Pandemic is an exciting time to learn something new and this week was certainly no exception. iXSystems has released TrueNAS CORE RC1, the successor to FreeNAS. I’ve been testing it in the house with my Pandemic PC, thanks to MicroCenter from spare parts I’d accumulated before the pandemic.
Simple ZFS
TrueNAS CORE makes ZFS accessible to the masses for robust, expandable storage pools that grow as needed. Unlike a traditional RAID system, ZFS lets you continue to add more drives as your storage needs grow. It also has features to protect data integrity and redundancy to protect your data in case a drive fails.In-Browser VMs
TrueNAS allows you to manage multiple Virtual Machines from a unified interface. Better still, for non-server OSs, it’ll allow you spin up a VM for a client and give them access through a browser without installing any third-party software. Powerful machines like the 3400G are well-suited to virtualize a system that requires graphics.Mac-Friendly
I can confirm that TrueNAS was able to generate a network-accessible Time Machine store using SMB (Server Message Block). After the death of the Time Capsule, it’s a feature I’m happy to see. It served editable Final Cut Pro libraries flawlessly without additional configuration.You can learn more about the other offering from TrueNAS and other offerings from iXsystems on their web site. I hope to report additional findings as the release drops.