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This is a good background artikel. Thanks! It’s always good that you really understand the stuff you working with. In my opinion this is also the reason why TrueNas has a pretty steep learning curve. You have to understand the basics of ZFS and the authorization model, before you can configure the right options. To be honest, I am still not really comfortable in TrueNas. With a few guides from the internet I got my TrueNas setup up and running. But after that I change as less as possible 😀 This is exactly the reason I like the concept of HexOs. Rock solid TrueNas / ZFS in the background and easy config in the front end

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?

Ability to have 1 drive in a storage pool

@jonp, In case of HDD faillure it would great if HexOs guides the user with the HDD replacement. A small wizard with a few questions and then advice: do this, do that. Especialliy for non tech users it will make a big difference. Users will be nervous in case of HDD faillure. I think simple, low effort feature with big impact. Just my 2 cents.

Hi @migcooper I would follow THESE instructions when replacing your disk.

don't hesitate to ask lots of questions either i've made mistakes i would never have expected like getting an unsupported realtek nic lmao

https://www.gingerling.co.uk/playing-with-hexos-part-1-losing-my-mind-and-my-pool/ Enjoy x

The Lincstation N2 has 16GB LPDDR5 (Non-upgradeable), so 16GB it is. I already use CPU type host, and the i440fx is a click, click, next mistake, ha ha 🙂 . But for my test setup it's good enough and i didn't feel the need to change it, because it works. But I will use Q35 in my final setup. Truenas is also improving the VM engine and will become more and more a virtualisation platform. But for now the sweetspot of HexOs / Truenas is still good and reliable network storage. Proxmox gives me a lot of flexibility and is my virtualisation platform of choice. In the past I used ESXi, but since the Broadcom takeover I moved to Proxmox. vCenter was a nice tool and Proxmox is developing something like that: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_Datacenter_Manager_Roadmap Are you still using Proxmox? Or did you fully move to HexOs/Truenas? I am also curious about what you are using as server hardware.

If you can still afford to wipe your drives, you can setup RaidZ2 in Truenas.

only hexos gets installed to the boot drive. Apps get installed to a separate pool. I agree with @Sonic, the effort required to sell ddr3 is not worth the profit and Hexos loves ram. One thing to keep in mind is if you buy HDDs for a storage pool just make sure the are CMR drives and not SMR drives.

You never can have to much memory. If you have 64 gb in your machine, leave it like that. 😀. You also have buy new memory if you sell the 64GB. And that for a few $ or euro "profit"

It is a must these days to have TailScale support, especially for secure remote access. It is far too easy to mess up a WireGaurd/OpenVPN Config, if the goal is security and simplicity, Tailscale VPN access should be a high priority.

I know exactly what you mean. The joy of discovery is immeasurable.

@DylanYou’d have to see it with a child’s eyes .There’s the joy of discovery in all this.

Hello, not sure if it was requested already, but a curation for the "Actual Budget" app would be greatly appreciated. I found it by looking at the apps tab, and did some more research on it and i would love to switch to it instead of my current app of Quicken since I pay yearly to use it. I think it would help many nowadays due to inflation. Thanks!

Laughs in Darkness.. All jokes aside Ill put it in to look at this issue.

I was reading THIS arsTECHNICA article on ZFS (as one usually does) and was so impressed that I started looking at other stuff the author has worked on. Turns out THIS guy created a ZFS snapshot application that looks really promising. I've not done anything other than look through the repo but I like what I see so far and wanted to share. Tagging @Sonic @Theo and @PsychoWards because of the thread comments in THIS post. While not totally on topic to that thread, it made me remember that I should share this content.

Look's nice, be curious to see what chipsets it comes with though + how it'll compare to the Ugreen DXP6800 or DXP8800.

So it took two weeks for what every reason. But i got such a great deal that I do not care 8 sticks of dual rank 16gb DDR4 ECC. I got it for 70 buck in the last 3 weeks there has been some good deals on eBay for both memory and used SAS drives. So happy!

Still no update at this time but an updated roadmap should be coming out soon

Feature Suggestion: UPS Integration for Automatic Shutdown Enable Hexos to natively support UPS devices for automatic safe shutdown during power outages. • Benefits: Prevent data loss, monitor power status, and improve reliability. • Implementation: Integrate protocols like apcupsd or NUT for broad UPS compatibility and allow configurable shutdown actions. Would you like help submitting this suggestion? support UPS devices for automatic safe shutdown during power outages. • Benefits: Prevent data loss, monitor power status, and improve reliability. • Implementation: Integrate protocols like apcupsd or NUT for broad UPS compatibility and allow configurable shutdown actions. Would you like help submitting this suggestion?

I know this is a request for a more 'One click' Hex TM integration, but incase people wanted to test this now, you can do this in Hex + TN today. (already had mine running a week without issue. TIME MACHINE INSTALL GUIDE Create a Folder & name it time machine (or a custom name) Set the Folder permissions (I left mine open, add user permissions here to restricted access) Navigate to the TrueNas UI (Server IP > Username: truenas_admin Pasword: server password from install) Navigate to the Shares tab, you should see your newly created share. Click on edit (pencil) On the Purpose drop down change to > Basic or multi user time machine. Press save/apply, and it'll prompt a restart of the SMB process. Go to your mac settings > general > Time machine. Click the + icon and locate your time machine share, then click setup disk. FYI if you aren't already connected to your Hex server, you'd need to do so now. Either search for the server in the network tab of finder OR connect to the server with finder > go > connect to server > SMB://[THE IP OF YOUR HEX SERVER] You can now choose to encrypt your backup with a password + if you choose, restrict the total disk usage the backup will have. You should now see your time machine backup setup. This will start automatically, but you can create a back up straight away if you choose. AUTO CONNECT SHARED DRIVE SETUP Now that could be it, but to ensure your Time machine backup will always occur, you need to ensure your Mac is always connected to your Hex server. to do this, we need to add the share to the login items Open Settings > general > Login items > click the + icon Locate your connected time machine share, then click open. You should now see the drive in the login items. That's it, you should be all setup and running.

RaidZ2, or do you really need those 54TB? If the 36TB are enough then go Z2 🙂

Hi @Dylan, I would go for the Ryzen 7. Much more CPU power, more memory and 2 M2 SSD slots. I also have a Shuttle DL30N with a N100. I can run a good performing Windows 11 VM on my Aoostar. On my N100 server it works, but performs very slow. The only con I can think of is the transcoding in Plex or Jellyfin. I think the N100 wil perform better. See 11:26 of this review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct4yewC7mKA

I am not aware of any special pricing but feel free to reach out to support@hexos.com and welcome!

Right now in the folders page I can see how much of the pool total is used across all folders but I'd like to be able to see how large each folder is by itself.

I use the default settings in Proxmox: SeaBIOS and i440fx. In my test setup, I also have a PBS VM. Ideally, PBS requires local storage, but it also works with NFS and SMB shares. I'm currently testing with a HexOS SMB share and a Synology NFS share. So far, it works well, but NFS sometimes suddenly becomes very slow. I'm still undecided about what I'll run on the Lincstation N2. Right now, I have a Shuttle DL30N with an Intel N100 and 32GB RAM as my always-on Proxmox server. I run several Docker containers, including Homepage. The main question is whether the N2 with 16GB RAM will be enough to run: ✅ A HexOS VM (8GB RAM) ✅ Several Docker containers I think it will work fine, but I’ll have to test it! 😊

Noted, thank you! I will be buying hard drives for it when I get to this project. My current NAS drives are in my QNAP NAS, and I plan on keeping them there. Moving them to HexOS would mean I would lose everything on them. The QNAP will act as a file server and a backup location for the home. My intention was to keep all the RAM, but I wasn't sure if 64GB was pointless or not. It turns out it's not 🙂

That would be a perfect hexos box

I don't really know how easy difficult this would be.. but: It would be nice if you could make a hexos intergration for HA. Could be just monitoring, or could be basic actions too. But would be quite cool and nice

It would be nice to to speed test to accurately measure: Network Throughput to the NAS: This tests the raw network connection speed, isolating it from storage performance. We need a reliable way to determine if our network infrastructure is delivering the expected bandwidth. Storage Pool Performance: Benchmarking the combined performance of a pool is crucial including sequential and random read/write operations. Individual Drive Performance: Testing individual HDDs, SSDs, or NVMe drives. This is vital for diagnosing drive health and identifying potential bottlenecks

It's possible with other mainstream NAS brands like QNAP, Terramaster, Asustor. But Synology has always blocked this option. You can find more background information here: https://nascompares.com/tag/truenas-2022/

Nice journey! Looking forward to see HexOs on your mini NAS. Can you share your experiences with the temperature? I'm really curious about the cooling system in this NAS mini PC.

https://aoostar.com/blogs/news/the-aoostar-wtr-max11bay-is-about-to-meet-you-all This looks like it could be really fun. It's more than what I need but I bet this things sells really well. BTW - who uses SFP at home?

All righty then... My first-ever NAS was using TrueNAS and was a trial-by-fire, to say the least. This time, after watching a HexOS demo by Linus (LTT) I decided to give it a try. It went super smoothly and I'm very impressed. My hardware configuration: # PlinkUSA RackBuy IPC-G3550X 3U Server Chassis # MSI MAG B550M Mortar MAX WiFi Motherboard # AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 4.4GHz 6-Core 12-Thread Processor # 32GB (2x16GB) G.SKILL Trident Z-Series DDR4 3200MT/s CL14-14-14-34 Memory # 1TB Kingston FURY Renegade PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe OS Drive # (12) 8TB SAMSUNG 870 QVO SATA III SSDs # 10Gb Dual RJ45 (Intel X540-T2) PCIe 3.0 x8 Network Card # LSI Logic 9300-16i 16Port 12Gb/s SAS PCIe 3.0 x 8 HBA Controller # (3) ICY DOCK 6-Bay 2.5” SATA HDD / SSD Hot Swap Tool-Less Backplane Enclosure with Dual Cooling Fan for 5.25” Bay # FSP Twins Pro ATX PS2 1+1 Dual Module 500W Certified Efficiency ≥90% Hot-swappable Redundant Digital Power Supply So without further ado I bring you The HULK... I'm currently in the process of transferring about 42TB of media from a Yottamaster 5-Bay USB 3.2 HDD enclosure to the new pool. Currently I'm seeing an average transfer rate of about 30MB/s which is super slow considering everything is 10G (switch, nics) and using Cat8 cabling. I have checked the link speeds and they are all reporting 10G. It might be a device cache limitation. The first ~2GB of any transfer is faster (>1GB/s). I think I may have to look into a second M.2 for a cache drive. That's my opinion, I welcome yours. :)

Thanks for the diagram, I was roughly aware the relationship but I wasn't sure if it was more a master+slave, with HexOS fully controlling TrueNAS (with the option for users to manually control TrueNAS), but the sibling relationship structure sounds good. I was thinking it might be the former becuase I've heard HexOS adviise users against performing certain actions via the TrueNAS UI as HexOS might not support those same actions and that could lead to HexOS breaking.

@jonp recently confirmed recently that there are plans to be able to adopt existing TrueNAS systems into HexOS for management, but that's not something that is likely to be implemented soon. If I were in your shoes and I wanted to make things happen quickly I would build your second server and install HexOS on it, copy all your files and such, and then convert TNS01 to HexOS as well. As far as how it all works, HexOS exists on an equal level as TrueNAS' GUI interface, and both of those talk to the TrueNAS API which is a layer down, and is what actually does the work. Both interfaces work side by side. They're like siblings in the way that they relate to the TrueNAS API. You could think of it as having two options for your user interface for TrueNAS. Here is a diagram to illustrate: On the left is a normal TrueNAS install, and on the right is HexOS. The HexOS installer has the HexOS command deck web connector added, and that's about the only difference as far as the actual installer goes. The rest of the interface is handled from the Command Deck web app, which is cloud based. A fully local HexOS UI option will be coming before full release. It's unlikely to be at full feature parity with deck.hexos.com. Details are TBA though.

@Dylan, my answer is already in your comment. 😀  I mean, they're essentially servers the size of a large grapefruit. My answer depends on how you define a NAS. In the end, they are all mini PCs or servers with a certain form factor. But to give you an idea, I’ll describe my setup. I distinguish between my home network and my homelab. Home Network My home network is used by my family, mainly for file sharing and backups. The cornerstone is a rock-solid Synology NAS DS1520+, which I use for local Office 365 backups. Additionally, I back up my photos from my NAS to the cloud, so all my files are stored both locally and in the cloud. Before this, I had a DS414, which ran 24/7 for over 10 years. Homelab I have a separate network segment for my homelab (Mikrotik 2.5GbE & 10GbE network). All devices in my homelab run Proxmox in a cluster. My Aoostar WTR Pro serves as a NAS/storage (HexOS) and Proxmox Backup Server. Additionally, I have: Intel NUC 11 Pro → Runs Windows 11 and macOS VMs, stays powered off when not in use. Shuttle DL30N (Intel N100) → Runs Docker apps. Lincstation N1 → Test server, including a second HexOS installation. I recently ordered a Lincstation N2, which I plan to use as my primary HexOS server. This will allow me to repurpose my Aoostar WTR Pro as offline storage, activated only when needed using Cron jobs and Wake-on-LAN. The Lincstation N1 will then become my Proxmox Backup Server, allowing me to quickly restore VMs or Docker containers when experimenting with configurations that don’t work as expected. All of this is housed in 10-inch racks. I’m a big fan of small form factor devices that strike a balance between maximum performance and minimal power consumption.

This should be ready in not to distant future: https://hexos.com/blog/the-road-to-10 Read the passage: Coming Soon Our upcoming Virtual Machine (VM) Manager aims to simplify traditional and hybrid VM setups. Imagine creating a Windows desktop VM or a dedicated media player with ease—combining physical and virtual hardware for unique use cases. We’re also planning on making the storage wizard more customizable and adding SMART testing options during setup. So far i create the VM's in Truenas, and they pop up in Hexos frontpage after creation, are a few bugs, but it works. Only thing i really want, is the ability to use VM's when not on the same network. That is the only thing i really want. If my VM's break, when they finally release this feature, it's fine and i'm ok with it. We are running an beta. So far i just run a MECM (Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager) lab on Hexos. And everything works fine. But would love to be able to also connect to it when i'm at work.

So I decided to throw together a quick video for thoes that are questioning hardware when it comes to building their HexOs build. This is something i put together in a short time with my 20+ years in the used parts game. Feel free to give me pointers or opinions on things i may have missed and if there is a need ill create a part 2 with used enterprise gear..

Thanks, now I feel confident to setup Z2 in TrueNas without breaking anything in HexOS.

I am currently running a synology 720+ but have been having volume crashes that require complete backup and restore. At first it was once in two years then once a year then every six months and this last time was 2 months. I replaced both the ram and hard drivers but it didn't resolve my issue. So I decided to build a new sever from scratch with Hexos. I just ordered everything last night. Case: JONSBO N2 and a Noctua NF-A12x15 to replace the noisy stock fan. CPU and Motherboard: HKUXZR NAS Motherboard with integrated Intel i5-12450H Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 Memory: Crucial 64GB DDR5 RAM 5600MHz (2x32GB) PSU: Seasonic FOCUS SGX-500 Boot drive: Kingston 240GB M.2: (2X) SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus SSD 2TB Hard drives: (3X) Seagate IronWolf Pro, 16 TB (two of them are repurposed from the synology) Cables: (2X) right angle sata (3.3 feet) and one mini SAS to 4x right angle sata (3.3 feet) My plan will be to have one mirrored 2TB m.2 pool for docker and any thing that could use quick random IO. and the three ironwolf pros in a RAID-Z1 giving me 32TB for mass storage with the ability to double that with two more drives. My current synology has 17 docker containers. With the two big ones being home assistant and jellyfin. I had 4-5 others but had to remove them to save on ram.

Onboard SATA Ports should be the least of your concerns when choosing a Motherboard, since you can easily add more SATA ports with HBA PCIe cards. I agree with @Dylan use your current machine, add some RAM and get a feeling for everything and for your needs (especially VM and Docker stuff). Maybe you get into Machine Learning (face recognition in Immich, AI OCR in paperlessngx etc...) and you need a potent dedicated GPU or you are only running lightweight apps and you can continue using your current server for the years to come.

Built my "new" server for HexOS finally, a mixture of old and new parts. I'm replacing an aging EOL Synology DS412+. I was able to recycle a lot of parts I had around with minimal expense, except for storage of course. Use case: Mainly Plex, immich and some VMs for home lab stuff initially. The possibilities with the TrueNas back end seem pretty endless. It's my first venture into truenas

Need 2 storage drives minimum

Yes supporting migration from TrueNAS to HexOS is planned.

Nextcloud is a big one yeah.

That would also be my wish. I live in Germany Electricity cost is quite high and i know i could use an only SSD pool but i have 4x4tb HDDs and 2xtb SSDs and don't plan to change that anytime soon. I would i'm a noob and would love this exact feature. User has 1 share ! All data from user is written on SSD and only once a day copied to hdds The top things i access offen are also stored in SSDs and IF i need something else the hdds spin up. And the system Spins them up in the night does its things and then goes to sleep.

Not sure if others have mentioned this already, but zerotier is super important, especially for installations like mine. Most large ISPs in India either charge for port forwarding or straight-up don't allow it, living in double-NAT situation turns home servers useless without zerotier. Note: If anyone can suggest a faster solution that would be much appreciated (zerotier is fine but highly throttled)