TrueNAS 12.0-U4 was released today and marks another step forward on the path of improving quality. The last release, TrueNAS 12.0-U3.1, has been the highest-ever quality release of the TrueNAS family, is now the most widely deployed version of the software, and has been applied to many mission-critical enterprise deployments. TrueNAS 12.0-U4 now builds on this foundation and is suitable for even the most conservative users of both TrueNAS CORE and TrueNAS Enterprise.
TrueNAS 12.0 marked the official merger of FreeNAS and TrueNAS into a unified software image, accompanied by a long list of features and performance improvements. With TrueNAS 12.0, OpenZFS 2.0 has outperformed the previous versions of ZFS both in our lab and user environments and has proven to be even more robust in large-scale deployments. Over half of the FreeNAS 11.3 installed base have already migrated to TrueNAS CORE, and 12.0-U4 makes the process even more compelling and straightforward. Many thanks to the community for making this transition possible.
Additionally, it is awe-inspiring to see that TrueNAS 12.0 has passed one exabyte (EB) of data under management in a little over six months. The University of Chicago created this infographic to describe how massive an exabyte actually is.
While releasing TrueNAS 12.0, we created a new lifecycle model for TrueNAS CORE and Enterprise releases. The history of TrueNAS 12.0 releases has been:
TrueNAS 12.0 RELEASE was made available October 20, 2020, and included many new features along with OpenZFS 2.0 support.
TrueNAS 12.0-U1 was released in December, resolved the most significant bugs, and enabled a few new features like Fusion pools and more efficient scrubbing and resilvering.
TrueNAS 12.0-U2 was released in February and included many bug fixes and some minor features. A minor update to 12.0-U2.1 was provided to reduce some alerts seen by users.
TrueNAS 12.0-U3 was released April 13, 2021, and included many bug fixes and some minor features. This release was recommended for mission-critical users.
TrueNAS 12.0-U4 was officially released June 1, 2021, and includes some bug fixes and robustness improvements.
Issues resolved in TrueNAS 12.0-U4:
- About a dozen improvements and 110 bug fixes are included.
- Python upgrade and several improvements to address memory leaks and reduce potential crashes of core middleware processes. This rare issue does not impact ongoing data services and has proven to be difficult to reproduce.
- OpenZFS improvements for both small and high-performance systems. Performance during scrubs while under high CPU load should be more reliable.
- Security updates for OpenVPN, Samba, and other ports.
- Replication WebUI improvements to simply process and avoid mistakes.
- Updated Minio (the S3 target) to the latest version which includes support for APIv3.
- Minor WebUI and reporting issues including the display of more jails per page.
- New driver support for Realtek RTL8125/RTL8111 Ethernet devices (2.5GBase-T).
Please check out the new TrueNAS documentation even if you don’t upgrade today. We’re extremely grateful for all the contributions received thus far and encourage more user suggestions going forward.
TrueNAS 13.0 Planning has Begun
The next version of TrueNAS CORE and Enterprise will be 13.0 and will be based on FreeBSD 13.0. Early planning has begun and more information will be available later this year. For the next six months, the focus will be on getting TrueNAS SCALE to a release quality similar to 12.0. With that work completed, users will have a choice of migrating to SCALE (Linux containers and scale-out) or maintaining their TrueNAS CORE and Enterprise operations. A U5 update to TrueNAS 12.0 is planned for the September timeframe.
FreeNAS to TrueNAS 12.0 Upgrades are Easy
TrueNAS 12.0-U4 is compatible with all of the iXsystems platforms from the FreeNAS/TrueNAS Minis, to the power-efficient X-Series, all the way up to the flagship High Availability (HA) M-Series. There is also a new R-Series product line that can run CORE, Enterprise, and SCALE editions of TrueNAS. All of these can be updated via the web UI.
For those with FreeNAS installed on your system, we recommend upgrading to FreeNAS 11.3-U5 first and then upgrading to TrueNAS 12.0-U4 with a single click to retain roll-back options. While it is an easy web update, we do recommend waiting to update your system’s zpool feature flags until you are finished validating your performance and functionality.
For those with TrueNAS HA systems and support contracts, we recommend contacting iXsystems support to schedule an upgrade. We will verify your systems’ health, configuration, and support the upgrade process as part of the “white glove” service that comes with any support contract.
For new users, download TrueNAS 12.0-U4 to get started.
TrueCommand 2.0 is the Single-Pane-of-Glass Management Platform
TrueNAS 12.0 also includes support for TrueCommand and TrueCommand Cloud, a SaaS version that includes a VPN capability for managing across private networks. TrueCommand 2.0 BETA is available and will be released later in June. This version includes a storage navigator to view datasets, files, multiple NAS systems, and real-time per-second statistics.
TrueNAS CORE: Still the Best Free NAS
TrueNAS 12.0-U4 improvements continue to make it the best free NAS system available. If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear them on the community forums, the TrueNAS subreddit, or in response to this blog. If you need additional information on how TrueNAS can streamline, accelerate, and unify data management for your business, please contact us.