Wi-Fi on TrueNAS Scale?

[Brayden]

Would there be some sort of way truenas scale support Wi-Fi instead of hooking up an Ethernet cable because I don’t have easy access to an Ethernet spot, I’ve been seeing truenas core not supporting wifi but would truenas scale support since it is built upon Linux rather than core being built from FreeNAS…

 

[jgreco]

No. Being built on Linux does not change the nature of the issue. TrueNAS is an appliance OS.

core being built from FreeNAS…

FreeBSD has good wifi support. So does Linux. It is the appliance that doesn't support it.

You can try a wireless bridge adapter, which is the classic solution to attach a wired ethernet device to a wifi network. It is unlikely to work particularly well, however.

 

[Whattteva]

Just as @jgreco says. Being built on Linux changes nothing. TrueNAS is a server-oriented OS and as such, WiFi isn't ever a thing for servers, not to mention bridging is 10x more complicated with a WiFi NIC (i.e. VNET jails). Look at Proxmox VE. It has and always been built based on Debian Linux and yet, it too, does not come with WiFi support simply because servers have zero need for something as unreliable as WiFi.

 

[ichat]

honnestly, i kinda registred just to call on these statements.

. TrueNAS is a server-oriented OS and as such, WiFi isn't ever a thing for servers, AND 300kb will never be exceeded in any personal computer.

i do agree with you that running any type of server on a wifi connection is less than desireble.... but

let me explain: as of january 23 (only fair to keep it within time this remark has been posted),
aproximately 40% of all SOHO (meaning self employed, home office users) in western europe (NL, BE, DE, UK) either uses wifi mainly or exclusively in offices with more than 4 and less than 20 devices connected to their networks.

on avarage about 85% of all ISP's with a B2B internet connection provide SOHO routers that have upto 4 1gbit ethernet ports and/or upto 1 multi (usually 2,5) gbit ports.

so provided your office is small enought in might actually be beneficial to have direct access via wifi. especially given the fact that for example wifi 6e will be able to out pace (or at least come verry close to) wired gbit ports...

and yes the way that most aplienced provided network connectivity to for example vms or docker containers is via an ethernet hack that lets the network think you are a non-switching-hub, instead of just a client. sadly enought simular features are not part of the wifi standard, and it either supports a client mode or an accesspoint mode but not a hybrid mode (those things that do wifi mesh for example all have to do software switching)... this usually means a rather large burdon on your cpu.

however, there is a quite simpel solution to this problem, that would allow connection via wifi AND being able to keep full functionality quite easy.
1. setup vpn with as low overhead as you can, use low spec encryption, or encryprion types that your system has hardware ofloading for). one such example may be wireguard.
2. make sure that you vpn terminates on your lan network.
3. set your wifi connection on your nas, to default rout over your vpn solution and configure this virtual adaptor also for your vms and dockers.
4. enjoy.

an alternative sulution would be to have a reverse proxy running on this wifi and having natted or host-only ports on your internal (in server) network.

as you say, you can also use a wireless bridge, which if you are lucky, is dumb enought to actually transfer all packages to its lan port so that your nas can pick them up, however the main drawback of this is that most (if not all) of sutch devices have verry limited hardware and may well drop many many packets if put to any kind of load.

no remains the question if wifi would negativly affect any of the inplace systems, configurations or management tools currently in use,
as adding relevant drivers to the kernel and installed stuf like wpad might not be verry complicated, but doing so without f*ckin up the rest of the system may not be so trivial.

if anyone cares to help provide some technical backstory i think that a comunity supported work-around might be do-able.

 

[Davvo]

Oh gosh, I can already see posts about issues regarding realtek NICs and wifi.

Discord is the developers-oriented channel, apparently.

 

[jgreco]

Oh gosh, I can already see posts about issues regarding realtek NICs and wifi.

The poster has confused attachment technology used by clients with attachment technology used by everything else.

There's a reason that your typical Synology, EMC, QNAP, etc., NAS does not come with a wifi adapter. It's just an incredibly bad idea, in part because of the double traversal involved, and in part because of the performance issues.

Either way, iXsystems is developing TrueNAS for their commercial TrueNAS Enterprise product and they've made it clear repeatedly that wifi is not under consideration, because it has no use case for their intended target market. We can therefore simplify life by skipping a discussion of hypotheticals that will not come to pass.

 

[Whattteva]

AND 300kb will never be exceeded in any personal computer.

You must be smoking something really good. Here's Netflix recommendations. https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306
Even just for streaming "lowly" 720p video requires 3 Mbps and you're telling us we won't ever exceed a limit 10 times lower?
And quite honestly, those are very generous recommendations. There's a reason why we no longer use 802.11b (11 Mbps under ideal conditions). I recently had to connect to one such old network and it's painful to use.

 

[winnielinnie]

There's a reason that your typical Synology, EMC, QNAP, etc., NAS does not come with a wifi adapter. It's just an incredibly bad idea, in part because of the double traversal involved, and in part because of the performance issues.

No offense, but you're really behind the times. Maybe actually do some research before making such a bold claim? This is going to revolutionize the NAS industry! People like @jgreco are afraid of the future, and the future is WiFi for everything!

Storaxa Kickstarter

 

[Whattteva]

Wow, I thought that was just satirical, but it's a real kickstarter project. Come to think of it, I think they plugged themselves on TrueNAS Discord channel. And I'm surprised the mods didn't remove that shameless plug.

Nevermind, it's a different system though it looks eerily familiar and even has similar specs styling and naming ("Linux OS" lawlz):

The one you linked is even more revolutionary. It has both Intel & AMD CPU's all at once in it!

The comment from someone else may shed an insight into why they are so similar:

 

[winnielinnie]

Search Google for "Storaxa"

Notice the second result, under the videos?

Interestingly, searching "Storaxa" with Brave Search, it shows up as the very first result.

 

[Whattteva]

Search Google for "Storaxa"

Notice the second result, under the videos?

Interestingly, searching "Storaxa" with Brave Search, it shows up as the very first result.

Oh wow, that's a long thread. I'm gonna have to spend some time reading through it.

 

[Etorix]

TL;DR TrueNAS for storage and Linux for WiFi, virtualised under Proxmox on a hardware platform with overallocated I/O resources and insufficient RAM to run TrueNAS bare metal with the advertised amount of storage. And that's IF the backers ever receive the hardware…

@winnielinnie was being ironic, but that may be lost by readers who aren't familiar with the above thread.

 

[Whattteva]

TL;DR TrueNAS for storage and Linux for WiFi, virtualised under Proxmox on a hardware platform with overallocated I/O resources and insufficient RAM to run TrueNAS bare metal with the advertised amount of storage. And that's IF the backers ever receive the hardware…

@winnielinnie was being ironic, but that may be lost by readers who aren't familiar with the above thread.

Huh, the idea is good, but the implementation is terrible. I myself run a virtualized router (OPNsense) and TrueNAS CORE all on the same box, but it's in a full tower ATX form factor powered by Xeon Silver with 224 GB of RAM, so it's quite the opposite of this small form factor they're trying to sell. I get the marketing push for that though. The average consumer likes these kinds of Apple-esque all-in-one tiny box that can do everything.

 

[jgreco]

Huh, the idea is good, but the implementation is terrible. I myself run a virtualized router (OPNsense) and TrueNAS CORE all on the same box, but it's in a full tower ATX form factor powered by Xeon Silver with 224 GB of RAM, so it's quite the opposite of this small form factor they're trying to sell. I get the marketing push for that though. The average consumer likes these kinds of Apple-esque all-in-one tiny box that can do everything.

Quite frankly, it is galling that after all these years, no one has come up with a plausible NAS chassis that doesn't also have tragic faults. A prebuilt system with a Xeon D-1538 in a form factor like a QNAP or Synology desktop box.

 

[Ericloewe]

Wow, I thought that was just satirical, but it's a real kickstarter project.

Well, real in the sense that someone will gladly take your money, not so much in the sense that you should expect to get something, even more so than is typical for Kickstarter and the like.

Search Google for "Storaxa"

Notice the second result, under the videos?

Interestingly, searching "Storaxa" with Brave Search, it shows up as the very first result.

Usually I'm pissed when I search for something and I see a thread title I wrote. In this case, great success!

Quite frankly, it is galling that after all these years, no one has come up with a plausible NAS chassis that doesn't also have tragic faults. A prebuilt system with a Xeon D-1538 in a form factor like a QNAP or Synology desktop box.

The closest are the Ablecom ones I guess, which I guess don't cook all disks, which is an improvement from stuff like the DS380 that cooks all disks unless it's modded with an ugly piece of cardboard, I guess? But then again, those are small towers, not wide desktop-y things.

 

[ULTIoNT]

I am new here. I just figured our that my AX211 is not recognized and then ended up finding this thread. Well I can understand Wi-Fi is just frowned upon, especially here, but can I pass through this PCIe device to a VM at least? I guess the system running in the VM is no longer purely an appliance like TruNAS, right?

 

[Whattteva]

I am new here. I just figured our that my AX211 is not recognized and then ended up finding this thread. Well I can understand Wi-Fi is just frowned upon, especially here, but can I pass through this PCIe device to a VM at least? I guess the system running in the VM is no longer purely an appliance like TruNAS, right?

I guess using it in a VM is fine, but why though.

 

[smcclos]

Would there be some sort of way truenas scale support Wi-Fi instead of hooking up an Ethernet cable because I don’t have easy access to an Ethernet spot, I’ve been seeing truenas core not supporting wifi but would truenas scale support since it is built upon Linux rather than core being built from FreeNAS…

I would think that if you don't have Ethernet near your TrueNAS system, Powerline or MOCA would be a better solution.

Yes you would have to deal with the bandwidth limitations, but would require 0% modification of TrueNAS

 

[Davvo]

Maybe he wants to use it as an AP instead of buying one. Don't see other reasons for wanting WiFi on a TN machine.

 

[Constantin]

Quite frankly, it is galling that after all these years, no one has come up with a plausible NAS chassis that doesn't also have tragic faults. A prebuilt system with a Xeon D-1538 in a form factor like a QNAP or Synology desktop box.

The Lian-Li Q-26A came really close to that. Not the same build quality as my venerable Power Mac G5 Desktop but overall that chassis is a very effective way to cram 10 disks into a small space, provide good cooling, yet fit a standard mini-ITX motherboard and a ATX power supply. Sadly, they stopped making it ages ago. A far better case than what shipped as my Mini-XL.