TrueNAS 12.05-U5 is out. Overall, this is a great step in the evolution of the platform. While this is mostly a bugfix release, it is great to see regular updates making it into the operating model for iXsystems as that was a promise of unifying FreeNAS and TrueNAS. There is a small trend for TrueNAS that we had a reader send in worried, and that is iXsystems has started hiding its update details from the general public. We will address that one as well.
TrueNAS 12.0-U5 Released
First, we are going to show the high-level issue list, but the more interesting story may be how we got this. It was actually a point one of our readers brought up. This is the official announcement key update list for the new release:
- About twenty improvements and eighty bug fixes.
- Python upgrades to address potential memory leaks and eliminate rare middleware crashes.
- OpenZFS update to 2.0.5.
- Several security updates to key components that are not available in 11.3.
- TrueNAS R-Series and Mini Enclosure management has been improved.
- Several WebUI improvements – including resolving a dashboard CPU% bug.
- NVMe drives automatic resizing support.
- M-Series HA improvements. (Source: iXsystems)
The primary updates are less around functionality and more around the housekeeping of ensuring components are updated. As always, we welcome stability, bugfix, and security updates.
This is also notable since the company is actively pushing users towards TrueNAS Core instead of the older FreeNAS. With this release, FreeNAS is now being ordained with “legacy” status. While some may not like the new name, the company has been clear that this is the transition path so we think this is the right thing.
iXsystems Hiding TrueNAS Update Details
Something one of our readers pointed out is that iXsystems has changed the way they share updates. In the blog post where we got the list above, there is a link to more information on what has changed. We are showing the URL for the “full list of changes and bugs” in this screenshot.
That list of updates is behind a login wall. To iXsystems’ credit, they say clearly in the blog post that you need a Jira account so this is expected behavior.
Still, we had some users point out that now users that do not have an account cannot access the information that has changed. When everything works well, this is not as much of an issue for most of those who do not want an account, but it is a less open methodology than posting the full list on a publicly accessible site as the company previously did.
The user who pointed this out suggested it is part of an overall iXsystems plot to slowly take away most of the good free features of TrueNAS/ FreeNAS. While the company is pushing more monetization, as one would expect, this seems like a stretch. Something that previously was open to the public now requires an account. Going beyond that statement seems tough to reconcile.
Final Words
Perhaps the big one that we are excited about is that TrueNAS Scale had a small update and said it was progressing. We know many of our readers have adopted Proxmox VE over the years since it has a more modern mix of features like the ability to use Gluster/ Ceph along with ZFS and uses standard KVM virtualization. TrueNAS Scale is what will bring that to the TrueNAS ecosystem and we are very excited about it. It looks like more good things are coming in the future.
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If you click on the link in the web ui you will be directed here https://www.truenas.com/docs/releasenotes/core/12.0-u5/
No login required
They’re slowly taking away access to information that used to be online.
It’s just a bug of some sort. The changelog is available at https://www.truenas.com/docs/releasenotes/core/12.0u5/ with links to all the tickets.
Detailed update information can be found in the docs and github
https://www.truenas.com/docs/releasenotes/core/12.0u5/
But why are they not linking to that in their blog? The blog even says that you need a login. That’s the more silly part.
Last time I tried to upgrade from freenas to truenas, none of the SMB shares would work when trying to navigate into the pools via windows. Any idea if that’s been fixed?
The SMB issue referenced by “risky” was a security improvement not a bug. The SAMBA community removed “root” access to eliminate a security vulnerability. In the release notes it mentions that the dataset permissions have to be changed. I guess you could say it removed “risky” behaviour.
Looks like we’ll be waiting until TrueNAS 13 codebase for the Distributed Raid (dRAID) features under OpenZFS 2.1 support (https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/NAS-110202).