TrueNAS SCALE Announcement and Nightly Image Downloads

Ericloewe

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ne other noteworthy thing I'd like to add. SSDs don't significantly improve your boot times over USB (even against USB 2.0).
They do, however, massively speed up updates and other boot device manipulations, when compared against a USB flash drive that's been in use (i.e. fragmented) for a while. Even if it weren't for the reliability, that alone would make a small SSD worth it.
 

JoeAtWork

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IMO you should make this clearer during the next few updates and in the docs. I just found out about it recently when my stick died.

I think it would be cool to have a check box with a number of version to keep so that your system data set kept x versions of your config, each time you made a change, like the way the pfSense guys do it....
 

doozer

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2. iXsystems has been recommending against using USB in the manual since around 9.3 (March 2015ish or so).

Prior to 9.3 we were using UFS on the boot devices in a read-only mode (aside from upgrading) so there was negligible writes to the boot devices. The only mountpoint on the boot device that was regularly in a writeable condition was /data (where the config file was).

The 11.2 FreeNAS documentation still called out USB as the first entry in the install media list

Use the arrow keys to highlight the destination USB drive, SSD, DOM (Disk on Module), or virtual disk.

And still makes specific reference in the 11.3 install docs under the Operating System Device section to using USB devices (as in you need two USB devices to install to USB)
 
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JoeAtWork

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maybe a good quality SD card and a usb adapter is a better boot device than a usb thub drive. I really wish we could install to a pair of mirrored SSD drives and still use part of those drives for a second zvol or a special vdev
 

Ericloewe

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I doubt that, certainly with any SD card cheaper than a real SSD.
 

danb35

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The 11.2 FreeNAS documentation still called out USB as the first entry in the install media list
That's not what I see in that manual:
1594480106775.png

And still makes specific reference in the 11.3 install docs under the Operating System Device section to using USB devices
Why shouldn't it? It's not like they're prohibited or won't work--they just aren't usually a very good idea.
 

inman.turbo

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The media shouldn't be too important compared to other operating systems. Other crap needs full image back up and needs to be dd'ed around. To migrate (or restore) Freenas I just install it fresh and import my latest config backup. I use ssd though (really qcow2, zvol, or lvm on ssd) just because that's what I typically have onboad. I don't usually leave usb devices plugged in to my servers.
 

joeschmuck

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So it looks like we have all come to the realization that the docs and software should be updated to remove references to USB Flash Drives and instead promote SSD/Hard Drive.

I'm interested in trying out the new SCALE project now that I have my server back up and running after moving.
 

ornias

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So it looks like we have all come to the realization that the docs and software should be updated to remove references to USB Flash Drives and instead promote SSD/Hard Drive.
Yeah it should be "preferably an SSD, but a USB drive might also work for you", not the other way around.
Although I need to say: Using high-grade and slightly more expansive dual USB drives i've never had an issue...

I'm interested in trying out the new SCALE project.
Same here, I might evenrun alpha in home production (with a TrueNAS box as backup, no worries)... As soon as the Docker UI hits. Just because I would love to have docker and TrueNAS on the same system with the full hardware transcoding Linux offers :D
 

joeschmuck

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ame here, I might evenrun alpha in home production (with a TrueNAS box as backup, no worries)... As soon as the Docker UI hits. Just because I would love to have docker and TrueNAS on the same system with the full hardware transcoding Linux offers :D
I plan to setup a VM on ESXi soon and give it a shot. Being Beta now I'm sure there will be problems but I'm not a stranger to FreeNAS in Beta. I recall FreeNAS 8.0 when we were involved with that, all the testing and compiling of code and more testing. It was a good time actually. But my programming days are over, the young kids have it now, but I'm fine testing and reporting issues.
 

diskdiddler

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Yeah it should be "preferably an SSD, but a USB drive might also work for you", not the other way around.
Although I need to say: Using high-grade and slightly more expansive dual USB drives i've never had an issue...


Same here, I might evenrun alpha in home production (with a TrueNAS box as backup, no worries)... As soon as the Docker UI hits. Just because I would love to have docker and TrueNAS on the same system with the full hardware transcoding Linux offers :D

I continue to be on my 6'th year now of USB use with a single failure and on top of that, the 'failed' disk passed tests once moved to Windows.
USB has served my needs flawlessly. Saved me money, heat, power, noise, SATA ports.

I'll continue to use 2xUSB as long as it's possible.
 

joeschmuck

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I continue to be on my 6'th year now of USB use with a single failure and on top of that, the 'failed' disk passed tests once moved to Windows.
USB has served my needs flawlessly. Saved me money, heat, power, noise, SATA ports.

I'll continue to use 2xUSB as long as it's possible.
And you know what, I support your decision. You understand the risks and how the system operates. You also apparently have good USB Flash Drives. If you were a novice here I would advice against it because many people want the system to function perfectly for years and years without them needing to troubleshoot a single problem and a USB Flash has been proven to be problematic in the past. I know it's better now because writes to the drive have been significantly reduced, but it sounds like TrueNAS will not be taking into account these write operations in favor of a hard drive/SSD. For those folks who use USB connectivity, I would assume they could just add a USB Hard Drive and keep on rolling.

I've had a USB Flash drive indicate bad on FreeNAS as well and when brought into Windoze it was fine. I'm not sure what causes that, if there is a flaw in FreeNAS, FreeBSD, Windoze, or all the above. It is possible that Windoze mapped the bad block out from use, heck I'm sure I may never know.
 

Kris Moore

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I continue to be on my 6'th year now of USB use with a single failure and on top of that, the 'failed' disk passed tests once moved to Windows.
USB has served my needs flawlessly. Saved me money, heat, power, noise, SATA ports.

I'll continue to use 2xUSB as long as it's possible.

Nothing wrong with you doing this. All we can do is recommend what is ideal to ensure the best-possible TrueNAS experience down the road for the biggest % of people. If you're an advanced user, know how to purchase *quality* USB drives, and are prepared to deal with any boot-device issues, then obviously you can run whatever you please.
 

diskdiddler

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As long as y'all don't remove the support, I'm happy. I don't expect developers to spend hundreds of hours fine tuning the USB support, but I would be a little sad, if say a USB breaking design decision wa sput in place and people kind of figured "we can't be bothered fixing it"

It's baffling why I've had such luck - but I have and so have others.

I'm looking forward to making some kind of cups, docker container, with USB support, under Scale - to get rid of a $5 Orange Pi 0 in the house too! Hoping to switch from TrueNAS Core to Scale in about 12 to 18 months. (when it doesn't burn the house down) ♥
 

zamana

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For those who arrived here and don't want to read the whole thread, this is a post to announce the availability of TrueNAS Scale nightly downloads, followed by 27 messages discussing a question which the "TL;DR" version is:

"Technically speaking, may I use an USB sticky as boot? Yes.
Should I? Do you recommend? No."

Thanks.
Regards.
 
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joeschmuck

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or those who arrived here and don't want to read the whole thread, this is a post to announce the availability of TrueNAS Scale nightly downloads, followed by 27 messages discussing a question which the "TL;DR" version is:
Awe, you should have started with "Spoiler Alert", now I can't go back and enjoy the feeling of reading it for the first time. :confused:
 

PackElend

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I have quick question can TrueNAS SCALE be operated on a single node machine with the same (or may even less) hardware spec as necessary for TrueNAS CORE. I'm particularly interested in the additional viruztklization features.

I ask as on https://www.truenas.com/help-me-choose/ it said that
can run on any TrueNAS system with higher than 10Gbe support.
that sounds like it can be run in a professional environment only but on https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/truenas-scale-release-plan.87266/ a home user release date is shown
 

anodos

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I have quick question can TrueNAS SCALE be operated on a single node machine with the same (or may even less) hardware spec as necessary for TrueNAS CORE. I'm particularly interested in the additional viruztklization features.

I ask as on https://www.truenas.com/help-me-choose/ it said that

that sounds like it can be run in a professional environment only but on https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/truenas-scale-release-plan.87266/ a home user release date is shown

I have a couple of development systems running SCALE on Atom C3758 boards (8-core) with a couple of VMs on each of them. No stability issues and performs quite well. I don't know if this is considered a "professional" board. It's comparable to what's in the "FreeNAS Mini XL+".
 
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