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TrueNAS
An open-source operating system deisgned for file sharing

TrueNAS (formerly FreeNAS) is a family of Linux and FreeBSD based network-attached storage (NAS) operating systems developed by iXsystems. The operating systems include components released under a proprietary license, GPL and BSD licenses. TrueNAS can be installed for free on commodity x86-64 computers or TrueNAS Enterprise purchased as a turnkey appliance with support from iXsystems.

Built around the OpenZFS file system, TrueNAS provides a number of built-in file and block storage services as well as an OS-level virtualized app store (Linux containers and FreeBSD jails respectively) and virtual machine hypervisor to host additional services.

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History

The TrueNAS project originated as FreeNAS, created by Olivier Cochard-Labbé in October 2005, based on the m0n0wall firewall and FreeBSD 6.0. Volker Theile joined the project in 2006 and later assumed its leadership.

In 2009 Theile concluded that FreeNAS required substantial rewrites to remain relevant. Considering the extent of the changes needed Theile proposed migrating the project to Debian Linux, however, Cochard-Labbé preferred FreeNAS to remain on BSD, resulting in Theile agreeing to fork FreeNAS and ultimately creating OpenMediaVault. FreeNAS would remain on FreeBSD with development taken over by iXsystems,12 a company founded by original Berkeley Software Design developers whose company supported the PC-BSD OS and sold a line of storage servers.3

FreeNAS 8.x was released in 2010 following a substantial rewrite of the front and back-end, and it integrated the OpenZFS file system. ixSystems also introduced the "TrueNAS" branding for their enterprise hardware appliances and proprietary OS based on FreeNAS, adding enterprise centric features such as high availability and Fibre Channel support.4

In July 2020, iXsystems announced TrueNAS Scale, a "scale-out" Linux-based project based on TrueNAS Core.5

In 2021, iXsystems merged the commercial and free operating systems into a single codebase under the TrueNAS branding. The feature-limited free community edition was renamed TrueNAS Core, distinguishing it from TrueNAS Enterprise.6

In 2022, iXsystems released TrueNAS Scale, a Debian Linux port of the TrueNAS OS.7 The "Scale" moniker was intended to be an homage to the scale-out storage capabilities of the Linux based Gluster File System and Kubernetes based containerized app system. However, both Gluster and Kubernetes would be deprecated shortly thereafter.

At the end of 2023, citing higher adoption rates of the Linux-based TrueNAS Scale iXsystems announced that the BSD-based TrueNAS Core would only receive maintenance/security updates going forward with no further feature development.8

In January of 2025, iXsystems announced that the Scale offering had reached full feature and performance parity with Core. As such, they announced that Scale would be renamed TrueNAS, available as the free "Community Edition" (CE) and the paid Enterprise edition, with all future development going into the Linux-based branch. The announcement recommended that all users of Scale and Core upgrade to the unified version 25.04 "Fangtooth" by the mid-late 2025.9

User TypeTrueNAS CoreTrueNAS Enterprise (BSD)TrueNAS Enterprise (Linux)TrueNAS Community Edition
DeveloperN/AN/AN/AGoldeye Nightly
TesterN/AN/A24.10.225.04-BETA1
Early AdopterN/AN/A24.10.224.10.2
General13.0-U6713.0-U6724.10.224.10.2
Conservative13.0-U6713.0-U6724.04.2.524.10.1
Mission CriticalEnterprise13.0-U6724.04.2.5Enterprise
Source:10

Version history

BranchInitial releaseLatest BuildReleasedFreeBSD versionStatusNotes / Changes
9.102016-03-239.10.2-U42017-05-2510.3 STABLEPrevious Release11
10.0 ("Corral")2017-03-15N/A  Withdrawn: relegated to preview onlyThe "Corral" branch was cancelled on or around 23 April 2017, the developers citing as reasons that although it had been a major "ground up" rewrite of FreeNAS, too many issues had emerged within 2 weeks of release. Development reverted to the proven 9.10 branch of FreeNAS and the Corral branch was relegated to a "technology preview".1213
11.0142017-06-14RELEASE2017-06-1411 STABLEPrevious release(Compared to 9.10 branch):1516
  • Beta version of new user interface based on Angular (optional)
  • Built-in Virtual Machine management (default hypervisor: bhyve)
  • Updated alerts system and support for multiple alert services
  • Jails management via iocage
  • Amazon S3 compatible object storage services, allowing S3 based cloud services to run on a FreeNAS platform
11.12017-12-13RELEASE2017-12-1311 STABLEPrevious ReleaseChanges include the addition of cloud synchronization and preliminary Docker container support, as well as updates to the Angular-based administrative GUI and noticeable OpenZFS improvements for handling large files and multiple snapshots.1718
11.22018-07-0919RELEASE2018-12-0511.2 STABLE20Previous ReleaseHighlights from release announcement:21
  • New, Angular-based UI
  • Boot loader has changed from GRUB to the native FreeBSD boot loader
  • Jails backend has switched from warden to iocage
  • Support has been added for Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs)
11.32019-11-1522RELEASE2020-01-2811.3 STABLE23Previous releaseHighlights from release announcement:24
  • ACL Manager – Allows setup and management of SMB ACL's directly via the FreeNAS web interface.
  • A repository of Community plugins has been created, users can now create and distribute 3rd party plugins which are not officially iXsystems supported.
  • iSCSI Wizard – Streamlines the process of creating new iSCSI targets down to a few clicks.
  • Alert System Overhaul – More granular alerts, as well as controls to set alert thresholds.
  • Dashboard Updates – The initial dashboard now shows a live view of system status, including network traffic, CPU / memory utilization and more.
  • NAT Support for Plugins – Eliminates the need for each plugin to have a dedicated IP address on your network.
  • Full featured 2.0 API – Includes both REST and Websocket connections, allowing FreeNAS to be fully scripted and driven via the same API used by the web-interface.
12.02020-10-2012.0-U8.12022-4-2212.0-STABLEPrevious releaseHighlights from release announcement.
  • Native ZFS encryption, allowing per-dataset encryption and
  • 2-factor authentication support, allowing an extra layer of security when accessing TrueNAS
  • KMIP support - allowing interfacing with KMIP servers for storage and retrieval of passwords and encryption keys
  • TrueNAS API 2.0 now supports API keys for remote access. API v1.0 has been deprecated.
  • Fusion pool support, allowing flash-based VDEVS that store metadata and small-block IO
  • OpenVPN support (both server and client)
  • TrueCommand cloud client integration
13.02022-5-102513.0-U22022-8-3013.0-U2Current releaseHighlights from release announcement.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to TrueNAS.

References

  1. "Project of the Month, January 2007". SourceForge. January 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-03-13. Retrieved 2013-08-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20080313190212/http://sourceforge.net/potm/potm-2007-01.php ↩

  2. "Interview with Olivier Cochard-Labbé, Founder of FreeNAS". BSD Magazine. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20130120010413/http://bsdmag.org/downloads/15 ↩

  3. "iXsystems History". TrueNAS.com. Retrieved 7 March 2025. https://www.ixsystems.com/history/ ↩

  4. "FreeNAS History". Truenas.com. Retrieved 8 March 2025. https://www.truenas.com/freenas/ ↩

  5. "FreeNAS History". Truenas.com. Retrieved 8 March 2025. https://www.truenas.com/freenas/ ↩

  6. "TrueNAS vs FreeNAS (and why you should upgrade!)". TrueNAS. Retrieved 7 March 2025. https://cdn-www.ixsystems.com/blog/truenas-vs-freenas-and-why-you-should-upgrade/ ↩

  7. "First Official Release of TrueNAS on Linux". Retrieved 8 March 2025. https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/first-release-of-truenas-on-linux ↩

  8. "FreeBSD 14 Support". Reddit. Retrieved 8 March 2025. https://www.reddit.com/r/truenas/comments/18hfwcr/comment/kd7l36h/ ↩

  9. "Fangtooth Unifies the TrueNAS community". Retrieved 8 March 2025. https://www.truenas.com/blog/truenas-fangtooth-25-04/ ↩

  10. "TrueNAS Software Status". TrueNAS. Retrieved 8 March 2025. https://www.truenas.com/software-status/ ↩

  11. FreeNAS 9.10 Released http://www.freenas.org/blog/freenas-910-released/ ↩

  12. FreeNAS Corral Status: From “RELEASE” to “TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW” Status http://www.freenas.org/blog/freenas-corral-status-release-technology-preview-status/ ↩

  13. Embarrassing! FreeNAS downgrades latest release to 'tech preview' • The Register https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/18/freenas_downgrades_latest_release_to_tech_preview/ ↩

  14. FreeNAS 11.0 Released - Phoronix https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FreeNAS-11.0-Released ↩

  15. FreeNAS 11.0 is Now Here http://www.freenas.org/blog/freenas-11-1-release/ ↩

  16. FreeNAS 11.0 release notes: Initial testing indicates that the FreeNAS 11 kernel is 20% faster than FreeNAS 9.10 https://download.freenas.org/11/11.0-RELEASE/ReleaseNotes ↩

  17. FreeNAS 11.1 is Now Available for Download! http://www.freenas.org/blog/freenas-11-1-release/ ↩

  18. FreeNAS 11.1-RELEASE - iXsystems, Inc. - Enterprise Storage & Servers https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/library/freenas-11-1-release/ ↩

  19. "FreeNAS 11.2-BETA1". iXsystems, Inc. - Enterprise Storage & Servers. Retrieved 2019-01-26. https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/library/freenas-11-2-beta1/ ↩

  20. "FreeNAS 11.2-RELEASE User Guide". www.ixsystems.com. Retrieved 2019-01-26. https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/intro.html ↩

  21. FreeNAS 11.2 has Arrived https://www.freenas.org/blog/freenas-11-2-has-arrived/ ↩

  22. "FreeNAS 11.3-BETA1". iXsystems, Inc. - Enterprise Storage & Servers. Retrieved 2020-01-30. https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/library/freenas-11-3-beta1/ ↩

  23. "FreeNAS 11.3-RELEASE". iXsystems, Inc. - Enterprise Storage & Servers. Retrieved 2020-01-30. https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/library/freenas-11-3-release/ ↩

  24. "FreeNAS 11.3-RELEASE". iXsystems, Inc. - Enterprise Storage & Servers. Retrieved 2020-01-30. https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/library/freenas-11-3-release/ ↩

  25. "13.0 Release Notes". iXsystems, Inc. - Enterprise Storage & Servers. Retrieved 2022-05-31. https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/corereleasenotes/ ↩