Does windows OS read TrueNAS RAID?

[Fredy_Chang]

Hi,
I am new to TrueNAS. I try to build TrueNAS and Windows system in same PC. I will put TrueNAS system and Windows system in different M.2 SSD. I plan that two systems will share same RAID drive. I read threads of this site and knew that TrueNAS access HDD directly which means the shared RAID drive should be build by TrueNAS. But, does windows system access the RAID build by TrueNAS? Thanks for your reply!

My PC:
- 64 G DDR5
- Main board : Z690 Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX
- 2 T PCIE 4.0 M.2 SSDs
- 6 2T Seagate BarraCuda HDDs

 

[winnielinnie]

I am new to TrueNAS. I try to build TrueNAS and Windows system in same PC.

Why do you want to do this in the first place?

 

[Fredy_Chang]

winnielinnie:​

Thanks for your reply. I had limited room. So I try to built NAS for my family with my PC.

 

[Whattteva]

Hi,
I am new to TrueNAS. I try to build TrueNAS and Windows system in same PC. I will put TrueNAS system and Windows system in different M.2 SSD. I plan that two systems will share same RAID drive. I read threads of this site and knew that TrueNAS access HDD directly which means the shared RAID drive should be build by TrueNAS. But, does windows system access the RAID build by TrueNAS? Thanks for your reply!

My PC:
- 64 G DDR5
- Main board : Z690 Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX
- 2 T PCIE 4.0 M.2 SSDs
- 6 2T Seagate BarraCuda HDDs

Two OS's shouldn't ever share the same RAID array at once even if both of them are capable of reading them just as you should never let two systems share a zvol or iSCSI at the same time, period. It's a recipe for disaster.

Now, to answer your question. In short, no, Windows does not and probably never will have the drivers required to read a ZFS array because Microsoft has no real incentive to include it in Windows... at least for the foreseeable future.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Thanks for your reply. I had limited room. So I try to built NAS for my family with my PC.

But while you are using your PC the NAS will not be available and vice versa ... doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

In short, no, Windows does not and probably never will have the drivers required to read a ZFS array because Microsoft has no real incentive to include it in Windows... at least for the foreseeable future.

OpenZFS for Windows exists:

OpenZFS on Windows

OpenZFS on Windows

openzfsonwindows.org

 

[Whattteva]

OpenZFS for Windows exists:

OpenZFS on Windows

OpenZFS on Windows

openzfsonwindows.org

Well, I'll be damned. Is it stable enough for daily use?

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

I don't know. The Mac OS port is perfectly stable for me including connecting USB media to Mac and FreeBSD alternatingly or send|receive to TrueNAS. The Windows port seems to be in a rather rough state undergoing a complete refactoring right now.

But it definitely looks more promising than "never ever"

 

[sretalla]

The project itself doesn't rate it as reliable, so I would say it is something "useful in some circumstances, but not for business as usual".

I would consider using it to read ZFS pools created on a reliable source, but wouldn't trust it as a permanent provider of storage on Windows.

I would distrust all data written on Windows and do some kind of additional checks when returning data to Linux or FreeBSD platforms.