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TrueNAS has transformed into the world’s most popular open storage operating system.TrueNAS It’s both a SAN and NAS unified storage hybrid that enables you to build your own professional-grade storage.

Blog | Why is TrueNAS popular?

April 1st 2022
 
truenas

Why is TrueNAS popular?

Judith Appiagyei - Marketing assistant - DiGiCOR

We witness many trends that come and go in our lifetime. Some linger for a long time, some are only momentarily, and others transform to become part of our daily lives. Following trends can trigger a sense of belonging and can enable us to connect in a particular moment. Our conception of trends has been further emphasized by the Covid pandemic. We’ve seen robots being used to disinfect surfaces and deliver food, drones used to deliver items, and the growth of edge computing and artificial intelligence. Although some may argue that trends are pointless, there’s no denying that these discoveries can sometimes be life-changing. This brings us to the topic of interest; Trueness. This trend has become a popular subject topic amongst platforms such as Reddit, with some people praising the solid open-source. One Reddit user even defended TrueNAS, stating that “if something becomes popular someone will hate it”. So, this got us wondering; why is there so much hype surrounding TrueNAS? In this blog post, we will go into detail about why TrueNAS is so popular by highlighting the key benefits of TrueNAS CORE, TrueNAS enterprise, TrueNAS Scale, and the the13.0 release.  

What is TrueNAS?

After unifying with FreeNAS, which is now TrueNAS CORE, TrueNAS has transformed into the world’s most popular open storage operating system.  TrueNAS It’s both a SAN and NAS unified storage hybrid that enables you to build your own professional-grade storage. In addition, it also allows you to operate a range of data-intensive applications without any software costs on a reliable and robust Zettabyte File System (ZFS) base. Overall, TrueNAS is an easy way to create a safe, secure, centralized, and easily accessible place for your data. 

Are upgrades from FreeNAS to TrueNAS easy? 

Yes, it definitely is! You can update to the latest FreeNAS, which is 11.3, and then upgrade to the latest version of TrueNAS. Although it is easy to web update, it’s better to upgrade your systems using ZPool feature flags after validating your performance and functionality. 

What does TrueNAS offer?

TrueNAS offers a range of Key Capabilities such as file services, block services, object storage services, application services, ZFS data management, and hardware flexibility. These terms might seem meaningless to you without proper dissecting; so, allow me to break down these terms and go into detail about each of these key capabilities for you. 

File services 
NFSv3/v4 and Windows SMB deliver the base. Windows rapport (Active Directory, Shadow copies) is outstanding, and on top of that, ZFS heightens it with exceptional performance and features. 

Block services
iSCSI utilized for virtualization and backup, or alternately other applications that require block storage. Highly dependable (RAID-Z1/Z2/Z3, scrubbing, and replication) guarantees that block storage is extremely safe. 

Object storage services
S3 API source and target are needed for many modern applications.  Mimica local S3 service using the compatible Minio API or sync data with AWS S3 and other cloud services for long-term archive.

Application services
Jails, plugins, and VMs simplify application deployments and reduce the physical footprints required. Plex, NextCloud, Asigra, and various other applications can be integrated into the NAS and receive all the benefits of ZFS.

ZFS data management 
Enables data to be managed and protected simply and consistently. When hardware failures or operator errors occur, ZFS, with its built-in RAID, and powerful data management tools, can automatically issue tools to detect and repair silent data corruption and continue operating

truenas zfs

TrueNAS can be installed virtually on any hardware platform and is great for home, business, and enterprise applications.There are three Variants of TrueNAS; TrueNAS CORE, TrueNAS enterprise and TrueNAS Scale. I will highlight these three editions for you. 

TrueNAS CORE

truenas core

 

TrueNAS CORE is an abbreviation of Community supported, Open Source, Rapid development, and Early availability. It enables you to protect and share your company data or personal items such as family photos securely. It is ideal for IT professionals, designers, audio/video producers and editors, and anyone passionate about storing and protecting significant data. You can download TrueNAS CORE for free on the TrueNAS website.

TrueNAS Enterprise 

TrueNAS enterprise provides additional benefits for businesses seeking stability and maximum uptime. Such as; dual nodes via redundant controllers, fiber channel support, KMIP, and certifications for VMware, Veeam, Citrix, etc. in addition, TrueNAS enterprise offers the ultimate data protection with enterprise-grade hardware to illuminate concerns of storage and data management and ensures your data is always secure and available. Other benefits include:

True Storage Freedom

Free your data and your budget from proprietary systems and costly vendor lock-in. With our all-inclusive licensing model, you pay one price for all the features with no hidden fees to drive up costs. Available in all-flash or hybrid disk/flash configurations, TrueNAS can be deployed as both a NAS and a SAN and supports block, file, and object protocols

Flexible & Future-Proof

Whether you need a compact system for a remote office or a high-performance, rack-scale solution, there is a TrueNAS Enterprise system to fit your needs. Grow a system from a few terabytes to twenty petabytes on a single head unit. Scalable performance can be tuned to fit the specific needs of your workload or application. Easily integrate TrueNAS into any environment with built-in support for all major hypervisors and cloud backup services. TrueNAS Enterprise is flexible storage that adapts to your ever-changing infrastructure requirements.

When Downtime is Not an Option

When your business can’t afford to go offline, a TrueNAS system with high availability is your number one choice. Full redundancy of all active components and simple serviceability minimizes failover time and maximizes uptime for mission-critical processes. In the unlikely event that failover occurs, all services automatically start on the second controller for uninterrupted access.

US-Based Professional Support

Every TrueNAS Enterprise system is fully backed by our dedicated professional support team. Enterprise support services with 24×365 coverage and onsite support options are backed by a global spares network to ensure international users receive the same great service.truenas core and enterprise

And lastly, the last edition; TrueNAS Scale

Similar to TrueNAS CORE, TrueNAS Scale is also free. TrueNAS Scale is multi-node to allow scaling out of the hardware. It delivers an Open Source Hyperconverged Infrastructure including Linus containers and VMs and makes applications deployment easy. In addition, with support for KVM virtual machines, Kubernetes, and Docker containers, it’s easy to customize and add applications to suit a wide variety of needs. Finally, you’re able to cluster many systems together with SCALE and manage them all with TrueCommand. TrueCommand initially makes it easy to monitor and administer all of your systems from a single, easy-to-use dashboard. It’s clear that these three variants are ideal for any particular use case. TrueNAS Scale is available to download through the TrueNAS website.

TrueNAS 13.0-BETA 1 

However, the 13.0 release will include updated OpenZFS to 2.1, optimizations for large systems with heavy disk usage, improved Machine Check Architecture support, and more. In addition, 13.0 documentation is based on 12.0 docs which were more modular and expandable. It is currently in serious testing by the community. You can express your experience via the TrueNAS community 13.0 forum here. https://www.truenas.com/community/forums/truenas-13/. 13.0 release will be much faster than TrueNAS 12.0, and it’s expected that the transition from 12.0 to TrueNAS 13.0 will be very smooth due to the consistency of the software architecture. Overall, the 13.0 release will have more benefits that users can further enjoy. 

truenas 13.0

Conclusion

It’s evident that TrueNAS is popular because it’s fast, safe, economical, it’s the world’s most actively developed Storage ARRAY, it saves physical storage, and it's enterprise-ready. Although some trends may not be measurably beneficial, this one surely is. So, what are you waiting for? Part-take in a life-changing decision and trigger a sense of belonging by checking out TrueNAS enterprise systems on our website today!
 

 

 

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