TrueNAS SCALE is open source storage that enables hyperconvergence and scale-out storage. Supporting file, block, objects, and applications, TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin 22.12.2 is now available after over 50,000 deployments with an Exabyte of data. We expect Bluefin to surpass 100,000 deployments and two Exabytes of data in 2023.

Along with many significant improvements and bug fixes, TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.2 is significant because an Enterprise feature pack and the option of Gold/Silver/Bronze Enterprise support are now both available for SCALE. The Enterprise feature pack includes HA (dual controllers), Proactive Monitoring, Enclosure Management, and many other features and tools that ensure a highly reliable deployment in production environments.

The same Enterprise feature pack is available for TrueNAS CORE 13.0, and an additional Security license pack license can be added to TrueNAS Enterprise. The Enterprise Feature Pack is packaged with TrueNAS M-Series and X-Series appliances. When the Enterprise feature pack is added to TrueNAS CORE 13.0, it will be referred to as TrueNAS Enterprise 13.0. When added to TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.2, it will be referred to as TrueNAS Enterprise 22.12.2. TrueNAS Enterprise is now both Scale-up (with HA) and Scale-out!

This does NOT imply that TrueNAS Enterprise 13.0 users should immediately migrate to 22.12. It does signal that new deployments with specific SCALE requirements can use TrueNAS Enterprise 22.12 and receive the same Enterprise support. TrueNAS Enterprise customers can contact iXsystems Technical Support for a complimentary technical review and assistance before any migration and should contact iX when considering migrating to 22.12.

If SCALE features are not required, we recommend TrueNAS 13.0. Our recommendations are maintained and updated regularly on our Software Status page. You can expect that as TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.2 receives further testing from community use, it will become the recommended version for SCALE users.

Bluefin Update Fixes Bugs and Adds Enterprise Features

TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin inherits all the functional capabilities of Angelfish (22.02) and adds many new features. The first update (22.12.1) added some more features including SMB Share Proxy and Kubernetes API pass-through. This second update (22.12.2) includes many significant improvements and bug fixes that are listed in the release notes. Highlights include:

• Enterprise hardware support includes tools for managing NVDIMMs (M-Series) and enclosure management (ES60 and X-Series)
• High Availability (HA) has been hardened and tested. This will allow storage services, VMs, and Apps to all benefit from automated failover with TrueNAS appliances
• Replication fixes have been provided for several use cases, including between encrypted and unencrypted datasets
• Enclosure management improvements include better handling of drive insertions and fix issues with Mini X+/XL+
• TrueNAS R30 is a new 1U 16 bay TrueNAS NVMe platform with added enclosure management UI
• 90 Bug Fixes (most are minor) with several having a significant impact on system usability

After a couple of weeks of community testing, we expect to recommend SCALE users to update their Angelfish and Bluefin systems to this latest release.

Plans for 3rd Bluefin Update

The quality of Bluefin is maturing rapidly at this stage of the software development lifecycle. It is now suitable for Enterprise users with less mission-critical applications. The iX team is already working on the third update to Bluefin with a target release in May. This update will add more polish to Enterprise use-cases for mission-critical workloads that need perpetual uptime.

Host path validation is currently performed on all Apps and prevents accidental App access to a share with critical data. To allow this configuration, Host Path validation can be disabled in Kubernetes settings. A forum post indicates that in the next update, this check will become a simpler user acceptance when each App is installed. This change, along with better documentation on the security issues, will help improve the overall user experience.

Over the next couple of months, we’ll be providing additional tools for creating and distributing a much larger collection of Apps. We’re very enthusiastic about the ability of SCALE to provide a broader range of reliable Apps and will be outlining our future plans.

Joining the School of Bluefin

Bluefin is an easy upgrade from SCALE Angelfish and is recommended for all users. For more conservative users, the software status of TrueNAS editions is tracked here. There is also a comprehensive list of Bluefin changes in the release notes.

TrueNAS SCALE Cobia is the next major release after Bluefin. Some early testers have been using the nightlies while the development team is busily preparing for ALPHA status. Later, we’ll share a series of blogs about what is included in this Cobia release planned for late 2023.

We want to thank the TrueNAS Community for the tremendous support in improving TrueNAS SCALE quality. It has been an exciting ride, and there is much more to come, so please keep making suggestions and reporting bugs as we continue to improve the quality and functionality of TrueNAS SCALE together. We’re also very excited to see more developers contributing to SCALE and collaborating via our Discord channel.

Want to learn more about TrueNAS SCALE solutions in your business? Contact us to speak to a Product Specialist.