iXsystems Scale Available on TrueNAS M-Series, R-Series, and Minis Appliances

TrueNAS S cale from iXsystems, Inc. reached a milestone when TrueNAS SCALE 22.02-RC1 was released after 12 months of Alpha and Beta testing by over 4,000 TrueNAS community members.

This release includes scale-out file and object (S3) storage services as well as a range of containerized applications, supported on a Kubernetes platform. TrueNAS SCALE is available for ordering and shipping on a wide range of TrueNAS platforms, including the M-Series, R-Series, and even Minis.

TrueNAS scale infographics

TrueNAS SCALE is an ‘Open Source HCI project that began its journey as an Alpha release in October 2020 with now-delivered promise of:

Scale-out ZFS
Converged compute and storage
Active-Active reliability
Linux containers (Kubernetes) and VMs (KVM)
Ease of deployment and operation

The scale-out capabilities extend to both file (clustered SMB, Glusterfs) and object storage (S3 API with Minio) and do not force users to choose between file and object storage. After 12 months of development and testing, it is now being deployed in many applications and has about 100PB under management. The Release Candidate (RC) phase is the start of more widespread deployment which will grow as further updates are provided.

Applications can run on TrueNAS SCALE clusters as either KVM VMs, Docker containers, or Kubernetes pods. There are now dozens of pre-tested and packaged applications including Plex, Nextcloud, HomeAssistant. Application catalogs enable community contributions such as the extensive and free catalog of applications from Truecharts.org.

TrueNAS SCALE platforms
TrueNAS SCALE runs on the same platforms as TrueNAS CORE and TrueNAS Enterprise and allows for the migration of workloads. Customers can start with the TrueNAS Enterprise and migrate to TrueNAS SCALE when their applications need scale-out capabilities. TrueNAS SCALE software is shipping on most standard company’s platforms:

Minis: Professionals and small businesses

R-Series: High performance clusters

M-Series: High performance clusters (now) and HA systems (1Q22)

The TrueNAS M-Series uses TrueNAS SCALE to deliver scalability from 20TB to 2EB. The TrueNAS M60 supports up to 20PB and 20GB/s on a single node. The TrueNAS M30 extends the M-Series down to start from under $15,000 and with 24 3.5″ drive bays. Each M30 can be upgraded to an M40, M50, or M60, protecting the customer investment and minimizing downtime.

Setup and manage TrueNAS SCALE Clusters with TrueCommand

Click to enlarge

Version 2.0 of TrueCommand provides the cluster webUI for deploying larger TrueNAS SCALE clusters with features like granular stats collection, customizable alerts, predictive analytics, ‘Role-Based Access Control’ capabilities, and auditing. It can be deployed as a docker container or provided as a cloud service.

“iXsystems has redefined open storage with its TrueNAS SCALE edition,” said Scott Sinclair, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Feature-rich storage that delivers scale-out performance and Hyperconverged capabilities, TrueNAS SCALE is a significant entrant into enterprise-grade open source storage.“

“TrueNAS is enabling a new era in Open Storage data freedom for businesses in every sector that have requirements for reliable, secure, and agile data access that goes beyond the status quo,” said Brett Davis, EVP, iXsystems. “TrueNAS SCALE supports this direction with new levels of storage capacity, bandwidth, and hyperconvergence for enterprise customers looking to break free from the confinements of proprietary storage.“