TrueCommand 3.0 is available as a Docker container or as a cloud service, with all communications secured by an SSH tunnel. TrueCommand can be run as an App on TrueNAS SCALE, but it is recommended to run the TrueCommand App from a system it is not directly managing.

Via a single pane of glass, TrueCommand collects usage and performance data, as well as alerts and activity logs. It performs predictive analytics and understands ZFS concepts, including pools and VDEVs. Inventory, support contacts, and software licensing information are managed centrally. Even in single-system environments, TrueCommand provides monitoring and fault diagnosis capabilities that can simplify operations and reduce problem resolution time.

TrueCommand 3.0 is another major step for TrueCommand and includes nearly 100 improvements, features, and bug fixes. The most notable new capabilities are:

• Replication Manager: When performing replication between systems, there is a need to coordinate the sending and receiving of ZFS snapshots.  Rather than administering each system independently, TrueCommand can manage the replication setup and ongoing monitoring.

Use the New Replication Task wizard to easily create a new replication job for any system being managed by TrueCommand

Monitor replication status between multiple systems at a glance from the new Replication Manager dashboard

• TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 support: TrueNAS SCALE 23.10.1 includes a new data collection engine and improved APIs which TrueCommand 3.0 can now understand and use. TrueCommand can still manage both the newer and older TrueNAS systems from the same pane of glass.
• Fleet Dashboard: The TrueCommand UI has been improved with a new Fleet Dashboard that tracks the status of many systems and their datasets. Identify problems and manage alerts more quickly and easily.

Get an at-a-glance check at your system health, disk usage, and other crucial information from the Fleet Dashboard

TrueCommand 3.0 has also been thoroughly tested with TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin (22.12) and TrueNAS 13.0. It also supports TrueNAS 12.0 and TrueNAS SCALE Angelfish (22.02) – if you’re running an earlier version of TrueNAS, please upgrade to one of the supported versions above before upgrading your TrueCommand instance.

Obtaining TrueCommand

The Docker version of TrueCommand is available as a free download. TrueCommand itself remains free for systems with 50 or fewer drives. Software and support licenses are available for larger deployments via the iX portal or by contacting iXsystems.

TrueCommand Cloud, a SaaS version, is also available. Existing TrueCommand Cloud accounts will be gradually updated as we ensure quality. TrueCommand Cloud itself is running on TrueNAS SCALE systems in an iXsystems data center.

Thanks to all those who tested and provided feedback to get to this stage. As always, we appreciate feedback and bug reports for this TrueCommand 3.0 release.

The post TrueCommand 3.0 Manages ZFS Replication appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

TrueCommand collects usage and performance data, as well as alerts. It performs predictive analytics and understands ZFS concepts, including pools and VDEVs. Inventory, support contacts, and software licensing information are managed centrally. Even in single-system environments, TrueCommand provides monitoring and fault diagnosis capabilities that can be very useful for TrueNAS Clusters. TrueCommand is the UI for setting up and monitoring clusters.

TrueCommand 2.3 is another step in improvements for TrueCommand and includes nearly 40 improvements, features, and bug fixes. The most notable updates are:

• Cluster Administration: Using Bluefin APIs, TrueCommand can now simplify functions such as replacing nodes in the cluster.
• 2-Factor Authentication improvements: Support for Google authentication simplifies administration for many organizations.
• Logging for improved Support: The core infrastructure of TrueCommand provides better logging for faster troubleshooting and problem resolutions.
• UI Improvements: The TrueCommand UI has been made more robust and simpler to use, along with performance improvements. The cluster UI has also been overhauled, with more information and visibility into cluster-wide performance and run-time metrics.

TrueCommand 2.3 has been thoroughly tested with TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin and TrueNAS 13.0. It also supports TrueNAS 12.0 and TrueNAS SCALE Angelfish.

Obtaining TrueCommand

The Docker version of TrueCommand is available as a free download. TrueCommand itself remains free for systems with fewer than 50 drives. Software and support licenses are available for larger deployments via the iX portal or by contacting iXsystems.

TrueCommand Cloud, a SaaS version, is also available. Existing TrueCommand Cloud accounts will be gradually updated as we ensure quality. TrueCommand Cloud itself is running on a TrueNAS SCALE cluster in an iXsystems data center.

The team is now beginning to work on TrueCommand 3.0. Key features anticipated in this next major version will be more advanced cluster controls, a wider range of fine-grained performance statistics, and support for the upcoming TrueNAS SCALE Cobia release.

Thanks to all those that tested and provided feedback to get to this stage. As always, we appreciate feedback and bug reports for this TrueCommand 2.3 release.

The post TrueCommand 2.3 Improves Cluster Management appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

A zero-trust architecture is a vital security model for businesses that assumes that all network traffic is untrusted and should be treated as such. In a zero-trust environment, access to resources is granted on a need-to-know basis, and all traffic is monitored and controlled through the use of advanced security measures. Blocking untrusted traffic makes it very difficult for attackers to gain access to sensitive data, as they must first pass through multiple security controls before they can reach their intended target.

TrueNAS is designed with data protection and zero-trust security in mind. By combining security features in TrueNAS with IT best practices, you can create a highly resilient and secure architecture for your organization. Here are the steps you can take to create a zero-trust IT architecture integrating TrueNAS to protect, store, and manage your data:

Identify Assets: First, identify all of the assets that you need to protect. This may include servers, storage systems, networks, and other critical infrastructure.

Define Your Perimeter: Once you have identified your assets, you need to define your security perimeter. This will determine which resources are considered “inside” the perimeter and which are “outside.”

Use Microsegmentation: Microsegmentation involves breaking your network into smaller segments and applying security controls to each segment. This can help prevent attackers from moving laterally within your network and limit the damage they can do if they manage to gain access.

Implement Access Controls: TrueNAS allows you to set up fine-grained access controls for different users and groups and integrates with Active Directory / LDAP, so you can specify exactly who has access to which resources. This helps prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and limits the damage that an attacker can do if they manage to gain access to a user account on your system.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Using two-factor authentication (2FA) in TrueNAS adds another layer of security. By requiring administrators to provide additional authentication with their password, you keep the many settings on your TrueNAS safe.

Encrypted Connections and Data: TrueNAS utilizes encrypted connections using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), so you can protect your data as it is transmitted over the network. This is especially important if you are storing sensitive data on your TrueNAS system.

TrueNAS also natively supports encrypted drives and datasets, providing additional security at the hardware and software levels respectively.

Monitoring, Auditing, and Analytics: TrueNAS includes several built-in tools for monitoring and auditing activity on the system. You can use these tools to keep track of who is accessing which resources and when and to identify any suspicious activity that might indicate an attempted breach.

Using TrueCommand, the single-pane-of-glass management solution for TrueNAS, you can set up additional features like role-based access control (RBAC) and robust auditing across your fleet to record all storage administration actions in secure audit logs. This helps quickly identify what changed and who changed it when troubleshooting any issues.TrueCommand analytics can be run locally, even on air-gapped systems, which are a requirement for many TrueNAS Enterprise customers.

TrueCommand is free to use for up to 50 drives, and commercial licenses can be purchased for larger deployments. For more information on TrueCommand, contact us or reach out to us through live chat.

Proactive Support: iXsystems offers proactive support with TrueNAS, allowing administrators to optionally send encrypted metadata to our expert TrueNAS Support Team. This gives extra peace of mind knowing that our storage experts will proactively reach out to you when certain errors are discovered.

By following these steps, you can create a zero-trust architecture and have the confidence to know that TrueNAS will help store and manage your data securely. Contact us or reach out to us through live chat to learn more about integrating TrueNAS into your business environment.

The post Using TrueNAS in a Zero-trust Architecture appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

With over 8,000 deployments, TrueCommand simplifies the operation and management of numerous TrueNAS CORE, Enterprise, or SCALE systems. It collects usage and performance data, as well as alerts. It uses predictive analytics and understands ZFS concepts, including VDEVs and horizontal scaling. Even in single system scenarios, TrueCommand provides monitoring and fault diagnosis capabilities that can be quite useful.

TrueCommand 2.2 is another major step in improvements for TrueCommand. There are over 180 bug fixes, improvements, and features. The most notable changes are:

• Reworked Stats engine: Moving from influx to rrd files makes TrueCommand more robust and able to run with a much smaller memory footprint. The reliability of TrueCommand Cloud for larger deployments has also increased. TrueCommand 2.2 will auto-migrate the configuration and stats database when it first boots up. 
• Improved Middleware: Better error handling and testing frameworks can ensure increased quality in the future.
• Improved Certificate handling: Several certificate issues have been identified and resolved. These fixes should simplify deployments.

Clustered Improvements and SMB support: The TrueCommand UI now allows the creation of multiple clustered volumes, as well as exposing a clustered volume via SMB sharing protocol. These can be used with TrueNAS SCALE 22.02.2 (or later). A screenshot/video of a TrueNAS SCALE SMB cluster is provided below.

Click image for video Demo of TrueCommand 2.2

TrueCommand has been thoroughly tested with TrueNAS 13.0.  TrueNAS 13.0-U1 has scalability improvements that ensure larger systems can be safely deployed with TrueCommand, as demonstrated on a 20 PB test system with 1,200 18TB drives in the iX lab.

IPv6 support on TrueCommand 2.2 is now being tested. Consider this a BETA feature and please provide any feedback.

The Docker version of TrueCommand 2.2 is available for free download. TrueCommand remains free for systems with less than 50 drives. Software and support licenses are available for larger deployments via the iX portal or by contacting iXsystems.

TrueCommand Cloud, a SaaS version, is also available. Existing TrueCommand Cloud accounts will be gradually updated as we ensure quality. Let us know if you want to be updated early in the process. TrueCommand Cloud itself will be running on a TrueNAS SCALE cluster in our data center.

The team is now beginning to work on TrueCommand 2.3. Anticipated Key features will be more advanced cluster controls, including node replacement and repair, improved performance monitoring, and support for the upcoming TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin release.

Thanks to all those that tested and provided feedback to get to this stage. As always, we appreciate feedback and bug reports for this TrueCommand 2.2 release.

The post TrueCommand 2.2 Makes its Debut, Enabling Clustering appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

Constructive User Input

• Please keep TrueNAS CORE free!
• Applications like a file manager and activity log reviewer would be helpful.
• Can you provide better consumer cloud integration options?
• I wish there were more applications integrated into the platform
• GPU passthrough to VMs is a must for some workloads. Please allow more flexibility with hardware and SCALE.
• Please provide better guides or documentation for what everything does for people who are new to the NAS community.

Getting Involved

Want to get involved and have your feedback heard? Join our Community Forums and chat about all the things you’d like to see in TrueNAS. You can submit feature requests and bug requests here on our Jira tracker. You can also look to see if there is a similar ticket in Jira with the built-in search functionality. Lastly, you can vote on issues you would like to see implemented in TrueNAS!

Feedback and iteration are two of the most important components of any new technology or product. Build something for someone to use, listen to them, improve the product, repeat ad-infinitum. FreeNAS and TrueNAS have gone through many of these feedback loops (more efficiently than any comparable proprietary products, a feature of open source) to reach where we are today.

User Comments

• “We have used FreeNAS/TrueNAS for 6 years in our company. We have found it to be efficient, reliable, and economical. I am glad I discovered it and have been able to incorporate it into the IT structures in our business.”
• “TrueNAS saved my life—August 2021, my client was on fire. Two months before, I made a disaster recovery plan with TrueNAS. All the data was saved – thanks to FreeBSD, ZFS, rsync, and TrueNAS!!!!”
• “Keep up the good work! TrueNAS has replaced my 15 year old Gentoo install. Using VMs, containers, and built-in services. Thank you so much.”
• “Thank you all for your hard work. TrueNAS as a whole is amazing for a large number of use cases. Moved from ESXi and a self-configured NAS to just using TrueNAS SCALE for both service hosting, VM hosting, and as a NAS. And it’s awesome how it holds up to everything.”
• “Keep it up! I can’t wait for when I have some more time to try out more features on my newly acquired test server! Definitely looking forward to an alternative to VMware’s vSAN!”
• I have spent my career in IT leadership, managing global networks, infrastructure, and operations. When a need arose for network storage on a less than multi-million dollar budget, I started researching solutions and decided to give TrueNAS a try…I was pleasantly surprised! I was impressed with the ease of installation, robustness, and reliability of the TrueNAS product. Thank you!”
• “Everything is progressing really well, iXsystems got me started in servers and ZFS and now I couldn’t imagine life without it. Thanks for all the hard work over the years.”

Do You Know TrueCommand?

We also found that almost 90% of users have yet to try TrueCommand, with nearly a third of those users simply not yet aware of what TrueCommand is used for. For the uninitiated, TrueCommand is a management dashboard designed for easy monitoring and management of TrueNAS systems and drives, as well as the cluster manager for TrueNAS SCALE. 

While many users have small environments, TrueCommand is available to manage up to 50 drives for free. Given TrueCommand is meant for managing Enterprise environments, it makes sense it has fewer users overall in our community. Among those who have used TrueCommand, most are satisfied with its performance, so we hope you take the time to test it out! 

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

As a whole, the numbers show that 93% of all free TrueNAS users (CORE and SCALE) actively recommend the software. With over one million deployments worldwide, that means there are hundreds of thousands of happy users. We’re proud that so many of our users are already advocates of TrueNAS. It speaks to the quality of our free software and the influence of our community. 

With a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 64.8, we are pleased to be in the “great” category, within striking distance of 71 and a coveted “excellent” score range. As our community grows, iX is growing to support continued engineering and continued improvement in user experience. Speaking of growth, iX is also a most excellent place to work. Are you an iXian?

Thank You Again!

As mentioned in Part 1, one of our core values is “pursue kaizen”, another way of saying “continuous improvement”. It is something we apply both to our products and ourselves. Another big thanks to our users for sharing their comments and feedback. We gained a lot of insight into our community and how we can improve TrueNAS for our users.

The post TrueNAS 2022 User Satisfaction Survey Comments – Part 2 appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

TrueCommand 2.0 was a major step for TrueCommand with significant improvements in the underlying foundation. The statistics gathering process has been improved to increase the data points with minimal impact on TrueNAS operations. The integration of the storage navigation and cluster management features showed the power of multi-NAS management. TrueCommand Cloud was improved dramatically with a cloud-friendly database. With all these improvements and reliability, user adoption of TrueCommand has increased significantly with an annual growth rate in excess of 140%. There were over 5,000 TrueCommand users in Q4 2021.

TrueCommand 2.1 builds on this foundation and adds user management and inventory management (also in TC 2.0.2) to the ever-growing list of capabilities. The primary goals of TrueCommand are to automate and simplify operations of one or more TrueNAS systems.

Overview of TrueCommand 2.1

The inventory management capability has been getting applause from TrueCommand users. It simplifies the management of valuable hardware assets, including systems and drives. Users can quickly check their whole fleet for specific drive models or generate inventory reports of all hardware deployed.

Inventory Management Screens in TrueCommand

Getting Started with TrueCommand

You can download TrueCommand for free. Deployments with fewer than 50 drives require no license and are free forever. Once TrueCommand is installed and you have its SystemID, a license key can enable more drives. The self-service portal simplifies the purchase of TrueCommand licenses for less than $2 per drive annually. The portal also provides free 60-day trial licenses. 

Important Note for Upgrading:

Updating to TrueCommand 2.1 from TrueCommand 2.0.x is available. Follow the documentation and all configuration and statistics will be preserved. Upgrading from TrueCommand 1.x must be done via TrueCommand 2.0.

We’re looking forward to the community feedback on TrueCommand 2.1. Report any issues and suggest features via the community dashboard. For advice on installation and usage of the free version, please use the community forum.

TrueCommand Background

TrueCommand was launched in 2019 as a single pane of glass management system for TrueNAS fleets. TrueCommand is deployed as a Container, as a VM, or as a Cloud service (aka TrueCommand Cloud). Previous features of TrueCommand have been retained. Below is a list of the more important ones:

Smart Dashboard: Monitor the performance of many systems from one screen.
LDAP Integration: Authenticate and authorize users via AD or LDAP.
Single Sign-On: Securely administer each NAS via TrueCommand via a web proxy.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Define systems a user can monitor or configure.
Predictive Analytics: Predict and alert on events like storage capacity shortages.
Powerful Alerts: Flexible notification services and multi-variable, customizable alerting.
Custom Reports: Design reports that suit your organization.
NAS Updates: Initiate and monitor updates to many NAS systems.
Configuration Backup & Restore: Recover from disasters more easily.
Configuration Audits: Logging of any configuration changes and who made them.
Scrub and Replication Monitoring: Quickly identify systems with background tasks.
Datasets Monitoring: See all the datasets, their sizes, snapshots, and replication tasks.
API Keys: Use the TrueNAS 12.0 API keys to keep your root passwords more secure.
Scalability: Simultaneous monitoring of over 500 TrueNAS systems.
Real-time Stats & Analysis: Efficiently collect, analyze, and visualize NAS data.
Storage Navigator: Create, manage, and delete datasets on many NAS units.
iSCSI Manager: Automate the creation of large numbers of LUNs.
System-Down Alerts: Distinguish between network events and system down events.
TrueNAS SCALE cluster UI: Create and manage the SCALE cluster from one screen.
VM or Docker: Run on VM or container infrastructure, including a laptop.
TrueCommand Cloud: Secure web-based SaaS for managing multiple sites/systems.

TrueCommand Cloud is a cloud service (SaaS) that is provided through the addition of WireGuard VPNs to TrueCommand. Administrators or MSPs can securely manage many TrueNAS systems at different sites through firewalls and NATs. TrueCommand Cloud is now available so please subscribe via the portal or contact us if you need this capability.

The post TrueCommand 2.1 Builds on a Solid Foundation appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

The new TrueNAS vCenter Plugin is being released today.  The plugin integrates into the VMware vCenter utility, which provides management of vSphere clusters and their storage. The plugin connects with the TrueNAS API to create, delete, and manage datastores from within the vCenter WebUI.  Datastores can be set up and managed on one or more TrueNAS systems via iSCSI, NFS, and this latest release now also enables Fibre Channel (FC). 

The number of steps to deploy the TrueNAS vCenter plugin has been halved and deployment only takes a few minutes.  Once up and running, the familiar vCenter webUI makes it easy to perform common virtualization tasks involving compute, hypervisor, and storage. The TrueNAS vCenter plugin is included for free with TrueNAS Enterprise deployments. 

vCenter 6.7 WebUI

TrueNAS 12.0 Unlocks New Upside for Virtualization Workloads 

TrueNAS 12.0, which is now the General Availability (GA) release “train”, added several improvements to both performance and security.  Overall general storage performance increased by 30% and deduplication was improved for virtualization workloads.  To take advantage of these gains, the TrueNAS M60 appliance was introduced to enable one million IOPS, 20GB/s, and 20 PB capacity. In terms of simplifying compliance and addressing enterprise security needs, encryption per dataset and KMIP functionality were added. Additionally, recertification of TrueNAS 12.0 with Veeam was recently completed.

TrueCommand Completes the Management Experience

While vCenter manages the virtualization aspects of TrueNAS, TrueCommand 2.0 provides complementary management of the physical infrastructure (controllers, drives, SSDs, temperatures), the ZFS file system, and the more complex data management tasks like snapshot policies and replication across many TrueNAS systems, some of which may be managed via vCenter. TrueCommand Cloud also provides a SaaS capability to securely manage these systems across many sites.  Both TrueCommand and vCenter can be accessed via a web browser on the same management station.

TrueCommand 2.0 WebUI

VMware + TrueNAS: a Powerful Combo

The combination of TrueNAS 12.0, TrueCommand 2.0, and the TrueNAS vCenter plugin deliver an easy-to-manage virtualization experience that leverages Open Source economics to provide best-in-class value with Enterprise-grade support. 

TrueNAS is an extremely flexible virtualization storage platform with capabilities for high-performance all-flash datastores or lower-cost hybrid datastores via iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or NFS. Virtualized environments are made even more reliable through the data protection features of TrueNAS and OpenZFS such as copy-on-write snapshots, built-in integrity checking and self-healing, and highly efficient replication. Enterprise-grade backup can be provided via native ZFS tools or via integration with Asigra, Veeam, or other backup software. Unlike VSAN and block storage solutions, TrueNAS also enables integrated data sharing between VMs via SMB, NFS, or S3

In addition to the legendary software flexibility of TrueNAS, there is also significant flexibility in the platform choices. Small HA systems can be built with the compact and efficient TrueNAS X-Series systems, and larger systems with the datastore and sharing capabilities for thousands of VMs can be built with the TrueNAS M-Series. The flagship TrueNAS M60 scales to more than 20GB/s and 20PB in capacity. All of the platforms can be managed across multiple sites from TrueCommand and vCenter. 

Learn More

More information on the TrueNAS virtualization solution is available on the Documentation Hub. Thousands of organizations ranging from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies have turned to TrueNAS to reduce the cost and complexity of their virtualization infrastructure. Contact iXsystems to learn how we can help you do the same.

The post TrueNAS Increases the Flexibility of its VMware Storage Solution appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

The first iteration of TrueCommand was released in June 2019 as a single pane of glass management system for FreeNAS and TrueNAS fleets. Since then, it has been downloaded thousands of times and adopted by hundreds of organizations to manage their NAS fleets. TrueCommand 1.1 introduces significant enhancements for production users and is now ready for prime time.
Scalability was a core requirement of TrueCommand 1.1. During the initial rollout of TrueCommand, we were contacted by several companies running hundreds of FreeNAS systems with thousands of drives. After some optimization of the data collection and database frameworks, TrueCommand can now support over 500 systems.
Managed Services have also been enabled. TrueCommand provides a web proxy service to FreeNAS and TrueNAS systems that are on a private network. Admins can be provided access to the TrueCommand VM from any location and then access the FreeNAS and TrueNAS systems to monitor, administer, and troubleshoot. For example, the iXsystems support team can be temporarily granted access to your TrueCommand instance and then indirectly access each TrueNAS and FreeNAS system. With integrated Role Based Access Control (RBAC), the web proxy controls which users can access specific NAS systems.
More than a hundred other improvements have been made to TrueCommand 1.1 with details in the release notes. Other key features of TrueCommand 1.1 include:

• Improved Alerts: More notification services and multi-variable alerting
• Custom reports:  Save reports that suit your organization
• NAS updates: Initiate and monitor updates to many NAS systems
• LDAP Integration: Authenticate and authorize users via AD or LDAP
• Configuration Audits:  FreeNAS 11.3 API enables config save and audits
• Configuration Backup and Restore: Recover from disasters more easily

Statistics and alerts can also be collected from external systems via an http API to TrueCommand 1.1. API documentation and sample code are available to build monitoring and reporting capabilities for integrated solutions. For example, we plan to provide an Open Source virtualization solution, but more on that later! Contact us, if there are opportunities to collaborate in your business.
We’re looking forward to the community feedback on TrueCommand 1.1 and making it an extremely useful tool. It’s free for systems with fewer than 50 drives. For systems with more drives, there are free trial licenses or enterprise licenses with support for serious deployments. Let us know if we can assist you.
The team is now working on the next version of TrueCommand and the ability to provide TrueCommand as a service. Report any issues and suggest features via the community dashboard.  For advice on installation and usage, please use the Community forum.
TrueCommand Screenshots

The dashboard provides instant access to high-level system status

Custom reports provide a single screen snapshot of the important metrics

Alerts can be systematically managed across all FreeNAS and TrueNAS systems

LDAP integration simplifies user administration

The post TrueCommand Shifts to Prime Time appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

TrueNAS 11.2 is here with a slew of performance, architecture, and usability enhancements. The update features enhanced APIs, ZFS improvements, and multi-threaded Samba 4.9 to ensure users are getting maximum performance and manageability.
Improved performance
TrueNAS 11.2 enjoys several improvements to its OpenZFS filesystem and features the latest Samba 4.9 for enhanced performance on one of the most common NAS protocols around. OpenZFS enhancements bring better efficiency by improving scrub speeds, ARC IOPS, and vdev resiliency. The updated SMB server is multi-threaded for reads and writes, improving performance for many workloads.
Easier management
Starting with TrueNAS 11.2, both TrueNAS and FreeNAS systems can be managed through REST and WebSocket APIs within the recently announced TrueCommand™ unified management system. TrueCommand provides a “single pane of glass” view of all TrueNAS and FreeNAS systems’ status, with alerts, Single Sign-On (SSO), role-based access control (RBAC), and granular management of services, jails, VMs, and shares. TrueCommand was released in June 2019 and allows clients to more easily manage complex, multi-site deployments.
VMware® ready
TrueNAS 11.2 is ready to take full advantage of VMware with VMFS and VAAI support, and an all-new vCenter plugin to allow better management of TrueNAS with the latest vSphere® 6.5 and 6.7 versions.
Other Improvements

• Cloud Choices: Dramatic increase in the number of choices for cloud backup, with the ability to sync with leading storage providers such as AWS, Google, Azure, Box, Dropbox, Backblaze, and more. These backups can be encrypted for data security and feature the latest OAuth compatibility.
• Enhanced Hardware Encryption: Support for self-encrypting drives (SEDs). Select SED drives are FIPS 140-2 compliant, which is useful for government use, HIPAA, PCI, and GDPR.
• Latest VMFS: VMFS support is upgraded to VMFS6 to enhance VMware datastore performance and features such as distributed journaling of data, better disk utilization for VMware datastores, and easier VM migration.
• Time Machine over SMB: Apple’s backup system can now be deployed using SMB.
• Real-time API: Swagger-compliant REST and WebSockets API with integrated documentation and ability to efficiently provide real-time information to systems like TrueCommand.

TrueNAS 11.2 represents months of updates and testing to ensure the best possible storage experience for virtualization, multimedia, and backup workloads. Talk to us to find out how TrueNAS can help solve your storage bottlenecks today.
Still more to come
TrueNAS 11.3 is getting ready for Beta testing, and will feature the new web interface unveiled in FreeNAS 11.2, along with further improvements to streamline deployment. Stay tuned for more updates!

The post Take Command with TrueNAS appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.

Hundreds of thousands of FreeNAS and TrueNAS systems are deployed around the world, with many sites having dozens of systems.  Managing multiple systems individually can be time-consuming. iXsystems has responded to the challenge by creating a “single pane of glass” application to simplify the scaling of data, drive management, and administration of iXsystems NAS platforms. We are proud to introduce TrueCommand.

TrueCommand is a ZFS-aware management application that manages TrueNAS and FreeNAS systems. 
The public Beta of TrueCommand is available for download now. TrueCommand can be used with small iXsystems NAS fleets for free. Licenses can be purchased for large-scale deployments and enterprise support.

TrueCommand Features
TrueCommand expands on the ease of use and power of TrueNAS and FreeNAS systems with multi-system management and reporting:

Centralized NAS Fleet Management

• Single Pane of Glass Storage Control
• Single Sign-on to iXsystems NAS Units
• Customized Alerts and Reports

Consolidated Monitoring and Reporting

• Rapid Fault Management and Diagnosis
• Real-Time Data Collection and Analysis
• Predictive Analytics to Maximize Uptime
• Two-Year Statistics Retention

Team-Based Global Operations & Security

• Role-based Access Control (RBAC)
• NAS System Groups Assigned to Specific Teams
• Audit Logs for Increased Security

Easy Deployment

• VM or Physical Hardware Installation
• Secure Deployments on Air-Gapped Networks
• Simple User Interface Based on the Angular UI Framework

For details, please see the datasheet or TrueCommand Guide.

Community Benefits
TrueCommand with community support is available without any purchase or contract. It provides the capability of managing up to 50 total drives spread across multiple NAS systems.
Expanded licenses and support contracts are available for enterprise use. Pricing is based on the number of drives and desired level of support. Please contact iXsystems to obtain a quote. Special rates are available for non-profit organizations.

Release Plan
TrueCommand 1.0 Beta is available now. FreeNAS 11.2 and TrueNAS 11.2 or newer are supported.
TrueCommand 1.0 Release will be available in Q2 2019.

FreeNAS and TrueNAS: Even Better with TrueCommand
iXsystems is committed to providing the community with a great open source platform for storage and plugins. The FreeNAS version is increasingly popular and the TrueNAS appliances continue to deliver great value to enterprises, universities, schools, studio design houses, and other organizations.
TrueCommand builds on the benefits of FreeNAS and TrueNAS. This unique combination provides open source economics, enterprise-grade software, and 24/7 operation management. TrueCommand will revolutionize the way you manage your NAS fleet!

The post Take Command of Your NAS Fleet with TrueCommand™ appeared first on TrueNAS - Welcome to the Open Storage Era.