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TrueNAS

Score9.2 out of 10

50 Reviews and Ratings

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What is TrueNAS?

TrueNAS is a network-attached storage featuring all-flash and hybrid storage editions, from iXsystems headquartered in San Jose.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about TrueNAS.
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Highly recommended. We use it everywhere

Incentivized
Joseph BrowerView profile
Owner and Lead Developer in Information Technology at Binary Cocoa (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use TrueNAS for storage of production data as well as a backup destination. We've also begin heavily using it's virtualization and container features.

Pros

  • Data Integrity
  • Replication
  • Snapshots (Immutable)
  • Performance

Cons

  • Virtualization

Return on Investment

  • Virtualize 30 machines as backup destinations off of one node
  • Eliminate licensing costs for full replication from other vendors
  • Eliminate the need for additional physical servers as we scale

Usability

Other Software Used

Proxmox VE, Nextcloud, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)

TrueNAS for speed, reliability and support.

Rob AndersonView profile
System Administrator in Information Technology at Lee's Sheet Metal (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I've been using TrueNAS / FreeNAS (in earlier years) for out companies iSCSI Datastore in VMware.
It allows me to make use of older hardware to make secondary / primary NAS /iSCSI Servers.

I also use these servers to do nightly backups of all our VMs. The ability to use TrueNAS Core software
has really helped us out in the last 3 years especially.

We don't have to wait on new expensive hardware to get a new NAS / iSCSI server running. The chip shortage
has made it a very scary proposition to try and acquire new hardware in the face of such a shortage should we
have a failed server. It has let me leverage previous investments in hardware to cover any shortages in storage
availability.

Pros

  • iSCSI Datastores for virtualization.
  • NFS store for unix storage or backups over networking.
  • Very fast performance, sometimes outclassing SSD arrays even in NFS.
  • The ZFS filesystem has given use much greater flexibility.
  • Using their newer servers we could in theory scale to any height of required storage.

Cons

  • Better explanations of what a 'jail' is.
  • Update the UI to support easier creation or clearer creation of new arrays.
  • More plugin integrations.
  • The ability to run scripts to copy things locally such as to a usb RDX hard drive.
  • Proper USB 3.0 support.

Most Important Features

  • NFS backup stores.
  • iSCSI datastores.
  • Available to install on any hardware (TrueNAS core).
  • If we bought the TrueNAS servers themselves the advance replacements of hdd's.
  • General support available outclasses any storage solutions I've seen.

Return on Investment

  • Zero downtime while switching company storage.
  • Due to the availability I was able to avoid overtime as I was able to work during the day and the users were none the wiser.

Alternatives Considered

Synology DiskStation and QES (QNAP Enterprise Storage)

Other Software Used

Synology DiskStation, VMware ESXi, Veeam Backup & Replication

Usability

TrueNAS as a really NAS customizable Solution

Jorge ArturoView profile
Asesor de tecnología de la información in Customer Service at Sistemas Contino (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

recover files & folder information from shadow copy after delete o r damaged file, folder or disk from user computer. its a really useful dataset features. Other awesome feature is the plugins either from IXsytem or from the community. this last has a extensive apps catalog that the user can install and customize.

Pros

  • plugins some like backup
  • Dataset from shares with shadow copy
  • Shares : SMB NTF iSCSI

Cons

  • more graphical interface to admin features like plugins, jails, list are well but a tiles aproach will be better
  • allow bulk upload/download/update to Groups or user accounts from SMB shares.
  • some script language template featured to create/config/change/delete storage pools /dataset or shares .

Return on Investment

  • Reduce the invenstment in license.
  • Allow increase the investent in hardware for better performance
  • optimize the IT resurces with better support and service uptime

Alternatives Considered

QNAP NAS and Synology DiskStation

Other Software Used

ESET PROTECT, Clonezilla, Fortinet FortiGate

TrueNAS in Higher Education

Sean GordonView profile
Director of IT Operations in Information Technology at Western Seminary (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Over the years I have used several large enterprise storage solutions and TrueNas is Top of my list. I started with downloading the software on older enterprise hardware, and with this next project we are deploying 3 TrueNas hardware solutions along with 3 Host servers all purchased from TrueNas. A Mini-R storage solution is serving NFS shares directly, and the other solutions, a M30 and Mini-R will run all of our virtual infrastructure and backup-storage. Having a dual controller option was an absolute must on this project. I would highly recommend checking out TrueNas, or at the very least give the sales engineers a call and talk through your project to see if TrueNas is a good fit.

Pros

  • Ease of Use
  • Production Speed
  • Reliability and uptime
  • Cost to operate

Cons

  • Better explanations on how Caching works with RAM and SLOG

Return on Investment

  • With limited Budget, TrueNAS provides everything we needed
  • Great SLA on purchased devices

Alternatives Considered

QNAP NAS, EMC VNX (Discontinued) and Nimble

Other Software Used

VMware ESXi, Azure App Service, Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches

TrueNAS Mini - Fantastic piece of equipment

Jeff CoxView profile
IT Support Specialist in Information Technology at GTG Peterbilt (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use the TrueNAS Minis in our branch offices for file shares. Excellent little units. We couldn't be happier with them.

Pros

  • Ease of use
  • Ease of setup / install
  • Community support

Return on Investment

  • The low cost of the minis have made getting a file server in a branch location a no brainer.

Alternatives Considered

Synology DiskStation

Other Software Used

Windows Server, Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365

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