Migrate from TrueNAS Core to XigmaNAS?

[Dopamin3]

I'm disappointed in the fact that iXsystems is discontinuing the FreeBSD based TrueNAS Core in favor of the Debian based TrueNAS Scale. So generally speaking does anyone run XigmaNAS and do you like it? What do you use for jail management? I'd like to use Bastille.

I think this migration shouldn't be too bad. My TrueNAS Core server has two ZFS zpools, a few iocage jails, 1 bhyve VM and serves some SMB/NFS shares for the rest of the network.

Sanity check... I just run "zfs export poolname" on my two pools on the current TrueNAS. Then I can shutdown, install XigmaNAS and issue a "zfs import" to discover and bring in the two zpools? I'm fine with recreating the network shares and jails, but the VM can just be carried over by assigning the resources and zvol for storage to the VM?

 

[Digital Spaceport]

Yes export them and import via the cli with those cmds will generally work. Do run a snapshot first. What version of openzfs is running in core and xigma is a decent point to evaluate before migrate.

Sanity check... I just run "zfs export poolname" on my two pools on the current TrueNAS. Then I can shutdown, install XigmaNAS and issue a "zfs import" to discover and bring in the two zpools? I'm fine with recreating the network shares and jails, but the VM can just be carried over by assigning the resources and zvol for storage to the VM?

 

[mrpasc]

Are you sure to get a better maintained BSD under the hood? According to release notes they still stuck with FreeBSD Release 13.1P6 (for their Beta version, in Beta status for more than a year!). And for virtualisation they rely on virtual box?? Not sure if that would make a better competitor for iX . At least iX is heading towards FreeBSD Release 13.3.

 

[Dopamin3]

Yes export them and import via the cli with those cmds will generally work. Do run a snapshot first. What version of openzfs is running in core and xigma is a decent point to evaluate before migrate.

On my current TrueNAS Core 13.0-U6.1:
zfs-2.1.14-1
zfs-kmod-v2023120100-zfs_f4871096b

On XigmaNAS 13.2.0.5.9884:
zfs-2.1.9-FreeBSD_g92e0d9d18
zfs-kmod-2.1.9-FreeBSD_g92e0d9d18

Are you sure to get a better maintained BSD under the hood? According to release notes they still stuck with FreeBSD Release 13.1P6 (for their Beta version, in Beta status for more than a year!). And for virtualisation they rely on virtual box?? Not sure if that would make a better competitor for iX . At least iX is heading towards FreeBSD Release 13.3.

TrueNAS Core 13.3 will be the final release before it's discontinued, leaving only the Debian Linux based TrueNAS Scale being maintained. I plan on keeping this current server I built going for as long as I can and it's only about ~1 year old so the hardware should have a long life ahead of it. I don't want to switch to a Debian based storage server and XigmaNAS seems like the best choice especially since it seems like it was forked from iXsystems FreeNAS.

XigmaNAS 13.2.0.5.9884 is based on FreeBSD 13.2-RELEASE-p8 and my current TrueNAS Core 13.0-U6.1 is based on 13.1-RELEASE-p9. I don't need bleeding edge, I just want something to use that has a similar feature set and will be maintained longer.

 

[viper780]

I'm using for a very long time Xigmanas (Nas4Free and FreeNAS before the name changes). The XigmaNAS Project is basically dead.
Many old and unpatched programs with known vulnerabilities.

If I have a weekend to my own I'll migrate to a plain Linux (most likely debian)

 

[Digital Spaceport]

Freebsd ZFS performance of Core has always been exceptionally better given the same pool/dataset vs scale. I've noticed that in my comparisons and thought about just going base freebsd but I'm pretty new to freebsd. Comfortable with a CLI, but don't want to FAFO with my storage arrays. Ended up migrating last core machine to Scale yesterday, but intend to up my skills on freebsd and migrate back when competent.

 

[ddaenen1]

I am sticking with TrueNAS Core for as long as possible. It took me a long time to get knowledgeable on FreeBSD and run Nextcloud which i use for my business which runs great and extremely stable as it is a much more mature and stable environment. For now it would be too time consuming to start from scratch again on Scale. I also follow the TrueNAS forums quite closely and observe many issues with the Nextcloud on Scale.

 

[cheezehead]

...I don't want to switch to a Debian based storage server...

Any specific reason? Early versions of Scale were a rough around the edges but more recent builds have been very stable from what i've seen.

 

[Digital Spaceport]

As a storage platform provider, both scale and core are exceptionally stable platforms. I don't use them for VM or containers however and have had issues with VM deployments off both scale and core. I typically pair up with proxmox for that segment of the work however so not a big issue in my use cases.

I also follow the TrueNAS forums quite closely and observe many issues with the Nextcloud on Scale.

 

[unwind-protect]

Sanity check... I just run "zfs export poolname" on my two pools on the current TrueNAS. Then I can shutdown, install XigmaNAS and issue a "zfs import" to discover and bring in the two zpools? I'm fine with recreating the network shares and jails, but the VM can just be carried over by assigning the resources and zvol for storage to the VM?

That does not work when the ZFS pool has features active that the new OS does not (yet) support.

 

[viper780]

I am sticking with TrueNAS Core for as long as possible. It took me a long time to get knowledgeable on FreeBSD and run Nextcloud which i use for my business which runs great and extremely stable as it is a much more mature and stable environment. For now it would be too time consuming to start from scratch again on Scale. I also follow the TrueNAS forums quite closely and observe many issues with the Nextcloud on Scale.

I fully understand your motivation.
Is nextcloud the only purpose for this server?

In my experience nextcloud runs much better and hustle free on Linux

 

[Dopamin3]

Well I tried XigmaNAS and it's not for me. No native jail management, and I couldn't get the community plugin of Bastille working on the latest release. Plus I really don't want to rely on community plugins.

So riding out TrueNAS Core for a bit longer... Hopefully 13.3 releases before 13.2 goes EOL (since even though current TrueNAS Core is based on 13.1, 13.2 jails work fine but 13.3 jails don't)

 

[ddaenen1]

I fully understand your motivation.
Is nextcloud the only purpose for this server?

In my experience nextcloud runs much better and hustle free on Linux

I also run a Plex jail. I know you can do both Plex and Nextcloud on Scale. I just spent a bunch of time learning the ins and outs of FreeBSD and it took me quite some time to move over from the plugins in Core to manual installs. Now that i've done this and all running the way i like it, i am hesitant to start all over again as i cannot migrate my current Nextcloud instance to Scale so i would need to set up from scratch, move over all my data over which is going to be a pain as i don't have a spare server where i can do that on whilst keeping the current one running. If that would be the case, i might consider it. This is what i did when i moved from a plugin to a manual install in a jail. I just had the plugin running until i tested the manual install properly and i was certain i could move over to the new install which was a simple as redirecting my FQDN to the new internal IP.

 

[ddaenen1]

So riding out TrueNAS Core for a bit longer... Hopefully 13.3 releases before 13.2 goes EOL (since even though current TrueNAS Core is based on 13.1, 13.2 jails work fine but 13.3 jails don't)

Same here. Who knows, maybe iX will change their minds and do a 14-based version of Core. Actually, i am running my Plex instance in a 13.3 jail and i have no issue with it whatsoever. Nextcloud is still on 13.2 though and not moving over as it is a way more complex install than Plex.

 

[viper780]

Nextcloud and Plex (which I recommend to switch over to jelyfin) runs way better on Linux.

I really love FreeBSD and I'm using Xigmanas (and NAS4free before and even freeNAS before that) for a really long time. But if it is only these two a simple an plain debian (or any other Linux distribution of your choice) will serve you (and your home) much better.
If you want some kind of manager than you can use Portainer (for Docker) or Proxmox as a hypervisor.

 

[ddaenen1]

Nextcloud and Plex (which I recommend to switch over to jelyfin) runs way better on Linux.

I really love FreeBSD and I'm using Xigmanas (and NAS4free before and even freeNAS before that) for a really long time. But if it is only these two a simple an plain debian (or any other Linux distribution of your choice) will serve you (and your home) much better.
If you want some kind of manager than you can use Portainer (for Docker) or Proxmox as a hypervisor.

Oh, and i forgot to mentioned that i like to fiddle and tinker alot. I kinda get unhappy when all is running solid

 

[viper780]

I don't like to tinker, for me security and stability has the highest priorities. After this comes a high degree of automation.

But maybe you should buy a iPad. Their user always tell me how tinker free and easy to use it is when they are coming to me with their problems with it.