TrueCommand 1.3 is Available

[morganL]

TrueCommand 1.3 greatly improves the predictability, reliability, and total cost of ownership of production systems. Significant new features include:

• Smarter Dashboard: Monitor the performance of many systems from one screen.
• Scrub and Replication Monitoring: Quickly identify systems with background tasks.
• Datasets Monitoring: See all the datasets, their sizes, snapshots, and replication tasks.
• Powerful Alerts: Standard and customizable alerts monitor the health of each system.
• API Keys: Use the TrueNAS 12.0 API keys to keep your root passwords more secure.

TrueCommand’s standard alerts have been significantly extended and even include an ability to detect the use of SMR drives.

Blog is here: https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/truecommand-1-3/

Release notes are here: https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/library/truecommand-1-3/

 

[danb35]

Are the dashboard tiles supposed to look like this, where you can't read the system name?

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

It really leaves some contrast to be desired.

Am I supposed to wear a hoodie and shades while using it? That would explain the design

 

[danb35]

It really leaves some contrast to be desired.

I thought it might be a theme thing, and I thought I remembered a theme setting, but in a little bit of clicking around and checking the manual (which has yet to be updated, BTW) I didn't find it.

 

[aervin]

Probably a browser-specific bug @danb35, which one are you using? I'll get it fixed for the next patch.

Thanks for that @Patrick M. Hausen -- https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/TC-1475.

 

[danb35]

Probably a browser-specific bug @danb35, which one are you using?

I was using Firefox--it isn't there in Chrome.

 

[kenmoore]

I was using Firefox--it isn't there in Chrome.

Which version of firefox, and on which OS?
I have been using Firefox 76+ for regular testing and have not seen any issue like that.

 

[danb35]

Which version of firefox, and on which OS?

Firefox 78.0.1 on macOS. And yes, I cleared cache.

 

[kenmoore]

Thanks! We will try to track this down and get a fix in ASAP then.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

TrueCommand’s standard alerts have been significantly extended and even include an ability to detect the use of SMR drives.

This is useful. TC 1.3 picked up that I had an SMR drive on one of my servers.

Disk is nowhere to be seen on the Resources % tile on any of my servers. Also, are flat lines expected on an active system because that's what I'm observing?

On all systems with SMB and NFS active, the Clients tile shows SMB zero and NFS is nowhere to be seen.

 

[kenmoore]

The client count metrics and disk utilization percentages are new to 11.3-U4+ (coming soon) and 12.0-BETA1+ (available now). Your systems will start reporting those values once you update to one of those releases or newer.

Glad it caught one of those pesky SMR drives for you!

 

[Frank Collins]

Ironically, it can't be installed as a plugin.

 

[morganL]

You could deploy it as a VM... but then just when you need it to manage a failing NAS, the VM would also not be available. Same bootstrapping issue would happen if it were a plugin.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

I doubt TrueCommand is of any use when a NAS fails to the point of going offline. So I am perfectly fine running it on one of my NAS systems. Just like about everybody I know runs vSphere on vSphere - where else? The point is not to have any other dedicated servers any more when going virtual.

 

[danb35]

but then just when you need it to manage a failing NAS, the VM would also not be available.

In what way do you imagine that TC would be of any use to "manage a failing NAS"? And in particular, that it would be of any greater use than the GUI of that NAS itself?

 

[morganL]

If TrueCommand was on a NAS and the pool had to be rebuilt and reconfigured and the TrueCommand data is on that pool... what happens?

Issues are rarer if you are not trying to run 24x7... and if your team doesn't depend on TrueCommand.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

Above are the summary tiles for a server under TC 1.3 and the previous TC 1.2. What's very clever about the new tile is the inclusion of an alert indicator, which makes better use of screen real estate compared to TC 1.2.

Some of the information that is now in the summary tile in TC 1.3 was one click away in TC 1.2. There's been a movement of information between the TC foreground and background and that's fine. However, some information that TC 1.2 collected hasn't moved to the background, but has disappeared altogether from within TC 1.3. Comparing the tiles above, the two that I've become aware of are amount of RAM in a server and the FreeNAS minor version. This information no longer appears to be available within TC 1.3. I'm curious to understand the reasons behind the decision to drop these details altogether from TC?

TrueCommand’s standard alerts have been significantly extended and even include an ability to detect the use of SMR drives.

I love this feature. It's already picked up an issue with a drive on one of my servers. I'm curious to know whether the ability to detect SMR drives will be included in FreeNAS/TrueNAS itself? I'm thinking of the use case of someone who chooses not to adopt TC. For example, there's limited value in installing TC in a single FreeNAS server environment.

 

[morganL]

Thanks Basil, Good questions. In general, we were trying to simplify the view of the NAS while highlighting key issues. There is no perfect answer. We got feedback from out own IT operations team, but would like feedback here. Tell us what you need to make your operation easier.

I would tend to agree that we should add the minor version back. RAM size is also useful.. we would just need to work out where it fits.

The SMR drives alerts were much easier to do on TrueCommand. Its got a more powerful 2 factor alerting engine and we wanted to make it available ASAP and for users with previous releases of software.... not just 12.0. If you only have one system, there is the option of manually checking the drives.

 

[aervin]

We'll work on getting more detailed NAS version info into the UI @Basil Hendroff , thanks for the feedback. Memory info is only accessible through the reporting feature currently, though we could make this information available elsewhere. How often did you reference the memory activity in 1.2? I'm trying to gauge whether memory info deserves a space on the system tiles.

 

[Basil Hendroff]

How often did you reference the memory activity in 1.2? I'm trying to gauge whether memory info deserves a space on the system tiles.

My answer to your question is going to highlight my lack of knowledge and understanding of how FreeNAS uses RAM.

Let me start by saying that when I view a system tile in TC 1.2, to me it looks like a more 'traditional view' of how system performance might be assessed i.e. a collective consideration of how CPU, RAM and storage interact. When I look at a system tile in TC 1.3, I feel like the tile has more of a storage focus, which I believe aligns with IX Systems core business and I understand and appreciate this. I also acknowledge @morganL's comment that there is no right or wrong answer to what to include on the system tile, or what information should be included in the TC foreground and background.

To answer your question honestly, the RAM size I saw as important, but I never really understood how to use the memory activity included in the TC 1.2 system panel to inform me that RAM might be limiting overall performance and it's time to add additional RAM.

To demonstrate how poor my understanding is on memory info, I'll take you on a journey through my eyes using TC 1.2. I'll preface this by saying that this lack of understanding is no one's issue, but mine, so I take full responsibility here.

'Right, I've got about 10GB of RAM on this system. Though I don't fully understand what it all means, memory info is split into four parts representing Active, Free, Inactive and Wired.'

'Let's now connect to the web interface of the system. Oh look, there's a system tile for memory'

'Now the memory info is split into three parts representing Free, ZFS Cache and Services. I can't seem to match this up with what I'm seeing in the TC 1.2 system tile, but that's okay. At least this tile confirms I've got 10GB of RAM and the system is working okay so I guess the RAM's sufficient.'

'Oh look. This tile includes a button for memory reports. Let's click it and see what it tells me.'

'Oh wow! Now, I've got five components to deal with. Hmm... I can kinda match this up with the TC 1.2 system tile now, but there's also an additional component for Laundry'.

[Embarrassed silence] @aervin I don't know that my response is going to help you gauge whether memory info deserves a space on the system tiles, or in the foreground or background. It probably raises more questions than it answers.