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Open-source operating system designed for file sharing
The TrueNAS project originated as FreeNAS, created by Olivier Cochard-Labbé in October 2005, based on the m0n0wall firewall and FreeBSD 6.0. The project evolved over time, with Volker Theile joining in 2006 and later leading the project. In 2009, development shifted towards DebianLinux, resulting in the creation of OpenMediaVault. Cochard-Labbé returned to oversee the project's transition to iXsystems, where FreeNAS was re-engineered and rebranded as TrueNAS.
iXsystems released FreeNAS 8 in 2010, marking a significant rewrite of the software based on FreeBSD 8.1. Subsequent versions introduced features such as full-disk encryption, plug-in architectures, and support for OpenZFS. TrueNAS continued evolving, with notable later releases including FreeNAS Corral and TrueNAS CORE.
TrueNAS CORE (previously FreeNAS) version history
Branch
Initial release
Latest Build
Released
FreeBSD version
Status
Notes / Changes
9.10
2016-03-23
9.10.2-U4
2017-05-25
10.3 STABLE
Previous Release
10.0 ("Corral")
2017-03-15
N/A
Withdrawn: relegated to preview only
The "Corral" branch was cancelled on or around 23 April 2017, the developers citing as reasons that although it had been a major "ground up" rewrite of FreeNAS, too many issues had emerged within 2 weeks of release. Development reverted to the proven 9.10 branch of FreeNAS and the Corral branch was relegated to a "technology preview".
Changes include the addition of cloud synchronization and preliminary Docker container support, as well as updates to the Angular-based administrative GUI and noticeable OpenZFS improvements for handling large files and multiple snapshots.
11.2
2018-07-09
RELEASE
2018-12-05
11.2 STABLE
Previous Release
Highlights from release announcement:
New, Angular-based UI
Boot loader has changed from GRUB to the native FreeBSD boot loader
Jails backend has switched from warden to iocage
Support has been added for Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs)
OpenZFS is up-to-date with Illumos
11.3
2019-11-15
RELEASE
2020-01-28
11.3 STABLE
Previous release
Highlights from release announcement:
Re-implemented Replication Engine, allows up to 10Gb replication speeds (a 10x improvement), resume support on failed transfers, as well as ability to replicate locally.
ACL Manager – Allows setup and management of SMB ACL’s directly via the FreeNAS web interface.
SMB Shadow Copies are now enabled by default for new shares – Note: Snapshots will only show up in Windows “Previous Versions Tab” if the snapshot USED size shows changes to the file.
A repository of Community plugins has been created, users can now create and distribute 3rd party plugins which are not officially iXsystems supported.
Updated translations for Czech, French, Japanese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese. Additionally, the process to add additional translations has been greatly improved.
iSCSI Wizard – Streamlines the process of creating new iSCSI targets down to a few clicks.
Alert System Overhaul – More granular alerts, as well as controls to set alert thresholds.
Dashboard Updates – The initial dashboard now shows a live view of system status, including network traffic, CPU / memory utilization and more.
NAT Support for Plugins – Eliminates the need for each plugin to have a dedicated IP address on your network.
Full featured 2.0 API – Includes both REST and Websocket connections, allowing FreeNAS to be fully scripted and driven via the same API used by the web-interface.
Large Pool Creation Assistance – When creating ZFS pools with large number of disks, the UI provides an automated way to repeat a VDEV layout across all remaining disks.
ZFS Performance optimizations across the board for many different workloads.
12.0
2020-10-20
12.0-U8.1
2022-4-22
12.0-STABLE
Previous release
Highlights from release announcement.
Native ZFS encryption, allowing per-dataset encryption and
2-factor authentication support, allowing an extra layer of security when accessing TrueNAS
KMIP support - allowing interfacing with KMIP servers for storage and retrieval of passwords and encryption keys
TrueNAS API 2.0 now supports API keys for remote access. API v1.0 has been deprecated.
Fusion pool support, allowing flash-based VDEVS that store metadata and small-block IO
OpenVPN support (both server and client)
TrueCommand cloud client integration
13.0
2022-5-10
13.0-U2
2022-8-30
13.0-U2
Current release
Highlights from release announcement.
TrueNAS 13.0-U1.1 SMB fixes
ZFS 2.1.5 updates
SAMBA 4.15.9 updates
SMB1 Security vulnerability resolution
NextCloud Jail installation fixes
Intel E810 NIC performance improvement
Collected memory leak fix
AWS S3 Secret Keys for Cloud Sync fix
Architecture
The reimplementation of FreeNAS with version 8.0 transitioned the project onto a new architecture based on FreeBSD's NanoBSD embedded build system, Python, Django, and the dōjō toolkit. The initial web server, lighttpd, was later replaced by nginx in subsequent versions.
