Ability to switch TrueNAS to an Offline mode as it does not have internet access

Feature Requests
,
1

Problem/Justification
(What is the problem you are trying to solve with this feature/improvement or why should it be considered?)

OurTrueNAS Scale server only has access to the internet as and when required, and a consequence of not having internet access is that there are continuous critical notifications logged like the following:

/*
Failed to sync TRUENAS catalog: [EFAULT] Failed to clone ‘GitHub - truenas/charts: TrueNAS SCALE Apps Catalogs & Charts’ repository at ‘/mnt/data/ix-applications/catalogs/github_com_truenas_charts_git_master’ destination:…
*/

This in turn causes unecessary alerts that maintenance staff have to investigate and acknowledge.

By having an offline mode capability, these alerts will not occur, and therefore save time and effort in investigating them.

We have been using TrueNAS from when it was orginally FreeNAS, and as the system evolved, more requirements for internet access has been the norm in order to facilitate ease of use.

But the system does not require 24x7 internet access for it to function on a daily basis, unless you have remote users, but then they should be connecting via secure methods.

It would be a matter of choice for the user to decide whether to use such a facility.

Impact
(How is this feature going to impact all TrueNAS users? What are the benefits and advantages? Are there disadvantages?)

There should really be no impact to TrueNAS users as long as they are aware of the state of their system. Perhaps displaying the state on the dashboard.

User Story
(Please give a short description on how you envision some user taking advantage of this feature, what are the steps a user will follow to accomplish it)

It could provide a measure of security, as the system would not be connected to the internet all the time, and only enabled for updates as and when required.

The “System Information” widget on the dashboard could provide a button, much like the “Check For Updates” which will perform the said action, and change the colour of the widget accordingly.

Just to say a big thanks for all the efforts the TrueNAS team already provides. This requirement is just a small want compared to what TRueNAS already delivers.

2

I believe you don’t necessarily need a feature request: I recall a similar thread, iX staff contacted that thread OP to privately solve the issue.

3

Davvo thanks for the update.
I have tried for ages (years) for a solution, but never found one.
Perhaps the private solution is the way forward, unless there are more users with the same requirements.

4

I’m not sure there’s a problem here to be solved. If you don’t want alerts about being unable to update the app catalog, remove it. What other alerts are you getting?

5

That is a very good point Dan.
I will have a looksee, and revert accordingly.

Has the ability to switch off alerts always existed in TrueNAS Core ?

6

I’m not aware of it. You can dismiss alerts as they arise, of course, but I’m not aware of a way to disable them generally, nor (what would likely be more useful) to disable them by category.

But what I’m suggesting isn’t to disable the alert, but to remove the app catalog. If it isn’t there, TrueNAS won’t try to update it.

7

Dan, I did some browsing in the TrueNAS Scale GUI, and found the following option as shown in the attached screenshot.

Setting the value to “Never” prevented the alert from creating a notifocation, which simply answers my query as long as there are no other alerts.

But I would be interested in your suggestion of removing the app catalogue.

Screenshot 2024-08-27 203429
Screenshot 2024-08-27 2034291646×132 2.72 KB

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8

Shows how closely I’ve been paying attention to this part of the GUI–that would be the better way to do what you’re asking.

9

As usual, it takes two to tango. (At least)

Thanks for your comments and assistance, much appreciated.

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