How to manage files correctly

TrueNAS General
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1

Hello,
I have TrueNAS Scale version Dragonfish-24.04.2.5, its running as VM on Proxmox (ver. 8.1.4).
I want to know the right way to transfer files from one directory to another and the right way to delete the files.
this question comes after alot of troubles, everytime that I move, delete or copy any file TrueNAS get stuck, all the Apps crush and when I try to shutdown or restart the TrueNAS it does nothing I have to STOP the VM but when I stop the VM then the TrueNAS does alot of troubles like
taking alot of time starting up (hours!), stuck on initializing apps service, the DNS get deleted from the network settings, I have a rollback and everyting I do gets deleted, on startup I get errors like "task zpool blocked for more than 120 seconds " and “txg_sync blocked for more than 120 seconds”.

The reason I run the TrueNAS on VM is because I have HomeAssistant VM and prefet to use it as OS and not docker.

So my hardware is:

  1. SSD for the system and all the ix-applications
  2. 3 HDDs, 4TB each, in TrueNAS I made RAIDZ1 pool
  3. 16GB Ram

The Apps I use are:

  1. homarr
  2. jellyfin
  3. jellyseerr
  4. prowlarr
  5. qbittorrent
  6. radarr
  7. sonarr

the methods I tries to manage files:

  1. commands on TrueNAS shell like “rm”, “mv” and so on
  2. SMB folder
  3. commands via SSH (PuTTY) like “rm” and “move”
  4. file browser (Midnight Commander) trough SSH (PuTTY) from “mc” command
2

  1. Did you follow the TrueNAS under Proxmox guidelines in this forum and passthrough and blacklist the HBA? If not, you need to do this before your pool becomes corrupted.

  2. You can run TrueNAS bare metal and run Home Assistant as a VM underneath - TrueNAS has both Docker and VMs.

  3. What are the exact drives you are running? Are they SMR?

  4. The symptoms you are describing are IMO likely to be a symptom of either a hardware issue or an issue with the Proxmox settings for your TrueNAS VM.

I don’t use Proxmox so I cannot help you further, but there are experts here who can. But I think that they will need a lot more detail about your hardware and Proxmox setup to be able to help you.

1 Like
3

Hi thank you very much for your answer.

  1. Didnt know, I will read about it now.
  2. If I format my ssd and install TrueNAS bare metal, can I retrieve the apps, the pool and all the data or I would have to start all over? I’m asking because I have ALOT of data and also sharing on qbittorrent.
  3. I am using WD Red Plus (Product Number WD40EFPX), from the specification it says CMR.
  4. I hope I dont have HW problem, I will read more about HBA as you suggested and hope thats the problem here (or change to TrueNAS bare metal)
4

Hi,
If I understand correctly the HBA is a bus card for connecting multiple SATA drives, the card sits on the PICe and I need to passthrough it to the VM.
my HDDs are connected directly to the SATA ports on the motherboards and I passthrough the HDDs to the VM usim “qm set” command

5

Bad plan. I can’t say that this is your problem, but it isn’t helping. As Protopia said, you must pass through the entire controller to your VM. In your case, that’s going to mean acquiring a separate controller (LSI SAS HBA), connecting the drives to it, and passing it through to your VM, so that the host can have the SATA controller.

As to your actual question, methods 1, 3, and 4 are equivalent; the only one that’s any different is “SMB folder”, by which I assume you mean you’re moving them remotely over the network using a client computer. But none of them should be causing the problems you describe.

2 Likes
6

First of all thank you very much for your answer.
Before I run and purchase HBA, is it possible to format the SSD, install TrueNAS OS and retrieve all the data, pool and apps? (without losing anything)
If no data is lost, would I need to purchase the HBA anyway ? or connecting the HDDs to the SATA is fine when the OS is TrueNAS and not via VM