Getting Started With TrueNAS

The chart below shows recommended paths for upgrading from earlier TrueNAS versions.

Update the system to the latest maintenance release of the installed major version before attempting to upgrade to a new major version.

Permitted upgrade methods are:

Users can skip major versions with a fresh ISO install followed by a configuration file upload. Carefully review release notes for each skipped major version before upgrading, noting any service deprecations or significant changes that impact the previous configuration. Consider stopping at major versions with significant impacts to address changes before continuing the upgrade path or be prepared to manually reconfigure incompatibilities on the latest target version.

TrueNAS integrates many features provided by the upstream OpenZFS project. Any new feature flags introduced since the previous OpenZFS version that was integrated into TrueNAS (OpenZFS 2.3.0) are listed below:

For more details on feature flags, see OpenZFS Feature Flags and OpenZFS zpool-feature.7.

The chart below shows recommended paths for upgrading from earlier TrueNAS versions.

Update the system to the latest maintenance release of the installed major version before attempting to upgrade to a new major version.

Permitted upgrade methods are:

Users can skip major versions with a fresh ISO install followed by a configuration file upload. Carefully review release notes for each skipped major version before upgrading, noting any service deprecations or significant changes that impact the previous configuration. Consider stopping at major versions with significant impacts to address changes before continuing the upgrade path or be prepared to manually reconfigure incompatibilities on the latest target version.

TrueNAS integrates many features provided by the upstream OpenZFS project. Any new feature flags introduced since the previous OpenZFS version that was integrated into TrueNAS (OpenZFS 2.3.0) are listed below:

For more details on feature flags, see OpenZFS Feature Flags and OpenZFS zpool-feature.7.

TrueNAS can manage many storage devices as part of a single storage array. With more enterprise-level tuning, TrueNAS can manage as many as 1,250 drives in a single storage array!

Choosing storage media is the first step in designing the storage system to meet immediate objectives and prepare for future capacity expansion.

Spinning Disks Until the next scientific breakthrough in storage media, spinning hard disks are here to stay thanks to their balance of capacity and cost. The arrival of double-digit terabyte consumer and enterprise drives provides more choices to TrueNAS users than ever. TrueNAS Mini systems ship with Western Digital NAS and NL-SAS by default. Understanding the alternatives explains why.SATA NAS DisksSerial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) is still the de facto standard disk interface found in many desktop/laptop computers, servers, and some non-enterprise storage arrays. The first SATA disks offered double-digit gigabyte capacities. Newer SATA disks meet many size, reliability, and performance goals. While consumer desktop SATA disks do not have the overall reliability issues they once had, they are still not designed or warrantied for continuous operation or use in RAID groups. Enterprise SATA disks address the always-on factor, vibration tolerance, and drive error handling required in storage systems. However, the price gap between desktop and enterprise SATA drives is so vast that many users push their consumer drives into 24/7 service pursuing cost savings.

Drive vendors, likely tired of honoring warranties for failed desktop drives used in incorrect applications, responded to this gap in the market by producing NAS drives. NAS drives achieved fame from the original Western Digital (WD) Redâ„¢ drives with Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology (now called WD Red Plus). Western Digital designed the WD Redâ„¢ Plus NAS drives (non-SMR) for systems with up to 8 hard drives, the WD Redâ„¢ Pro for systems with up to 16 drives, and the WD UltraStarâ„¢ for systems beyond 16 drives.

The iXsystems Community Forum prefers WD drives for TrueNAS builds due to their exceptional quality and reliability. All TrueNAS Minis ship with WD Redâ„¢ Plus drives unless requested otherwise.

Nearline SAS Disks Nearline SAS (NL-SAS) disks are 7200 RPM enterprise SATA disks with the industry-standard SAS interface in most enterprise storage systems. SAS stands for serial attached SCSI, with the traditional SCSI disk interface in serial form. SAS systems, designed for data center storage applications, have accurate, verbose error handling, predictable failure behavior, reliable hot swapping, and the added feature of multipath support. Multipath access means that each drive has two interfaces and can connect to two storage controllers or one controller over two cables. This redundancy protects against cable, controller card, or complete system failure in the case of the TrueNAS high-availability architecture in which each controller is an independent server that accesses the same set of NL-SAS drives. NL-SAS drives are also robust enough to handle the rigors of systems with more than 16 disks. So, capacity-oriented TrueNAS systems ship with Western Digital UltraStar NL-SAS disks thanks to the all-around perfect balance of capacity, reliability, performance, and flexibility that NL-SAS drives offer.SAS Disks Enterprise SAS disks, built for the maximum performance and reliability that a spinning platter can provide, are the traditional heavy-lifters of the enterprise storage industry. SAS disk capacities are low compared to NL-SAS or NAS drives due to the speed at which the platters spin, reaching as high as 15,000 RPMs. While SAS drives might sound like the ultimate answer for high-performance storage, many consumer and enterprise flash-based options have come onto the market and significantly reduced the competitiveness of SAS drives. For example, we almost completely replaced enterprise SAS drives discontinued from the TrueNAS product lines with flash drives (SSDs or NVMe) in 2016 due to their superior performance/cost ratio.SATA & SAS Flash Storage SSDsFlash storage technology has progressed significantly in recent years, leading to a revolution in mobile devices and the rise of flash storage in general-purpose PCs and servers. Unlike hard disks, flash storage is not sensitive to vibration and can be much faster with comparable reliability. Flash storage remains more expensive per GB, but is becoming more common in TrueNAS systems as the price gap narrows.

The shortest path for introducing flash storage into the mainstream market was for vendors to use standard SATA/SAS hard disk interfaces and form factors that emulate standard hard disks without moving parts. For this reason, flash storage Solid State Disks (SSDs) have SATA interfaces and are the size of 2.5" laptop hard disks, allowing using them as drop-in replacements for traditional hard disks. Flash storage SSDs can replace HDDs for primary storage on a TrueNAS system, resulting in a faster, albeit smaller or more expensive storage solution. If you plan to go all-flash, buy the highest-quality flash storage SSDs your budget allows, focusing on power, safety, and write endurance that matches your expected write workload.

NVMeWhile SSDs pretending to be HDDs made sense for rapid adoption, the Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) standard is a native flash protocol that takes full advantage of the flash storage non-linear, parallel nature.

The main advantage of NVMe is low-latency performance. NVMe is becoming a mainstream option for boot and other tasks. At first, NVMe only came in expansion-card form factors such as PCIe and M.2. The new U.2 interface offers a universal solution that includes the 2.5" drive form factor and an externally accessible (but generally not hot-swappable) NVMe interface.

NVMe devices can run quite hot and might need dedicated heat sinks.

USB Hard DisksAvoid using USB-connected hard disks for primary storage with TrueNAS. You can use USB Hard Disks for very basic backups in a pinch. While TrueNAS does not automate this process, you can connect a USB HDD, replicate at the command line, and then take it off-site for safekeeping.

These storage device media arrange together to create powerful storage solutions.

Hybrid Storage & Flash Cache (SLOG/ZIL/L2ARC)With hard disks providing double-digit terabyte capacities and flash-based options providing even higher performance, a best-of-both-worlds option is available. With TrueNAS and OpenZFS, you can merge flash and disk to create hybrid storage that makes the most of both types. Hybrid setups use high-capacity spinning disks to store data, while DRAM and flash perform hyper-fast read and write caching. The technologies work together with a flash-based separate write log (SLOG). Think of it as a write cache keeping the ZFS-intent log (ZIL) that speeds up writes. On the read side, flash is a level two adaptive replacement (read) cache (L2ARC) to keep the hottest data sets on the faster flash media. Workloads with synchronous writes, such as NFS and databases, benefit from SLOG devices, while workloads with frequently-accessed data might benefit from an L2ARC device. An L2ARC device is not always the best choice because the level one ARC in RAM always provides a faster cache, and the L2ARC table uses some RAM.

SLOG devices do not need a large capacity since they only need to service five seconds of data writes delivered by the network or a local application. A high-endurance, low-latency device between 8 GB and 32 GB is adequate for most modern networks, and you can strip or mirror several devices for either performance or redundancy. Pay attention to the published endurance claims for the device since a SLOG acts as the funnel point for most of the writes made to the system.

SLOG devices also need power protection. The purpose of the ZFS intent log (ZIL), and thus the SLOG, is to keep sync writes safe during a crash or power failure. If the SLOG is not power-protected and loses data after a power failure, it defeats the purpose of using a SLOG in the first place. Check the manufacturer specifications for the device to ensure the SLOG device is power-safe or has power loss/failure protection.

The most important quality to look for in an L2ARC device is random read performance. The device must support more IOPS than the primary storage media it caches. For example, using a single SSD as an L2ARC is ineffective in front of a pool of 40 SSDs, as the 40 SSDs can handle far more IOPS than the single L2ARC drive. As for capacity, 5x to 20x more than the RAM size is a good guideline. High-end TrueNAS systems can have NVMe-based L2ARC in double-digit terabyte sizes.

Remember that for every data block in the L2ARC, the primary ARC needs an 88-byte entry. Poorly-designed systems can cause an unexpected fill-up in the ARC and reduce performance. For example, a 480 GB L2ARC filled with 4KiB blocks needs more than 10GiB of metadata storage in the primary ARC.

Self Encrypting Drives TrueNAS supports two forms of data encryption at rest to achieve privacy and compliance objectives: native ZFS encryption and self-encrypting drives (SEDs). SEDs do not experience the performance overhead introduced by software partition encryption but are not as readily available as non-SED drives (and thus can cost a little more).Boot DevicesBooting legacy FreeNAS systems from 8 GB or larger USB flash drives was once very popular. We recommend looking at other options since USB drive quality varies widely, and modern TrueNAS versions perform increased drive writes to the boot pool. For this reason, all pre-built TrueNAS Systems ship with either M.2 drives or SATA DOMs.

SATA DOMs, or disk-on-modules, offer reliability close to consumer 2.5" SSDs with a smaller form factor that mounts to an internal SATA port and does not use a drive bay. Because SATA DOMs and motherboards with M.2 slots are not as common as the other storage devices mentioned here, users often boot TrueNAS systems from 2.5" SSDs and HDDs (often mirrored for added redundancy). The recommended size for the TrueNAS boot volume is 8 GB, but 16 or 32 GB (or a 120 GB 2.5" SATA SSD) provides room for more boot environments.

Hot Swapability TrueNAS systems come in all shapes and sizes. Many users want external access to all storage devices for efficient replacement if issues occur. Most hot-swap drive bays need a proprietary drive tray into which you install each drive. These bay and tray combinations often include convenient features like activity and identification lights to visualize activity and illuminate a failed drive with sesutil(8) for FreeBSD-based TrueNAS versions or for Linux-based TrueNAS versions. TrueNAS Mini systems ship with four or more hot-swap bays. TrueNAS R-Series systems can support dozens of drives in their head units and external expansion shelves. Pre-owned or repurposed hardware is popular among TrueNAS users.
Pay attention to the maximum performance offered by the hot-swap backplanes of a given system. Aim for at least 6 Gbps SATA III support. Note that hot-swapping PCIe NVMe devices is not currently supported.

Pool layout (the organization of LUNs and volumes, in TrueNAS/ZFS parlance) is outside of the scope of this guide. The availability of double-digit terabyte drives raises a question TrueNAS users now have the luxury of asking: How many should I use to achieve my desired capacity? You can mirror two 16 TB drives to achieve 16 TB of available capacity, but that does not mean you should. Mirroring two large drives offers the advantage of redundancy and balancing reads between the two devices, which could lower power draw, but little else. The write performance of two large drives is similar to that of a single drive. By contrast, an array of eight 4 TB drives offers a wide range of configurations to optimize performance and redundancy at a lower cost. If configured as striped mirrors, eight drives can yield four times greater write performance with a similar total capacity. You might also consider adding a hot-spare drive with any pool configuration, which lets the pool automatically rebuild itself if one of its primary drives fails.

Spinning disk hard drives have moving parts that are highly sensitive to shock and vibration and wear out with use. Consider pre-flighting every storage device before putting it into production, especially:

Start a long HDD self-test (smartctl -t long /dev/). After the test completes (could take 12+ hrs):

Take time to create a pool before deploying the system. Subject it to as close to a real-world workload as possible to reveal individual drive issues and help determine if an alternative pool layout is better suited to that workload. Be cautious of used drives, as vendors might not be honest or informed about their age and health. Verify vendors have not recertified drives by checking the hours using smartctl(8) for all new drives. A drive vendor might also zero the hours of a drive during recertification, masking the drive age. iXsystems tests all storage devices it sells for at least 48 hours before shipment.

The uncontested most popular storage controllers used with TrueNAS are the 6 and 12 Gbps (Gigabits per second, sometimes expressed as Gb/s) Broadcom (formerly Avago, formerly LSI) SAS host bus adapters (HBA). Controllers ship embedded on some motherboards but are generally PCIe cards with four or more internal or external SATA/SAS ports. The 6 Gbps LSI 9211 and rebranded siblings with the LSI SAS2008 chip, such as the IBM M1015 and Dell H200, are legendary among TrueNAS users who build systems using parts from the second-hand market. Flash using the latest IT or Target Mode firmware to disable the optional RAID functionality found in the IR firmware on Broadcom controllers. For those with the budget, newer models like the Broadcom 9300/9400 series give 12 Gbps SAS capabilities and even NVMe to SAS translation abilities with the 9400 series. TrueNAS includes the sas2flash, sas3flash, and storcli commands to flash or perform re-flashing operations on 9200, 9300, and 9400 series cards.

Onboard SATA controllers are popular with smaller builds, but motherboard vendors are better at catering to the needs of NAS users by including more than the traditional four SATA interfaces. Be aware that many motherboards ship with a mix of 3 Gbps and 6 Gbps onboard SATA interfaces and that choosing the wrong one can impact performance. If a motherboard includes hardware RAID functionality, do not use or configure it, but note that disabling it in the BIOS might remove some SATA functionality, depending on the motherboard. Most SATA compatibility-related issues are immediately apparent.

There are countless warnings against using hardware RAID cards with TrueNAS. ZFS and TrueNAS provide a built-in RAID that protects your data better than any hardware RAID card. You can use a hardware RAID card if it is all you have, but there are limitations. First and most importantly, do not use their RAID facility if your hardware RAID card supports HBA mode, also known as passthrough or JBOD mode (there is one caveat in the bullet list below). When used, it allows it to perform indistinguishably from a standard HBA. If your RAID card does not have this mode, you can configure a RAID0 for every disk in your system. While not the ideal setup, it works in a pinch. If repurposing hardware RAID cards with TrueNAS, be aware that some hardware RAID cards can:

A direct-attached system, where every disk connects to an interface on the controller card, is optimal but not always possible. A SAS expander (a port multiplier or splitter) enables each SAS port on a controller card to service many disks. You find SAS expanders only on the drive backplane of servers or JBODs with more than twelve drive bays. For example, a TrueNAS JBOD that eclipses 90 drives in only four rack units of space is not possible without SAS expanders. Imagine how many eight-port HBAs you need to access 90 drives without SAS expanders.

While SAS expanders, designed for SAS disks, can often support SATA disks via the SATA Tunneling Protocol or STP, we still prefer SAS disks for reasons mentioned above in the NL-SAS section (SATA disks function on a SAS-based backplane). Remember that you cannot use a SAS drive in a port designed for SATA drives.

A much-cited study floating around the Internet asserts that drive temperature has little impact on drive reliability. The study makes for a great headline or conversation starter, but carefully reading the report indicates that they tested the drives under optimal environmental conditions. The average temperature that a well-cooled spinning hard disk reaches in production is around 28 °C, and one study found that disks experience twice the number of failures for every 12 °C increase in temperature. Before adding drive cooling that often comes with added noise (especially on older systems), know that you risk throwing money away by running a server in a data center or closet without noticing that the internal cooling fans are at their lowest setting. Pay close attention to drive temperature in any chassis that supports 16 or more drives, especially if they are exotic, high-density designs. Every chassis has certain areas that are warmer for whatever reason. Watch for fan failures and the tendency for some models of 8 TB drives to run hotter than other drive capacities. In general, try to keep drive temperatures below the drive specification provided by the vendor.

TrueNAS has higher memory requirements than many Network Attached Storage solutions for good reason: it shares dynamic random-access memory (DRAM or simply RAM) between sharing services, jails or apps, virtual machines, and sophisticated read caching. RAM rarely goes unused on a TrueNAS system, and enough RAM is vital to maintaining peak performance. You should have 8 GB of RAM for basic TrueNAS operations with up to eight drives. Other use cases each have distinct RAM requirements:

Electrical or magnetic interference inside a computer system can cause a spontaneous flip of a single bit of RAM to the opposite state, resulting in a memory error. Memory errors can cause security vulnerabilities, crashes, transcription errors, lost transactions, and corrupted or lost data. So RAM, the temporary data storage location, is one of the most vital areas for preventing data loss.

Error-correcting code or ECC RAM detects and corrects in-memory bit errors as they occur. If errors are severe enough to be uncorrectable, ECC memory causes the system to hang (become unresponsive) rather than continue with errored bits. For ZFS and TrueNAS, this behavior virtually eliminates any chances that RAM errors pass to the drives to cause corruption of the ZFS pools or file errors.

To summarize the lengthy, Internet-wide debate on whether to use error-correcting code (ECC) system memory with OpenZFS and TrueNAS, most users strongly recommend ECC RAM as another data integrity defense. However:

Choosing ECC RAM limits your CPU and motherboard options, but that can be beneficial. Intel^® limits ECC RAM support to workstation and server motherboards. The 13th generation of their consumer CPUs, such as the Core i5 and i7, support ECC as long as they are paired with a workstation motherboard chipset, such as the W680. Refer to Intel ARK for a full list of Intel CPUs with ECC support.

Which CPU to choose can come down to a short list of factors:

Watch for VT-d/AMD-Vi device virtualization support on the CPU and motherboard to pass PCIe devices to virtual machines. Be aware if a given CPU contains a GPU or requires an external one. Also note that many server motherboards include a BMC chip with a built-in GPU. See below for more details on BMCs.

AMD CPUs are becoming more popular thanks to the Ryzen and EPYC (Naples/Rome) lines. Support for these platforms is limited on FreeBSD and, by extension, TrueNAS 13. However, Linux has more support, and TrueNAS 24.10 should work with AMD CPUs without issue.

SHA Extensions for x86 instruction set architectureSHA Extensions in the x86 instruction set architecture support Secure Hash Algorithm family hardware acceleration.

Intel Goldmont (and later), Ice Lake (and later), and Rocket Lake (and later), as well as AMD Zen (and later) processors support the SHA instruction set.

As a courtesy to further limit the motherboard choices, consider the Intelligent Platform Management Interface or IPMI (a.k.a. baseboard management controller, BMC, iLo, iDrac, and other names depending on the vendor) if you need:

TrueNAS relies on its web-based user interface (UI), but you might occasionally need console access to make network configuration changes. TrueNAS administration and sharing use a single network interface by default, which can be challenging when you upgrade features like LACP aggregated networking. The ideal solution is to have a dedicated subnet to access the TrueNAS web UI, but not all users have this luxury. The occasional visit to the hardware console is necessary for global configuration and system recovery. The latest TrueNAS Mini and R-Series systems ship with full-featured, HTML5-based IPMI support on a dedicated gigabit network interface.

The top criteria to consider for a power supply unit (or PSU) on a TrueNAS system are:

Select a PSU rated for the initial and a future load placed on it. Have a PSU with adequate power to migrate from a large-capacity chassis to a fully-populated chassis. Also, consider a hot-swappable redundant PSU to help guarantee uptime. Users on a budget can keep a cold spare PSU to limit their potential downtime to hours rather than days. A good, modern PSU is efficient and integrates into the IPMI management system to provide real-time fan, temperature, and load information.

Most power supplies carry a certified efficiency rating known as an 80 Plus rating. The 80 plus rating indicates the PSU loses the power drawn from the wall as heat, noise, and vibration instead of powering your components. If a power supply needs to draw 600 watts from the wall to provide 500 watts of power to your components, it operates at 500/600 = ~83% efficiency. The other 100 watts get lost as heat, noise, and vibration. Power supplies with higher ratings are more efficient but also far more expensive. Do some return-on-investment calculations if you are unsure what efficiency to buy. For example, if an 80 Plus Platinum PSU costs $50 more than the comparable 80 Plus Gold, it should save you at least $10 per year on your power bill for that investment to pay off over five years. You can read more about 80 Plus ratings in this post.

TrueNAS allows the system to communicate with a battery-backed, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) over a traditional serial or USB connection to coordinate a graceful shutdown in the case of power loss. TrueNAS works well with APC brand UPS, followed by CyberPower. Consider budgeting for a UPS with pure sine wave output. Some models of SSD can experience data corruption on power loss. If several SSDs experience simultaneous power loss, it could cause total pool failure, making a UPS a critical investment.

The network in Network Attached Storage is as important as storage, but the topic has a few key points:

Higher-band hardware is becoming more accessible as the hardware development pace increases and enterprises upgrade more quickly. Home labs can now deploy and use 40 GB and higher networking components. Home users are now discovering the same issues and problems with these higher speeds found by Enterprise customers.

iXsystems recommends using optical fiber over direct attached copper (DAC) cables for the high-speed interconnects listed below:

iXsystems also recommends using optical fiber for any transceiver form factors mentioned when using fiber channels. Direct attached copper (DAC) cables can create interoperability issues between the NIC, cable, and switch.

The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) provides a way for system administrators to remotely access their TrueNAS system. Through this remote access, administrators can install software, and configure or administer systems at the console level as though they are in the room with the server. TrueNAS Enterprise systems sold by iXsystems provide IPMI network ports, but other hardware might not have IPMI ports.

iXsystems requires access through your IPMI server to access the TrueNAS server to provide remote administration support. To make this possible:

TrueNAS uses DHCP to assign the IP address to the primary system network interface. DHCP only provisions one IP address. You can use this DHCP-provided address, or you can assign a static IP address. You must assign an IP address to each network interface card (NIC) installed in your system if you want to communicate over your network using the interfaces.

To configure your TrueNAS server to work with your network, you need:

If you have an HA system with two controllers, you must assign a total of three IP addresses:

iXsystems Support can assist you with any questions you have with these network requirements. Provide the information listed to iXsystems when requested to expedite configuring your system network settings.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service or servers allow for the transfer of electronic mail across an Internet connection. TrueNAS uses either SMTP to send mail from TrueNAS to administrator or designated individual email addresses for system alert notifications.

Have your network administrators provide the SMTP addresses to allow TrueNAS to send emails from your network.

TrueNAS works with either Active Directory or LDAP directory servers, and it can also work with Kerberos and IDmap. Active Directory and LDAP configuration settings have similar requirements. Additionally, consider implementing two-factor authentication (2FA) for enhanced security when authenticating users against Active Directory or LDAP directory servers.

Active DirectoryProvide the following information to configure TrueNAS Active Directory access:

LDAPProvide the following information to configure TrueNAS LDAP access:

Advanced Directory ServicesWhen configuring Kerberos and/or IDmap, you might need to provide:

When in the same location as the hardware designated for the TrueNAS installation, you can connect a monitor and keyboard to the system to do the initial installation and configuration. An additional USB port is required when using a USB storage device to install TrueNAS from .iso file.

Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) servers provide a way for system administrators to remotely access and control systems. Through this remote access, administrators can install software, and configure or administer systems at the console level as though they are in the room with the server. Home users with compatible hardware have the option to use an IPMI connection to remotely administer their system over the Internet.

To make this remote access possible you need an IPMI capable system or service:

TrueNAS uses DHCP to assign the IP address to the primary system network interface. DHCP only provisions one IP address. You can use this DHCP-provided address, or you can assign a static IP address. You must assign an IP address to each network interface card (NIC) installed in your system if you want to communicate over your network using the interfaces.

To configure your TrueNAS server to work with your network, you need:

Home users obtaining network equipment and Internet service access from either an Internet or cable service provider can contact the provider support departments for assistance with network addresses.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service or servers allow for the transfer of electronic mail across an Internet connection. TrueNAS uses SMTP to send mail from TrueNAS to either the administrator or designated individual email addresses for system alert notifications.

Contact your Internet or cable service provider to obtain the SMTP addresses to allow TrueNAS to send emails from your network. Consider utilizing two-factor authentication (2FA) for enhanced security when accessing SMTP servers for email delivery from TrueNAS.

You need an OpenPGP encryption application for this method of ISO verification.

Click here for the verification process.1. Obtain an OpenPGP encryption application to use. There are many free applications available, but the OpenPGP group provides a list of available software for different operating systems at https://www.openpgp.org/software/. The examples in this section show verifying the TrueNAS .iso using gnupg2 in a command prompt, but Gpg4win is also a good option for Windows users.

Go to the .iso and the .iso.gpg or .iso.sig download location and import the public key using the keyserver address and search results string:

Use gpg --verify to compare the .iso and the .iso.gpg or .iso.sig files:

This response means the signature is correct but still untrusted.
3. Go back to the browser page that has the PGP Public key. Open and manually confirm that the key is issued for IX SecTeam <security-officer@ixsystems.com> (iX Security Team) on October 15, 2019 and is signed by an iXsystems account.

SHA256 verification uses the checksum to validate/verify the file.

Click here for the verification process.The command to verify the checksum varies by operating system:

Freeware or online checksum utilities are available for Windows users.

The value produced by running the command must match the value shown in the sha256.txt file. Different checksum values indicate a corrupted installer file that you should not use.

TrueNAS is very flexible and can run on any x86_64 compatible (Intel or AMD) processor. TrueNAS requires at least 8GB of RAM (more is better) and a 20GB Boot Device.

Because TrueNAS is built and provided as an .iso file, it works on all virtual machine solutions (Proxmox, VMware, VirtualBox, Citrix Hypervisor, etc). This section describes installing on a VM using VMware Workstation Player on Windows.

For a list of TrueNAS Enterprise (HA) preparation information, see Preparing for TrueNAS UI Configuration (Enterprise).

Have this information handy to complete this procedure:

When restoring after a clean install, also have ready:

There are two ways to install the HA dual controller system to ensure controller 1 comes online as the primary controller:

Simultaneous installation must start with controller 1, so it comes online first. Installing each controller individually follows a particular method to ensure controller 1 comes online as the primary controller.

The sections in this article cover the primary steps as a simultaneous installation:

Use the TrueNAS UI for system configuration as it has safety mechanisms in place to prevent disrupting network access that could require you to repeat the clean install to access your system. However, if you are experienced with the Console Setup Menu and are using it to configure network settings you can configure the rest of the controller 1 network settings with the Console setup menu.
29. Log into the TrueNAS UI for controller 1 to sign the EULA agreement and apply the system HA license.
30. Disable failover to configure the rest of the network settings and edit the primary network interface on controller 1, and then enable failover.
31. Complete the minimum storage requirement by adding or importing one pool on controller 1.
32. Sign in using the Virtual IP (VIP) address.
33. With controller 2 powered up, on controller 1 sync to peer to complete the install and make controller 2 the standby controller.

The sections that follow describe these steps in detail.

Download the .iso file.

If you are remote to the system and are installing through an IPMI connection you do not need to save the .iso file to a USB flash drive.

If you are physically present with the TrueNAS system, burn the .iso file to a USB flash drive and use that as the install media.

Use this process to install the iso file on both controller 1 and controller 2. Best practice is to begin the install on controller 1, then immediately begin the install on controller 2.

Installing ISO Steps1. Enter the IP address assigned to the controller 1 IPMI port into a web browser and log into your IPMI system with admin credentials.
40. Select Remote Control > iKVM/HTML5 to open the Console Setup window.

IPMI interfaces can vary but they generally have options for Remote Control and iKVM/HTML5 to open a console session on the platform.
41. Install the .iso file. Select the Virtual Media > CD-ROM image option in your IPMI system.

a. Enter the IP address of where you downloaded the .iso file into Share Host. You might need assistance from your Network or IT department to obtain this address.

b. Enter the path to the .iso file. For example, if you stored the file in an iso folder enter /iso/TrueNAS-SCALE-22.12.1.iso in Path to Image.

c. Click Save, then Mount. You should see the .iso file under Device 1 or the device name your IPMI configures.
42. Return to the Remote Control > iKVM/HTML5 window opened in step 2. Either use your keyboard or open the keyboard in the window then:

a. Type 8 to reboot controller 1 (also repeat for controller 2), and type y to confirm and reboot.

b. As the system reboots, be prepared to hit the F11 key when you first see the TrueNAS Open Storage splash screen. Alternatively, you can start clicking on the F11 key on the online keyboard until you see the TrueNAS Installer screen.

c. Select the UEFI: ATEN Virtual CDROM device from the boot list. The bootstrap loader begins. When it ends the TrueNAS installer opens.

TrueNAS Installer Steps1. Select Install/Upgrade.
43. Select the desired install drive.

Select Yes to proceed with a clean installation of TrueNAS from the .iso. This erases the contents of the selected drive!
44. Select option 1 Administrative user (truenas_admin) then OK to install TrueNAS and create the truenas_admin user account and password. TrueNAS has implemented an administrator login as a replacement for the root user login as a security hardening measure. The system retains root as a fallback, but it is no longer the default. The truenas_admin account has full control over TrueNAS and is used to log in to the web interface.

Set a strong password and protect it.

Next, enter a password for the new truenas_admin user.
45. Select Yes at the Legacy Boot prompt to allow the system to boot via UEFI, or select No if your system hardware requires legacy BIOS boot. Press Enter to begin the installation.
46. Select OK when the Installation Succeeded screen shows and press Enter to exit from the installer.

TrueNAS is now installed on controller 1 and repeated for controller 2 starting with Using IPMI to Install the ISO on a Controller.

After installing the .iso file on both controller 1 and 2 and finishing the TrueNAS Installer process, use the Console setup menu to configure the required network settings on controller 1, so it can access the TrueNAS UI. TrueNAS single controller systems use the DHCP-assigned IP address for the primary network interface to access the UI to complete the rest of the network and other configuration settings. However, HA systems with dual controllers must use static IP addresses.

To allow controller 1 to access the UI, you must disable DHCP and add the controller 1 static IP address and netmask as an alias on the primary network interface, and then enter the network settings for host name, domain name, default gateway, and the name servers (1 and 2). You can configure the rest of the HA global network settings in the TrueNAS web UI.

To use the Console setup menu to configure required network settings on controller 1:

Use the TrueNAS UI to:

TrueNAS UI Enterprise customers see the End User License Agreement (EULA) screen the first time they log in. Sign the agreement to open the main TrueNAS Dashboard. Apply the system license next.

Go to System > General Settings and click Add License on the Support widget. Copy your license and paste it into the License field, then click Save License. The Reload dialog opens. Click Reload Now. Controller 1 restarts, and displays the EULA for controller 2. Sign the EULA agreement for controller 2, and add the license.

The controller 1 and 2 (or a and b) serial numbers display on the Support widget on the System > General Settings screen.

TrueNAS Enterprise (HA) systems use three static IP addresses for access to the UI:

Have the list of network addresses, name sever and default gateway IP addresses, and host and domain names ready so you can complete the network configuration without disruption or system timeouts.

TrueNAS safeguards allow a default of 60 seconds to test and save changes to a network interface before reverting changes. This is to prevent users from breaking their network connection in TrueNAS.

To configure network settings on controller 1:

a. Turn DHCP off if it is on. Select DHCP to clear the checkbox.

b. Add the failover settings. Select Critical, and then select 1 on the Failover Group dropdown list.

c. Add the virtual IP (VIP) and controller 2 IP. Click Add for Aliases to display the additional IP address fields.

First, enter the IP address for controller 1 into IP Address (This Controller) and select the netmask (CIDR) number from the dropdown list.

Next, enter the controller 2 IP address into IP Address (TrueNAS Controller 2).

Finally, enter the VIP address into Virtual IP Address (Failover Address).
64. Click Save
65. Click Test Changes after editing the interface settings. You have 60 seconds to test and then save changes before they revert. If this occurs, edit the interface again.

Create or import a storage pool from a backup. You must have at least one storage pool on controller 1. After saving the storage pool, controller 2 automatically restarts. Wait until it comes back online before syncing controller 1 with controller 2.

For more information on how to create a new pool click here. For more information on how to import a pool click here.

When the system comes back up, log into TrueNAS using the virtual IP address. The main Dashboard displays two System Information widgets. In standard configurations by iXsystems, Controller 1 shows its serial number and a host name that includes the letter a. Controller 2 is labeled as Standby Controller and shows its serial number and a host name that includes the letter b. Take note of this information.

If controller 2 comes online as the primary and controller 1 as the standby, you installed and configured the controllers incorrectly.

TrueNAS uses DHCP to assign the IP address required to access the TrueNAS UI and displays it on the Console Setup Menu screen, and it sets the host name to truenas.

If you do not plan to use the DHCP-assigned network addresses provided by TrueNAS, identify your host and domain names, the static or fixed IP addresses you plan to assign to your network interface card(s), the default gateway, subnet mask(s), and the DNS name servers in your network.

All other users should have their network information ready before starting to configure network settings. This makes the process go faster and reduces the risk of issues when you configure TrueNAS.

To use the Console Setup menu to change the network interface IP address:

To configure the default gateway, host name, domain and DNS name severs using the Console Setup menu type 2 and then press Enter to open the Network Settings screen.

To configure network settings in the TrueNAS UI, enter the IP address displayed on the Console Setup menu screen in a browser URL field and press Enter. Log in with the admin user name and password set for the administration user during the iso installation process, and then go to Network to edit an interface or global network configuration settings.

You can migrate with a clean install using an iso file. With a clean install, you need to reconfigure your settings and import your data. Follow the instructions in the Install articles.

When TrueNAS boots, you might need to use the Console Setup Menu to configure networking interfaces to enable GUI accessibility. After logging in to the TrueNAS UI, use a system configuration file to restore the system settings and import the data storage pools.

This method is only available for non-Enterprise community systems.

Some TrueNAS 13.0 or 13.3 releases can migrate using the UI Upgrade function using a TrueNAS 24.04 update file downloaded from the website. To use this method, you must upgrade to the latest maintenance release.

Earlier releases must upgrade to 13.0 and then the latest maintenance release (U6.2) to use this method. For community users, 13.3 and the latest public release is acceptable. If this process fails, retry using the iso file method above.

Then click APPLY UPDATE.
97. After the update completes, reboot the system if it does not reboot automatically.

After TrueNAS reboots, you might need to use the Console Setup menu to configure the primary networking interfaces to enable GUI accessibility.

After gaining access to the UI, sign in with the admin user credentials created during installation.

Go to System > General Settings and upload the system config file. This migrates your settings, imports your pools, shares, etc. The system reboots to apply the uploaded configuration.

After TrueNAS reboots, sign in with the root user credentials from the previous configuration. Uploading the config file deletes the truenas_admin user account created during a clean install and therefore requires you to recreate an administrative user.

After uploading the config file, review each area of the UI previously configured to validate pools imported and settings migrated correctly. Begin with your network settings.

Use the information gathered during your preparation to migrate to restore settings, tasks, VMs configured using the GRUB bootloader, credentials, etc. not present after uploading the config file.

After setting up the truenas_admin user from one of the scenarios documented above, enter truenas_admin and the password to log in.

To modify user credentials, go to Credentials > Users, click anywhere on the user row, then click Edit. For more information, see Managing Users.

If logging in with the root user credentials, enter root as the user and the root password.

After logging in with the root user credentials, you must immediately create the admin user account and then disable the root user password to comply with FIPS security hardening standards.

The root user still exists but with the password disabled by default. This means only an administrative user can log into the system.

You can activate the password for the root user for some limited uses, but you should return to a security-hardened operation by disabling the root password immediately after you finish with the limited use.

Follow the directions in Managing Users to create an administration user with all required settings. For environments requiring specific configurations, such as non-AD environments or those using LDAP, ensure that your admin user is properly set up to manage all aspects of the system.

If you selected the installation option 2. Configure using Web UI, the sign-in screen shows two authentication methods. One allows you to log in as root or you can create the administration account.

Select either the Administrative user or Root user (not recommended) option, then enter the password to use with that user.

If you choose Root user (not recommended) as the TrueNAS authentication method, go to the Credentials > Users screen and create the admin account immediately after you enter the UI. Enter the admin user name and password, make sure the password is enabled, and click Save. After setting up the admin user, click on the root user and then click Edit. Disable the root user password and then click Save. This brings the system into compliance with FIPS system security-hardening standards.

If you cannot remember the administrator password to log in to the web interface, connect a keyboard and mouse to the TrueNAS system and open the Console Setup menu to reset the administrator account password.

UI is not accessible by IP addressIf the user interface is not accessible by IP address from a browser, check the following:

UI displays but seems unresponsiveIf the web interface displays but seems unresponsive or incomplete:

If the UI becomes unresponsive after an upgrade or other system operation, clear the site data and refresh the browser (Shift+F5).

The TrueNAS top navigation top toolbar provides access to functional areas of the UI that you might want to directly access while on other screens in the UI. Icon buttons provide quick access to dropdown lists of options, dropdown panels with information on system alerts or tasks, and can include access to other information or configuration screens. It also shows the name of admin user currently logged into the system to the left of the Settings and Power icons.

You can also collapse or expand the main function menu on the left side of the screen.

Search UIThe Search UI global search bar allows users to search for screens and elements within the TrueNAS UI or to redirect search terms to the TrueNAS Documentation Hub.

Enter a keyword to search for elements within the TrueNAS UI. For example, enter SMB to search for results relating to SMB shares and the SMB service.

Global search returns UI screens, widgets, and button names matching the entered query. Click View More to view additional results, if needed.

Select a screen result under UI to go to the matching screen within the TrueNAS UI. For example, select Shares SMB to go to the SMB screen.

Select a widget or button result to go to the screen containing the element. For example, select Shares SMB Add SMB Share to locate to the Add button on the SMB screen.

TrueNAS indicates the selected element with an arrow.

If your system has more than one network interface card (NIC) connected to your internal network (wired to your router or Internet access point), you can add an interface in TrueNAS. DHCP is available for only a single interface; any other physical interfaces must be configured with static IP addresses.

You can also configure virtual network interfaces such as a bridge, link aggregate (LAGG), or virtual LAN (VLAN) interface.

You can use the Console Setup menu or TrueNAS UI to configure network interfaces. We recommend using the web UI the Network screen to add or change network interfaces or aliases, set up link aggregate LAGG or virtual LAN VLAN interfaces, and change or configure global network settings.

Static IP addresses and aliases provide support for various network applications.

You can configure a network interface with a static IP or add an alias IP address on the same screen in the TrueNAS UI. For more information on when to use an alias or a static IP address, see Managing Interfaces.

TrueNAS assigns the root parent dataset of the first created pool as the system dataset. If your system has enough disks to add more pools, you can change the system dataset to a root dataset of different pool.

After setting up your system storage, you can configure data sharing using one of the sharing protocols available in TrueNAS.

These articles provide more information on configuring data sharing and the three built-in share types available in TrueNAS:

All systems can take advantage of the SMART service and testing with compatible attached disks. Disks that do not support SMART testing do not display the option to set up testing.

See Managing SMART Tests for information on running or managing scheduled SMART tests or Managing Disks for more information on running a manual test from a selected disk.

Click Create Pool to open the Pool Creation Wizard.

Pool Creation Wizard Fields (Click to expand)This wizard screen lets you configure a VDEV using the Automated Disk Selection fields. To individually find and select disks for a VDEV, click Manual Disk Selection in the Advanced Options area.

Choosing a dRAID VDEV layout removes the Manual Disk Selection button and adds different options to the Automated Disk Selection area. It also removes the Spare VDEV section from the pool creation wizard and replaces it with the Distributed Hot Spares option in the Data VDEV section.

New pools have a root dataset that allows further division into new non-root parent and child datasets or into storage volumes (zvols). A dataset is a file system that stores data and has specific permissions.

A zvol is a virtual block device (like a virtual disk drive) that has a predefined storage size. Zvols are generally used with the iSCSI sharing protocol and also virtual machines (VMs) for their data storage needs.

To create a dataset or zvol, you can click Datasets on the main navigation panel or go to Storage and click Manage Datasets on the Usage widget for a specific pool to open the Datasets screen.

To create a basic dataset, go to Datasets. Default settings include those inherited from the parent dataset.

Select a dataset (root, parent, or child), then click Add Dataset.

Enter a value in Name.

Select the Dataset Preset option you want to use. Options are:

Generic sets ACL permissions equivalent to Unix permissions 755, granting the owner full control and the group and other users read and execute privileges.

SMB, Apps, and Multiprotocol inherit ACL permissions based on the parent dataset. If there is no ACL to inherit, one is calculated granting full control to the owner@, group@, members of the builtin_administrators group, and domain administrators. Modify control is granted to other members of the builtin_users group and directory services domain users.

Apps includes an additional entry granting modify control to group 568 (Apps).

ACL Settings for Dataset Presets| | ACL Type | ACL Mode | Case Sensitivity | Enable atime |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Generic | POSIX | n/a | Sensitive | Inherit |
| SMB | NFSv4 | Restricted | Insensitive | On |
| Apps | NFSv4 | Passthrough | Sensitive | Off |
| Multiprotocol | NFSv4 | Passthrough | Sensitive | Off |

If creating an SMB or multi-protocol (SMB and NFS) share the dataset name value auto-populates the share name field with the dataset name.

If you plan to deploy container applications, the system automatically creates the ix-apps dataset for Docker storage for but separate datasets used for application data storage. If you want to store data by application, create the dataset(s) first, then deploy your application. When creating a dataset for an application, select Apps as the Dataset Preset. This optimizes the dataset for use by an application.

If you want to configure advanced setting options, click Advanced Options. For the Sync option, we recommend production systems with critical data use the default Standard choice or increase to Always. Choosing Disabled is only suitable in situations where data loss from system crashes or power loss is acceptable.

Select either Sensitive or Insensitive from the Case Sensitivity dropdown. The Case Sensitivity setting is found under Advanced Options and is not editable after saving the dataset.

Click Save.

Organize the pool with as many datasets or zvols you need according to your access and data sharing requirements before moving data into the pool.

See Adding or Managing Datasets for more information on configuring datasets, or Adding or Managing Zvols for more information on zvols.

TrueNAS provides the option to create the dataset and share at the same time. The Add Dataset screen allows you to create the new dataset and use a preset to configure an SMB, NFS, or multi-mode share. The Shares screen also provides options to add an SMB or NFS share and create the dataset at the same time.

To create a dataset and share from the Add Dataset screen:

You can also set permissions for the share from the Shares screen by selecting the share, then selecting the option to Edit Filesystem ACL for SMB, or set up NFS share permissions from the Add NFS share screen.

To create a dataset while adding the share, see Setting Up Sharing which covers the process of setting up the share and creating the dataset at the same time from the Shares screen. See Manage SMB Shares or Manage NFS Shares for more information on adding and managing SMB or NFS shares.

After saving the system configuration, go to System > Advanced Settings and click Save Debug. After the download completes, save this initial debug file with your system configuration file.

Cloud sync and TrueCloud backup tasks can be configured to send, receive, or synchronize data with a cloud storage provider.

The simplest way to set up a TrueCloud backup task is using a Storj iX account. See Managing TrueCloud Backup Tasks for a full tutorial.

See Adding Cloud Credentials for information on connecting TrueNAS to other cloud storage providers.

Replication is the process of taking a moment-in-time snapshot of data and then copying that snapshot to another location. Snapshot technology typically uses less storage than full file backups and has more management and snapshot storage options.

Setting Up a Simple Replication TaskTo create a simple replication task with the TrueNAS replication wizard:

Replication needs an existing periodic snapshot task** to run before the replication task runs or the replication task fails. You can define this before configuring the replication task or select the replication wizard Replicate Custom Snapshots option to have TrueNAS automatically create the task before running the replication task.

Go to Data Protection, and click Add on the Replication Tasks widget to open the Replication Task Wizard configuration screen.

Select both the Source Location and Destination Location using the dropdown list options. You can back up your data on the same system or a different system. If you select A different system you must have an SSH connection. Have your destination and source information ready.

Set the Source and Destination paths, either enter the full path to the data you want to back up or click on the caret to the left of mnt and at the pool and dataset levels to expand the options. Click on the dataset or directory to narrow the backup down to that level.

The task name populates from the values in Source and Destination.

Select Replicate Custom Snapshots.

Click Next.
134. Define when to run this task.

Select the radio button for Run On a Schedule and select the schedule to use. Select Run Once to run the task manually. If using this option you must have a periodic snapshot task already defined. If running on a schedule, you do not need to pre-defined a snapshot task.

Select the radio button to specify the destination snapshot lifetime.
135. Click START REPLICATION. The task appears on the Replication Tasks widget with the status PENDING.

You can monitor created backup tasks from the Dashboard widget.

The primary network interface is configured as part of the installation process. Go to Network > Global Configuration screen in the TrueNAS web UI to determine if the default gateway, host name, domain, and DNS name servers have been configured correctly. See Console Setup Menu Configuration for more information on network settings.

If VMs need to access local NAS storage, you need to create a network bridge and assign it to the VM. Applications or sandboxes that need access to local storage within the container must use a bridge or mount a local storage location as a host path for the application.

You can configure a virtual LAN (VLAN) to route traffic for your VMs. VLAN benefits include the reduction of broadcast traffic and the ability to group resources in different physical locations into a broadcast domain. VLANs virtually segment a network. Different VLANs can communicate with each other using layer 3 devices. See Setting Up a Network VLAN for more information on creating virtual LANs (VLAN).

Storage pool creation is part of the initial process of setting up storage. A TrueNAS dataset is a file system within a data storage pool. See Setting Up Storage to review storage pool creation and Adding and Managing Datasets for information on dataset configuration.

After creating the pool and datasets, set up shares to enable data access and sharing. Different types of data sharing methods are discussed in Setting Up Data Sharing. You should investigate more specific coverage of each share based on your use case.

SMB Shares Screens and Setting Up SMB Home Shares provide a good introduction as to how TrueNAS handles SMB shares.

See Adding NFS Shares for information on creating a basic NFS share. Adjust access permissions using the advanced options.

Certain directory services must be set up as part of SMB and NFS share configuration. See Active Directory Screen for a better understanding of how to configure Active Directory and Configuring Kerberos for an outline of required Kerberos information. For LDAP best practices see Configuring LDAP.

Go to Virtualization and click on a VM to expand that row. Click Edit to open the Edit VM screen and note the existing configuration. Save your configuration settings in an external location to reference later. These settings do not migrate and must be recreated after upgrading to 25.04.

Go to Virtualization and click on a VM to expand that row. Click Devices. Click in the Disk row and select Edit. Note the configured path in Zvol as well as the storage Mode and the Disk Sector Size. Continue to note all other VM devices and associated configuration settings. Record this information in an external location along with the configuration settings gathered above.

Access the VM via Display or Serial Shell and confirm the installed OS and version. Refer to documentation for the installed OS if needed to locate the installed version.

If the installed image (iso) file is stored on the TrueNAS system or in an external location, note this path and record it along with the other configuration settings. If needed, download a fresh image file matching the installed OS and Version

Select VM for Virtualization Method and select or upload the iso file in Image. Using the configuration settings you recorded before updating, replicate the previous VM configuration.

Select the existing zvol for the VM as the storage source in Disks. Click Create.

To run a virtual machine (VM), hardware requirements include an x86 machine running a recent Linux kernel using either an Intel processor with VT extensions or an AMD processor with SVM extensions (AMD-V). To install a VM, first research the minimum and recommended specifications for the OS you plan to use and your full use case for that VM. Allocating too many resources to a VM can cause performance on the TrueNAS system to suffer. We recommend you plan for and ensure your system has the resources to run itself and a full VM deployment effectively, taking into account the need for high availability (HA) and persistent storage.

Software requirements include an installer for the OS you intend to install on the VM.

A TrueNAS storage pool is required. We recommend you create additional datasets beneath the storage pool to organize your VM data further.

Review Virtualization Screens to determine requirements for VM installation. See Adding and Managing VMs for more information on adding or managing VMs.

1.1 “Company”, “iXsystems” and “iX” means iXsystems, Inc., on behalf of themselves, subsidiaries, and affiliates under common control.

1.2 “TrueNAS SCALE Software” means the TrueNAS SCALE storage management software.

1.3 “TrueNAS Device” means the TrueNAS storage appliances and peripheral equipment provided by iXsystems or a third party.

1.4 “Product” means, individually and collectively, the TrueNAS SCALE Software and the TrueNAS Device provided by iXsystems.

1.5 “Open Source Software” means various open source software components licensed under the terms of applicable open source license agreements, each of which has its own copyright and its own applicable license terms.

1.6 “Licensee”, “You” and “Your” refers to the person, organization, or entity that has agreed to be bound by this EULA including any employees, affiliates, and third party contractors that provide services to You.

1.7 “Agreement” refers to this document, the TrueNAS End User License Agreement.

Subject to the terms set forth in this Agreement, iXsystems grants You a non-exclusive, non-transferable, perpetual, limited license without the option to sublicense, to use TrueNAS SCALE Software on Your TrueNAS Device(s). This use includes but is not limited to using or viewing the instructions, specifications, and documentation provided with the Product.

TrueNAS SCALE software is made available as Open Source Software, subject to the license conditions contained within that Open Source Software.

TrueNAS SCALE Software is authorized for use on any TrueNAS Device. TrueNAS Devices can include hardware provided by iXsystems or third parties. TrueNAS Devices may also include virtual machines and cloud instances. TrueNAS SCALE software may not be commercially distributed or sold without an addendum license agreement and express written consent from iXsystems. .

The TrueNAS SCALE Software is protected by copyright laws and international treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws, statutes, and treaties. The TrueNAS SCALE Software is licensed, not sold to You, the end user. You do not acquire any ownership interest in the TrueNAS SCALE Software, or any other rights to the TrueNAS SCALE Software, other than to use the TrueNAS SCALE Software in accordance with the license granted under this Agreement, subject to all terms, conditions, and restrictions. iXsystems reserves and shall retain its entire right, title, and interest in and to the TrueNAS SCALE Software, and all intellectual property rights arising out of or relating to the TrueNAS SCALE Software, subject to the license expressly granted to You in this Agreement.

The TrueNAS SCALE Software may contain iXsystems’ proprietary trademarks and collateral. By agreeing to this license agreement for TrueNAS SCALE, You agree to use reasonable efforts to safeguard iXsystems’ intellectual property and hereby agree to not use or distribute iXsystems’ proprietary intellectual property and collateral commercially without the express written consent of iXsystems. Official iXsystems Channel Partners are authorized to use and distribute iXsystems’ intellectual property through an addendum to this license agreement. By accepting this Agreement, You are responsible and liable for all uses of the Product through access thereto provided by You, directly or indirectly.

The TrueNAS SCALE software includes Open Source components and some proprietary extensions which are available through additional licences You agree to not alter the source code to take advantage of the proprietary extensions without a license to those proprietary extensions, including the TrueNAS Enterprise features sets.

4.1 Entire Agreement - This Agreement, together with any associated purchase order, service level agreement, and all other documents and policies referenced herein, constitutes the entire and only agreement between You and iXsystems for use of the TrueNAS SCALE Software and all other prior negotiations, representations, agreements, and understandings are superseded hereby. No agreements altering or supplementing the terms hereof may be made except by means of a written document signed by Your duly authorized representatives and those of iXsystems.

4.2 Waiver and Modification - No failure of either party to exercise or enforce any of its rights under this EULA will act as a waiver of those rights. This EULA may only be modified, or any rights under it waived, by a written document executed by the party against which it is asserted.

4.3. Severability - If any provision of this EULA is found illegal or unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and the legality and enforceability of the other provisions of this EULA will not be affected.

4.4 United States Government End Users - For any TrueNAS SCALE Software licensed directly or indirectly on behalf of a unit or agency of the United States Government, this paragraph applies. Company’s proprietary software embodied in the Product: (a) was developed at private expense and is in all respects Company’s proprietary information; (b) was not developed with government funds; (c) is Company’s trade secret for all purposes of the Freedom of Information Act; (d) is a commercial item and thus, pursuant to Section 12.212 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and DFAR Supplement Section 227.7202, Government’s use, duplication or disclosure of such software is subject to the restrictions set forth by the Company and Licensee shall receive only those rights with respect to the Product as are granted to all other end users.

4.5 Title - iXsystems retains all rights, titles, and interest in TrueNAS SCALE Software and all related copyrights, trade secrets, patents, trademarks, and any other intellectual and industrial property and proprietary rights, including registrations, applications, registration keys, renewals, and extensions of such rights. Contact Information - If You have any questions about this Agreement, or if You want to contact iXsystems for any reason, please email legal@ixsystems.com.

4.6 Maintenance and Support - You may be entitled to support services from iXsystems after purchasing a Product or a support contract. iXsystems will provide these support services based on the length of time of the purchased support contract. This maintenance and support is only valid for the length of time that You have purchased with Your Product. iXsystems may from time to time and at their sole discretion vary the terms and conditions of the maintenance and support agreement based on different business environmental and personnel factors. Any variations will be notified via email and the support portal. For more information on our Maintenance and Support contract, refer to https://www.ixsystems.com/support/.

4.7 Force Majeure - iXsystems will not be deemed to be in default of any of the provisions of this Agreement or be liable for any delay or failure in performance due to Force Majeure, which shall include without limitation acts of God, earthquake, weather conditions, labor disputes, changes in law, regulation or government policy, riots, war, fire, epidemics, acts or omissions of vendors or suppliers, equipment failures, transportation difficulties, malicious or criminal acts of third parties, or other occurrences which are beyond iXsystems’ reasonable control.

4.8 Termination - iXsystems may cease any and all support, services, or maintenance under this Agreement without prior notice, or liability, and for any reason whatsoever, without limitation, if any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement are breached. Other provisions of this Agreement will survive termination including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, and limitations of liability.

4.9 Open Source Software Components - iXsystems uses Open Source Software components in the development of the TrueNAS SCALE Software. Open Source Software components that are used in the TrueNAS SCALE Software are composed of separate components each having their own trademarks, copyrights, and license conditions.

4.10 Assignment - Licensee shall not assign or otherwise transfer any of its rights, or delegate or otherwise transfer any of its obligations or performance, under this Agreement, in each case whether voluntarily, involuntarily, by operation of law, or otherwise, without iXsystems’ prior written consent. No delegation or other transfer will relieve Licensee of any of its obligations or performance under this Agreement. Any purported assignment, delegation, or transfer in violation of this Section is void. iXsystems may freely assign or otherwise transfer all or any of its rights, or delegate or otherwise transfer all or any of its obligations or performance, under this Agreement without Licensee’s consent. This Agreement is binding upon and inures to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective permitted successors and assigns.

“The Product may be subject to export control laws. You shall not, directly or indirectly, export, re-export, or release the Product to, or make the Product accessible from, any jurisdiction or country to which export, re-export, or release is prohibited by law, rule, or regulation. You shall comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and rules, and complete all required undertakings (including obtaining any necessary export license or other governmental approval).”

TrueNAS SCALE Software may collect non-sensitive system information relating to Your use of the Product, including information that has been provided directly or indirectly through automated means. Usage of TrueNAS SCALE Software, device status and system configuration are allowed according to iXsystems’ privacy policy.

TrueNAS SCALE Software will not collect sensitive User information including email addresses, names of systems, pools, datasets, folders, files, credentials.

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TrueNAS can manage many storage devices as part of a single storage array. With more enterprise-level tuning, TrueNAS can manage as many as 1,250 drives in a single storage array!

Choosing storage media is the first step in designing the storage system to meet immediate objectives and prepare for future capacity expansion.

Spinning Disks Until the next scientific breakthrough in storage media, spinning hard disks are here to stay thanks to their balance of capacity and cost. The arrival of double-digit terabyte consumer and enterprise drives provides more choices to TrueNAS users than ever. TrueNAS Mini systems ship with Western Digital NAS and NL-SAS by default. Understanding the alternatives explains why.SATA NAS DisksSerial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) is still the de facto standard disk interface found in many desktop/laptop computers, servers, and some non-enterprise storage arrays. The first SATA disks offered double-digit gigabyte capacities. Newer SATA disks meet many size, reliability, and performance goals. While consumer desktop SATA disks do not have the overall reliability issues they once had, they are still not designed or warrantied for continuous operation or use in RAID groups. Enterprise SATA disks address the always-on factor, vibration tolerance, and drive error handling required in storage systems. However, the price gap between desktop and enterprise SATA drives is so vast that many users push their consumer drives into 24/7 service pursuing cost savings.

Drive vendors, likely tired of honoring warranties for failed desktop drives used in incorrect applications, responded to this gap in the market by producing NAS drives. NAS drives achieved fame from the original Western Digital (WD) Redâ„¢ drives with Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology (now called WD Red Plus). Western Digital designed the WD Redâ„¢ Plus NAS drives (non-SMR) for systems with up to 8 hard drives, the WD Redâ„¢ Pro for systems with up to 16 drives, and the WD UltraStarâ„¢ for systems beyond 16 drives.

The iXsystems Community Forum prefers WD drives for TrueNAS builds due to their exceptional quality and reliability. All TrueNAS Minis ship with WD Redâ„¢ Plus drives unless requested otherwise.

Nearline SAS Disks Nearline SAS (NL-SAS) disks are 7200 RPM enterprise SATA disks with the industry-standard SAS interface in most enterprise storage systems. SAS stands for serial attached SCSI, with the traditional SCSI disk interface in serial form. SAS systems, designed for data center storage applications, have accurate, verbose error handling, predictable failure behavior, reliable hot swapping, and the added feature of multipath support. Multipath access means that each drive has two interfaces and can connect to two storage controllers or one controller over two cables. This redundancy protects against cable, controller card, or complete system failure in the case of the TrueNAS high-availability architecture in which each controller is an independent server that accesses the same set of NL-SAS drives. NL-SAS drives are also robust enough to handle the rigors of systems with more than 16 disks. So, capacity-oriented TrueNAS systems ship with Western Digital UltraStar NL-SAS disks thanks to the all-around perfect balance of capacity, reliability, performance, and flexibility that NL-SAS drives offer.SAS Disks Enterprise SAS disks, built for the maximum performance and reliability that a spinning platter can provide, are the traditional heavy-lifters of the enterprise storage industry. SAS disk capacities are low compared to NL-SAS or NAS drives due to the speed at which the platters spin, reaching as high as 15,000 RPMs. While SAS drives might sound like the ultimate answer for high-performance storage, many consumer and enterprise flash-based options have come onto the market and significantly reduced the competitiveness of SAS drives. For example, we almost completely replaced enterprise SAS drives discontinued from the TrueNAS product lines with flash drives (SSDs or NVMe) in 2016 due to their superior performance/cost ratio.SATA & SAS Flash Storage SSDsFlash storage technology has progressed significantly in recent years, leading to a revolution in mobile devices and the rise of flash storage in general-purpose PCs and servers. Unlike hard disks, flash storage is not sensitive to vibration and can be much faster with comparable reliability. Flash storage remains more expensive per GB, but is becoming more common in TrueNAS systems as the price gap narrows.

The shortest path for introducing flash storage into the mainstream market was for vendors to use standard SATA/SAS hard disk interfaces and form factors that emulate standard hard disks without moving parts. For this reason, flash storage Solid State Disks (SSDs) have SATA interfaces and are the size of 2.5" laptop hard disks, allowing using them as drop-in replacements for traditional hard disks. Flash storage SSDs can replace HDDs for primary storage on a TrueNAS system, resulting in a faster, albeit smaller or more expensive storage solution. If you plan to go all-flash, buy the highest-quality flash storage SSDs your budget allows, focusing on power, safety, and write endurance that matches your expected write workload.

NVMeWhile SSDs pretending to be HDDs made sense for rapid adoption, the Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) standard is a native flash protocol that takes full advantage of the flash storage non-linear, parallel nature.

The main advantage of NVMe is low-latency performance. NVMe is becoming a mainstream option for boot and other tasks. At first, NVMe only came in expansion-card form factors such as PCIe and M.2. The new U.2 interface offers a universal solution that includes the 2.5" drive form factor and an externally accessible (but generally not hot-swappable) NVMe interface.

NVMe devices can run quite hot and might need dedicated heat sinks.

USB Hard DisksAvoid using USB-connected hard disks for primary storage with TrueNAS. You can use USB Hard Disks for very basic backups in a pinch. While TrueNAS does not automate this process, you can connect a USB HDD, replicate at the command line, and then take it off-site for safekeeping.

These storage device media arrange together to create powerful storage solutions.

Hybrid Storage & Flash Cache (SLOG/ZIL/L2ARC)With hard disks providing double-digit terabyte capacities and flash-based options providing even higher performance, a best-of-both-worlds option is available. With TrueNAS and OpenZFS, you can merge flash and disk to create hybrid storage that makes the most of both types. Hybrid setups use high-capacity spinning disks to store data, while DRAM and flash perform hyper-fast read and write caching. The technologies work together with a flash-based separate write log (SLOG). Think of it as a write cache keeping the ZFS-intent log (ZIL) that speeds up writes. On the read side, flash is a level two adaptive replacement (read) cache (L2ARC) to keep the hottest data sets on the faster flash media. Workloads with synchronous writes, such as NFS and databases, benefit from SLOG devices, while workloads with frequently-accessed data might benefit from an L2ARC device. An L2ARC device is not always the best choice because the level one ARC in RAM always provides a faster cache, and the L2ARC table uses some RAM.

SLOG devices do not need a large capacity since they only need to service five seconds of data writes delivered by the network or a local application. A high-endurance, low-latency device between 8 GB and 32 GB is adequate for most modern networks, and you can strip or mirror several devices for either performance or redundancy. Pay attention to the published endurance claims for the device since a SLOG acts as the funnel point for most of the writes made to the system.

SLOG devices also need power protection. The purpose of the ZFS intent log (ZIL), and thus the SLOG, is to keep sync writes safe during a crash or power failure. If the SLOG is not power-protected and loses data after a power failure, it defeats the purpose of using a SLOG in the first place. Check the manufacturer specifications for the device to ensure the SLOG device is power-safe or has power loss/failure protection.

The most important quality to look for in an L2ARC device is random read performance. The device must support more IOPS than the primary storage media it caches. For example, using a single SSD as an L2ARC is ineffective in front of a pool of 40 SSDs, as the 40 SSDs can handle far more IOPS than the single L2ARC drive. As for capacity, 5x to 20x more than the RAM size is a good guideline. High-end TrueNAS systems can have NVMe-based L2ARC in double-digit terabyte sizes.

Remember that for every data block in the L2ARC, the primary ARC needs an 88-byte entry. Poorly-designed systems can cause an unexpected fill-up in the ARC and reduce performance. For example, a 480 GB L2ARC filled with 4KiB blocks needs more than 10GiB of metadata storage in the primary ARC.

Self Encrypting Drives TrueNAS supports two forms of data encryption at rest to achieve privacy and compliance objectives: native ZFS encryption and self-encrypting drives (SEDs). SEDs do not experience the performance overhead introduced by software partition encryption but are not as readily available as non-SED drives (and thus can cost a little more).Boot DevicesBooting legacy FreeNAS systems from 8 GB or larger USB flash drives was once very popular. We recommend looking at other options since USB drive quality varies widely, and modern TrueNAS versions perform increased drive writes to the boot pool. For this reason, all pre-built TrueNAS Systems ship with either M.2 drives or SATA DOMs.

SATA DOMs, or disk-on-modules, offer reliability close to consumer 2.5" SSDs with a smaller form factor that mounts to an internal SATA port and does not use a drive bay. Because SATA DOMs and motherboards with M.2 slots are not as common as the other storage devices mentioned here, users often boot TrueNAS systems from 2.5" SSDs and HDDs (often mirrored for added redundancy). The recommended size for the TrueNAS boot volume is 8 GB, but 16 or 32 GB (or a 120 GB 2.5" SATA SSD) provides room for more boot environments.

Hot Swapability TrueNAS systems come in all shapes and sizes. Many users want external access to all storage devices for efficient replacement if issues occur. Most hot-swap drive bays need a proprietary drive tray into which you install each drive. These bay and tray combinations often include convenient features like activity and identification lights to visualize activity and illuminate a failed drive with sesutil(8) for FreeBSD-based TrueNAS versions or for Linux-based TrueNAS versions. TrueNAS Mini systems ship with four or more hot-swap bays. TrueNAS R-Series systems can support dozens of drives in their head units and external expansion shelves. Pre-owned or repurposed hardware is popular among TrueNAS users.
Pay attention to the maximum performance offered by the hot-swap backplanes of a given system. Aim for at least 6 Gbps SATA III support. Note that hot-swapping PCIe NVMe devices is not currently supported.

Pool layout (the organization of LUNs and volumes, in TrueNAS/ZFS parlance) is outside of the scope of this guide. The availability of double-digit terabyte drives raises a question TrueNAS users now have the luxury of asking: How many should I use to achieve my desired capacity? You can mirror two 16 TB drives to achieve 16 TB of available capacity, but that does not mean you should. Mirroring two large drives offers the advantage of redundancy and balancing reads between the two devices, which could lower power draw, but little else. The write performance of two large drives is similar to that of a single drive. By contrast, an array of eight 4 TB drives offers a wide range of configurations to optimize performance and redundancy at a lower cost. If configured as striped mirrors, eight drives can yield four times greater write performance with a similar total capacity. You might also consider adding a hot-spare drive with any pool configuration, which lets the pool automatically rebuild itself if one of its primary drives fails.

Spinning disk hard drives have moving parts that are highly sensitive to shock and vibration and wear out with use. Consider pre-flighting every storage device before putting it into production, especially:

Start a long HDD self-test (smartctl -t long /dev/). After the test completes (could take 12+ hrs):

Take time to create a pool before deploying the system. Subject it to as close to a real-world workload as possible to reveal individual drive issues and help determine if an alternative pool layout is better suited to that workload. Be cautious of used drives, as vendors might not be honest or informed about their age and health. Verify vendors have not recertified drives by checking the hours using smartctl(8) for all new drives. A drive vendor might also zero the hours of a drive during recertification, masking the drive age. iXsystems tests all storage devices it sells for at least 48 hours before shipment.

The uncontested most popular storage controllers used with TrueNAS are the 6 and 12 Gbps (Gigabits per second, sometimes expressed as Gb/s) Broadcom (formerly Avago, formerly LSI) SAS host bus adapters (HBA). Controllers ship embedded on some motherboards but are generally PCIe cards with four or more internal or external SATA/SAS ports. The 6 Gbps LSI 9211 and rebranded siblings with the LSI SAS2008 chip, such as the IBM M1015 and Dell H200, are legendary among TrueNAS users who build systems using parts from the second-hand market. Flash using the latest IT or Target Mode firmware to disable the optional RAID functionality found in the IR firmware on Broadcom controllers. For those with the budget, newer models like the Broadcom 9300/9400 series give 12 Gbps SAS capabilities and even NVMe to SAS translation abilities with the 9400 series. TrueNAS includes the sas2flash, sas3flash, and storcli commands to flash or perform re-flashing operations on 9200, 9300, and 9400 series cards.

Onboard SATA controllers are popular with smaller builds, but motherboard vendors are better at catering to the needs of NAS users by including more than the traditional four SATA interfaces. Be aware that many motherboards ship with a mix of 3 Gbps and 6 Gbps onboard SATA interfaces and that choosing the wrong one can impact performance. If a motherboard includes hardware RAID functionality, do not use or configure it, but note that disabling it in the BIOS might remove some SATA functionality, depending on the motherboard. Most SATA compatibility-related issues are immediately apparent.

There are countless warnings against using hardware RAID cards with TrueNAS. ZFS and TrueNAS provide a built-in RAID that protects your data better than any hardware RAID card. You can use a hardware RAID card if it is all you have, but there are limitations. First and most importantly, do not use their RAID facility if your hardware RAID card supports HBA mode, also known as passthrough or JBOD mode (there is one caveat in the bullet list below). When used, it allows it to perform indistinguishably from a standard HBA. If your RAID card does not have this mode, you can configure a RAID0 for every disk in your system. While not the ideal setup, it works in a pinch. If repurposing hardware RAID cards with TrueNAS, be aware that some hardware RAID cards can:

A direct-attached system, where every disk connects to an interface on the controller card, is optimal but not always possible. A SAS expander (a port multiplier or splitter) enables each SAS port on a controller card to service many disks. You find SAS expanders only on the drive backplane of servers or JBODs with more than twelve drive bays. For example, a TrueNAS JBOD that eclipses 90 drives in only four rack units of space is not possible without SAS expanders. Imagine how many eight-port HBAs you need to access 90 drives without SAS expanders.

While SAS expanders, designed for SAS disks, can often support SATA disks via the SATA Tunneling Protocol or STP, we still prefer SAS disks for reasons mentioned above in the NL-SAS section (SATA disks function on a SAS-based backplane). Remember that you cannot use a SAS drive in a port designed for SATA drives.

A much-cited study floating around the Internet asserts that drive temperature has little impact on drive reliability. The study makes for a great headline or conversation starter, but carefully reading the report indicates that they tested the drives under optimal environmental conditions. The average temperature that a well-cooled spinning hard disk reaches in production is around 28 °C, and one study found that disks experience twice the number of failures for every 12 °C increase in temperature. Before adding drive cooling that often comes with added noise (especially on older systems), know that you risk throwing money away by running a server in a data center or closet without noticing that the internal cooling fans are at their lowest setting. Pay close attention to drive temperature in any chassis that supports 16 or more drives, especially if they are exotic, high-density designs. Every chassis has certain areas that are warmer for whatever reason. Watch for fan failures and the tendency for some models of 8 TB drives to run hotter than other drive capacities. In general, try to keep drive temperatures below the drive specification provided by the vendor.

TrueNAS has higher memory requirements than many Network Attached Storage solutions for good reason: it shares dynamic random-access memory (DRAM or simply RAM) between sharing services, jails or apps, virtual machines, and sophisticated read caching. RAM rarely goes unused on a TrueNAS system, and enough RAM is vital to maintaining peak performance. You should have 8 GB of RAM for basic TrueNAS operations with up to eight drives. Other use cases each have distinct RAM requirements:

Electrical or magnetic interference inside a computer system can cause a spontaneous flip of a single bit of RAM to the opposite state, resulting in a memory error. Memory errors can cause security vulnerabilities, crashes, transcription errors, lost transactions, and corrupted or lost data. So RAM, the temporary data storage location, is one of the most vital areas for preventing data loss.

Error-correcting code or ECC RAM detects and corrects in-memory bit errors as they occur. If errors are severe enough to be uncorrectable, ECC memory causes the system to hang (become unresponsive) rather than continue with errored bits. For ZFS and TrueNAS, this behavior virtually eliminates any chances that RAM errors pass to the drives to cause corruption of the ZFS pools or file errors.

To summarize the lengthy, Internet-wide debate on whether to use error-correcting code (ECC) system memory with OpenZFS and TrueNAS, most users strongly recommend ECC RAM as another data integrity defense. However:

Choosing ECC RAM limits your CPU and motherboard options, but that can be beneficial. Intel^® limits ECC RAM support to workstation and server motherboards. The 13th generation of their consumer CPUs, such as the Core i5 and i7, support ECC as long as they are paired with a workstation motherboard chipset, such as the W680. Refer to Intel ARK for a full list of Intel CPUs with ECC support.

Which CPU to choose can come down to a short list of factors:

Watch for VT-d/AMD-Vi device virtualization support on the CPU and motherboard to pass PCIe devices to virtual machines. Be aware if a given CPU contains a GPU or requires an external one. Also note that many server motherboards include a BMC chip with a built-in GPU. See below for more details on BMCs.

AMD CPUs are becoming more popular thanks to the Ryzen and EPYC (Naples/Rome) lines. Support for these platforms is limited on FreeBSD and, by extension, TrueNAS 13. However, Linux has more support, and TrueNAS 24.10 should work with AMD CPUs without issue.

SHA Extensions for x86 instruction set architectureSHA Extensions in the x86 instruction set architecture support Secure Hash Algorithm family hardware acceleration.

Intel Goldmont (and later), Ice Lake (and later), and Rocket Lake (and later), as well as AMD Zen (and later) processors support the SHA instruction set.

As a courtesy to further limit the motherboard choices, consider the Intelligent Platform Management Interface or IPMI (a.k.a. baseboard management controller, BMC, iLo, iDrac, and other names depending on the vendor) if you need:

TrueNAS relies on its web-based user interface (UI), but you might occasionally need console access to make network configuration changes. TrueNAS administration and sharing use a single network interface by default, which can be challenging when you upgrade features like LACP aggregated networking. The ideal solution is to have a dedicated subnet to access the TrueNAS web UI, but not all users have this luxury. The occasional visit to the hardware console is necessary for global configuration and system recovery. The latest TrueNAS Mini and R-Series systems ship with full-featured, HTML5-based IPMI support on a dedicated gigabit network interface.

The top criteria to consider for a power supply unit (or PSU) on a TrueNAS system are:

Select a PSU rated for the initial and a future load placed on it. Have a PSU with adequate power to migrate from a large-capacity chassis to a fully-populated chassis. Also, consider a hot-swappable redundant PSU to help guarantee uptime. Users on a budget can keep a cold spare PSU to limit their potential downtime to hours rather than days. A good, modern PSU is efficient and integrates into the IPMI management system to provide real-time fan, temperature, and load information.

Most power supplies carry a certified efficiency rating known as an 80 Plus rating. The 80 plus rating indicates the PSU loses the power drawn from the wall as heat, noise, and vibration instead of powering your components. If a power supply needs to draw 600 watts from the wall to provide 500 watts of power to your components, it operates at 500/600 = ~83% efficiency. The other 100 watts get lost as heat, noise, and vibration. Power supplies with higher ratings are more efficient but also far more expensive. Do some return-on-investment calculations if you are unsure what efficiency to buy. For example, if an 80 Plus Platinum PSU costs $50 more than the comparable 80 Plus Gold, it should save you at least $10 per year on your power bill for that investment to pay off over five years. You can read more about 80 Plus ratings in this post.

TrueNAS allows the system to communicate with a battery-backed, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) over a traditional serial or USB connection to coordinate a graceful shutdown in the case of power loss. TrueNAS works well with APC brand UPS, followed by CyberPower. Consider budgeting for a UPS with pure sine wave output. Some models of SSD can experience data corruption on power loss. If several SSDs experience simultaneous power loss, it could cause total pool failure, making a UPS a critical investment.

The network in Network Attached Storage is as important as storage, but the topic has a few key points:

Higher-band hardware is becoming more accessible as the hardware development pace increases and enterprises upgrade more quickly. Home labs can now deploy and use 40 GB and higher networking components. Home users are now discovering the same issues and problems with these higher speeds found by Enterprise customers.

iXsystems recommends using optical fiber over direct attached copper (DAC) cables for the high-speed interconnects listed below:

iXsystems also recommends using optical fiber for any transceiver form factors mentioned when using fiber channels. Direct attached copper (DAC) cables can create interoperability issues between the NIC, cable, and switch.

The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) provides a way for system administrators to remotely access their TrueNAS system. Through this remote access, administrators can install software, and configure or administer systems at the console level as though they are in the room with the server. TrueNAS Enterprise systems sold by iXsystems provide IPMI network ports, but other hardware might not have IPMI ports.

iXsystems requires access through your IPMI server to access the TrueNAS server to provide remote administration support. To make this possible:

TrueNAS uses DHCP to assign the IP address to the primary system network interface. DHCP only provisions one IP address. You can use this DHCP-provided address, or you can assign a static IP address. You must assign an IP address to each network interface card (NIC) installed in your system if you want to communicate over your network using the interfaces.

To configure your TrueNAS server to work with your network, you need:

If you have an HA system with two controllers, you must assign a total of three IP addresses:

iXsystems Support can assist you with any questions you have with these network requirements. Provide the information listed to iXsystems when requested to expedite configuring your system network settings.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service or servers allow for the transfer of electronic mail across an Internet connection. TrueNAS uses either SMTP to send mail from TrueNAS to administrator or designated individual email addresses for system alert notifications.

Have your network administrators provide the SMTP addresses to allow TrueNAS to send emails from your network.

TrueNAS works with either Active Directory or LDAP directory servers, and it can also work with Kerberos and IDmap. Active Directory and LDAP configuration settings have similar requirements. Additionally, consider implementing two-factor authentication (2FA) for enhanced security when authenticating users against Active Directory or LDAP directory servers.

Active DirectoryProvide the following information to configure TrueNAS Active Directory access:

LDAPProvide the following information to configure TrueNAS LDAP access:

Advanced Directory ServicesWhen configuring Kerberos and/or IDmap, you might need to provide:

When in the same location as the hardware designated for the TrueNAS installation, you can connect a monitor and keyboard to the system to do the initial installation and configuration. An additional USB port is required when using a USB storage device to install TrueNAS from .iso file.

Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) servers provide a way for system administrators to remotely access and control systems. Through this remote access, administrators can install software, and configure or administer systems at the console level as though they are in the room with the server. Home users with compatible hardware have the option to use an IPMI connection to remotely administer their system over the Internet.

To make this remote access possible you need an IPMI capable system or service:

TrueNAS uses DHCP to assign the IP address to the primary system network interface. DHCP only provisions one IP address. You can use this DHCP-provided address, or you can assign a static IP address. You must assign an IP address to each network interface card (NIC) installed in your system if you want to communicate over your network using the interfaces.

To configure your TrueNAS server to work with your network, you need:

Home users obtaining network equipment and Internet service access from either an Internet or cable service provider can contact the provider support departments for assistance with network addresses.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service or servers allow for the transfer of electronic mail across an Internet connection. TrueNAS uses SMTP to send mail from TrueNAS to either the administrator or designated individual email addresses for system alert notifications.

Contact your Internet or cable service provider to obtain the SMTP addresses to allow TrueNAS to send emails from your network. Consider utilizing two-factor authentication (2FA) for enhanced security when accessing SMTP servers for email delivery from TrueNAS.

You need an OpenPGP encryption application for this method of ISO verification.

Click here for the verification process.1. Obtain an OpenPGP encryption application to use. There are many free applications available, but the OpenPGP group provides a list of available software for different operating systems at https://www.openpgp.org/software/. The examples in this section show verifying the TrueNAS .iso using gnupg2 in a command prompt, but Gpg4win is also a good option for Windows users.
136. To verify the .iso source, go to https://www.truenas.com/download-tn-scale/, expand the Security option, and click PGP Signature to download the Gnu Privacy Guard signature file. This file can be a (.gpg) or a (.sig) file. Open the PGP Public key link and note the address in your browser and Search results for string.
137. Use one of the OpenPGP encryption tools mentioned above to import the public key and verify the PGP signature.

Go to the .iso and the .iso.gpg or .iso.sig download location and import the public key using the keyserver address and search results string:

Use gpg --verify to compare the .iso and the .iso.gpg or .iso.sig files:

This response means the signature is correct but still untrusted.
138. Go back to the browser page that has the PGP Public key. Open and manually confirm that the key is issued for IX SecTeam <security-officer@ixsystems.com> (iX Security Team) on October 15, 2019 and is signed by an iXsystems account.

SHA256 verification uses the checksum to validate/verify the file.

Click here for the verification process.The command to verify the checksum varies by operating system:

Freeware or online checksum utilities are available for Windows users.

The value produced by running the command must match the value shown in the sha256.txt file. Different checksum values indicate a corrupted installer file that you should not use.

TrueNAS is very flexible and can run on any x86_64 compatible (Intel or AMD) processor. TrueNAS requires at least 8GB of RAM (more is better) and a 20GB Boot Device.

Because TrueNAS is built and provided as an .iso file, it works on all virtual machine solutions (Proxmox, VMware, VirtualBox, Citrix Hypervisor, etc). This section describes installing on a VM using VMware Workstation Player on Windows.

For a list of TrueNAS Enterprise (HA) preparation information, see Preparing for TrueNAS UI Configuration (Enterprise).

Have this information handy to complete this procedure:

When restoring after a clean install, also have ready:

There are two ways to install the HA dual controller system to ensure controller 1 comes online as the primary controller:

Simultaneous installation must start with controller 1, so it comes online first. Installing each controller individually follows a particular method to ensure controller 1 comes online as the primary controller.

The sections in this article cover the primary steps as a simultaneous installation:

Use the TrueNAS UI for system configuration as it has safety mechanisms in place to prevent disrupting network access that could require you to repeat the clean install to access your system. However, if you are experienced with the Console Setup Menu and are using it to configure network settings you can configure the rest of the controller 1 network settings with the Console setup menu.
164. Log into the TrueNAS UI for controller 1 to sign the EULA agreement and apply the system HA license.
165. Disable failover to configure the rest of the network settings and edit the primary network interface on controller 1, and then enable failover.
166. Complete the minimum storage requirement by adding or importing one pool on controller 1.
167. Sign in using the Virtual IP (VIP) address.
168. With controller 2 powered up, on controller 1 sync to peer to complete the install and make controller 2 the standby controller.

The sections that follow describe these steps in detail.

Download the .iso file.

If you are remote to the system and are installing through an IPMI connection you do not need to save the .iso file to a USB flash drive.

If you are physically present with the TrueNAS system, burn the .iso file to a USB flash drive and use that as the install media.

Use this process to install the iso file on both controller 1 and controller 2. Best practice is to begin the install on controller 1, then immediately begin the install on controller 2.

Installing ISO Steps1. Enter the IP address assigned to the controller 1 IPMI port into a web browser and log into your IPMI system with admin credentials.
175. Select Remote Control > iKVM/HTML5 to open the Console Setup window.

IPMI interfaces can vary but they generally have options for Remote Control and iKVM/HTML5 to open a console session on the platform.
176. Install the .iso file. Select the Virtual Media > CD-ROM image option in your IPMI system.

a. Enter the IP address of where you downloaded the .iso file into Share Host. You might need assistance from your Network or IT department to obtain this address.

b. Enter the path to the .iso file. For example, if you stored the file in an iso folder enter /iso/TrueNAS-SCALE-22.12.1.iso in Path to Image.

c. Click Save, then Mount. You should see the .iso file under Device 1 or the device name your IPMI configures.
177. Return to the Remote Control > iKVM/HTML5 window opened in step 2. Either use your keyboard or open the keyboard in the window then:

a. Type 8 to reboot controller 1 (also repeat for controller 2), and type y to confirm and reboot.

b. As the system reboots, be prepared to hit the F11 key when you first see the TrueNAS Open Storage splash screen. Alternatively, you can start clicking on the F11 key on the online keyboard until you see the TrueNAS Installer screen.

c. Select the UEFI: ATEN Virtual CDROM device from the boot list. The bootstrap loader begins. When it ends the TrueNAS installer opens.

TrueNAS Installer Steps1. Select Install/Upgrade.
178. Select the desired install drive.

Select Yes to proceed with a clean installation of TrueNAS from the .iso. This erases the contents of the selected drive!
179. Select option 1 Administrative user (truenas_admin) then OK to install TrueNAS and create the truenas_admin user account and password. TrueNAS has implemented an administrator login as a replacement for the root user login as a security hardening measure. The system retains root as a fallback, but it is no longer the default. The truenas_admin account has full control over TrueNAS and is used to log in to the web interface.

Set a strong password and protect it.

Next, enter a password for the new truenas_admin user.
180. Select Yes at the Legacy Boot prompt to allow the system to boot via UEFI, or select No if your system hardware requires legacy BIOS boot. Press Enter to begin the installation.
181. Select OK when the Installation Succeeded screen shows and press Enter to exit from the installer.

TrueNAS is now installed on controller 1 and repeated for controller 2 starting with Using IPMI to Install the ISO on a Controller.

After installing the .iso file on both controller 1 and 2 and finishing the TrueNAS Installer process, use the Console setup menu to configure the required network settings on controller 1, so it can access the TrueNAS UI. TrueNAS single controller systems use the DHCP-assigned IP address for the primary network interface to access the UI to complete the rest of the network and other configuration settings. However, HA systems with dual controllers must use static IP addresses.

To allow controller 1 to access the UI, you must disable DHCP and add the controller 1 static IP address and netmask as an alias on the primary network interface, and then enter the network settings for host name, domain name, default gateway, and the name servers (1 and 2). You can configure the rest of the HA global network settings in the TrueNAS web UI.

To use the Console setup menu to configure required network settings on controller 1:

Use the TrueNAS UI to:

TrueNAS UI Enterprise customers see the End User License Agreement (EULA) screen the first time they log in. Sign the agreement to open the main TrueNAS Dashboard. Apply the system license next.

Go to System > General Settings and click Add License on the Support widget. Copy your license and paste it into the License field, then click Save License. The Reload dialog opens. Click Reload Now. Controller 1 restarts, and displays the EULA for controller 2. Sign the EULA agreement for controller 2, and add the license.

The controller 1 and 2 (or a and b) serial numbers display on the Support widget on the System > General Settings screen.

TrueNAS Enterprise (HA) systems use three static IP addresses for access to the UI:

Have the list of network addresses, name sever and default gateway IP addresses, and host and domain names ready so you can complete the network configuration without disruption or system timeouts.

TrueNAS safeguards allow a default of 60 seconds to test and save changes to a network interface before reverting changes. This is to prevent users from breaking their network connection in TrueNAS.

To configure network settings on controller 1:

a. Turn DHCP off if it is on. Select DHCP to clear the checkbox.

b. Add the failover settings. Select Critical, and then select 1 on the Failover Group dropdown list.

c. Add the virtual IP (VIP) and controller 2 IP. Click Add for Aliases to display the additional IP address fields.

First, enter the IP address for controller 1 into IP Address (This Controller) and select the netmask (CIDR) number from the dropdown list.

Next, enter the controller 2 IP address into IP Address (TrueNAS Controller 2).

Finally, enter the VIP address into Virtual IP Address (Failover Address).
199. Click Save
200. Click Test Changes after editing the interface settings. You have 60 seconds to test and then save changes before they revert. If this occurs, edit the interface again.

Create or import a storage pool from a backup. You must have at least one storage pool on controller 1. After saving the storage pool, controller 2 automatically restarts. Wait until it comes back online before syncing controller 1 with controller 2.

For more information on how to create a new pool click here. For more information on how to import a pool click here.

When the system comes back up, log into TrueNAS using the virtual IP address. The main Dashboard displays two System Information widgets. In standard configurations by iXsystems, Controller 1 shows its serial number and a host name that includes the letter a. Controller 2 is labeled as Standby Controller and shows its serial number and a host name that includes the letter b. Take note of this information.

If controller 2 comes online as the primary and controller 1 as the standby, you installed and configured the controllers incorrectly.

TrueNAS uses DHCP to assign the IP address required to access the TrueNAS UI and displays it on the Console Setup Menu screen, and it sets the host name to truenas.

If you do not plan to use the DHCP-assigned network addresses provided by TrueNAS, identify your host and domain names, the static or fixed IP addresses you plan to assign to your network interface card(s), the default gateway, subnet mask(s), and the DNS name servers in your network.

All other users should have their network information ready before starting to configure network settings. This makes the process go faster and reduces the risk of issues when you configure TrueNAS.

To use the Console Setup menu to change the network interface IP address:

To configure the default gateway, host name, domain and DNS name severs using the Console Setup menu type 2 and then press Enter to open the Network Settings screen.

To configure network settings in the TrueNAS UI, enter the IP address displayed on the Console Setup menu screen in a browser URL field and press Enter. Log in with the admin user name and password set for the administration user during the iso installation process, and then go to Network to edit an interface or global network configuration settings.

You can migrate with a clean install using an iso file. With a clean install, you need to reconfigure your settings and import your data. Follow the instructions in the Install articles.

When TrueNAS boots, you might need to use the Console Setup Menu to configure networking interfaces to enable GUI accessibility. After logging in to the TrueNAS UI, use a system configuration file to restore the system settings and import the data storage pools.

This method is only available for non-Enterprise community systems.

Some TrueNAS 13.0 or 13.3 releases can migrate using the UI Upgrade function using a TrueNAS 24.04 update file downloaded from the website. To use this method, you must upgrade to the latest maintenance release.

Earlier releases must upgrade to 13.0 and then the latest maintenance release (U6.2) to use this method. For community users, 13.3 and the latest public release is acceptable. If this process fails, retry using the iso file method above.

Then click APPLY UPDATE.
232. After the update completes, reboot the system if it does not reboot automatically.

After TrueNAS reboots, you might need to use the Console Setup menu to configure the primary networking interfaces to enable GUI accessibility.

After gaining access to the UI, sign in with the admin user credentials created during installation.

Go to System > General Settings and upload the system config file. This migrates your settings, imports your pools, shares, etc. The system reboots to apply the uploaded configuration.

After TrueNAS reboots, sign in with the root user credentials from the previous configuration. Uploading the config file deletes the truenas_admin user account created during a clean install and therefore requires you to recreate an administrative user.

After uploading the config file, review each area of the UI previously configured to validate pools imported and settings migrated correctly. Begin with your network settings.

Use the information gathered during your preparation to migrate to restore settings, tasks, VMs configured using the GRUB bootloader, credentials, etc. not present after uploading the config file.