Today is the day many of us have been waiting for. TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 “Cobia” is here! Now available for download, it is the third major release of TrueNAS SCALE. Each major release of TrueNAS SCALE has delivered improvements in quality, functionality, security, and performance. Along the way, TrueNAS SCALE has grown from 4,000 to more than 80,000 Linux-based systems in less than two years, an astronomical 400% annual growth rate.
TrueNAS SCALE “Cobia” 23.10 completed a very successful BETA and RC.1 cycle. We wish to recognize and thank the more than 3,000 community testers that reported bugs and provided invaluable feedback. The pre-release program for Cobia had five times the adoption of previous TrueNAS CORE or SCALE releases. Even with many more testers than ever, relatively few major issues surfaced and those were then quickly resolved.
SMB Features in TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 Release
Server Message Block (SMB) has become the most common file sharing protocol with strong support on Windows, MacOS, iPhone, Android, and Linux clients. SMB features continue to improve with each TrueNAS release and update. In this release version, we’d like to highlight the all-new features in SCALE 23.10:
SMB and NFSv4 Compatibility:
Sharing the same datasets via SMB and NFS requires the two protocols to have compatible ACLs, permissions, and locks. These capabilities have gradually been added to SCALE, and with this version, the final piece of a common locking mechanism with NFSv4 has been added. This is a selectable profile within SMB sharing and can be enabled if desired.
SMB Share import:
Many users install TrueNAS to migrate from any other product that supports the SMB sharing protocol, including Windows, Netapp, and a myriad of other products. TrueNAS can now mount the SMB shares from these systems and pull that data into TrueNAS for sharing again.
SMB File Sync:
We’ve previously described how Syncthing can be used to sync SMB and NFS shares between TrueNAS systems. It also works well for long-distance collaboration, metro-clusters or data migration. With SCALE 23.10, there is also an option to sync with a 3rd party SMB server or storage system.
Fast File Copy:
With the new ZFS Block Cloning capability, copies of SMB and NFS files and directories can be accelerated by 10x or more. When a directory is copied from one data share to another, only the metadata is copied and the data is treated like a snapshot and remains in place. This accelerates necessary file copies and allows the admin to rearrange their data without having to wait hours for copies to complete.
SMB Performance and Scalability:
There have been several changes to the protocol stack to improve performance and scalability. This includes increasing the I/Os per second, the number of users, and the number of files per directory. Both OpenZFS and Samba changes were made to enable these improvements. The improvements are also aligned with work on NVMe performance (more information to follow).
Updated Summary of TrueNAS SCALE 23.10
The TrueNAS SCALE 23.10.0 RELEASE version includes another 200 bug fixes and is feature-complete. The highlights of 23.10 “Cobia” include:
Infrastructure
- Linux Kernel 6.1 and improved Hardware Support
- NVIDIA 535.54.03 Driver Updates
- Netdata backend stats collection
- Scale up to 1200 drives and 25 PB+ on a single system
Web Interface
- Improved Apps UI
- Improved Storage Pool UI
- Simplified feedback and bug reporting
ZFS & Performance Improvements
- OpenZFS 2.2 with many iXsystems contributions
- ZFS Block Cloning (type of deduplication) for faster SMB & NFS file copies
- ZFS dRAID Pool Layouts
- Pause / Unpause ZFS Scrub Controls
- Reduction of HA failover times by up to 70%
Protocols and Services
- Samba security updates and speed improvements
- Simplified SMB cluster expansion via TrueCommand 3.0 (Coming Soon!)
- Importing SMB shares from other systems
- File sync between NFS/SMB systems
- iSCSI improvements including ALUA support
- SMB and NFSv4 Compatibility for common shares
This release version is recommended for early adopters to start until there has been more testing and feedback from the Community. The TrueNAS Software Status Page keeps track of the quality and user-type recommendations.
TrueNAS Enterprise and associated appliances are based on either TrueNAS 13.0 or Bluefin (22.12). Cobia (23.10) has been added and with improvements in quality, flexibility, and security, it will soon replace Bluefin on appliances.
The upcoming TrueCommand 3.0 has full support for Cobia (23.10) and there are limitations using TrueCommand 2.3. If TrueCommand functionality is an operational requirement, it is recommended that the system update should be delayed until TrueCommand 3.0 is available, which is expected by December.
TrueNAS 13.1 Will Inherit Some Cobia Improvements
Now that TrueNAS SCALE Cobia is released, there will be a similar TrueNAS CORE & Enterprise update to TrueNAS 13.1. This update will include the many SMB and ZFS improvements that have been implemented and tested in TrueNAS SCALE Cobia. TrueNAS 13.1 is planned for release in early 2024. Nightly versions have been made available for testers and those who wish to help contribute to TrueNAS development. The link to the nightly versions can be found on the TrueNAS Software Status Page.
TrueNAS 13.1 includes additional features to simplify “sidegrading” from TrueNAS 13.1 to TrueNAS SCALE 23.10, especially for Enterprise HA systems. The ZFS and SMB stack will be well-aligned and the Cobia iSCSI stack includes ALUA. There will be additional information available for TrueNAS 13.1 when it reaches BETA status.
TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.4.2 is the Final Version of Bluefin
TrueNAS SCALE inherited storage functionality and automated testing from CORE. SCALE offers a more robust Apps environment based on Linux, KVM, and Kubernetes. To join the more than 80,000 users already using TrueNAS SCALE, download the installer here or use the System Update feature from within your existing TrueNAS install.
TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.4.2 was released previously on October 13th, 2023. Going forward, TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 Cobia will gradually become the recommended version. No further versions of Bluefin are planned. The first update for Cobia is expected in December 2023, and work has already begun on the next release, codenamed “Dragonfish”.
TrueNAS provides these choices and the ability to automatically migrate storage services and VMs from CORE to SCALE. Plugins and jails can be manually replaced with Apps. We encourage anyone looking for further advice or answers to questions to visit our Community Forums or Discord Channel.