iXsystems Announces TrueCommand Multi-FreeNAS and TrueNAS Management

I normally let Cliff handle these pieces, but I wanted to take this myself. iXsystems announced TrueCommand and that is a big deal. I actually have been pushing on the concept of a multi-FreeNAS and TrueNAS management plane with the company for years. Many STH readers, including one I met from Malaysia this week at Dell Tech World, use FreeNAS and TrueNAS for their customer NAS deployments. In the meantime, the company has been executing on its vision for multi-system management, and it looks good so far.

iXsystems TrueCommand for FreeNAS and TrueNAS

The iXsystems TrueCommand, currently released as a beta, is a major new feature. Instead of managing TrueNAS and FreeNAS systems individually, TrueCommand allows one to manage a fleet of NAS units.

The initial release is focused on the access model, monitoring, and reporting. One can, for example, set up monitoring and alerts across multiple systems.

One can also do things like monitor the performance of nodes.

One can see where this type of solution will go. It will enable proactive management of remote fleets of NAS units. It could be a single plane of glass for managed service providers to manage customer fleets. In the future, it could also enable proactive drive replacement features. TrueCommand brings a new class of capabilities to the family of products.

You can check out the company’s video of the new Beta feature here:

You can also check out the guide here.

Final Words

Overall, this is a very positive development for the company and many STH readers. The ability to manage multiple devices whether that is in a lab, at company remote branch offices, or of customers is a great feature. FreeNAS is deployed in many locations and often more than one at a time. The platform is free for up to 50 drives but becomes paid after that. Personally, I think that is a reasonable way to balance giving a new feature to the community while still funding development for heavy users.

Perhaps the most intriguing feature is what this type of centralized management platform can lead to in the future.

Below we are going to have the features of TrueCommand announced at the Beta launch:

iXsystems TrueCommand Beta Features

Here are the features in the beta. One can see some clear areas that a solution like this can be expanded upon in the future.

ZFS FEATURES MONITORED
• Pools, VDevs, RAID-Z
• Cache (ARC, L2ARC, SLOG)
• Resilvering, Scrubbing
REPORTING
• System info (name, IP, release, uptime, boot, device)
• CPU (number, utilization)
• Disks (status, throughput, IOPS, latency)
• Jails (granular monitoring per Jail/Plugin)
• Memory (activity, cache usage)
• Network (throughput, packets, status)
• Services (enabled, ID, status)
• Storage Status (pool, vdev, encryption)
• VMs (total, active)
ALERTS
• In-app via web interface
• Email to users/teams
ROLE BASED ACCESS CONTROL
• Single sign-on
• Define teams and departments
• Audit device history and changes
• Read-only views for users
REST & WEBSOCKET APIS
• Real-time monitoring of NAS systems
• Collect performance stats
• Enable and disable services
• Configure and monitor TrueCommand
COMPATIBLE TRUENAS AND FREENAS VERSIONS
• Release 11.2 and beyond
WEB INTERFACE
• Angular web interface
• HTML5 browsers
• Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari
RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
• Physical or virtual (VM) platform
• 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM
• 50 GB storage
• Network access to NAS systems