Home user here, no IT background and with very limited knowledge about all these.
I am here since the last days of “FreeNAS” after searching for a replacement for my Synology NAS. And what a discovery it was for me, a fantastic piece of software and for free.
Many thanks to iXSystems for giving us users the opportunity to use a state of the art software to keep our data safe and intact.
But on the apps side, it was a disappointment.
On one hand, since I am a newbie I am reluctant to have my NAS with my precious data to run other services with permissions, ports, etc that I don’t understand well.
On the other hand, apps were not and are not easy. Since the beginning I always had difficulties to make apps run and even when I managed it, an update was coming changing everything. Even yesterday, I tried the Minio app on a Scale test system I have with no result (app was running, could not have the credentials work). It was a 5 minute work to have it running on a VM of another system I have on Proxmox.
Why should I mess with all these parameters to setup an app that will be a Docker container (or I am wrong?). I found that for a newbie like me it is much easier to go with the plain Docker way, easier to follow instructions on the net ans easier to fix it afterwards. So beside my TrueNAS server I have a HP mini running all the apps I want on a Proxmox setup.
To make things worse for home users, services of the TrueNAS are now served from apps, let’s say S3 was a service, now it is an app. There are no clients for VPN, like Wireguard, Tailscale, Netbird etc. Sure one can setup an app if it exists, or setup a docker container, but if you have to go this way there are other easier platforms and more future proof.
Maybe I am wrong on all these, but for me using a Proxmox with a few virtual machines/LXC containers and OMV on top of this for a few Docker containers was easier to setup and maintain and was a stable solution for the past few years.
Maybe Truenas should have build in a few core apps?
Having said these, TrueNAS remains as my precious data vault and again thanks to iXSystems for offering it to all of us.
(I hope no more of its services will become available only as Docker concertina apps).
You will find a variety of experience with our user base. I too really like using ESXi as my Type 1 Hypervisor vice TrueNAS. I too have difficulty as you do so you are not alone.
My advice: Use what makes you feel good and are comfortable with. If you really want to learn other ways, you are going to have to put in the effort. Is it worth it to you?
Dockers are going to be around for a while, it may be a good way to go if you like that. The new LXC containers looks interesting as well, more like Jails.
Why should I mess with all these parameters to setup an app that will be a Docker container (or I am wrong?). I found that for a newbie like me it is much easier to go with the plain Docker way, easier to follow instructions on the net ans easier to fix it afterwards.
I’m not a newbie with Docker at all, and have used it professionally for a while, but even so, I completely agree with this assessment. The way TN handles apps is bad for both experienced users and newbies alike. Setting something up in YAML with docker-compose really isn’t that hard, and the TN app interface is trying to obscure this from the user with an annoying form that just fills in the values in a docker-compose YAML file, but the TN app of course leaves things out and makes it completely impossible to do something not anticipated by whoever wrote the TN interface for that app, for instance routing the traffic of a container through a VPN (which is an easy 1-liner in YAML).
Spot on! I decided to put together a limited number of jails to do certain tasks in ways that work very well for me. The stuff gets executed on time and just works.
Unlike the transition from CORE to SCALE, such automated tasks won’t get deleted as part of the transition process, as my jails are now easily backed up.
When I take another run at getting your excellent tool to work, I’ll likely install it in a jail for the same reason - to ensure that changes to the OS do not bork the script.
Is it wasteful to set aside a jail for just a couple of scripts? Perhaps, but storage is cheap and once I no longer need a resource or it behaves miserably, I can simply nuke the jail from orbit.
When 25.04 is released, I plan to check out the LXC containers as I too like jails, I can just relate to them better and as you said, the OS remains the same regardless what TrueNAS does.
