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After a very successful development cycle with thousands of downloads and deployments, TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 is now available for download. TrueNAS SCALE “Angelfish” is maturing for single node use and is almost feature complete for multi-node or scale-out use. Unlike other HyperConverged Infrastructure (HCI) solutions, TrueNAS SCALE will have deployment benefits as a single node, a dual-node “high-availability” system, or as a cluster of multiple nodes.
TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 is planned to be the last ALPHA version on the path toward BETA. TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 is based on Debian “Bullseye” Linux and includes:
KVM Virtualization:
Mature Hypervisor with good reliability, Guest OS support, and enterprise features. This hypervisor is performing well in the field with our early adopters.
Kubernetes:
3rd Party Applications can now be deployed as a single (docker) image or “pods” of containers. Using Helm Charts, complex applications can now be easily deployed with dynamic charts, giving users fine-grained control and flexibility. TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 now includes the ability to utilize community-provided catalogs, including TrueCharts. The screen capture below shows the power of the UI and Kubernetes integration.
GPU Passthrough:
TrueNAS SCALE 21.02 introduced Intel QuickSync GPU passthrough to containers. Version 21.04 improves this support by bringing NVIDIA GPU/CUDA passthrough to the UI and containers as well. Now containers which have GPU offload capabilities, such as Plex, can take advantage of a wider-range of GPU hardware. The sharing of GPU resources across multiple containers simultaneously is also supported.
Scale-out ZFS:
Cluster volumes which span multiple nodes and ZFS pools can be created to provide scalable and robust data stores. The web UI for these is included in TrueCommand 2.0 which is available as a nightly image. The screen capture below shows a Cluster Volume being created across 3 nodes.
The UI, while similar to TrueNAS CORE, has also been improved with some new UX enhancements across the ‘Data Protection’ and ’Sharing’ sub-sections. Further UX improvements are expected to arrive in version 21.06.
In the 21.02 version, we also introduced the new TrueNAS CLI that uses the API and persists all changes. This CLI will make it easier to script the set-up and configuration of TrueNAS. Feedback on the CLI has been very positive and has provided much assistance in its rapid maturation for field-use.
In March, the TrueNAS CORE documentation received a major facelift which greatly improved navigation and ease of use. TrueNAS SCALE documentation is taking shape as a clone of TrueNAS CORE which has many of the same configuration options. TrueNAS SCALE documentation is starting its journey to completeness and includes both Developer Notes and Release Notes.
We appreciate the community feedback and bug reports and hope to get SCALE to production quality faster. A special thanks also goes to the large number of community members who joined the development and test team. We’ve really appreciated your contributions and teamwork which have greatly contributed to the accelerated development process.
Is TrueNAS SCALE for Users or Developers?
At this ALPHA stage of its Software Development Lifecycle, TrueNAS SCALE is still primarily for developers and enthusiasts and can be downloaded here. For Linux developers, there are many opportunities to contribute to the Open Source TrueNAS SCALE project and we have a vibrant Slack community for contributors. It is a well coordinated and managed environment to develop the best Open Hyperconverged Infrastructure. For more information, see this community post.
This TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 version is also intended for tech-savvy enthusiasts who have a single node, a backup plan, and a willingness to resolve any issues they find. The feedback from enthusiasts has been good and the Kubernetes capabilities simplify the addition of applications.
Users with standard NAS (NFS, SMB, iSCSI, S3) requirements are still advised to use TrueNAS CORE and Enterprise, which have five hundred times more data under management and over 10 years of operation. If you have any additional questions or need advice on a new project, please email us at info@iXsystems.com. We are standing by to help.
TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 is planned to be the last ALPHA version on the path toward BETA. TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 is based on Debian “Bullseye” Linux and includes:
KVM Virtualization:
Mature Hypervisor with good reliability, Guest OS support, and enterprise features. This hypervisor is performing well in the field with our early adopters.
Kubernetes:
3rd Party Applications can now be deployed as a single (docker) image or “pods” of containers. Using Helm Charts, complex applications can now be easily deployed with dynamic charts, giving users fine-grained control and flexibility. TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 now includes the ability to utilize community-provided catalogs, including TrueCharts. The screen capture below shows the power of the UI and Kubernetes integration.
GPU Passthrough:
TrueNAS SCALE 21.02 introduced Intel QuickSync GPU passthrough to containers. Version 21.04 improves this support by bringing NVIDIA GPU/CUDA passthrough to the UI and containers as well. Now containers which have GPU offload capabilities, such as Plex, can take advantage of a wider-range of GPU hardware. The sharing of GPU resources across multiple containers simultaneously is also supported.
Scale-out ZFS:
Cluster volumes which span multiple nodes and ZFS pools can be created to provide scalable and robust data stores. The web UI for these is included in TrueCommand 2.0 which is available as a nightly image. The screen capture below shows a Cluster Volume being created across 3 nodes.
The UI, while similar to TrueNAS CORE, has also been improved with some new UX enhancements across the ‘Data Protection’ and ’Sharing’ sub-sections. Further UX improvements are expected to arrive in version 21.06.
In the 21.02 version, we also introduced the new TrueNAS CLI that uses the API and persists all changes. This CLI will make it easier to script the set-up and configuration of TrueNAS. Feedback on the CLI has been very positive and has provided much assistance in its rapid maturation for field-use.
In March, the TrueNAS CORE documentation received a major facelift which greatly improved navigation and ease of use. TrueNAS SCALE documentation is taking shape as a clone of TrueNAS CORE which has many of the same configuration options. TrueNAS SCALE documentation is starting its journey to completeness and includes both Developer Notes and Release Notes.
We appreciate the community feedback and bug reports and hope to get SCALE to production quality faster. A special thanks also goes to the large number of community members who joined the development and test team. We’ve really appreciated your contributions and teamwork which have greatly contributed to the accelerated development process.
Is TrueNAS SCALE for Users or Developers?
At this ALPHA stage of its Software Development Lifecycle, TrueNAS SCALE is still primarily for developers and enthusiasts and can be downloaded here. For Linux developers, there are many opportunities to contribute to the Open Source TrueNAS SCALE project and we have a vibrant Slack community for contributors. It is a well coordinated and managed environment to develop the best Open Hyperconverged Infrastructure. For more information, see this community post.
This TrueNAS SCALE 21.04 version is also intended for tech-savvy enthusiasts who have a single node, a backup plan, and a willingness to resolve any issues they find. The feedback from enthusiasts has been good and the Kubernetes capabilities simplify the addition of applications.
Users with standard NAS (NFS, SMB, iSCSI, S3) requirements are still advised to use TrueNAS CORE and Enterprise, which have five hundred times more data under management and over 10 years of operation. If you have any additional questions or need advice on a new project, please email us at info@iXsystems.com. We are standing by to help.
