Hello TrueNAS and FreeNAS Community,
Do you need a NAS instance in the cloud? Would a free one be better?
With TrueNAS 12.0 BETA now released, the iX engineering team is ready to test out TrueNAS CORE in AWS. The software is unchanged, but there was some AWS-specific tooling needed to create an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) which can run on an AWS EC2 instance.
So why run TrueNAS in AWS? Well, some users don’t have any physical infrastructure or locations. Others have limited infrastructure and want a backup or DR site. TrueNAS in AWS simplifies the building of a hybrid cloud.
The TrueNAS CORE AMI runs any EC2 instance and then attaches to EBS (Elastic Block Store) volumes which look like “drives”. However, unlike real drives, EBS volumes are expensive and reliable. So, generally, the TrueNAS instance would just use a single EBS volume or stripe across several EBS volumes. You can even build a Fusion Pool (SSDs and HDDs mixed).
All the standard ZFS services like snapshots, clones, replication, compression, and dedup can be used to reduce the costs of AWS infrastructure.
TrueNAS can then provide SMB, NFS, iSCSI, Plugin, and ZFS replication services to other EC2 instances or to other TrueNAS systems or clients. You will have to workout how to set up VPNs and network security. With TrueNAS 12.0 there are options to use the integrated OpenVPN services.
TrueCommand 1.3 can manage these TrueNAS instances via any VPN setup. In the future, there is a plan to simplify and automate that with a TrueCommand Cloud capability.
For those with security needs, TrueNAS 12.0 provides dataset encryption. You can even replicate encrypted datasets and zvols from an on-premises system via ZFS replication. This can be done without ever putting the security keys in AWS.
If you want to try out TrueNAS in AWS, then visit the TrueNAS CORE download page and instead of downloading TrueNAS CORE, just download the AWS instructions which include the location of the current AMI images. Once the TrueNAS instance is operating, software can be updated from the web UI and you can back it up to S3 or an on-premises TrueNAS.
If you need help with building a hybrid cloud infrastructure, please contact iXsystems. If you try out the TrueNAS AMI, respond to this post and provide us your feedback.
Do you need a NAS instance in the cloud? Would a free one be better?
With TrueNAS 12.0 BETA now released, the iX engineering team is ready to test out TrueNAS CORE in AWS. The software is unchanged, but there was some AWS-specific tooling needed to create an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) which can run on an AWS EC2 instance.
So why run TrueNAS in AWS? Well, some users don’t have any physical infrastructure or locations. Others have limited infrastructure and want a backup or DR site. TrueNAS in AWS simplifies the building of a hybrid cloud.
The TrueNAS CORE AMI runs any EC2 instance and then attaches to EBS (Elastic Block Store) volumes which look like “drives”. However, unlike real drives, EBS volumes are expensive and reliable. So, generally, the TrueNAS instance would just use a single EBS volume or stripe across several EBS volumes. You can even build a Fusion Pool (SSDs and HDDs mixed).
All the standard ZFS services like snapshots, clones, replication, compression, and dedup can be used to reduce the costs of AWS infrastructure.
TrueNAS can then provide SMB, NFS, iSCSI, Plugin, and ZFS replication services to other EC2 instances or to other TrueNAS systems or clients. You will have to workout how to set up VPNs and network security. With TrueNAS 12.0 there are options to use the integrated OpenVPN services.
TrueCommand 1.3 can manage these TrueNAS instances via any VPN setup. In the future, there is a plan to simplify and automate that with a TrueCommand Cloud capability.
For those with security needs, TrueNAS 12.0 provides dataset encryption. You can even replicate encrypted datasets and zvols from an on-premises system via ZFS replication. This can be done without ever putting the security keys in AWS.
If you want to try out TrueNAS in AWS, then visit the TrueNAS CORE download page and instead of downloading TrueNAS CORE, just download the AWS instructions which include the location of the current AMI images. Once the TrueNAS instance is operating, software can be updated from the web UI and you can back it up to S3 or an on-premises TrueNAS.
If you need help with building a hybrid cloud infrastructure, please contact iXsystems. If you try out the TrueNAS AMI, respond to this post and provide us your feedback.