HexOS Local - Early Access User Sign Up

[jonp]

We are extremely close to releasing HexOS Local, our solution for accessing/managing your HexOS servers through a locally installed application on your server.  Before we roll this out to all current users, we are looking for a handful that are able/willing to help us test the migration process.  The requirements are pretty simple:

1)  Users that agree to enroll in this early access test will have ALL of their servers migrated (we cannot apply the test to just a single server, so if you have multiple, it's all or nothing).

2)  Users must have a discord account as those accepted will be invited to our new discord server for the purposes of bug reporting and support needs.

If you are interested in helping us test this, please drop a DM to @mill3000 with the subject "HexOS Local Early Access" and be sure to include your Discord username in the message.

Any questions, post them here!  Thanks everyone!!

[Remy B]

Can you clarify on the risks with the data on the pools if going in this HexOS Local beta ?
Would the worst case scenario be loosing  the truenas/hexos install ?

Also, is this part of the v1 HexOS realease ? or are we still in v0.xx version ?

Edited Thursday at 10:38 PM by Remy B

[jonp]

Should be no risk to data loss at all. The biggest risk is getting disconnected from our deck for server administration. That's why we want users to be able to talk to us via discord so that we can quickly remediate those types of problems if they occur. 

The big switch here initially is going to be authentication. We're moving to key cloak and we set up a more robust infrastructure to enable us to migrate users between production and development environments very easily. While we've done a ton of internal testing on this, we just want to be extra cautious before doing a mass migration of thousands of users all at once. 

Technically this is still pre 1.0, but the only things that really remain for us are hexos local and some improvements to our health monitoring systems.

[FangerZero]

What does testing all entail? Like is there a checklist to follow, obviously if any thing random comes up, but yeah? Would love to be useful since it sounds like my pools won't be affected. Is there a way to back up settings just in case the OS goes haywire? 

[jonp]

50 minutes ago, FangerZero said:

What does testing all entail? Like is there a checklist to follow, obviously if any thing random comes up, but yeah? Would love to be useful since it sounds like my pools won't be affected. Is there a way to back up settings just in case the OS goes haywire? 

At this point, just using HexOS to create folders, users, install apps, etc. just like normal.  Use it both locally and remotely.  That's really it.  At this point, the main thing we're testing is that it works correctly, navigating you to the local interface when on LAN, and giving you remote access via the deck when away.  If you can break your system (non-critical data only), there are a few specific cases we would like to see users test like destroying the pool used by apps (Docker) manually via TrueNAS, then renavigate to deck.hexos.com to see if you can remediate the issue.  Obviously not asking anyone with real data on their systems to do this, but for those that have test setups, just beat the heck out it and see what breaks.

We test internally pretty rigorously, but there's always edge cases that we can miss and this is the chance to find those as best we can.

[Todd Miller]

BACKUP YOUR DATA!

[vogam7]

I'll just say what many are thinking here.. you're launching a hexos local beta just 9 days before the promised stable release date. How could this be included in 1.0 and called stable in under a week of testing?

Refunds seem to be the go-to response for anyone who expresses frustration in other threads.. but that's beside the point for those of us who actually want this project to succeed. Missed deadlines are frustrating enough, but the communication issues that still keep coming up alongside them make it worse.. and for a project that depends on people investing in hardware, that trust matters. Server memory and now drives have nearly doubled since the originally promised end of 2025 release date. Every delay has a cost beyond just frustration.

A straight timeline update would go a long way. I don't think you meant it this way, but the timing of this post is pretty telling... are we in for another delay?

[G-M0N3Y-2503]

It also could be the case that they've done a bunch of internal testing and are just gradually rolling it out. But In software development delays occur, and people will be upset. It's way better to phrase an initial role out as early access testing in case there is an unforeseen showstopper. Than say it's good and then be called out for buggy software. So really it's a matter of if they hire PR or a community manager or not. I vote that there are better ways to spend that money.

Considering that roadmaps and timelines are just a guess to attempt to make people happy, from my perspective they've been about as inaccurate as I'd expect, so no red flags from my perspective. 

[Cantos]

I don't know if "many" are thinking that, @vogam7, but I'm not. As @G-M0N3Y-2503 says this is par for the course in software development.

"Communication" is a lot more work and headache than you would think and their time is much better spent on making the software.

[SpyderChiken]

I'm not sure how much time I can put to all the testing but I access things remotely almost daily so I'll throw my hat in the ring to test things that I can. 

Missed deadlines suck. Lack of communication sucks. A better system doesn't exist. Learning from it is all we can do not just the developers but the community as well. Most of us are pretty accepting of changes. When I read Q1 2026 I think Q3 2026. If I need to test a few things before getting a second server setup at one of my kids' house so be it. I want to see this succeed. I haven't seen anything that is really delayed or missing. My only two issues that I had in all of this was the first when trying to migrate from Unraid and I lost everything (36TB) which was not the software's fault and I accepted the risk for, and when I lost connection to my server which was apparently something getting gummed in the works between my server and the remote connection. Having a local interface would have meant not even seeing that issue I'm all for getting this working.

[Todd Miller]

Wow, Communication is a headache?  That's a laugh.  Well it looks like you have come to the right place.  You only get very filtered communication when things are going really good here.  And for anyone who actually was a developer you already know communication is critical.  A lack of communication leaves you with a forum like this.  Dozens of questions that get ignored.  When did communication and coding become mutually exclusive?  Right now the only people talking positive about HexOS are a few folks that depend on this product for their livelihood.  Fortunately most people seem to not care or never took anything said up to this that serious.  And looking at how many issues there still are unanswered in the forums and the length some of those have been around.  Some issues have been able to celebrate birthdays.  And if you want something to think about, riddle me this.  If communication is like this now when  we are in "BETA" and there is still goodwill stemming all the way back to the LTT video, What will it be like when we have HexOS 1.* and the product is release to production.  Do you think the communication will get better then?  The entire team has made it easy to get down on this product/project but if your going to be honest with yourself you still see the possibilities that attracted you in the first place.  If you love the product and you are honest with yourself you see the cracks and holes that give you an uneasy feeling.  Everyone in the middle is pretty meh in that it will do what they need but maybe not what they want.  And just off on the horizon is the real issue we have been dancing around.  A perfect HexOS is still just a skin wrapped around parts of TrueNAS.  It will never be more than that and no matter how hard you look you were never promised more than that.  If you don't want to learn TrueNAS then welcome to a sturdy and easy to setup network attached storage appliance.  As Immich has shown us multiple times, the application curation process was just to make the initial install easier and more standardized.  It is not to make Immich work or eliminate code product issues and design changes.  What kind of communication do you expect when a new release of an app or perhaps TrueNAS itself wants to change something fundamental like their storage or security models.  And from who?  It's probably time we stop worrying about when production version 1.0 is coming and start trying to figure out what we are willing to do to make it work.  Learn TrueNAS?  Buy new hardware?  Buy consulting services?  Cut your losses and find something else?  

Regardless of all the rest , it seems you can't count on communication or timelines here.  If you can't live with that no matter what you thought in your mind this journey would be, well sorry because this is just the start.

[G-M0N3Y-2503]

You're not wrong, the nuance is the size of the company, with unlimited resources you can do unlimited things, so the line gets drawn somewhere short of that. Even if they are doing really well and have a lot of resources and can start doing as you suggest. It's difficult to scale a company, so that also takes time. 

The one think your bit off on, is I've seen plenty of physical goods brands forums or even big brands as dead as these forums. But I think it's that there isn't as much community around commodity goods, so it's inherently dead. 

Also they seem more responsive to the feedback from within the app than the forums.

Or in the case of this thread, their discord.