My app is I/O intensive, but the job definitions and the output volumes are much, much smaller than the intermediate data, so running it on the server instead of accessing the intermediate data through the network makes the case for using the Truenas VM option.
Simple, because the NAS can run other things, so why not have one box do more than just storage, even if Storage is the priority, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Having a seperate Windows or Debian VM is nice for most people
I’d note that if I were looking to run my NAS as well as a non-trivial VM workload on a single piece of hardware, there’s no way I’d be using TrueNAS as the hypervisor; I’d instead be running it as a VM, probably under Proxmox. Even if the virtualization features in TrueNAS were stable (which they obviously aren’t; see Fangtooth), they’re far too limited.
Will this change in the future? Well, my crystal ball is in the shop. iX does seem to think they’re important, but they’re making drastic breaking changes in that system at the sixth major release of the product. Meanwhile, Proxmox has a several-year head start.
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This is as simple as wanting to run a VM without another actual hardware host machine to deal with.
Personally I went with a vmware or proxmox host machine because I don’t want too many things wrapped up in the truenas box, a little more sane separation of tasks IMO.
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I run VM only because it doesn’t support FreeBSD.
I simply have better hardware on my server, so I have a VM that I do all my coding in remotely. All my dev tools are in one place, and so I just SSH into the VM from whatever device I’m using, and everything I need is there. It’s great! Hell, I can do GPU computing from my phone, if I felt so inclined 
Except for Windows software and the Almighty Home Assistant, what would be the reason not to go with Apps, custom Docker Compose, or LXC containers (“jails”)?
I may come off as biased, but I believe some people are still using VMs because it’s “what they’re familiar with”, when they could accomplish the same, natively through “Apps”, Docker, and LXC containers. Already the first two are supported in SCALE, while the third one has been introduced in Fangtooth, likely to get more polish in Goldeneye for Nintendo 64.
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Anything else that doesn’t run on Linux (OPNsense or pfSense, for example)? Or perhaps something where you believe the VM system provides stronger isolation from the underlying OS (and therefore greater security)? Or something that wants to install its own OS image, rather than on top of an existing Linux distro (like, I don’t know, TrueNAS itself[1])? Just some thoughts.
Besides, I thought you were die-hard for CORE. And if that’s the case, VMs and FreeBSD jails are the only options.
Yes, TrueNAS in a TrueNAS VM would be silly in most cases–it’s just an example. ↩︎
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Die-hard until 2026… 
Then I’ll be a cry-hard.
EDIT: Standing in a pool of my own tears, I’ll have to make the choice of trying zVault (if it’s feasible), making the jump to SCALE, or (unlikely) trying to roll my own ZFS server.
@Stux makes great use of this to record tutorials for YouTube. Everything you see in his videos are in a virtualized TrueNAS running inside a TrueNAS host. 
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Because VM’s give more of a “bare-metal” feeling versus a container for certain things, like running a desktop Linux distro. I do have an install of Kasm Workspaces and etc, but a full VM gives you extra stuff and is nice for testing.
Containers (Docker/K8S/LXC and etc) do 95% of my workloads, but the ability to run a VM is a nice touch
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Hence “in most cases.” Testing/demos would be about the only exception. Though even then, running it on a different hypervisor would likely be more sensible.
But the point is that there’s other software that’s distributed, primarily or exclusively, as a preconfigured OS. TrueNAS and HAOS are two examples given already that do run under Linux, but in the first case can’t simply be installed over Linux; and in the second case it can, but it really isn’t recommended. pfSense is another example of this, though of course it doesn’t run under Linux. RouterOS is yet another, as is VyOS (which does run under Linux). I could probably come up with others, but I think the point is adequately made.
And then, of course, there’s the question of software that requires a different Linux kernel than what TrueNAS uses.
OPNsense with PCIe pass through network interfaces, a small switch, and you have a complete home lab in just two boxes.
I built a demo system for EuroBSDCon, remember? A particular user even turned that into a meme:
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Then you added a reason to your list to run vms! If you want to run MacOSX in a VM, anything non Linux, there is no app for that.
Convenience. Build one top of the line server with ridiculous amount of RAM and a top end CPU that is stuffed with storage.
Then run both containers and VMs that use iSCSI to store their drives in TrueNAS. Yes I could run it over the network like the name implies but then I need more servers, space, power, cooling, etc. One and done.
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I’ve used a VM to run an instance of a Windows application called Paronicon 2. It would run in a Windows 10 VM with almost all of the startup services disabled.
I use VMs because containers are new and scary. Kidding, but I do have a better grasp of the isolation and networking when it comes to VMs. I still don’t have a good grasp of Docker and issues with vul scanners and overlay storage seems to come up at work a lot.
I have HAOS as others have stated. I poked the app for a week, but ditched when I wanted to do something that needed an add-on. I might give running it in LXC a try when I have some time.
I run Security Onion, which is a networking monitoring solution. I need to capture network span traffic and I currently use a pcie passthru for this. I might also try to do this in LXC when I have some time.
I might run pfSense for home router functions. I had done this previously, but I kept having issues due to some hardware instability (something funky with the drive backplane on the chassis I was using). I have since solved those stability issues, but I’m not sure I really want to have to bounce everything when I install a new version of TrueNAS. I don’t know, maybe…
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I’ve migrated VMs from my home lab vmware host. I have mixed environment – Windows, various linuxes (centos, ubuntu, debian) and I’m lazy to make LXC containers from all linux VMs so they are running as is.
Virtualization in TrueNAS is still no go – nothing changed from my first post here (TrueNAS SCALE as a virtualization host. Am i cooking it wrong?). Bad UI, lack of features (VM start order, simple backup and snapshot UI in VMs context
Applications in TrueNAS are also no go – i’ve tried to migrate my Transmission from one of my VM to App and stuck in configuration issue – there is no way to make watch folder works (Editing config.json doesn’t seem work for Transmission app in Scale) .
LXCs seems to be also no go – same problems as for VMs (startup order, snapshots and backups)
So the only reason for me to use TrueNAS is that it is a brilliant storage solution and i have ~14TB of data to store and only 1TB of VMs. So i need storage more than virtualization host. And i want my home lab to be as compact as it can be. So one server is enough.
Frigate abruptly started disliking its config.yaml file after being fine with it for several days. I’m done with it for now. I have retained the config.yaml file as a starting point for the future should I ever try to have a go at it again, but in the meantime, the marginal 5-12W that the combination of BI plus a dedicated machine consume vs. frigate in TrueNAS is not worth my hair.
I may yet try virtualizing Windows + BI.
Also consolidate unifi via Apps, though rebuilding my entire wireless system here just because Unifi config files do not appear portable between the Cloudkey and Unifi Apps.
For now, my next project is HAOS.
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@constantin I can honestly say I have not yet played with Frigate so I am of no help there.
I can say I do have a BI server running in a VM on my main NAS. My in-laws are stuck with their crappy ISP router. So I created a hokey solution…
I have a laptop at their house in Florida (I live in Connecticut) connected to mine via TailScale. The laptop is connected to a switch with the cameras on it and I’m routing that L2 subnet in TailScale. The BI box is able to automagically record those cameras over the tunnel and I can now host the BI interface behind HAProxy in pfsense (also a VM in TrueNAS) out of my ISP.
From my perspective as their…MSP? Its far easier for me to remotely maintain this whacky solution because I can just ship them another old laptop or another old switch and be done with it. Alot cheaper and easier than buying them a new gateway and having to replace it over the phone the next time a thunderstorm blows it up.
All that being said, happy to help if you need some advice for BI on TrueNAS. Just start a thread 
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Why don’t you just buy them a UPS? 
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