Starting TrueNAS Core/TrueNAS Scale for New Users

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
my problem is

cwow0jG.jpg


see the problem? suppose to have 12TB storage but now existing less than 9tb left even tot i delete the files already...

the delete files storage space doesn't appear

Relooked at your zfs list. Realized It is not showing the full picture. Just the "NAS" data-set

My only guess is that the missing storage was locked in other application/data-sets/pools, which you will need to sort it out or delete.

You could just type "zpool list" and "zfs list" without the data-set at the back to help you have a better overview of the storage utilization.

Some characteristics of truenas/zfs: When you update the system, the system will still keep a copy of the previous version. For example, If the system file is 10GB, before the update maybe you have 100GB of capacity for plain storage. After update, you might be left with 90GB of storage (where the system re-adjust). Only when you delete the previous version, will you release the capacity. This also applies to installing jails, updating jails. Sometimes, snap shots might also be holding on to the data causing the data to continue keep a copy on your pool (HDD) until the snapshots have been deleted. This the reason why when you create snapshot task, you always set an "expiry date" (1-3mths) on the snapshots.

Still unsure how truenas/zfs works. You can read up or check out the official TrueNAS forum.

This thread can help you get started, but a lot of reading/researching still need to do it yourself to explore further into zfs. It is an "unconventional" file system.​
 
Last edited:

Mach3.2

Great Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2011
Messages
71,497
Reaction score
1,435
I feel the need to say, when you self-roll FOSS solutions like pfSense and TrueNAS, whatever you save on licensing, you pay for it in terms of time and effort spent being your own tech support. If you hit a snag, your first thought should be to Google for a solutiion or refer to documentation (afaik IX systems publishes pretty detailed documentation for TrueNAS).

Realistically you can't wait for people on froums to be your tech support. It gets kinda tiring after awhile when a person kept asking questions that can be easily answered if he refers to documentation or put in effort doing the necessary Google-fu.
 

loganrunning

Senior Member
Joined
May 12, 2017
Messages
1,330
Reaction score
414
I feel the need to say, when you self-roll FOSS solutions like pfSense and TrueNAS, whatever you save on licensing, you pay for it in terms of time and effort spent being your own tech support. If you hit a snag, your first thought should be to Google for a solutiion or refer to documentation (afaik IX systems publishes pretty detailed documentation for TrueNAS).

Realistically you can't wait for people on froums to be your tech support. It gets kinda tiring after awhile when a person kept asking questions that can be easily answered if he refers to documentation or put in effort doing the necessary Google-fu.
Agree! i also think that roll-your-own is not suitable for everyone. Autodidacts and self-learners ok, but for those who can't/won't drive their own self-learning, it is actually better to pay someone else to do it, whether custom or COTS.
 

DarthGW

Arch-Supremacy Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2001
Messages
19,447
Reaction score
43
any good mitx board to recommend? i am looking to use U-Nas NSC200 as the base to build.
 

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
any good mitx board to recommend? i am looking to use U-Nas NSC200 as the base to build.

Any mitx motherboards with 4 or more SATA ports are recommended, subjected to the CPU you chose. If your motherboard comes with an M.2, you can also convert it to 5-6 SATA ports with an adaptor. If there is a choice, I will go with a server/workstation motherboard. Another consideration will be whether you want to go with ECC memory. I run both ECC and non-ECC on TrueNAS. The ECC storage servers generally give me less quirkiness which I run for production. For home use, non-ECC works well too.

Can check out the first page of the thread on some other HW recommendations, eg UPS, chassis, etc.

As for motherboard, can check out here:
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/...as-core-for-new-users.6480129/#post-132985336
 

steven168z

Master Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
3,302
Reaction score
133

Any mitx motherboards with 4 or more SATA ports are recommended, subjected to the CPU you chose. If your motherboard comes with an M.2, you can also convert it to 5-6 SATA ports with an adaptor. If there is a choice, I will go with a server/workstation motherboard. Another consideration will be whether you want to go with ECC memory. I run both ECC and non-ECC on TrueNAS. The ECC storage servers generally give me less quirkiness which I run for production. For home use, non-ECC works well too.

Can check out the first page of the thread on some other HW recommendations, eg UPS, chassis, etc.

As for motherboard, can check out here:
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/...as-core-for-new-users.6480129/#post-132985336

i saw somewhere convert might result in low performance for M.2 to sata adapter and it say it is better to get LSI HBA SAS card
 

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
when buiidling NAS how to have low watt and good SMB performance

SSD, low watt CPU, 10G NIC, 10G switches, etc

You will find a lot of examples online.

No point having good SMB performance when your local network only at 1G. Before you hit your PCIe bus bottleneck, you first hit your network bottleneck.
 
Last edited:

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
*BUMP UP - APC UPS for TrueNAS Core & pfSense*
Re-posting this information for awareness since users query on UPS requirements and settings. Hope this will be of help to those. The APC UPSes recommended here will be suitable for both TrueNAS Core and pfSense. Both could be configured to self initiate a proper shut down during power outages or power trip. If you are consolidating your network appliance (excluding NASes) onto 1 UPS, a single unit of APC Back-UPS BX700U-MS will suffice.
Lower Capacity (may be suitable for 1-2 NAS units):
APC Back-UPS BX700U-MS
KlcofAS.png


Higher Capacity for (may be suitable for 1-2 NAS units and a pc):
APC Back-UPS BX1400U-MS
o4xZ8NH.png


*Connecting APC UPS to TrueNAS Core system through USB & Configuring UPS settings*
Master and Slave UPS setting under "Services" section:

*In this way, when power is lost for a set period of time, the slave will initiate a proper shut down followed by the master. So you do not need 2 UPS for 2 different system. However, you need to set static IPs for both NAS system.
For Eg: Master NAS is 192.168.1.2, Slave is 192.168.1.3​

On Master NAS: Auxiliary Parameters to key in: "LISTEN 192.168.1.2"
NXEPssp.jpg


On Slave NAS: Remote Host is the Master NAS IP at 192.168.1.2, Port or Hostname is the Slave NAS IP at 192.168.1.3
bg5E7T4.jpg


Set up Gmail notification:
*During power lost or shut down, the NAS system will send you email notification or to report any errors/warnings/alerts/emergencies.
0ffkzMA.jpg
 

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
**RECAP (PLS READ/WATCH): ZFS, ZPOOLS and VDEVS**

It seems to me that the queries on TrueNAS that I frequently received, circle around on why ZFS (Zetta File System) behave this/that way (eg. cannot delete the files), how it handles data pools/vdevs, how snapshots work, why it could prevent ransomware and why even major cloud providers use it. The problem with most is thinking that it should behave the same way like any other file system, but the fact is "it isn't". ZFS is a really "smart" file system where it could help you to secure your data for the years (even decades) to come if you start using it now. Therefore, I recommend users to read/watch the ZFS intro & video below to gain a deeper understanding of ZFS, and most importantly..."Why ZFS"?.

A good introduction from servethehome:
https://www.servethehome.com/an-introduction-to-zfs-a-place-to-start/

zfs, vdev, pool design explained:



One of the most insightful and detailed video on ZFS from Level1Linux:



 
Last edited:

xiaofan

Arch-Supremacy Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Messages
18,102
Reaction score
2,878
From what I read, ZFS is good under FreeBSD and thus it is good for TrueNAS Core (which is based on FreeBSD).

As for Linux, not so sure about that. The support seems to be inferiors compared to other Linux native filesystems. At least I would not use ZFS for my Linux machines.
 

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
From what I read, ZFS is good under FreeBSD and thus it is good for TrueNAS Core (which is based on FreeBSD).

As for Linux, not so sure about that. The support seems to be inferiors compared to other Linux native filesystems. At least I would not use ZFS for my Linux machines.

On Linux, I will not use ZFS as a native file system too. I will only use ZFS on FreeBSD (pfsense), or as an appliance on it own, serving a Linux server or VM through NFS or iSCSI.

TrueNAS Scale will be based on Debian.

Been using the Beta version (not ready for production) for quite a while on my test lab. No issue......yet.

Join in the beta testing to speed up the development.​




Got more time, watch this:
 
Last edited:

croc1977

Banned
Joined
Mar 30, 2002
Messages
46,256
Reaction score
2,211
just a question currently i am running 4 x 4tb hdd with one hdd failure

can i upgrade to 6 x 4tb with one hot spare? i try read around i can't even as brand new storage.
 

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
**TrueNAS Core 12 U8 Updates, Bug Fixes, Samba CVE-2021-44142, and Other Security Fixes**

For long time users of FreeNAS, it might be time to upgrade to TrueNAS 12 U8. This will also be the last TrueNAS 12 update before moving to TrueNAS 13. For those who somehow exposed their Samba to external access (which you should not), do update to this version to solve the Samba CVE-2021-44142 vulnerability. I have updated all my system to U8 and not experiencing any stability issue. However, if you do experience any problem with the new update, just revert back to the previous version.

Check out the changlog here:
https://www.truenas.com/docs/releasenotes/core/12.0u8/

Feel free to check out the video from Tom of Lawrence system on the U8 update:
 
Last edited:

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
just a question currently i am running 4 x 4tb hdd with one hdd failure

can i upgrade to 6 x 4tb with one hot spare? i try read around i can't even as brand new storage.

ZFS allows you to add an additional vdev, it doesn't allow you to grow an existing vdev. It is recommended to add similar vdevs (4x HDD for your case) to extend the pool and retain the same redundancy.

You are not looking at the right places. Answers could be easily found on TrueNAS forum:
https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/add-a-drive-to-existing-vdev.76511/

As for adding hotspare. You can add it anytime. Just take note that when you add a "hot spare", the storage capacity simply stays the same. But when any drive fails within the pool, the hot spare will immediately replace it.

Since you have a failed HDD, this video will be useful to you.
 

croc1977

Banned
Joined
Mar 30, 2002
Messages
46,256
Reaction score
2,211
ZFS allows you to add an additional vdev, it doesn't allow you to grow an existing vdev. It is recommended to add similar vdevs (4x HDD for your case) to extend the pool and retain the same redundancy.

You are not looking at the right places. Answers could be easily found on TrueNAS forum:
https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/add-a-drive-to-existing-vdev.76511/

As for adding hotspare. You can add it anytime. Just take note that when you add a "hot spare", the storage capacity simply stays the same. But when any drive fails within the pool, the hot spare will immediately replace it.

Since you have a failed HDD, this video will be useful to you.

no i don't have a hdd failure...but just wanted 2 additional hdd to current pool

looking for 6 hdd with 1 failure (5+1)

possible?
 

TanKianW

Supremacy Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
5,905
Reaction score
2,220
**Thread Title Update: Adding TrueNAS Scale (On Debian) Content on this Thread Moving Forward**

As TrueNAS Scale (on Debian) will soon become a reality and shaping to be a really interesting project for the future, this thread will naturally extend (like vdevs) into this area/territory. Been testing and contributing to the project since it has been initially launched. Along the way I have also converted some of my worklab (rack mount) storage systems, load some VMs for more rigorous field testing. Even though there are still some bugs till this day which is normal for any new development, it is slowly shaping to be the main stream storage server system that is both enterprise focused and user focused, yet it is "Opensource"!!​

Therefore, I have also renamed the thread to include "TrueNAS Scale" projects in the future.

A Recap to TrueNAS Scale Features:
6Y7RVts.png


Like to know more on TrueNAS Scale, check out its documentation here:
https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/

TrueNAS Scale 22.02-RC2 Changelog:
https://www.truenas.com/docs/releasenotes/scale/22.02-rc.2/

Download page here:
https://www.truenas.com/download-tn-scale/
 
Last edited:

croc1977

Banned
Joined
Mar 30, 2002
Messages
46,256
Reaction score
2,211
hi all since i cannot just expand the existing harddisk pool with add on hdd . i understand that the only way is to add a new hdd with increase size.

so currently 4tb x 4 for me

so i will slowly buy a 8tb and increase but will i able to use 8tb space when i upgrade slowly or only once i upgrade all 4 to 8tb then the pool size will increase?

https://www.ixsystems.com/documenta...rage.html#replacing-drives-to-grow-a-zfs-pool
when to read this but can't really understand fully

8.1.12. Enabling ZFS Pool Expansion​

It is recommended to enable the autoexpand property before you start replacing drives. If the property is not enabled before replacing some or all of the drives, extra configuration is needed to inform ZFS of the expanded capacity.

Verify that autoexpand is set as described in the previous section. Then, bring each of the drives back online with the following command, replacing the volume name and GPT ID for each disk in the ZFS pool:

zpool online -e Vol1 gptid/xxx

Online one drive at a time and check the status using the following example. If a drive starts to resilver, you need to wait for the resilver to complete before proceeding to online the next drive.

To find the GPT ID informatio
 
Important Forum Advisory Note
This forum is moderated by volunteer moderators who will react only to members' feedback on posts. Moderators are not employees or representatives of HWZ. Forum members and moderators are responsible for their own posts.

Please refer to our Community Guidelines and Standards, Terms of Service and Member T&Cs for more information.
Top