For the first time, TrueNAS, the most widely deployed Open Source Software-Defined Storage, is now officially available on both FreeBSD (TrueNAS CORE & TrueNAS Enterprise) and Linux with TrueNAS SCALE. TrueNAS SCALE 22.02.0 (Angelfish) is now released on “Twosday”, 2/22/22. 

iXsystems is excited and delighted to welcome Linux users to join the TrueNAS Community. All of the excellent TrueNAS tools like OpenZFS, Snapshots, Replication, REST APIs, WebUI, Samba with Windows ACLs, High Availability, Enclosure Management, and Single-click software updates are now joined by the standard Linux toolchain and a familiar Debian Linux system environment. We invite all Linux admins, users, and enthusiasts to try it for themselves and come join the TrueNAS Community.

TrueNAS SCALE is still TrueNAS…plus MAJOR additions

TrueNAS SCALE is the culmination of an almost three-year collaborative effort from the iXsystems engineering team and the TrueNAS Community.  The journey started with iXsystems contributions in promoting the combination of both Linux and FreeBSD as the primary OSes for OpenZFS 2.0. This allowed the TrueNAS middleware to be ported between both OS’s, with the goal of eventually supporting existing TrueNAS features atop a Linux base to unlock several Linux-specific capabilities, including Docker Containers, Kubernetes, KVM, and also Scale-out ZFS through the gluster file system. 

TrueNAS SCALE’s set of additional features and capabilities enable TrueNAS to provide Open Source Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) and Scale-out Unified Storage. Through the use of Linux, TrueNAS SCALE can live up to its acronym:

The TrueNAS SCALE path to Release

The path from development to ALPHA, then BETA, RC, and now RELEASE has taken 18 months of development and an extensive testing effort. Over 10,000 TrueNAS Community users have participated and tested on their widely varying hardware platforms and VMs. A successful three month RELEASE CANDIDATE (RC) stage with its two QA cycles completed the path to RELEASE. The lifecycle of TrueNAS SCALE, including the growth to 10,000 users is outlined below.

The RELEASE stage is the major milestone in our software lifecycle which enables customers to start building and deploying systems for business use. At RELEASE, iXsystems offers standard Enterprise support contracts. We look forward to working with our partners and customers over the coming months.

iXsystems is contributing significantly to Linux

While many applications port easily from FreeBSD to Linux, TrueNAS leverages many OS tools to provide an appliance-like experience. Adding a new OS, integrating it effectively, and then making sure it is rock solid and reliable is no small feat. The iXsystems engineering team and the many TrueNAS Community contributors and testers have collectively spent hundreds of development years making this release possible. Sincerest thanks to all who collaborated with us on this incredible journey!

Highlights of the many iXsystems technical contributions to TrueNAS SCALE include:

OpenZFS 2.0: The inclusion of FreeBSD and Linux as a thoroughly tested peer in OpenZFS enabled the migration of data between TrueNAS CORE to TrueNAS SCALE. Both the development and testing processes were contributed by iXsystems. After completing the OpenZFS 2.0 integration, iXsystems has contributed many scalability improvements, including a major reduction of pool import times in large systems.

Windows ACLs on Linux: By default, Linux only supports POSIX.1e ACLs which are a small subset of Windows (NFSv4) ACLs.  The iXsystems addition of NFSv4 ACLs on OpenZFS within Linux enables much better SMB sharing compatibility with Windows.

Scale-out OpenZFS: iXsystems is integrating the Gluster File System and OpenZFS to create a system with the properties of scale-out ZFS. Recent contributions include the ability to tie Gluster and OpenZFS snapshots together, which will appear in the next release, known as “Bluefin”.

Kubernetes Apps: iXsystems migrated the Apps capability from FreeBSD Jails/Plugins to a Kubernetes infrastructure with Helm Charts and support for Docker Containers and pods. Partners such as TrueCharts.org have further enabled large catalogs of applications to be available to the user community.

CLI and GUI Usability: TrueNAS SCALE included a more efficient WebUI that lets users configure and view more settings on a single web page. The Command-Line Interface (CLI) has been enhanced with a TrueNAS CLI that lets users harness all the power of the TrueNAS REST APIs from a text console.

 

The changes in TrueNAS SCALE 22.02.0

The feature set for TrueNAS 22.02 is described in the TrueNAS SCALE datasheet, and the TrueNAS SCALE documentation provides most of what you need to know to build and run your first systems. If you are missing some information or need advice, the TrueNAS Community forums provide a great source of information and community.

The details of TrueNAS SCALE 22.02.0 are in the release notes. There are over 300 new bug fixes and improvements that will provide a significant quality jump from the RC2 version. Notable inclusions are:

• Better integration with third-party app repositories, such as TrueCharts. 
• Ability to ‘sidegrade” from TrueNAS CORE to SCALE
• Full NFSv4 ACL support on both NFS and SMB protocols
• M-Series Enclosure Management
• High Availability (dual-controller) initial support
• Customizable Dashboard page
  

We want to thank the community for the tremendous support in bringing TrueNAS SCALE to life! The assistance in finding and resolving bugs has been invaluable. It’s been quite an exciting ride, and there’s much more to come, so please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions as we continue to improve the quality of TrueNAS SCALE together. 

Who Should Use TrueNAS SCALE?

At this RELEASE stage of its Software Development Lifecycle, TrueNAS SCALE is primarily for home usage, smaller projects, and tech labs. It is particularly well suited to users with Linux Apps and Virtualization requirements in addition to standard storage needs. Users with scale-out storage requirements can start testing for their specific use-cases or interests.

For Linux developers, there are many opportunities to contribute to the Open Source TrueNAS SCALE project, and we have a vibrant Discord Community for contributors.  It is a well-coordinated and managed environment to collaborate in developing the best open hyperconverged infrastructure as a collective. Bluefin is the next major release after SCALE 22.02. It will include some major enhancements including scale-out ZFS snapshots and replication, clustered Kubernetes, and clustered hypervisors. For more information, see this community post.  

For larger commercial users with scale-out needs, iXsystems has a trial support program to support specific deployments and applications before they complete testing and enter the production phase. Please contact your iXsystems Account Representative, or email us at info@iXsystems.com if you are interested in trialing TrueNAS SCALE. 

Production users with standard NAS (NFS, SMB, iSCSI, S3) requirements are still advised to use TrueNAS CORE and Enterprise, which have a hundred times more data under management and over ten years of operation and stability. TrueNAS SCALE has inherited some of that maturity and the automated testing but has not yet completed its enterprise software quality lifecycle. In parallel, TrueNAS CORE 13.0 has also started its journey with a BETA release.

If you have any additional questions or need advice on a new project, please contact us. We are standing by to help.