TrueCommand VM

danb35

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Nonetheless it would be nice to have a ready-to-run VM image compatible with bhyve ...
Agreed, but it'd be nice to have a ready-to-run VM image at all--by which I mean, one that boots with TC already running on sensible ports (80/443).
 

Patrick M. Hausen

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Agreed, but it'd be nice to have a ready-to-run VM image at all--by which I mean, one that boots with TC already running on sensible ports (80/443).
So ... these images don't do that?
 

danb35

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So ... these images don't do that?
Nope. At least, they didn't when I downloaded the image. It's literally what I said above: a Debian installation with Docker added. It might have a truecommand image on it as the docs say, but if so, it wasn't current as of the time I installed the image. You have to start truecommand yourself (docker run ...), and if you want it to start automatically on boot, you need to figure that out for yourself as well. And this is somehow supposed to be an improvement over the previous VM image.

Edit: See also:
 
Last edited:

Dariusz1989

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Aug 22, 2017
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185
Hey

Coming back to this issue again... so does the RAW image now work with freenas vm or its still a no go for freenasVMdocker?
 

kenmoore

TrueCommand Project Lead
iXsystems
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May 1, 2019
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There are only 2 VM images for TrueCommand that iX officially recommends for people. If you are manually browsing the CDN, those 2 correspond to the "2020-05" images (VHDX and VMDK).

Those 2 images have everything setup for TrueCommand out-of-box. Autostart on boot, upgrades to latest version on boot (if you are connected to the internet - I think it has version 1.2.2 included for offline deployment), TC is listening on ports 80 and 443 from the VM IP, and there is even a "shortlist" of commands to manage the TC service in the VM that are shown once you login.

The official/tested images will always be linked to from within the http://portal.ixsystems.com website. I strongly recommend not manually trawling through the ftp sites, as there are typically old files or testing/temporary versions of files there as well.
 

Dariusz1989

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There are only 2 VM images for TrueCommand that iX officially recommends for people. If you are manually browsing the CDN, those 2 correspond to the "2020-05" images (VHDX and VMDK).

Those 2 images have everything setup for TrueCommand out-of-box. Autostart on boot, upgrades to latest version on boot (if you are connected to the internet - I think it has version 1.2.2 included for offline deployment), TC is listening on ports 80 and 443 from the VM IP, and there is even a "shortlist" of commands to manage the TC service in the VM that are shown once you login.

The official/tested images will always be linked to from within the http://portal.ixsystems.com website. I strongly recommend not manually trawling through the ftp sites, as there are typically old files or testing/temporary versions of files there as well.

Sounds good thanks, which one do I need for Freenas VM t?
 

kenmoore

TrueCommand Project Lead
iXsystems
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As far as I know, FreeNAS/TrueNAS cannot import any VM images other than "raw" images. You might be able to convert one of the TC images to that format, but I don't really recommend it. Running your monitoring software as a VM on one of systems you are monitoring is just a bad idea. The moment anything goes wrong with the NAS, you also lose monitoring.
 

Dariusz1989

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As far as I know, FreeNAS/TrueNAS cannot import any VM images other than "raw" images. You might be able to convert one of the TC images to that format, but I don't really recommend it. Running your monitoring software as a VM on one of systems you are monitoring is just a bad idea. The moment anything goes wrong with the NAS, you also lose monitoring.

Hey

Yeh I see the point, but also as freenas user I don't have spare servers lying around just so I can fire off monitoring. It would be nice if ixsystems could provide freenas compatible vm for those of us that don't have large hardware stock/ IT experience to fight with running vm windows > docker > getting an error that cant run trueCommand in docker coz of lack of vm features from cpu that clearly runs in vm... anyway. I'll wait for freenas VM support.

Tia.
 
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Yeh I see the point, but also as freenas user I don't have spare servers lying around just so I can fire off monitoring
Though I haven't tried it myself, a desktop should do the trick e.g. Windows 10 Pro + Linux for Windows + Linux distro + Docker + TrueCommand would make an admirable FreeNAS/TrueNAS monitoring device.
 

aervin

iXsystems
iXsystems
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Jun 13, 2018
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114
Hey

Yeh I see the point, but also as freenas user I don't have spare servers lying around just so I can fire off monitoring. It would be nice if ixsystems could provide freenas compatible vm for those of us that don't have large hardware stock/ IT experience to fight with running vm windows > docker > getting an error that cant run trueCommand in docker coz of lack of vm features from cpu that clearly runs in vm... anyway. I'll wait for freenas VM support.

Tia.

Hey @Dariusz1989 , I'm certain there are users running TC on a VM in FreeNAS/TrueNAS, though I'm not sure if they're using a Windows VM. Have you tried a Linux-based VM? TC's ready-made VM is pretty much an Ubuntu/Docker wrapper. If you want a lightweight Linux VM, you could try some of the Docker-catered Linux distros such as RancherOS or Alpine. Those distros are lightweight and have Docker installed by default. From there it's just a matter of following the install instructions on iXsystem's Docker hub page.

In the future, TrueCommand Cloud will suit your use case. With TC Cloud, iXsystems takes care of the hardware/hosting side of things. We leverage WireGuard for TC Cloud.

Most importantly, if you want to try TrueCommand on your FreeNAS, we can help you! :smile:
 
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In the future, TrueCommand Cloud will suit your use case. With TC Cloud, iXsystems takes care of the hardware/hosting side of things. We leverage WireGuard for TC Cloud.
That's a good point. I can now understand where TC Cloud fits in the scheme of things.
 

Dariusz1989

Contributor
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Aug 22, 2017
Messages
185
Hey

Thanks for ideas, I'm afraid cloud won't work for me as my nas is offline only.

I'll try linux next...
 

Don Dayton

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Jan 7, 2021
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I had 4 Supermicro servers with 8x hot swap 2TB or 4TB SAS drives, 6 core XEON with 64GB ECC RAM that were running FreeNAS 11.1-RELEASE. I had been following users that have started adopting TrueNAS and it seemed that TrueNAS 12.0U1 was ready for deploy, so I upgraded 2 of the 4 and that went just fine. The other thing that I wanted to implement was Truecommand. First thing to know is that none of our servers have internet access. We can get to the internet via our WAN connection to the corporate datacenter as long as we login to an AD domain account that belongs to an external internet access allow group and then only via a browser with a defined proxy server. I downloaded the Truecommand vmdk and what I got was the version 1.2. Using VirtualBox on my laptop I installed it and got it working, but it seemed like I had to retry the initial sign up several times before I finally got past the login. Once I was in I had no trouble adding the 2 servers. The next day I was able to get to the webUI login, but unable to login. Checked the service and it was stopped in failed state. If I started it the service would just stop again. I signed up for the ixportal and used it to get the latest vmdk and it was TrueCommand-2020-1.3.2-VMDK. I was able to install it on VirtualBox and get logged in but every time I would attempt to add one of the servers that I had registered before the service crashes and restarts. Same thing happens if I try to add another user. I decided to try running the vmdk on my VMware ESXi 6.7U3 host. The Truecommand 1.2 runs but the service crashes every time I try the sign up part of the login. Tried the 1.3.2 and it won't work saying it doesn't have write access to the disk. Checked the protection and both versions had the same rw- --- ---. Tried changing to rw- rw- rw- but still no write access. In VMware they had to be defined as IDE. The SCSI and SATA would not work with the vmdk. On my laptop at home, where I am connected to the internet, using VirtualBox I setup a VM of TrueNAS Core 12.0U1 s and a VM of Truecommand 1.3.2 server with a vmdk. This all worked without any issue. Same laptop but at home I'm using wifi only and used a bridge adapter to connect to the hardware and at work the adapter was the gigabit adapter in the HP docking station. In all cases I can ping all of the devices between each other so I know there is good network connectivity. At work all is connected via Cisco enterprise gigabit switches in the same subnet and VLAN.
 

Don Dayton

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Jan 7, 2021
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The only thing in /data is a directory file ixdb?
On the VMware host no files in /data, but on my VirtualBox at work the version 1.3.2 has a ix_middleware.log file. It appears to be clean.

On the sign in I get
1610130735777.png


And the ix_middleware log is simply repeats of:
- Version: "OpenSSL 1.1.1d 10 Sep 2019"
truecommand@TrueCommand:/data$ cat ix_middleware.log
[STARTING] "Fri Jan 8 18:31:25 2021"
Opening Database...
Database Connected
Using SSL Library:
- Version: "OpenSSL 1.1.1d 10 Sep 2019"
truecommand@TrueCommand:/data$

And the journalctl status -u truecommand.service has:

Jan 08 13:28:04 TrueCommand systemd[1]: truecommand.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jan 08 13:28:04 TrueCommand systemd[1]: truecommand.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jan 08 13:28:14 TrueCommand systemd[1]: truecommand.service: Service RestartSec=10s expired, scheduling restart.
Jan 08 13:28:14 TrueCommand systemd[1]: truecommand.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.
Jan 08 13:28:14 TrueCommand systemd[1]: Stopped TrueCommand.
Jan 08 13:28:14 TrueCommand systemd[1]: Started TrueCommand.
Jan 08 13:28:15 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Error response from daemon: Get https://registry-1.docker.io/v2/: unexpected EO
Jan 08 13:28:16 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Starting TrueCommand: Fri Jan 8 18:28:16 UTC 2021
Jan 08 13:28:16 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Generate SSL Certificate
Jan 08 13:28:16 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Generating a RSA private key
Jan 08 13:28:16 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: .............+++++
Jan 08 13:28:16 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: ..+++++
Jan 08 13:28:16 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: writing new private key to '/etc/truecommand/server.key.auto'
Jan 08 13:28:16 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: -----
Jan 08 13:28:16 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Starting Services [1/3]
Jan 08 13:28:19 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Starting PostgreSQL 11 database server: main.
Jan 08 13:28:19 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Starting Services [2/3]
Jan 08 13:28:19 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Starting Services [3/3]
Jan 08 13:28:19 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: [STARTING] "Fri Jan 8 18:28:19 2021"
Jan 08 13:28:19 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Opening Database...
Jan 08 13:28:19 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Database Connected
Jan 08 13:28:20 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Using SSL Library:
Jan 08 13:28:20 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: - Version: "OpenSSL 1.1.1d 10 Sep 2019"
Jan 08 13:28:50 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Jan 08 13:28:50 TrueCommand start-truecommand[1882]: - Finished: Fri Jan 8 18:28:50 UTC 2021
Jan 08 13:28:51 TrueCommand start-truecommand[2153]: Stopping TrueCommand container:
Jan 08 13:28:51 TrueCommand start-truecommand[2153]: Error response from daemon: page not found
Jan 08 13:28:51 TrueCommand systemd[1]: truecommand.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jan 08 13:28:51 TrueCommand systemd[1]: truecommand.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jan 08 13:29:01 TrueCommand systemd[1]: truecommand.service: Service RestartSec=10s expired, scheduling restart.
Jan 08 13:29:01 TrueCommand systemd[1]: truecommand.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Jan 08 13:29:01 TrueCommand systemd[1]: Stopped TrueCommand.
Jan 08 13:29:01 TrueCommand systemd[1]: Started TrueCommand.
 

Don Dayton

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Jan 7, 2021
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9
After several retries the sign up page finally created the new user and password and allowed me to login and show there were no servers registered. Now I am trying to add a server and I have not been able to get past the service crash at each attempt.

root@TrueCommand:/home/truecommand# systemctl status truecommand.service
● truecommand.service - TrueCommand
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/truecommand.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-01-08 13:56:01 EST; 35s ago
Main PID: 12520 (start-truecomma)
Tasks: 12 (limit: 2359)
Memory: 29.3M
CGroup: /system.slice/truecommand.service
├─12520 /bin/bash /usr/local/bin/start-truecommand service
└─12535 docker run -v /data:/data -p 80:80 -p 443:443 ixsystems/truecommand:latest

Jan 08 13:56:05 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: Starting PostgreSQL 11 database server: main.
Jan 08 13:56:05 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: Starting Services [2/3]
Jan 08 13:56:05 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: Starting Services [3/3]
Jan 08 13:56:05 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: [STARTING] "Fri Jan 8 18:56:05 2021"
Jan 08 13:56:05 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: Opening Database...
Jan 08 13:56:05 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: Database Connected
Jan 08 13:56:06 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: Using SSL Library:
Jan 08 13:56:06 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: - Version: "OpenSSL 1.1.1d 10 Sep 2019"
Jan 08 13:56:37 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Jan 08 13:56:37 TrueCommand start-truecommand[12520]: - Finished: Fri Jan 8 18:56:37 UTC 2021
root@TrueCommand:/home/truecommand# systemctl status truecommand.service
● truecommand.service - TrueCommand
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/truecommand.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2021-01-08 13:56:37 EST; 7s ago
Process: 12520 ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/start-truecommand service (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 12796 ExecStop=/usr/local/bin/start-truecommand stop (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 12520 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
root@TrueCommand:/home/truecommand#

The webUI never gets past the attempt to add server. If I wait about 10 minutes and refresh the browser it is back at the login and once logged in still no servers. I tried Chrome and the new Edge browsers and no difference.

1610132592229.png
 

ddayton

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Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
7
Thanks @Don Dayton this gives us plenty to go on. Let us do some investigating on our end.

Thanks.

No luck with vmdk 1.2 or 1.3.2 on VMware ESXi 6.7u3 (licensed host).

This is the 1.3.2 vmdk running on a VirtualBox.

I was finally able to register the two TrueNAS servers after many attempts. Each time I click on something to drill in the service still crashes at least once. I have tried it with Chrome and Edge.

1610472343453.png


Once I confirm and log back in I can usual click on one server to get its status dashboard, but as soon as anything else is clicked I get the connection to middleware has dropped.

Hopefully we will see fixes in an upcoming release, but what I see I like when it works.
 
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