Building on the Enterprise quality of prior versions, the third update of TrueNAS 13 was released today. In addition to greater maturity and test coverage, Globally Distributed Storage provided by iX-Storj is also now included in this release.

Compared to TrueNAS 12, TrueNAS 13 includes significant new components and has improved performance, scalability, and reliability in subsequent releases. In the two months since TrueNAS 13.0-U2 was released, it has already become the 2nd most deployed version of TrueNAS. TrueNAS 13.0-U3 builds on the maturity of the prior version with 30 bug fixes and security updates. It also includes enclosure management updates for the TrueNAS R50 Gen3, which was announced two weeks ago.

To date, more than 25% of TrueNAS users have updated to TrueNAS 13, including many of our largest enterprise customers. Today TrueNAS 13.0-U2 is the default software used for all TrueNAS appliances, and it is recommended for all TrueNAS CORE and Enterprise users by virtue of its improved security and reliability characteristics compared to TrueNAS 12.0-U8 and previous versions.

Globally Distributed Storage with TrueNAS 13

First announced in September 2022, TrueNAS CORE and Enterprise systems can now use the iX-Storj service with TrueNAS 13.0-U3. Key benefits of iX-Storj over AWS S3 include:

• 80% LowerCost – The iX-Storj service is $4 per TB per month* compared with single-region AWS S3 at $25 per TB per month. For the same price, store 5X the data with iX-Storj with the added value of multi-region durability.

• Double the Bandwidth – The iX-Storj service leverages the aggregated bandwidth capabilities of globally distributed storage. Read and Write bandwidth of GigaBytes per second is possible from a well-connected data center. Performance is typically more than double that of AWS S3.
• 11 Nines of Durability – This is extremely high durability and suitable for both backup and long-term archive applications, much like AWS S3. If the data is also stored on a TrueNAS system, the durability is orders of magnitude higher than single-region AWS S3.

The first 150GB of storage is free and can be used for testing, as well as  backup for key documents and files. Please note that only iX-Storj accounts can use the TrueNAS service and not regular Storj accounts. 

Users eager to test and evaluate the iX-Storj service can download TrueNAS 13.0-U3, and follow the remaining steps outlined in this blog. For more information, check out the discussion on our Community Forums.

What About Apps and Plugins?

While TrueNAS 13.0 is performing very well for storage use cases and jails, the benefits of using TrueNAS SCALE for Apps and Clustering is becoming more and more apparent. Kubernetes / Docker Apps are better supported by the broader community and therefore provide a better user experience than Plugins, with a much broader selection of 3rd Party Applications to choose from. 

Over the next few months, iX will begin encouraging new users to adopt SCALE for most use cases where 3rd party software will be deployed and run directly on the TrueNAS system. 

When Should you update your TrueNAS system?

Ultimately “it depends”, and we base our recommendations on how and where the software is being used. 

Our recommendations are maintained and updated regularly on our Software Status page, which currently recommends TrueNAS 13.0-U2 for all users and customers. You can expect that as TrueNAS 13.0-U3 receives further testing in more complex environments, it will become the recommended release for all CORE and Enterprise users before the end of 2022.

TrueNAS Enterprise is delivered as TrueNAS appliances to organizations that want a turnkey experience, optimized hardware, professional support, and Enterprise features such as High Availability (HA), Fibre Channel, Proactive Support, and Key Management (KMIP). Results show TrueNAS 13.0 delivers a significant reduction (>95% in some cases) in failover times. 

TrueNAS Enterprise customers should contact iXsystems Technical Support for a complimentary technical review and assistance before updating.

If you ever need additional information on how TrueNAS can streamline, accelerate, and unify data management for your business, please contact us and we’ll be glad to assist you.