TrueCommand 1.2 now available!

Kris Moore

SVP of Engineering
Administrator
Moderator
iXsystems
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Messages
1,448
Hello FreeNAS Community!

We are pleased to announce that the 1.2 version of TrueCommand is now available!

TrueCommand as a "Docker" container

TrueCommand is now being distributed as a Docker container! By switching from a full OS-appliance to a container, TrueCommand gains several new features:
  • Deploy TrueCommand on any major OS: No virtual machine infrastructure required!
    • Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.
    • Installation is simple and very fast!
  • Safe and fast updates
    • Updating TrueCommand is now two operations: "docker pull" and restarting the container.
    • There are no version migrations or long downloads for TrueCommand docker installations! Only a single migration process is required for existing TrueCommand 1.1 (or earlier) installations to begin using the Docker container deployment.
  • Smaller footprint
    • TrueCommand uses even fewer host system resources.
    • This is much better for long-term deployments and scale-ability.

Upgrading from v1.1 or older

A migration routine is required to upgrade from an older version of TrueCommand (1.1 or older) to the new docker-based versions of TrueCommand (1.2+). This migration routine is a simple process of copying existing TrueCommmand configuration files to the Docker container file location. For more details about the migration procedure, please see the TrueCommand 1.2 User Guide.

Self-Service Licensing Portal is also available

To go along with the new release, we are also pleased to announce the availability of a new self-service account portal. This will allow everybody to view the available pricing plans for extended licenses, as well as purchase and download licenses for your system in just a few moments.
Check it out at https://portal.ixsystems.com !

Changelog
  • The NAS config backup/restore functionality no longer requires a licensed version of TrueCommand.
  • AD/LDAP updates:
    • Ensure compatibility with upcoming changes from Microsoft around stricter connection handling in active directory environments.
    • Default to a higher level of security with an option to lower as needed for compatibility with other environments.
    • Remove the LDAP settings from user accounts in the UI (still available in API's) to simplify AD/LDAP connection setup.
  • Smoother updates: All the built-in update mechanisms have been removed in favor of using Docker's update routine.
  • Additional NAS connection streamlining to ensure even better scale-ability.
  • Update NAS alert forwarding routines to improve compatibility with FreeNAS/TrueNAS 11.3.
  • Update the TrueCommand disk count procedure to only count the disks that are actually associated with a storage pool instead of all the disks attached to the system.
  • Reporting updates:
    • Charts report date ranges and labels dynamically.
    • Other cosmetic updates to reports and the sharing system.
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
1,644
Still struggles to download from Chrome. Edge and Firefox are fine.

EDIT: Minimum of Win10 Pro required to run Docker.
 
Last edited:

danb35

Hall of Famer
Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
15,456
So instead of installing a self-contained OS in a VM, I now need to install a different OS in a VM, install Docker in that OS, and then install TC using Docker. And, incidentally, it now can't run under FreeBSD. I'm having trouble seeing how this is an improvement.
 

Heracles

Wizard
Joined
Feb 2, 2018
Messages
1,401
I'm having trouble seeing how this is an improvement.

Well, for me it is clearly one. And I think that it will be for many.

I run basically everything as containers : Nextcloud. MySQL, OnlyOffice, ElasticSearch, MongoDB and more. I use FreeNAS for storage and all storage-related tasks like snapshots, replication and integrity. Services are run from a separate infrastructure.

Considering how a lot of things are moving towards containers, I think this move by IXSystems is the right one.
 

Patrick M. Hausen

Hall of Famer
Joined
Nov 25, 2013
Messages
7,737
So instead of installing a self-contained OS in a VM, I now need to install a different OS in a VM, install Docker in that OS, and then install TC using Docker. And, incidentally, it now can't run under FreeBSD. I'm having trouble seeing how this is an improvement.
Seconded. I can live with running it on Ubuntu instead of FreeBSD but please consider offering a regular install without the Docker overhead.

Kind regards
Patrick

P.S. The system requirements are missing in the "Installation" section of the manual. How much memory and disk space do I need to assign to the VM running Docker running TrueCommand?
 

danb35

Hall of Famer
Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
15,456
I'm having trouble seeing how this is an improvement.
I should probably clarify a bit. TrueCommand, like FreeNAS, would be expected to run 24x7, so it's going to need to be on a server. I don't run Mac servers, I don't run Windows servers, I guess FreeBSD doesn't count as a "major OS", and I don't have general-purpose Linux servers. I have virtualization hosts (Proxmox and xcp-ng) that run on Linux, but neither of those environments, AFAICT, natively do Docker. I have a couple of VMs that are running various applications in Docker, but neither of these is intended to be a general-purpose Docker host.

With TC <= 1.1, it's simple: provision a suitable VM on one of those hosts, attach the ISO to it, install and go. Now, I need to build a new VM, install something (probably Ubuntu) on it, and figure out how to use Docker. Not the end of the world, to be sure, but a definite step backward. And it's somewhat disconcerting to see iX' steps away from FreeBSD.
 

Patrick M. Hausen

Hall of Famer
Joined
Nov 25, 2013
Messages
7,737
Same same but different here: around 100 FreeBSD and less than 10 Linux servers, none of which runs Docker. FreeNAS soon to be the only virtualisation platform once we retired the last ESXi host.

Kind regards
Patrick
 

danb35

Hall of Famer
Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
15,456
Based on this blog post, it seems my concern was premature (though really, Kris, would it have hurt to have said that it's still available as a VM image?):
TrueCommand 1.2 VM is deployed as a Virtual Disk Image (VDI) that can be hosted on any modern hypervisor.
 

Adrian

Contributor
Joined
Jun 29, 2011
Messages
166
Announcing everything at once would have been better.
I have set up docker on Windows, have TC running, and will leave it there for now.
 
Last edited:

Patrick M. Hausen

Hall of Famer
Joined
Nov 25, 2013
Messages
7,737
So how to install in FreeNAS/bhyve? Convert to raw with qemu-img, then dd to a ZVOL?

Kind regards,
Patrick
 

JoeKewle

Cadet
Joined
Jul 10, 2015
Messages
4
I give up... My TrueCommand can't see any of the systems using Docker. I've imported the SQL from my 1.1 instance and can reach the network using other Docker containers on the same Docker network...
 

Adrian

Contributor
Joined
Jun 29, 2011
Messages
166
I did have to specify the host name for the machine I wanted to monitor.
I gather that a docker container runs on a different network.
Snippet from docker network inspect bridge
Code:
                "Name": "truecommand",
                "EndpointID": <snip>
                "MacAddress": "02:42:ac:11:00:02",
                "IPv4Address": "172.17.0.2/16",
                "IPv6Address": ""

Edited to provide snippet.
 
Last edited:

adrianwi

Guru
Joined
Oct 15, 2013
Messages
1,231
I have a Docker VM so pretty easy to set up, although surely it would make sense as a FreeNAS jail or plugin?

Looks pretty nice at first glance, although not that much use for 2 home servers!
 

aervin

iXsystems
iXsystems
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
114
I give up... My TrueCommand can't see any of the systems using Docker. I've imported the SQL from my 1.1 instance and can reach the network using other Docker containers on the same Docker network...
@JoeKewle Can you share some log files with us? They're available via User Menu -> API. We can use this ticket for tracking if you'd like to post the logs there. Sorry to hear you're experiencing issues.
 

Patrick M. Hausen

Hall of Famer
Joined
Nov 25, 2013
Messages
7,737
Unfortunately this is all I get:

Bildschirmfoto 2020-02-19 um 22.47.12.png
 

JoeKewle

Cadet
Joined
Jul 10, 2015
Messages
4
I give up... My TrueCommand can't see any of the systems using Docker. I've imported the SQL from my 1.1 instance and can reach the network using other Docker containers on the same Docker network...


Fixed! Updated to the latest docker using the following link. I had default Docker installed from Ubuntu 18, which was 17.x and latest is 19.x. It kept my Docker configuration when I followed the directions.

If you use the Snap version in Ubuntu, it did not keep my Docker configuration, FYI, and you must remove it from Snap manually. (Is snap a POS or what?)

 

Scharbag

Guru
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
620
I agree that this is a strange way of rolling out TrueCommand 1.2. I run ESXi and the .VDI VM is a big PITA to convert to be compatible with ESXi. So, I spun up an Ubuntu server with Docker and got it running that way. It is the only thing I run in Docker and it requires Ubuntu - which I do not use for anything else.

V1.1 was a much cleaner package and I would much prefer an ISO instead of a VDI.

Perhaps I am missing an easier way to get a .VDI file to run in ESXi...
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2020
Messages
5
Hello, Im having a problem with the first login admin:admin
basically it just do nothing but adding some kind of loading bar on top of the page

note I tried
chrome without extension
opera browser
edge
explorer
mobile device browser and does the same thing
 

Attachments

  • Annotation 2020-03-16 154307.png
    Annotation 2020-03-16 154307.png
    934.1 KB · Views: 540

Heracles

Wizard
Joined
Feb 2, 2018
Messages
1,401
Hey Pant,

Some fixed that case by updating their Docker daemon. So what version of Docker are you running as of now ?
 
Top