How to even start with trueNAS scale installed on virtualbox

[airordl]

Hello,

I'm completely new to this, so please be patient. I installed trueNAS in virtualbox, however all I get is a linux console, no GUI, and I have no idea where to start in order to install, say, a ubuntu in trueNAS as if it was a bare metal virtual machine. I'm doing this in order to know what I'm doing before I install trueNAS on an actual machine.

Every tutorial on 'getting started' with trueNAS that I could find never even mentions a terminal and no GUI, so I have two questions:
1) Let's say that I have a USB key with the ubuntu iso mounted in it, what am I supposed to do in order to virtualize it in trueNAS from the terminal? I don't think I should install virtualbox in trueNAS or anything like that, my understanding is that trueNAS is already a hypervisor
2) So far it looks like it's a fully functioning operating system. Is it? If it is, what are the advantages of trueNAS with respect, for instance, a minimal Arch system in which I install, let's say, virtualbox? I suppose that this is not the case, but I'm asking anyway

Thank you very much

 

[danb35]

however all I get is a linux console, no GUI

There's no GUI at the console for TrueNAS; you'd access it via a web browser at the address it shows you.

So far it looks like it's a fully functioning operating system. Is it?

No, it isn't.

 

[airordl]

There's no GUI at the console for TrueNAS; you'd access it via a web browser at the address it shows you.

No, it isn't.

Thank you for your answer, I don't understand (even from the guide), what am I supposed to do exactly?
1) I install trueNAS in a machine
2)?

How do I get a virtualized ubuntu there? Could you point the part of the guide that covers that?

Thank you again

 

[danb35]

Could you point the part of the guide that covers that?

You've read the manual, right? Link is at "Documentation" at the top of this page. Specifically:

Virtualization

Provides information on the screens and settings to add virtual machines (VMs) and devices to your TrueNAS SCALE system.

www.truenas.com

But this depends on the GUI, as does just about everything else in TrueNAS. If you don't have, and aren't able to get to, the GUI, maybe you could tell us a little more about what's going on--the forum rules you said you read and agreed to when you joined earlier today would be a good start. Screen shots of what you're seeing, version of TrueNAS, etc.

 

[Davvo]

You can't run TrueNAS in VirtualBox. Please read the following resouce:

Resource - "Absolutely must virtualize TrueNAS!" ... a guide to not completely losing your data.

[---- 2024/01/16: Still relevant. Virtualization really doesn't change much. Updates made as appropriate. ----] [---- 2018/02/27: This is still as relevant as ever. As PCIe-Passthru has matured, fewer problems are reported. I've updated some...

www.truenas.com

Pick a virtualization platform that is suitable to the task. You want a bare metal, or "Type 1," hypervisor. Things like VirtualBox, VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation, etc. are not acceptable.

VMware ESXi is suitable to the task.

You will encounter plenty of issues. If you want to just try it for evaluation I would suggest installing on a USB drive.

 

[danb35]

You can't run TrueNAS in VirtualBox.

Sure you can. You shouldn't for too long, or to manage data that's anything close to important, but it runs there. If all you're wanting to do is, say, get a feel for the UI (which is OP's stated purpose for doing this), it runs (roughly) as well there as it does anywhere else.

What can be a bit of problem, though, is that (IIRC, and it's been a while since I did much with VB) it defaults to acting as a NAT gateway for any guest VMs, which could make reaching a web GUI tricky. That can be changed in configuration, but users would need to know to do that.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

VirtualBox networking has one peculiarity - the host and the VM cannot communicate with each other over the default NAT network adapter. You need to define a second host-only network for that and then probably manually configure TrueNAS. I don't remember atm if you can run DHCP on the host-only network.

VMware Fusion or Player on windows are better in that respect and I use Fusion a lot for test/development scenarios. IIRC there's a free or at least free trial version of both - for Mac and Windows.

@airordl after you configured a proper network and IP addresses you are supposed to connect to TrueNAS with a web browser. That is the UI.

But ... also not quite sure atm - can VirtualBox do nested virtualisation at all? If not, you cannot provision a virtual machine on TrueNAS running inside VirtualBox.

Even for testing - if your goal is using the TrueNAS hypervisor - you might be better off using real hardware.

 

[danb35]

You need to define a second host-only network for that and then probably manually configure TrueNAS.

You can also bridge it to the network adapter on the machine VBox is running on; TrueNAS should then be able to pick up an IP via DHCP from the existing DHCP server (assuming there is one).

 

[airordl]

VirtualBox networking has one peculiarity - the host and the VM cannot communicate with each other over the default NAT network adapter. You need to define a second host-only network for that and then probably manually configure TrueNAS. I don't remember atm if you can run DHCP on the host-only network.

VMware Fusion or Player on windows are better in that respect and I use Fusion a lot for test/development scenarios. IIRC there's a free or at least free trial version of both - for Mac and Windows.

@airordl after you configured a proper network and IP addresses you are supposed to connect to TrueNAS with a web browser. That is the UI.

But ... also not quite sure atm - can VirtualBox do nested virtualisation at all? If not, you cannot provision a virtual machine on TrueNAS running inside VirtualBox.

Even for testing - if your goal is using the TrueNAS hypervisor - you might be better off using real hardware.

Ok I got the general vibe, I did manage to access the UI, however in virtualization I see "

Virtualization is not supported​

Your CPU does not support KVM extensions"

which I accept, I will play on a physical machine as soon as I get my hands on it. Thank you all