undefined | Better HN

0 pointsdisambiguation11mo ago0 comments

Not OP but TrueNAS is a good alternative - both the software and their all in one NAS builds.

I have an unraid on a usb stick somewhere in my rack, but overtime it started feeling limited, and when they began changing their license structure I decided it was time to switch, though I run it on a Dell r720xd instead of one of their builds (my only complaint is the fan noise - i think 730 and up are better in this regard)

Proxmox was also on my short list for hypervisors if you dont want TrueNAS.

0 comments

chme11mo ago

I also have a TrueNAS, but because of its limitations (read-only root file system), I came to the conclusion that, if I ever need to reinstall it, I would switch to Proxmox and install TrueNAS as one virtual client, next the other clients for my home lab.

I have found workarounds for the read-only root file system. But they aren't great. I have installed Gentoo with a prefix inside the home directory, which provides me with a working compiler and I can install and update packages. This sort of works.

For running services, I installed jailmaker, which starts a lxc debian, with docker-compose. But I am not so happy about that, because I would rather have an atomic system there. I couldn't figure out how to install Fedora CoreOS inside a lxc container, and if that is even possible. Maybe NixOS would be a another option.

But, as I said, for those services I would rather just run them in Proxmox and only use the TrueNAS for the NAS/ZFS management. That provides more flexibility and better system utilization.

GeertJohan11mo ago

I use TrueNAS Scale as root OS and have it run a Linux VM, which is easily done via their 'Virtualization' feature. No need for Proxmox. Afaik it works a lot better to give zfs direct access to underlying hdds. TrueNAS also has an 'Apps' feature, which are basically glorified helm chart installs on k3s that TrueNAS installs for you. But I prefer more control so I have k8s on the Linux VM. Whats also great is that the k8s on the Linux VM can use the TrueNAS storage via democratic-csi.

https://github.com/democratic-csi/democratic-csi

chme11mo ago

I was using Truecharts before k8s was deprecated.

The deprecation caused me to move to something more neutral and stay away from all 'native' apps of TrueNAS and migrated to ordinary docker-compose, because that seem to be the most approachable.

I was also looking into running a Talos k8s cluster, but that didn't seem to be as approachable to me and a bit overkill for a single-node setup.

sokoloff11mo ago

I run Proxmox on the bare metal and pass the HBA through to the TrueNAS VM (so it gets direct access to the attached drives).

therein11mo ago

> I also have a TrueNAS, but because of its limitations (read-only root file system)

It isn't really the case. TrueNAS wants you to look at it as an appliance so they make it work that way out of the box.

On the previous release, they had only commented out the apt repos but you could write to the root filesystem.

On the latest release, they went a little further and did lock the root filesystem by default but using a single command (`sudo /usr/local/libexec/disable-rootfs-protection`), root becomes writable and the commented out apt repos are restored. It just works.

chme11mo ago

But AFAIK, updates will overwrite everything, so installing anything is just temporary.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

chme11mo ago

But, as I said, for those services I would rather just run them in Proxmox and only use the TrueNAS for the NAS/ZFS management. That provides more flexibility and better system utilization.

GeertJohan11mo ago

https://github.com/democratic-csi/democratic-csi

chme11mo ago

I was using Truecharts before k8s was deprecated.

The deprecation caused me to move to something more neutral and stay away from all 'native' apps of TrueNAS and migrated to ordinary docker-compose, because that seem to be the most approachable.

I was also looking into running a Talos k8s cluster, but that didn't seem to be as approachable to me and a bit overkill for a single-node setup.

sokoloff11mo ago

I run Proxmox on the bare metal and pass the HBA through to the TrueNAS VM (so it gets direct access to the attached drives).

therein11mo ago

> I also have a TrueNAS, but because of its limitations (read-only root file system)

It isn't really the case. TrueNAS wants you to look at it as an appliance so they make it work that way out of the box.

On the previous release, they had only commented out the apt repos but you could write to the root filesystem.

chme11mo ago

But AFAIK, updates will overwrite everything, so installing anything is just temporary.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse