TrueNAS “Fangtooth” is progressing toward its release with the launch of TrueNAS 25.04-RC.1, the first Release Candidate. This release brings features for both Community and Enterprise users, and offers an upgrade path for users currently on SCALE 24.10 and CORE 13.x.

With over 2,500 users providing feedback and a few bug reports, Fangtooth BETA was a success thanks to the efforts of early adopters. The new RC.1 version is ready for Community testers to further explore the new feature set and improved performance of its unified code base. As a Release Candidate, 25.04-RC.1 is considered fully stable and almost feature-complete.

Electric Eel keeps setting records

The incredibly popular TrueNAS 24.10 “Electric Eel” was the foundation for Fangtooth development. The latest version, TrueNAS 24.10.2, brings both integrated Docker support and significantly improved performance over TrueNAS 13.0. It is recommended for Enterprise users and is also in use by the majority of the TrueNAS Community. With over 125,000 systems in operation today, Electric Eel is by far the most popular TrueNAS version in history.

Electric Eel also enabled the very popular TrueNAS H-series to leverage both NVMe drives and SAS HDDs on the same backplane. It supports our newest hardware platform, the TrueNAS H30, which delivers 100 GbE performance as a compact, energy-efficient edge storage system. Fangtooth takes the power of these NVMe-powered systems a step further with support for Fast Deduplication, further increasing space efficiency with reduced performance overhead.

Fangtooth Unification is on Track

The transition to TrueNAS Community Edition allows the TrueNAS engineering team to develop new features faster, provide a common codebase, and unite the community under a single release that provides a superset of the functional capabilities of CORE and SCALE.

Fangtooth unifies CORE and SCALE and introduces a number of new features to TrueNAS to improve performance, security, and scalability for users, including:

• Upgraded Linux Kernel 6.12 with improved and extended hardware support
• OpenZFS 2.3 with Fast Deduplication for data footprint reduction on flash systems
• Massive RAID-Z expansion acceleration (by 5X)
• Experimental LXC containers (like Jails) & QEMU/KVM Virtualization via Incus “instances”
• Support for Secure Boot for Windows 11 VMs
• Ongoing delivery of TrueNAS Versioned API for third-party application integration
• Configurable IP address for newly added Apps in the catalog

NOTE: Existing Apps users on TrueNAS 24.04 or earlier should migrate to TrueNAS 24.10 in order to take advantage of the automated Apps migration process from the legacy Kubernetes system. Once these legacy Apps receive feature updates to allow for per-App IP addressing, they will no longer be compatible with the automatic migration process, and will require manual intervention.

TrueNAS Fangtooth RC.1 includes approximately 250 bug fixes and enhancements. For further details, see the Fangtooth introduction blog, the OpenZFS 2.3 feature highlights, and TrueNAS release notes on our Docs website.

NOTE: TrueCommand 3.0 users should refrain from upgrading to Fangtooth RC.1 at this time, as these versions are not yet compatible. An upcoming release of TrueCommand 3.1, arriving next week, will add the ability to manage Fangtooth systems while retaining backward compatibility with previous TrueNAS versions.

Enterprise-Specific Extensions

TrueNAS 25.04 also receives major new functionality for TrueNAS Enterprise appliances. This includes improved security and performance features designed for more business focused Enterprise workloads:

• Improved Security (GPOS STIG) with additional logging and auditing
• iSCSI Extensions for RDMA (iSER) and NFS over RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) improves latency and IOPS
• iSCSI Block Cloning for faster VMware clusters and virtualization workloads
• Veeam Fast Clone for SMB backup acceleration
• Fibre Channel support for SAN transitions and extended compatibility
• Optional NFS access to hidden snapshot directories

These enhancements and more will become available as an update for current Enterprise customers in late Q2. For more information about these features and other Enterprise benefits, including up to 24×7 support, connect with a TrueNAS product specialist to discuss available options.

When Should I Update?

If you are deploying a new TrueNAS system, we recommend TrueNAS 24.10.2 for added functionality, broad hardware support, an expanded App catalog, better performance, and an improved Web UI, all of which make managing TrueNAS easier.

TrueNAS 25.04-RC.1 is recommended for mainstream Community testing. Experienced users are welcome to try it out and provide feedback on the new features, improved performance, and user experience, to help us shape the final Release version.

Current TrueNAS 13.x users looking for the new capabilities outlined above can upgrade to TrueNAS 24.10.2 anytime, preserving data and essential NAS functionality such as SMB, NFS, iSCSI, and VMs. TrueNAS 25.04 adds LXC, the Linux equivalent of jails.

Following today’s release of TrueNAS 25.04-RC.1, a Release version will follow in April 2025. By July 2025, Fangtooth is expected to be recommended to Enterprise users and available by default on our TrueNAS Enterprise hardware.

For current software recommendations, always review the Software Status page for recommendations based on your profile.

Join the TrueNAS Community

Whether you’re looking to deploy TrueNAS 24.10 or help shape the future of TrueNAS, now is the perfect time to engage with our growing community. Download your copy of TrueNAS Community Edition today and join thousands of users already benefiting from True Data Freedom. Visit the TrueNAS Community Forums or connect with us on social media to share your experiences and insights.