TrueNAS facts for kids

TrueNAS is the branding for a family of network-attached storage (NAS) products produced by iXsystems. They include both free and open-source and commercial offerings, based on the OpenZFS file system and either FreeBSD or Linux. It is licensed under the terms of the BSD License and runs on both commodity x86-64 hardware and turnkey appliances offered by iXsystems.

TrueNAS supports network clients including Windows, macOS and Unix, as well as a variety of virtualization hosts such as XCP-NG, XenServer and VMware. Supported networking protocols include: SMB, AFP, NFS, iSCSI, SSH, rsync and FTP/TFTP. Advanced TrueNAS features include full-disk encryption and a plug-in architecture for third-party software.

TrueNAS Core and TrueNAS Enterprise are both FreeBSD based, while TrueNAS Scale is the adaptation of TrueNAS Core based on Debian Gnu/Linux.

History

In October 2005, Olivier Cochard-Labbé started the FreeNAS project. He based it on the m0n0wall embedded firewall and FreeBSD 6.0. Volker Theile joined the project in July 2006 and became the project lead in April 2008. In September 2009 the project, then at release .7, was to accommodate modern features such as a plug-in architecture. Volker Theile decided that the project using Debian Linux and shifted his development efforts to the interim CoreNAS project and eventually OpenMediaVault where he continues as the project lead. Cochard-Labbé responded to community objections to "The Debian version of FreeNAS" and resumed activity in the project and oversaw its transfer to FreeNAS user iXsystems. Developers Daisuke Aoyama and Michael Zoon continued developing FreeNAS 7 as the NAS4Free project.

Meanwhile, iXsystems rewrote FreeNAS with a new architecture based on FreeBSD 8.1, releasing FreeNAS 8 Beta in November 2010. The plug-in architecture arrived with FreeNAS 8.2 and FreeNAS versioning was synchronized with FreeBSD for clarity. FreeNAS 8.3 introduced full-disk encryption and FreeBSD 9.1-based FreeNAS 9.1 brought an updated plug-in architecture that is compatible with the TrueOS Warden jail management framework. FreeNAS 9.1 was also the first version of FreeNAS to use the community-supported OpenZFS v5000 with Feature Flags. FreeNAS 9.2, based on FreeBSD 9.2 included performance improvements and introduced a REST API for remote system administration. FreeNAS 9.3, based on FreeBSD 9.3 introduced a ZFS-based boot device, an initial Setup Wizard and a high-performance in-kernel iSCSI server. FreeNAS 9.10, based on FreeBSD 10.3-RC3 brought an end to the FreeNAS/FreeBSD synchronized naming and introduced Graphite monitoring support and experimental support for the bhyve hypervisor.

FreeNAS 10 ALPHA was released, providing a preview of what would become FreeNAS Corral GA on March 15, 2017. FreeNAS Corral introduced a new graphical user interface, command-line interface, underlying middleware, container management system and virtual machine management system. FreeNAS Corral departs from FreeNAS by providing not only NAS functionality but also hyper-converged functionality thanks to its integrated virtual machine support. However, on April 12, 2017 iXsystems announced that FreeNAS Corral would instead be relegated to being a 'Technology Preview', citing issues such as "general instability, lack of feature parity with 9.10 (Jails, iSCSI, etc), and some users experiencing lower performance than expected" and the departure of the project lead. Instead, the decision was made to revert to the existing 9.10 code and bring Corral features to 9.10.3 and further.

In March 2020, iXsystems announced that the 12.0 release will merge the FreeNAS code base with that of their commercial TrueNAS offering. FreeNAS will become TrueNAS CORE while TrueNAS will be renamed TrueNAS Enterprise. This change was made official with the release of TrueNAS 12.0 on October 20, 2020.

In October 2020, iXsystems announced a new product, TrueNAS SCALE would be developed. TrueNAS SCALE would still utilize ZFS, but be based on Debian Linux.

In February 2022, iX announced that TrueNAS SCALE has reached General Availability quality for their 22.02 release.

In May 2022, iX announced that TrueNAS CORE, their FreeBSD-based version of TrueNAS, has reached General Availability and is suitable for large deployments.

TrueNAS CORE (previously FreeNAS) version history

Architecture

The 8.0 reimplementation of FreeNAS moved the project from a m0n0BSD/m0n0wall/PHP-based architecture to one based on FreeBSD's NanoBSD embedded build system, the Python programming language, the Django web application framework and the dōjō toolkit (JavaScript library). It also used the lighttpd web server, but this was replaced with nginx in FreeNAS 8.2. The terminated successor to 9.10.2, known as FreeNAS Corral, retained the nginx web server and ZFS-based boot device of FreeNAS but replaces the Django/dōjō web application framework with an original one. FreeNAS 11 implemented a new interface using Angular.

Awards

• VMware — "Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge, Consumer"
• Sourceforge.net — Project of the Month, January 2007
• InfoWorld — Best of open source in storage
• MES Matters 2022 — Key Vendors Serving the Mid-Market
• Best In Biz Award — Most Innovative Product Line of the Year
• Tech Target Storage Magazine Gold Award — Asigra TrueNAS Backup Appliance
• Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice 2023 for TrueNAS Enterprise
• TrueNAS recognized as a Digital Public Good in 2023

See also

In Spanish: TrueNAS para niños