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I believe integrating Home Assistant with HexOS could be a game-changer for the operating system, offering functionality that is sorely lacking in almost all other OS platforms today. A Home Assistant integration would allow users to monitor and manage their NAS more effectively. Imagine being able to track critical metrics such as system uptime, array health, disk health checks, and the overall status of your storage systems — all from within Home Assistant. Furthermore, adding control features would significantly enhance the user experience. It would be fantastic if users could automate tasks like rebooting or stopping/starting applications, VMs, or containers directly through Home Assistant. Additionally, automating disk spin-downs during off-peak hours for power savings would be a powerful and eco-friendly feature. The potential of Home Assistant integration is vast, and it's difficult to fully capture all the possibilities in a single topic. However, the core idea is simple: having such an integration, with continuous updates and new features, would be a major advantage for HexOS. While most other operating systems either lack similar functionality or offer only basic, limited capabilities, HexOS could stand out by providing a more comprehensive, user-friendly, and flexible solution.

Hi there! This will happen server side.

Down the Road, it would be really awesome if we would get a curated installation for Paperless-NGX! https://docs.paperless-ngx.com/ Paperless is a really awesome Document Management System for all sorts of things. Paperless have lots of Small Features like full OCR and full in document text search. With a Duplex scanner, you can easly backup ALL of your paper documents and have them automatically sorted - a perfect companion for HexOS that aims to make digital backups a breeze! With a Curated and easy install, it could also help to backup analog paper 🙂

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?

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!

UPDATE: As of 4/17/26, we have updated the ISO installer to run on version 25.10.3 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-25.10.3-HexOS.iso or https://hexos-downloads.sfo3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/TrueNAS-SCALE-25.10.3-HexOS.iso (SHA256 Checksum: e551911445c95c1943e6638091896f34d2d423900cccd688ac09d811e78ed450) 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.

It would be very interesting to have the option to have Bitwarden as a running app and with the expected access from outside of the local network access it.

Please enable 2FA support for accounts.

Scheduled power on would be difficult, as that's typically a bios function, but scheduled power off should be trivial. That said, might be possible to utilize a sleep like mode

In the top menu under the “Activity” section

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

Im looking to install a Jellyfin server on my HEX os server, will this be an app?

I would like to install Nginx Proxy Manager, DuckDNS, the Arr's (Sonarr, Radarr etc.), Jellyfin etc. If these could be direct app installs, this would be great.

At some point, it would be nice with a native mobile app for setting up things like smb shares, start/stop, looking at stats and etc.

As a person who cannot see the screen, I want to use my screen reader assistive technology to interact with, navigate, and understand the full capabilities of the out of the box user interface of HexOS. Please ensure that the UI whether it's web based, Linux based, or a mobile app is completely navigable by keyboard, and all items and their states/values are programmatically readable by screen readers like Orca (Linux), VoiceOver (macOS built-in), NVDA (Windows FOSS). I have a career working on web and iOS applications. If there is any specific guidance or advice I can give, I'd be happy to.

Hi guys, It would be really useful if if we could get 1-click installers for the most popular torrent apps like: Deluge - https://deluge-torrent.org Transmission - https://transmissionbt.com qBittorrent - https://www.qbittorrent.org rTorrent - https://github.com/rakshasa/rtorrent ruTorrent - https://github.com/Novik/ruTorrent Thanks!

Integrated default reverse proxy for docker apps so all apps available on 443 inside home network. integrated DNS to support app name.internaldomain.com with reverse proxy (this puts all apps on 443) Lets encrypt SSL by default for all apps all user has to do is buy domain name and enter it above and all just works support for split horizon DNS consider running the DNS service for folks to allow tight integration (this shouldn't preclude use of other dns services) this is not me advocating for how to expose anything externally, that's not an argument i want to get into 😉

Hello, I hope to see tailscale and setup guide for it on day 1, I believe this is one of the main apps Or Tailscale not here due to their partnership with Unraid?

Love to have pi-hole as an app. I have a skill (bit like Linus) that just updating Ubuntu OS (which I run pi-hole on because it’s supported) randomly breaks the OS and often requires a full reinstall to recover. tad annoying so having this as a simple app install would save me time and fear of this random faults. /FAZ

Sorry, if this has been asked before & posted elsewhere. Would be handy to have app support for steam caching, especially for big/medium family's/house hold share. I can understand this will not be on the radar as yet, while sorting other issues out/beta etc

Could you spend few dollars and leverage a monthly cloud plan to backup your data until you get the NAS reconfigured? Maybe something like BackBlaze?

Hi there! As the lead designer on HexOS this is something I'm very interested in accomplishing! The current beta probably has several issues and we will be working to making this a great experience for all! If you or anybody else who needs assistive technology discovers any issues, feel free to send me a DM here on the forum!

Hi there! Yes, it is in the plans! You can technically switch to Spanish now, but only parts are translated.

If this has already been answered can you reply with the link to that answer? An example would be license transfer from testing hardware to production, eventual upgrade down the line, upgrading components or replacing them due to failure with disclaimer that it would or would not require a license transfer. This leading to how to do it of course 🙂 This us my current question and if there is a forum based version to accompany it, even better!

Off topic, I got a surprise yesterday which I was noy expecting, bought some walking shoes a year ago and had walked the soles off them , literally right down !! was in the shoe shop the other day and mentioned their were leaking water in , the assistant told me they was two warranty on them , bring them in and they would exchange them ,, So I did!! and got a brand new pair free of charge, I was gob smacked 🤯 Like I say shy boys get nothing if you don't ask haha 😆

Two+ decades of professional IT experience here and this statement is incorrect. HexOS is just as much an operating system as Windows 95 which was built on an MS-DOS foundation just like HexOS is built on TrueNAS. TrueNAS is the engine that runs the processes but it is HexOS that makes the requests and provides a more intuitive user interface for flipping all the various controls, dials and switches that tell TrueNAS how to go about doing things. There are TONS of options available for tailoring the TrueNAS processing for various platform uses and HexOS is precisely targeting home office and small business users who have aging hardware that should be repurposed with more modern software running them to not only reduce E-waste on our planet but to also lessen the burden of having to pay out the nose for hardware that is way more than what is required for those users and make these systems more secure. That leaves TrueNAS able to focus on it's core user base of Enterprise organizations who have Teams of IT professionals who can integrate TrueNAS into their organizations just as is. That being said, nothing in this thread has precluded us from try to make these aging ReadyNAS boxes a viable option for running a barebones basic configuration of HexOS on and with Dev assistance it is absolutely possible to make an installation that could be easily deployed by some of the less tech savvy individuals who are very interested in the HexOS platform.

AMP would do this and much more. If HexOS supported AMP, that would handle pretty much any compatible game server. AMP discussion:

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

Hi there! I'm uncertain about what you're asking, but right now we support Docker containers and will soon support VMs. Anything you could do in TrueNAS Scale before you can of course still do in the TrueNAS UI.

Yeah, it was a desperation move. There's just legitimately no way that I should be spending $99, and def can't $199. I know that I'm going to need this. And this was a now or never moment. I either get HexOS now, or forever be looking at it from the outside. I may have also been driven by the month long struggle that I'm in the middle of with my own NAS setup right now. I've known the pain in the pass, but is it again fresh and raw, lol. I had to cast aside shame and ask. I honestly wasn't expecting it to happen. There was no obligation on Jon's or HexOS' part. So, I was very surprised to see them thrown me a hail mary pass. Much love. ❤️

Hi there! Local UI is coming and it will require a online connection for initial setup, but after that you can run and manage your server offline. Any features that requires internet (like installing apps) will not be available until the server is online again.

Hi there! We certainly would like to add a bunch of game servers, but it might take a little while.

Me waiting for the invite

D-brand Collab ?

Nice. Sounds like you really thought about your deployment. Only thing I'd consider is bumping that RAM up to 16GB. ZFS is a RAM hungry filesystem. Good luck!

Regardless of Torrent Software you use or Media system you use to host movies The ability to choose what ever Torrent Software use use automatically mounts to what ever Media system you use IE qbittorent to plex (Movie, TV, Music) etc etc

What you have is great. Drive speeds and networking are going to be your biggest bottleneck. I would recommend getting a 120GB SSD ($10-$15) just for OS installation, and then another stick of 8GB RAM, and as many drives as you need for storage.

Sounds good. I always find it best to kick the tires before sinking a ton of money on new gear. Good luck!

I believe the hexos team have more control than maybe even true nas team, true nas will be under some type of expectation from the community to keep all the default settings on, that are using up all the free ram, it’s just a matter of giving the user the control over these settings, or turning them off by default, hexos looks pretty different to truenas. We don’t need all the extra bells and whistles, the interface is all about simplicity for the user, why not the whole inner workings as well?

If there's an iOS app, there needs to be an Android app too.

8GB RAM is the minimum requirement and the maximum you can put in that is 4GB

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.

But here there is another thread: @WhyCheese got it running with 2 GB of RAM.

From what I've seen, TrueNAS supports Vaultwarden (the self-hosted variant of Bitwarden). So I'd think eventually it will work on HexOS as well.

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.

Yes. We’re using ZFS. And hopefully make it so simple you won’t need to read a book about it 🙂

This!