So, I'm just a new member of this TrueNas Community, but I'm using TrueNAS Core for quite a few years and I have found so many good advices here in this community for several Tasks in my Career for issues about working with TrueNAS. This is a great Community.
Then, I have to thank you iXsystem for all the work, they have done to get TrueNAS Core up and running.
I have also supported TrueNAS by translation it into german. :)
But...
... as I have read about the fact that TrueNAS Core should be "End-of-Life" of FreeBSD (
https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/truenas_abandons_freebsd/). I searched and have found this long Thread.
After reading the hole disscussion I have a few questions:
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As from the start of this Discussion, it was asked about a roadmap for TrueNAS Core. Is there any? I have not found any word about it. I have found other entries for 13.3 (
https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/next-version-of-truenas-core.116418/), but will this be true?
Why wasn't this mentioned until now?
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Kris and several other writes suggested, to move the jails into VM to easier move them to TrueNAS scale. Why?
I have all jails (Web-, Database-, Mail-, Radio-Streaming-, owncast-Streaming-, LDAP-Server) as basejails, or called "FAT-jails".
I see them all as full machines or full VMs and I have all services up and running. Not even on my Storage here in my Business. No, even at my customers side I have the same principle up and running.
As long as they are running, and the oldest macine is running for more than 7 years right now, there was no problem in upgrading TrueNAS-OS, the Software or Applications like nextcloud. I have all software, e.g. nexcloud, from the manufacturer and the upgrading is not a big thing.
For my business-Setup with 7 jails up and running constantly the upgrade of OS and third-party-Software does not take longer than 1 hour.
So, why should I transfer these base-jails into VMs? They work as expected.
If the statement that it is easier to move a VM from TrueNAS Core to TrueNAS scale, then in my opinion this is rather an admission that TrueNAS Core will no longer be further developed by iXsystems.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
And please, think of the fact, that not all enthusiasts of TrueNAS Core/scale/"what-ever" are dev-ops. No, they are not, There are also a wide number of simple Admins, which want to use TrueNAS as NAS and Serving-machines.
Not every admin wants to learn all technologies just because they are "in" in some areas. I do not know Containers very good, but I know that you can't run a Linux-container on FreeBSD.
Why should I? I have jails for separation, and Upgrades, as I have mentioned before are running smoothly.
Containers may be the greatest thing in the world for dev-ops, but for a simple admin who wants to keep his business running, he will be happy if he can build very flexible systems with ZFS and jails and can also count on having a reliable system running in the future.
When I compare, building up a basejail and building up a container, I can not see and advantage for both sides. You have quite some things to do to get them up and running. Installing the Third-Partyx Software on the jail or container is an other way but the same effort.
So why should I use containers?
All my customers are very happy with TrueNAS Core as it is and want to keep it that way in the long term.
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This should be not bashing. Instead this should be a view from a user, which is satisfied with all the thing in TrueNAS Core.
The only Thing is the look into the future. FreeBSD 14 is out, and very good and 13.3 is also there.
Is ther really no statement about a roadmap from TrueNAS Core FreeBSD-based for the long term?
Kind Regards
Robert Friemer