What deployment modes are supported?

[Perry The Cynic]

I've spent some quality time reading the docs and the forums. I'm now faced with needing to deploy some "converged" things that none of the repos seem to have (simple things like a container registry and bind9 support, and not-so-simple stuff like PostGreSQL...), and I'm a wee bit confused as to what deployment modes are supported, and how well. Please note that I'm not asking whether something will work. I'm asking whether IXSystems supports a particular deployment mode such that mistakes within it won't endanger the stability of the NAS and its core functionality, and regular upgrades won't turn my stuff into a shambles every time. (Obviously, if I provide the container, I'm responsible for its content.)

So here's how I understand the current state-of-play, i rough order of stability:

• VMs ("virtualization"): supported, and horrible disasters inside a VM shouldn't affect the NAS itself (except, obviously, where I'm connecting data or networking to it). Drawback: high basic overhead, I need to maintain an OS inside, limited access to NAS resources. Should survive NAS upgrades.
• Official App: supported. Should survive NAS upgrades. It's k3s but I'm supposed to consider that an implementation detail. Drawback: limited functionality, focus on stability over power.
• Docker containers: supported through the "Launch Docker Image" functionality. Shouldn't affect the surrounding NAS except where explicitly connected. Should survive NAS upgrades. Drawback: it's raw Docker.
• Community App: kinda supported, in a "well, it's a bunch of volunteers" kind a way. Might affect stability. Might break horribly during system upgrades, but IXSystems tries to keep things working. Drawback: It looks young and unstable.
• Build-My-Own-App (Helm chart conversion): Might work, but might affect stability. It's up to me to fix it if an upgrade breaks it. Drawback: Got to maintain my own app stuff for a client fleet of one; no clear stability guidelines (that I could find).
• Raw Helm chart: not supported. Might work fine, but system upgrades might just break it.
• Running stuff on the Linux that's inside SCALE: totally unsupported, potentially fatal to stability. Don't even think about it.

What did I get wrong here (I know I'm not perfect )?

At this point, my inclination is to use Official Apps where I can, use Docker containers where reasonably possible, and throw everything else into a single Debian VM that I maintain myself. Does that seem reasonable?

Cheers
-- perry

 

[sretalla]

Most of what you said there is junk.

"Support" and guarantees to have everything on that list "working flawlessly" after upgrades is just some kind of fantasy.

By and large, I would expect things to work since containers generally will, but expecting somebody else to guarantee that for you is unrealistic.

If you want full control of what you're doing (and don't want to just run your own Debian install), you might want to look into this:

GitHub - Jip-Hop/ubernerd: Run Docker and LXC-like containers with a portable install of nerdctl on a systemd based host

Run Docker and LXC-like containers with a portable install of nerdctl on a systemd based host - Jip-Hop/ubernerd

github.com

You can run/install what you like and it's portable, so can't really be blocked by an update (worst case, you switch to vanilla Debian and run it if TrueNAS somehow breaks it).

 

[danb35]

"Support" and guarantees to have everything on that list "working flawlessly" after upgrades is just some kind of fantasy.

I'm thinking you're responding to a different post than the OP, as I don't see anything there about guarantees of working flawlessly--I do see "should survive NAS upgrades," which is IMO a reasonable expectation where OP as put it. "Supported" is, of course, a nebulous concept in this concept, as iX provides fairly minimal support to any of us free users, and the community support (i.e., us) is always on a best-effort basis.

With those caveats, I think OP's listing is mostly accurate, other than that the community apps are a big question mark at this point, and TrueCharts should probably be on the list somewhere.

 

[Perry The Cynic]

Interesting. I kind of thought of TrueCharts as the (the future of) community apps. Did I get that wrong? (I'm new to TrueNAS, so the only history is what I gleaned from the Internet recently.) Oh, and I'm running SCALE.

I should have mentioned that I got a Mini R and did my best to stay within the officially supported hardware. Yes, to a large extent we rely on IX's enterprise customers to keep the ship floating, but having paid the premium price for hardware, I don't quite feel like a freeloader on the dole. I absolutely expect the NAS aspect of TrueNAS to continue working through upgrades for me, at least until the warranty expires and then some. My question is largely what else I can do with this box without losing that support. If the answer is "nothing", that's what I'll do (and load all the infrastructure on a Linux server nearby). But some stuff is either really convenient (container registry) or storage-converged (PostGreSQL), and IX does advertise the "converged" aspect. A lot. That's why I'm worrying over this. Stability is absolutely, for me, winning over convenience.

Cheers
-- perry

 

[danb35]

I kind of thought of TrueCharts as the (the future of) community apps. Did I get that wrong?

Not entirely, but iX have confused the issue by curating their own "official" community apps. Such support as those have is here, while TrueCharts provides their own support through their own channels (mainly their Discord server).