I am new to this forum and I am a total beginner re NAS/HomePC server and server things in particular. I am a bit more than a beginner regarding Linux OSs having fully installed and updated, often in dual boot even multi boot, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Manjaro, Debian, etc so I am comfortable installing and using Linux OSs.
I have one working desktop PC (I will call PC1) currently dual booting Linux mint and Ubuntu and one laptop with the same dual boot setup. Both PC and laptop are about 9 years old. My old PC (I will call PC2) is roughly the same vintage. I will need to fire up my PC2 to provide details regarding the PC’s rig architecture and will also need to provide you with my PC1 and Laptop particulars.
At this stage what I would like to do is just to ask some very basic questions so I have some clarity in my head regarding this networking stuff before I launch into my various rig/s architecture and setups. You will see from my questions that I truly am a beginner in the PC server realm not to mention NAS generally and TruNas in particular. I have spent quite some time trying to make sense of online research in this area and while I am slowly getting some idea of what people are talking about I still have a couple of basic starter questions.
My aim is to network my PC1 and my laptop both into/with PC2 so I can enhance my data transfer and data backup systems between these systems. From what I understand (and I don’t understand much) TruNas facilitates setting up such a network with a useful GUI and some automation regarding the setup process.
Here goes with my general questions.
Do I actually need TruNas (or something like it) to setup such a basic network arrangement.
Is TruNas an operating system? That is, can I only install TruNas onto PC2 and will this do all the networking tasks to link up my Laptop, PC1 and PC2. Do I need to install another Linux OS onto PC2 first then install TruNas? I have not found anywhere online that answers this basic question. Most have another OS such as Ubuntu Server installed first then TruNas.
Does PC2 need to remain always on or do I just turn it on when I am doing data transfer and backups.
Do you need truenas for this? Not nessessarily. You can also use a regular debian/ubuntu (server) or any other falvour of linux distro for this and set everything up manually. But that’s a lot of work and a heck of a lot more learning to get it right.
Truenas is an appliance os based on debian. It adds it’s custom packages to a debian base so that setting up network shares, backup processes etc easier through a nice webui. Just download the truenas iso and install it. In contrast to other linux distros, truenas needs a separate disk for the os, since you can’t use it for data storage. So you need at least 2 disks to run truenas. One for the OS and one for Data storage.
Generally a nas should just run in the background. Depending on your living situation on energy costs some prefer to just turn it on when it’s needed (you want to restore a backup or start a new backup). But if it would be turned off more then it would run, maybe something like an external ssd/hdd as a backup target would be simpler for your usecase…
Thanks Lars. OK, so TrueNas is a stand alone OS. Yes, I understand the requirement for a separate SSD etc for the install. My current setup involves frequent data updating and transferring via external SSDs between my laptop and my PC1 and then I make and transfer Image backups using Foxclone and Rescuezilla of my OSs.
I was hoping that something like TruNas will allow me to point and click this process and basically make this all simpler and quicker to do. Even doing simple databackups between my laptop and PC1 involves firstly updating then shuffling external SSDs between the two. If I can button click my way through this via a network it would be better, I think. My image backup (and also cloning processes) procedures are time consuming and somewhat cumbersome so I am not sure even if a networking solution would help but at least if I can understand and tryout something like Truenas may this could be the way to go for me.
Is there a useful tutorial on how to setup TrueNas? The website mostly goes on about how wonderful TrueNas is. Fair enough but I am looking for a setup guide. Also the website talks about different TrueNas’s - TrueNas Core, TrueNas Scale, TrueNas Community Edition. Not sure which would be suitable for me or why.
Truenas core is bsd based, not linux and is essentially in maintanance mode. No more updates for this one.
Truenas scale has been renamed to truenas community edition.
If you start fresh and are more familiar with linux go for truenas CE (Community Edition)
Really, go for CE, period (though right now, the latest 25.04 release, not 25.10 which should be regarded as still in beta, even if iX lies and says it’s a stable release). If you for technical, political, or other reasons have a strong preference for FreeBSD, you should look for a different OS than TrueNAS.
until recently my main NAS server is a dell SC440 from 2008
for your particular use case, there are “simpler” solutions, like a router that can host a thumbdrive or a portable disk… or even just windows file sharing.
you can also run a NAS from within a virtualbox - I have several instances there as well. No need for actual hardware.
Obviously, each solution comes with its own pros and cons.
Yes. It’s a good point and one of the reasons that I started this post with my basic questions. I shall look into Samba because I am not sure that I actually need something like TrueNas. From my limited understanding, TrueNas can do lots of things but I really have just some basic networking needs. Essentially sharing files, data, and so on between my home PC and laptop. You may have seen in my previous post that currently I am updating and swapping data using an external drive. This works OK but is cumbersome. I am hoping for a point and click process via a network thingy so I am trying to update my knowledge regarding networks.
So thanks to you (and the others) I am slowly getting there .
