configure custom DNS settings for the container.
	schema:
	type: dict
	attrs:
	- variable: nameservers
	label: Nameservers
	description: The DNS nameservers to use.
	schema:
	type: list
	items:
	- variable: nameserver
	label: Nameserver
	schema:
	type: string
	required: true
	- variable: searches
	label: Search Domains
	description: The DNS search domains to use.
	schema:
	type: list
	items:
	- variable: search
	label: Search Domain
	schema:
	type: string
	required: true
	- variable: options
	label: DNS Options
	description: The DNS options to use.
	schema:
	type: list
	items:
	- variable: option
	label: Option
	schema:
	type: string
	required: true

IP Addresses

Normally with a docker compose file you are able to to define an IP Address that should be used by this compose. In special if your network is segmented into different zones (usally VLANs), it would be nice to globally link these zones to given containers.

In special with the already exsisting user interface to define global network segments that can be used by apps:

That interface in my opinion just miss some important settings. On an abstract level like the it is right now I would expect here a setting for:

• If I want to couple this Pool to an TrueNas IP / NIC (in docker speach this is usally refered as parent)
• What are the basic Network settings of this pool:
  • The gateway (usally the parent, because that are internal docker network driver configs that are basically NATs)
  • The DNS default DNS configuration for that Pool
    • That would kinda solve the first issue
    • But this has nothing todo with docker driver config, that needs to be injected into each container
• Maybe it would be useful to have a name for the pool too

The when you configure an App you need to select an Address Pool. (what is currently not possible)
But right now the app pools are kinda useless from a administration perspective. (okay you can configure networks to avoid address overlapping with "real" networks)
But overall this network stuff currently looks quite limited.
In special with segmented networks it's currently quite hard (if not impossible) to use apps right now.

P.S.: If this is not the right place for this kind of discussion please redirect me to the correct place :)