Replication of HexOS Config to TrueNAS

[SnowTurtle]

Hi all,

I currently run TrueNAS Scale on my NAS (TNS01) but I'm considering migrating to HexOS to simplify configuration and management. I'm also planning to set up a second NAS (TNS02) as a backup for my main NAS. I find TrueNAS configuration convoluted and it seems to break with the smallest changes, leading to avoid making configuration changes. My questions are:

1. Can I (manually) replicate HexOS permissions to the backup TrueNAS system?

2. Does HexOS modify the TrueNAS config directly or create its own config file?

3. Can I export the TrueNAS config from HexOS and import it into a standard TrueNAS system without issues?

[Mobius]

1. Theoretically yes but i have no idea what permissions need to be changed.
2.  as far as i know hexos does not touch that
3. Yes that should be fine

[Mawson]

@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.

[SnowTurtle]

10 hours ago, Mobius said:

1. Theoretically yes but i have no idea what permissions need to be changed.
2.  as far as i know hexos does not touch that
3. Yes that should be fine

Regarding point 1; I was thinking of comparing the permission types between HexOS's TrueNAS UI, and then implementing those types on that second TrueNAS systems. I'm talking about the UID, GID, Mask types. Probarbly "Advanced" stuff for HexOS's target userbase but stuff TrueNAS users need to know.

[SnowTurtle]

10 hours ago, Mawson said:

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.

I don't know if I have the budget for 2 HexOS licenses (it'd be nice if there was a discount for buying multiple licenses at once). I guess I could always swap TNS01 on to TNS02's (much older) hardware and then prep the second NAS (with the newer hardware) for HexOS

10 hours ago, Mawson said:

@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. 

Yeah I think I heard that somewhere, Is that on the roadmap for the 1.0 release later this year? Or is that (roughly) planned to happen following the 1.0 release?

[SnowTurtle]

10 hours ago, Mawson said:

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.

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.