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UPDATE: As of 11/8, we have updated the ISO installer to run on version 25.04.2.6 of TrueNAS SCALE. Existing users should NOT reinstall to get this version. You can update from within the Activity card on the Dashboard (or the Notification). Hello and thank you for joining the HexOS beta program! You are an elite and vital part of this project and your participation is greatly appreciated. This post contains all the information you will need to get started with HexOS and how to communicate with our team during your beta experience. Disclaimer Beta Products, Software, and any related Services are still in development, and therefore, you are advised to safeguard important data, to use caution, and not to rely in any way on the correct functioning or performance of the products, software, or any related services. Beta Products and Services are provided to you “AS IS”, without any warranty whatsoever. Expectations During your participation in the beta, we expect you to do the obvious: use and test the software. But we also expect you to communicate with us when things don’t go right or if you’re having trouble. Please post feedback and let us know about your experiences, good and bad. That being said, please remember that this is beta software and early access. HexOS has a long and healthy roadmap ahead. Quickstart Guide For those that just want to get started, here’s the TLDR: Download the ISO here: https://downloads.hexos.com/TrueNAS-SCALE-25.04.2.6-HexOS.iso or https://hexos-downloads.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/TrueNAS-SCALE-25.04.2.6-HexOS.iso (SHA256 Checksum: e8ed99a322affe0969b82b866161a9f6acbc1561e3cc7b2efb2bf120ffe2e856) Use a tool such as Balena Etcher to image a USB flash device with the ISO. Boot your server from the flash device and install the OS to preferably an SSD. When given the option, opt to create the admin password in the installer (do not select the option to "Configure using WebUI"). Remove the flash device and reboot your server when the install is complete. From another device (mobile, tablet, desktop) that is on the same LAN as your server, login to https://deck.hexos.com using your HexOS credentials. Follow the instructions to complete your server configuration. NOTE: As of the 24.10.2.2 build of this ISO, configuring the admin password via the webUI option has been removed from the installer. However, if you select to create an admin password, but then attempt to "cancel" that process, the ISO will proceed with an installation with no admin password set. This is a known bug and the TrueNAS team will be addressing this in a future update to the ISO. Just don't cancel out of creating the admin password in the installer ;-). Hardware Requirements Booting HexOS is designed to support a wide variety of x86 hardware (Intel or AMD). The minimum requirements are a 2-core 64-bit CPU, 8GB of memory, and a 16GB or larger SSD boot device. However, depending on your needs for performance and applications, more resources may be required. Storage Pools Pools are made up of storage devices based on size and type (HDDs vs. SSDs). Storage devices in each pool need to be roughly the same size*. The OS boot device cannot be a part of a pool. Expandable pools require a minimum of 3 devices and can be grown one device at a time. Non-expandable pools can be created with 2 devices. Initial pool width should not exceed 8 devices. Maximum expanded pool width should not exceed 12 devices. At least one storage pool must be created to use HexOS. *In the event of slight variations (e.g. 240GB and 256GB), devices can be grouped, but total capacity for the pool will sacrifice the larger device’s excess storage. Build Recommendations HexOS has been designed so that a relatively modern PC can be easily transformed into a very viable home server. This means using standard HDDs/SSDs and using onboard controllers for storage/networking. However, since we’re based on TrueNAS, our hardware support is actually rather vast. For more detailed hardware recommendations for advanced builds, please refer to the TrueNAS SCALE Hardware Guide. Installing in a VM As HexOS is based on TrueNAS SCALE, it can be installed as a virtual machine as well. While the process should be fairly self-explanatory, please see the TrueNAS SCALE documentation for additional instructions on VM installation. Setup and Configuration Once the OS has been installed and rebooted, you will use a web browser on the same network as your server to register your system and complete the setup process. This can be a PC, tablet, or mobile device. Using a capable browser, login to https://deck.hexos.com. Beta 1 Features Our first release is focused on providing a streamlined user experience for setup and configuration and laying the framework for what’s to come. The main features of Beta 1 include: Setup and configuration wizard Configure your home server in minutes with ease. Analyze system health, with warnings for SMR HDDs. Auto-configure storage pools to safeguard against device failures. Securely manage your server remotely via Command Deck. Storage device management Detect error states and conditions and report through the dashboard Highlight individual storage devices and their respective faults Replace devices from storage pools due to failure or preventative maintenance Expand pools as little as one device at a time Folders and users Create and share folders over your local network. Easily manage permissions for secure access. Apps One-click deploy Immich as a personal photo library app. One-click deploy Plex as a home media server. Automatic folder creation for app storage. Dashboard / UI Access key statistics like CPU, memory, network, and storage usage at a glance. Monitor storage health and see alerts for errors or degraded pools. Manage multiple servers from a single, unified interface. Enjoy mobile-responsive design for effortless navigation on any device.

I think it only right that multi factor authentication on accounts be something that gets implemented relatively quickly. The simple Username/Password for the account is very 90's With HEXOS being relatively new and gaining a lot of attention. Last thing you want is negative publicity due to weak security posture. some sort of MFA should be standard option.

Please enable 2FA support for accounts.

Hey all, as the name implies I would like to see a simple checkbox to make folders available via nfs. As a bonus a list of IP ranges that are allowed to access the share would be perfect. The user mapping to the user owning the folder so that I do not need to care about permissions and just access the data via NFS could be handled automatically as a default. Please feel free to ask for clarification and to add your ideas below!

NginxProxyManager and Tailscale are great but I'd personally love to see a built in setting for Cloudflare Tunnels. I recently did a setup for UpTimeKuma, which has it built in and it was gloriously easy. I can see how it might overlap with your paid business model but just throwing my coins in the wishing well.

Sorry for the wall of text: Using a 1TB M.2 SSD as a caching drive in a 4x8TB RAIDZ2 storage pool can make a difference, but the impact depends on your workload and how the caching is configured. Here's a breakdown of the considerations: 1. Types of Caching in ZFS ZFS supports two main types of caching that can utilize an SSD: a. L2ARC (Level 2 Adaptive Replacement Cache) Purpose: Acts as a read cache for frequently accessed data that doesn't fit into the ARC (main memory cache). When it helps: If your workload involves frequent reads of the same data (e.g., databases, virtual machines, or media libraries). If your ARC (RAM) is insufficient to hold all the frequently accessed data. When it doesn't help: If your workload is write-heavy or involves mostly sequential reads (e.g., backups or streaming large files). If your ARC (RAM) is already large enough to handle your workload. b. SLOG (Separate Intent Log) Purpose: Acts as a write cache for synchronous writes, improving write latency and reliability. When it helps: If your workload involves many small, synchronous writes (e.g., databases, NFS, or iSCSI). If you need to ensure low latency for these writes. When it doesn't help: If your workload is mostly asynchronous writes or large sequential writes. If you don't have a lot of synchronous write operations. 2. Workload Considerations Read-heavy workloads: Adding the SSD as an L2ARC can improve performance if your frequently accessed data exceeds the size of your ARC (RAM). However, L2ARC is not a substitute for having sufficient RAM, as ARC is much faster than L2ARC. Write-heavy workloads: Adding the SSD as a SLOG can improve performance for synchronous writes, but it won't help with asynchronous writes or large sequential writes. Mixed workloads: If you have a mix of read-heavy and write-heavy operations, you might benefit from using the SSD for both L2ARC and SLOG, but this depends on the specific workload patterns. 3. RAIDZ2 Performance Characteristics RAIDZ2 is optimized for data integrity and redundancy, but it has relatively high write and read latency compared to other ZFS configurations (e.g., striped mirrors). Adding an SSD as a cache can help mitigate some of the latency, but it won't fundamentally change the performance characteristics of RAIDZ2. 4. SSD Size and Performance A 1TB M.2 SSD is a good size for an L2ARC, as it can hold a significant amount of frequently accessed data. For a SLOG, the SSD size doesn't need to be large, as the SLOG only stores data temporarily until it's written to the pool. A small, high-endurance SSD (e.g., 32GB–64GB) is often sufficient for this purpose. 5. Potential Bottlenecks Network speed: If you're accessing the pool over a network, the network speed (e.g., 1Gbps vs. 10Gbps) might be a bottleneck, limiting the benefits of the SSD cache. Pool performance: The underlying RAIDZ2 pool's performance will still be a limiting factor for sequential reads/writes, even with an SSD cache. 6. Recommendations Add more RAM first: ZFS benefits greatly from having more ARC (RAM). If you haven't maxed out your system's RAM, consider upgrading it before adding an SSD cache. Use the SSD for L2ARC if read-heavy: If your workload is read-heavy and your ARC is insufficient, using the SSD as an L2ARC can improve performance. Use the SSD for SLOG if write-heavy: If your workload involves many synchronous writes, using the SSD as a SLOG can reduce latency. Monitor performance: Use ZFS performance monitoring tools (e.g., zpool iostat, arcstat) to identify bottlenecks and determine whether the SSD cache is making a difference. Conclusion Using a 1TB M.2 SSD as a caching drive in your 4x8TB RAIDZ2 pool can make an appreciable difference if your workload benefits from caching. However, the impact will depend on whether your workload is read-heavy, write-heavy, or mixed. For the best results, ensure you have sufficient RAM first, and then configure the SSD appropriately for L2ARC or SLOG based on your needs.

https://docs.paperless-ngx.com/

Sorry all! Please try again! We had to update the address field in the top right. It looks like the color formatting is really off. We'll get that resolved. Our apologies.

Just a list of apps that jumped into my mind. Home Assistant Code Server Heimdall Tailscale Cloudflared Transmission qBittorrent SABnzbd NZBGet AdGuard Pi-hole Plex Jellyfin

Hey all, similar to what TrueNas offers out of the box as the multi-user Time Machine option, I would like to see Time Machine Backup support for macOS devices. This could be a special type of folder for that special purpose only where settings are locked in and only user access permissions can be set as with any other folder. Hope to see this implemented at some point together with a quick tutorial on how to set up the backup in macOS with automatic drive connection on system start and so on. Would make the whole process of setting it up very easy for everyone. That feature would make HexOS a real alternative to the mac mini as a home server for "all-in on apple" people. Please feel free to ask for clarification and add your ideas!

I’m hoping that Tailscale support is also in the works - 🤞yes?

It's a must if I am to use this as my new NAS software. AI training and streaming need them.

Assuming 2 clients at a time using the server watching a 4k blu ray rip is the system from the LTT video powerful enough for this? Would I need a beefier CPU or even have to wait for gpu support? I have 1080 I can add when its supported and plan on getting the LTT optiplex as a starting point unless this wont meet my needs.(plus new HDDs)

My gf was was getting rid of her old pc, so i got it from her. Forced 3x4tb seagate terascale HDDs into it. 24gb of ram, 8gb HP ram, 16gb Trident Z neo. 256gb ssd, GTX 960 i got from the landfill. Core i7-8700, and a SFX Silverstone PSU to power the hard drives and the graphics card

Hi everyone ! My name is Jeremie (or Jérémie your lanfuage use the little thing over the 2 e) I Liver In Beloeil, small city in Quebec provincem Canada, about 20 minute ,without traffic, from Montréal. I've been interested in computer science since I was about 12 or 13yo from my brother that was already working in a computer store that offer IT service... nowaday I dis try myself in a IT carreer but I found out I Need to work more from my hand than behind a computer screen... I Work for a HVAC company to do piping on CO2 Machine... (I'll include a picture of what I do) I still enjoy computer thing but only for my own need 😉

I would like to have a mode where the system only talks to local devices and does not connect to anything over the Internet. This especially includes an offline update process where I can update via USB stick for example.

I would like to throw my hat into the arena on wanting to try getting HexOS working on Netgear ReadyNAS hardware. I have ReadyNAS 424 that has been working great but since Netgear backed out of the NAS game a few year back the OS is dated and I am constantly worried about it not being a secure as it should be but I have it pretty isolated to only working on my local network for serving up Plex media, but I'd really like to updated to a more modern OS that I can be confident in using for my own person image cloud storage that I can access from anywhere, it doesn't need to be fast, just reliable and secure. Here's the specs of the 424: Processor Manufacturer: Intel Processor Type : Atom Processor Model : C3338 Processor Core : Dual-core (2 Core) Processor Speed : 1.50 GHz Memory Standard Memory: 2 GB Memory Technology: DDR4 SDRAM Network & Communication Ethernet Technology: Gigabit Ethernet I believe there is an additional DDR4 SDRAM slot which could be used to add up to 2GB additional RAM I believe, possibly could support up to 8GB ( 2 x 4GB). I've found a couple posts where some people have managed to figure out how to get the hardware to chain load Linux Alpine on a ReadyNAS 4 series, it would be awesome if HexOS could implement some relatively easy process to allow us to update and repurpose these abandoned ReadyNAS devices who's hardware should be capable of supporting at least a basic barebones setup. Here's a GitHub project link for the most promising one I found: RustyDust/readynas-alpine: Convert ReadyNAS systems to an Alpine Linux box while keeping data and services intact. Perhaps the HexOS devs could use it as a starting point to come up with something we could use. I plan on setting up a basic Desktop PC with HexOS on it to potentially replace the ReadyNAS if I'm not able to use HexOS on the ReadyNAS as a backup plan.

Hey everyone, first time poster and just purchased a license. Looking forward to being able to building a server on Hex OS once it is more fully fledged. I wanted to ask if there is any plans by the developers to implement an easy way for people (including developers of open source services) to share app configs in the same way that, for example, Plex and Immich are implemented at the moment. I am asking for this because it could significantly help boost the speed of development of these apps, and the growth of the ecosystem for Hex OS. People could maybe even share variations of configs (like Plex with/without hardware acceleration), or even bundle several apps together (something like bundling the whole -arr suite together along with folder directories in a way that is easy for users). It is just a suggestion, but I feel like with all of the attention Hex is getting, the developers would do well in capitalizing on the will of people to tinker with this OS by giving them the tools to make and share configs with one another (and these apps could even get some sort of "seal of approval" if they were considered of high quality by the devs). Thanks for reading my first post, I hope y'all have an amazing day!

Can someone explain to me in detail how to change your system once your license is bound to specific hardware? I'd like to beta test on a different system and make the migration to my main server once i find everything runs decent. do i have to contact support or is there some button to click to unlink my hardware? thanks.

Absolutely guys. For this first phase of launch we went with minimalistic approach. This way we can narrow our support focus. We will be turning on 2FA in the near term.

The OS boot drive cannot be used for a storage pool, it has to be its own device so for your case it would not work

Yeah utilizing mismatched drives to their full potential is one party trick that UnRAID has that ZFS does not. ...yet? (Maybe??) I say yet, because ZFS didn't have pool expansion via adding drives until very recently, and if I recall correctly that was actually developed because HexOS+ Ix Systems went to Klara Systems who develop OpenZFS and sponsored that feature to be worked on. So its possible that features like that might (MIGHT. No promises) be added in the future. @jonpDoes that sound about right?

Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Prowlarr

GREAT QUESTIONS! Answers below: When future versions of TrueNAS are released, we will test them internally before we make them available via an update mechanism within our UI. Most updates should be able to be applied immediately, but in the event we find a reason to delay the update, notice will be provided to the community. As a more direct question, we think most OS updates will be doable within 1-2 weeks of their TrueNAS SCALE release. You can disconnect us from your server at any time and just use the TrueNAS UI if you want. However, the "install" is still a HexOS install at that point, pointing to our app repo. If you want, you can reinstall TrueNAS SCALE native on your boot device, reboot, import the storage pools we created under HexOS, and continue using TrueNAS natively from there. Yes. If you do things that are destructive, they will have destructive impact ;-). To be clear, there is no safety net when you're navigating in the TrueNAS UI. No bumper lanes there to stop you from shooting yourself in the foot, so the TrueNAS UI is "Swim at your own risk!". We are a replacement management interface for TrueNAS SCALE. The primary focus in the early beta is ease-of-use. Longer term, we will build a docker container that will side-load with the OS to add additional functionality not natively available or part of the out-of-the-box TrueNAS SCALE experience. Buddy backups is a great example of a feature that we are building that will leverage technology in TrueNAS (e.g. replication), but will wrap it in simplicity and marry it with a service that makes connecting to other users far more automated. The app repo that HexOS points to is a clone/fork of the app repo provided by TrueNAS themselves. This allows us to continue to build out our app library independent from them, but also allows us to incorporate anything they do with relative ease. There is no method to adding additional app repos within TrueNAS (nor HexOS), but we do intend to support loading something like Portainer (or another equivalent) for advanced users that want to add 3rd party containers. The command deck will be required for certain functionality. It will ALWAYS be required for initial system provisioning. The main reason is that the HexOS installer does not include our UI and it never will. Instead, the local UI will be loaded via a Docker container that we will install after initial system provisioning. Think of it similar to setting up an iPhone or Android device. You need the Internet + a Google/Apple account to get going, but then you can turn on airplane mode and do whatever you want. Same idea here. The latter (when you receive the early access invite). I updated the terms policy to reflect this as well as it wasn't clear.

Would love to see Jellyfin and NoIP Ddns!

I not a big user I'll probably only use qbittorrent and jellyfin

Home Assistant, Tailscale. It would be super cool if there was a one-click install for game servers as well.

What GPUs will have support for hardware acceleration for things like transcode in PLEX? I have an Intel A380 that I got for cheap that I'd like to use.

Don't worry, I know this is like talking about the castle at the end of the journey before we even take our first step! I wanted to start this more as a discussion/casual poll of our most wanted apps, however, so that when it comes time to expanding, there's a list of ideas/feedback ready to go! I'll start - I really want Tailscale support, be it natively, or official-unnoficial testing of the FreeBSD compile (if HexOS is built on the FreeBSD CORE image and not on SCALE - but either way!) that works on OPNSense/pfSense, or even in collaboration with Tailscale themselves. I think FreeBSD really needs some love to bring it more seamlessly to FreeBSD platforms and this is a perfect place to start, and if it's SCALE based, then I guess just testing and validation to make that oh-so-ideal one-click app deployment seamless! Bonus entry; HomeAssistant support, but both ways. if HA can be set up ON HexOS, AWESOME! I think, though, that it would also kick butt if HA could connect to HexOS and get info from it; drive health, usage, CPU util/temp, stuff like that! Big thanks to the Hex team and really looking forward to using this system!

I would like to see first party support for placing any app behind some of the most popular VPNs (PIA, Nord, Express, Proton, Tailscale, etc), as well as custom VPNs (WireGuard, OpenVPN, etc). For example, you may install “The Lounge” IRC client and have all internet communication pass through a PIA VPN so that your home IP is not exposed while chatting. Traditional methods of doing this involve painful configuration of iptables or other firewall rules. I believe this is an area where HexOS could really simplify things: Install a VPN plugin, authenticate with it, and then simply assign an app to a VPN plugin via the app’s settings if desired. It would be fully accessible from the home network without going through the VPN, but all internet traffic would go through the VPN with a kill switch in case the VPN goes down. Thoughts?

The whole purpose of a NAS to keep data secure and resilient to data loss. Currently there is no way to backup and restore applications. Application Backups/Restore should be plug-and-play. Thoughts: First party implementation Simple Application independent Backup and restore applications Granular restore/backup individual applications Restore applications even on a new Hexos system from backup End-user should be able to browse application data through a file explore Breakaway from ZFS mindset like snapshots (abstracted away behind an advanced menu) and give users a simple traditional backup and restore option.

Current setup of my plex/vault/deepstore server Currently Using Case: HL15 from 45 Drives Mobo: AsRock Rack EPYCD8 CPU: AMD EPYC 7551P CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9 PCI: LSI 9200-8e - Connecting to Supermicro 45 Bay JBOD Expansion Server Shelf 847E16-RJBOD1 - with 45 18tb hard drives PCI: LSI SAS 9400-16i - Connecting to 15 18tb drives PCI: NVIDIA Quadro P2000 PCI :ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 - SAMSUNG 990 PRO 2tb x4 PCI: Intel X520 10gb dual port sfp+ NIC NVME: 2x Intel Optane SSD SATA: 2x 1tb Samsung boot drives

Plex is quite nice and all but I would like to use Jellyfin. In the past, setting up a good Jellyfin-Install with hardware acceleration can be very frustrating, so if that could be made easy, that would be a godsend.

Pretty much everything in the computer is second hand and recycled hardware... Hard drive have over 40 000 hour of runtime The setup Asrock z97 anniversary Intel i5 4690k 16gb Ram SSD munchkin eco 2 250gb 5x western digital black 2tb 530w thermaltake psu In a bitfenix shogun case (In the picture the computer was very dirty and I changed the PSU)

Hoping that options such as Emby media server will make its way to HexOS. Would be nice as I do not care to switch to Plex.

Hi @zachavm License requirements are based on the number of servers you have hexos installed on. In the use case you are considering you would need two servers, each with a copy of HexOS, so you would need to have two licenses.

Looks like one user booted with just 2GB of RAM. Not sure how usable it is, but I bet more and more people will test this over time. I just want to be able to store my backups of my new NAS to the RN212. That'd be ideal. Side note, the SAME 2x4B WD drives are STILL holding it down. Damn thing refuses to die. The disks just survived/passed the scrub process. Took like 4 days but they still look good. Crazy.

Based on the forum post found here, it seems that ARM is not compatible at the moment. It is also worth noting the mac minis do not have upgradeable storage or multiple drives and two drives are listed as an additional requirement. Minimum Hardware Requirements: x86 compatible hardware (Intel or AMD) (HexOS is NOT ARM or RISC-V compatible) 64 bit Processor with 2+ cores 8GB or more of system memory 16GB or larger boot SSD 3 or more storage drives recommended Minimum of two drives. (Pool will not be expandable if using only 2 drives) Please visit https://hexos.com/early-access-faq: for more info

I've got two budget builds right now. One core feature I focused on was getting motherboards with built in IPMI so I wouldn't have to fuss around with extra monitors and/or a KVM, so that lead me to Ebay for used Supermicro gear. "Rincewind" - My local server $20 Random-butt rack case from back when George W. was in office. $120? SilverStone 3x 5.25" ODD to 5x 3.5" HDD cage (SST-FS305-12G) $0 120 GB Kingston boot SSD $0 5x random 2TB HDDs ~$600+ (These need replaced before full deployment. Need at least 24TB usable to match the other server) $70 Fujitsu 9211-8i HBA $30 Supermicro X9scm-f LGA1155 server motherboard with IPMI $17 Xeon E3-1240 $40 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600Mhz un-buffered ECC RAM (Will upgrade to 32GB before full deployment) Total cost: ~$300 w/o drives. ~$900 w 6x10TB incl. cold spare "TheLibrarian" - Remote server at the parent's house. (Original PC was something I got from a customer at work when we upgraded their home theater) $0 Used Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 (iirc) $0 8x random 4TB HDDs that came with the case $0 Crucial boot SSD (came with the case) $0 2x Bluray drives (came with the case) $70 Fujitsu 9211-8i HBA $55 Supermicro X10SSL-F LGA1150 server motherboard with IPMI $30 Xeon E3-1246 v3 $40 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600Mhz un-buffered ECC RAM (Will upgrade to 32GB before full deployment) Total cost: ~$190 w/o drives.

Looks like a fun little franken-server!

No thank you.

Storage devices in each pool need to be roughly the same size.

For me, I was going to use Proxmox on a bare metal server and have TrueNAS Scale in a VM to handle storage (with a pass through HBA card) for all other VMs, and containers. But I’ll now be using HexOS instead of TN to handle storage as it will simply things up. For containers, I am not sure yet if I’ll let hexOS take care of it or if I’ll have a dedicated VM for them.

Good catch! Not sure how I did not notice that. I figured it would be a Linux distribution was just curious which one. That is a good inference for sure! Thanks.

Hi there! Just remember to avoid SMR drives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingled_magnetic_recording) Those does not work well with ZFS/RAID.

Same here lol screw future me that guy is a dick 🤣

Wow it’s almost like the goal is to make the entire user experience not a pain in the but and truly one of a kind. lol 😂 you guys are awesome keep up the good work

I successfully imported my truenas pools. before doing the hard drive configuration in deck.hexos.com navigate to the ip of your server and import pools in truenas then go complete the harrddrive config in the deck. it says it deletes the drives but didnt for my configuration atleast. 4x 16tb drives and 2 2tb ssds so it paired everything properly but id attempt at your own risk.

Would love to see ZeroTier as an app for some super easy private access! Has been an invaluable tool. love the work the team has been doing and am extremely excited to get access!! 🥰

I own an AMP license and would love to see it in the HexOS apps too