TrueCharts News

TrueNAS Scale TrueCharts Frequently Asked Questions

Aug 22, 2024

Hey everyone. We wanted to answer some of the frequently asked questions about TrueNAS Scale TrueCharts application support.

What happened to TrueCharts apps on TrueNAS Scale?

Unfortunately, IX Systems decided that with the upcoming Electric Eel TrueNAS Scale update (24.10) to switch the application backend to Docker and remove Kubernetes. TrueCharts is and always has been a Helm Charts project. Previous versions of TrueNAS Scale were able to install our Helm Charts due to its Kubernetes support. With the upcoming removal of Kubernetes from TrueNAS Scale, our Helm Charts can no longer be installed using the native app system. To clarify, app installations have been disabled entirely to prevent users from setting up an app environment that will soon be outdated, see “What happened to the TrueNAS Scale TrueCharts application catalog?” below.

Why don’t you just continue making TrueNAS Scale apps?

We never made “TrueNAS Scale Apps”; we have always made Helm Charts that TrueNAS Scale supported up to Electric Eel, thanks to the Kubernetes backend. Our charts ecosystem is not possible on a Docker-based OS. Additionally, as part of this IX Systems transition to Docker, they will no longer allow third party app catalogues. Starting with 24.10/Electric Eel the only apps that can be installed on TrueNAS Scale will be those officially maintained or approved by IX Systems.

Why was there no warning about this change?

IX Systems announced their intention to move to Docker shortly after the release of Dragonfish (24.04) on 29 May 2024. As soon as the announcement was made the TrueCharts team started working on a solution for all of our TrueNAS Scale users.

Could you not have had a solution ready earlier?

TrueCharts is not affiliated with IX Systems. We found out about the removal of Kubernetes support on 29 May 2024 the same as everyone else.

So, does this mean that TrueCharts is dead?

No, TrueCharts is not dead. We have always made Helm Charts and our Charts can be installed on any Helm-compatible OS, not just TrueNAS Scale. We continue to provide these Helm Charts as always and they can already be installed on a compatible OS.

How do I install TrueCharts now?

You are able to install any compatible OS and add the TrueCharts repository.

I want to keep using TrueNAS Scale as my OS. What can I do?

We are currently developing ClusterTool. Once completed it will help create and configure a Kubernetes cluster on a Talos VM for use with TrueCharts. We already have created guides for setting up a Talos VM on TrueNAS Scale. Once ClusterTool is completed it will assist with the migration of your currently installed TrueCharts apps on TrueNAS Scale to a Talos VM. Please watch the News for more information as ClusterTool development continues ahead of the TrueNAS Scale 24.10 update.

Will ClusterTool migrate my application data to Talos?

No. Talos will only migrate the actual application/chart itself, not the data associated with it. Data for applications/charts that you would like to be migrated to Talos also, must be backed up to S3/B2 storage prior to migration using VolSync as described here.

Why Talos?

Talos is a lightweight OS specifically designed for running a Kubernetes cluster.

What about HexOS?

HexOS is an internet based WebUI for TrueNAS Scale. It utilizes API calls to TrueNAS Scale and as such has the same limitations as TrueNAS Scale.

What about insert your choice OS?

Our Helm Charts can be installed on any OS that supports installing Helm Charts. You are not required to use Talos. ClusterTool is a separate project that is being created to help create a Kubernetes cluster and migrate existing TrueNAS Scale users.

What happened to the TrueNAS Scale TrueCharts application catalog?

It was decided to remove the TrueNAS Scale TrueCharts application catalog to prevent any new user from starting use of TrueCharts on TrueNAS Scale during this transition period.

Why am I not seeing updates for apps?

Once IX Systems decided to announce the depreciation of Kubernetes on TrueNAS Scale we needed to divert our developer time from maintaining the TrueNAS Scale application catalog to work on ClusterTool.

Why couldn’t you keep the TrueNAS Scale TrueCharts application catalog running and up to date until ClusterTool is ready or Electric Eel is released?

TrueNAS Scale support for TrueCharts was always developer intensive. At any given point in time, Scale compatibility required more than a third of total dev time on the project to maintain. We are not able to do both maintain the catalog and work on ClusterTool. We decided to immediately focus on ClusterTool so that is ready for release before TrueNAS Scale 24.10.

My app has an updated and I want to install it.

Almost all apps will continue to run without updates.

I cannot wait I need to update my apps.

If you do not want to wait for ClusterTool you have the following options:

Install a compatible OS and add the TrueCharts repository.
Switch your applications to those provided by IX Systems. They have promised their applications will migrate to the new Docker system.

ClusterTool Public Beta Release

Jul 25, 2024

bitpushr

Docs Maintainer

Howdy everyone! I’m back to share some exciting progress updates with you all regarding ClusterTool development, a brief recap on some minor announcements from our part in recent weeks, updated docs and more.

This will be a packed news article from us, so let’s get into it!

ClusterTool Public Beta Update

Over the course of the last month and since our last update, ClusterTool has undergone much development effort. As we previously outlined in our TrueNAS SCALE migration path roadmap post, ClusterTool’s public Beta release will be mostly feature-complete, includes SCALE migration tooling (already implemented and awaiting testing) and will be suitable for users to migrate to semi-permanent Talos clusters from TrueNAS SCALE app environments, with Talos running in a Virtual Machine (atop SCALE itself).

ClusterTool has also seen the addition of FluxCD functionality, among others, and new builds are regularly being posted for testing here. We invite discussion and feedback in the #clustertool channel of our Discord, or you can simply follow the development of ClusterTool there.

Additionally, through collaborative efforts, we’re onboarding additional developers to work on ClusterTool directly throughout its Beta period. The more feedback we get from users, the better we can make the experience for all! We invite our users to test ClusterTool thoroughly throughout this phase and discuss or report any feedback/issues using threads in the above-mentioned Discord channel.

Docs Updates

In tandem with ClusterTool development, over the course of the last month we’ve been focused on docs for our users to read regarding Talos, ClusterTool, minimum and recommended system requirements, and more. Here are some links to these docs, though please note some of them are continuing to evolve as we gather feedback throughout this transitory phase.

Link to our new Helm-specific guides, including a quick-start guide for installing charts, guides for adding storage and backup/restore functionality to charts, example VPN setup instructions for your charts and more
Link to our all-new ClusterTool docs section which includes various sections on what ClusterTool is, what the various functions of it do and more
Link to our ClusterTool getting started guide
Link to our TrueNAS SCALE -> ClusterTool/Talos migration guide which includes instructions for prerequisite steps to be performed by users on TrueNAS SCALE prior to migrating to Talos via ClusterTool
Link to our Talos VM system requirements section, which leads into platform-specific, start-to-finish guides on how to setup a Talos VM for our users be it on SCALE, Proxmox, unRAID or other host platforms.

As always, we welcome feedback and additions to our docs which you can submit by opening a PR in this repo for review. Specifically, we welcome instructions for setting up a Talos VM on platforms other than the ones we’ve already written guides for.

Recent Project Recaps

In addition to the above, we’ve been posting announcements and project-related updates in the #announcements channel of our Discord. To recap and quickly get up to speed, you will want to read from this post onwards but to summarise:

iX-Systems has decided to move TrueNAS SCALE to a Docker-based apps backend, which is inherently incompatbile with our Helm-based project, beginning with Electric Eel later this year
We released VolSync Backup/Restore functionality for our charts to help facilitate cloud-based backup and restoration of data for TrueCharts users, if desired
We released a statement on our decision to deprecate our TrueNAS SCALE apps
Updates to chart-specific changelogs on our website now happen much faster
We clarified that TrueNAS SCALE users will not be required to be on DragonFish prior to migrating to our Talos VM solution for our charts going forward, as Cobia is suitable for migration
We have removed the TrueNAS SCALE apps catalogue from our project, and associated SCALE-specific code, tooling, etc. has been removed. While the TrueCharts SCALE apps catalogue can no longer be added to SCALE systems, an archived version of our TrueNAS SCALE apps catalogue is available here for historical purposes. Users with TrueCharts apps still installed in SCALE environments continue to have their apps function ahead of the upcoming migration to Talos, however these apps are strictly in an as-is state and no longer receive any updates or support
We clarified (after some recent confusion from a YouTube video) that the project is still alive, that users should continue to wait for ClusterTool to reach RC or final status before deciding whether to migrate to Talos using it, or switch to an alternative apps platform such as iX/TrueNAS “official” apps, Plain Docker or something else.

This serves as a summary of recent project-related news, and with the rest of this news post, should get you up to speed on the status of things in one go. As always, we very much appreciate you sticking with us through this transition period and we’re certain that our project will come out the other side continuing to lead and provide a first-class charts experience for our users.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding as we work to provide the best tools and services for our community. Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the months ahead!

ClusterTool Public Alpha Release and Updated Support Scope

Jul 5, 2024

bitpushr

Docs Maintainer

We’re back to share some new updates with our users around ClusterTool, an updated support policy and further updates on the status of TrueNAS SCALE support.

ClusterTool Public Alpha Release

First up, we are excited to announce the public Alpha release of ClusterTool! This marks a significant step forward in our mission to provide powerful tools for bootstrapping and managing your own Kubernetes clusters on Talos, our platform of choice going forward.

Please note that KubeApps is not yet compatible with ClusterTool, and we currently do not offer any migration tooling to facilitate the transition of TrueNAS SCALE apps to Talos. This will come in a future release, per the timeline we previously outlined here.

You can find and download the latest releases of ClusterTool here. We also have a clustertool channel available on our Discord which users can use to discuss usage of the tool, and users can find our ClusterTool documentation here.

Updated Support Policy

We have updated our support policy in an effort to provide clearer, more defined guidelines for our users going forward. The updated policy includes information on our expectations around assumed/prior knowledge for users going forward, what’s not covered by TrueCharts support and more.

We would like to note that, in general, using our Charts with Kubernetes running on Talos will be a radically different experience compared to the prior experience afforded by TrueNAS SCALE. We are expecting some users that might have previously been comfortable running TrueCharts charts on SCALE, will not be comfortable with continuing to use TrueCharts on Talos.

In the future, we will post a news article outlining alternative options for TrueCharts users who do not wish to continue on Talos. These options may include

Migrating to iX/TrueNAS “official” apps
Migrating to unRAID
Migrating to a sandbox or “DIY Docker” setup
Options afforded by ElfHosted.

Going forward, we will assume users that wish to continue using TrueCharts on Talos have prior knowledge of the following:

How to use a shell, terminal or console
How to use basic shell commands to manage or perform actions on platforms such as Talos
How to use kubectl to get pods or services, describe issues, etc.
Basic knowledge of Talos including what “applying” does, what a “machineconfig” is and how “upgrades” work vs k8s-upgrade
Basic knowledge of Kubernetes including what a “pod” or “container” is
Others outlined below.

TrueCharts support will also not assist users with (including but not limited to) the below:

Network configuration
CloudFlare proxying
How to install or use kubectl or talosctl
Helm 101 (how to install, upgrade or edit a Helm Chart)
Configuring specific apps/software in TrueCharts Charts, e.g. Plex/Sonarr/etc. configuration.

For more information, please review the updated support policy here.

Discontinuation of Support for TrueCharts App Installs on TrueNAS SCALE

As part of our commitment to the path forward away from running TrueCharts apps on TrueNAS SCALE, we have discontinued support for new TrueCharts app installs on TrueNAS SCALE. TrueNAS SCALE is now a deprecated platform as far as TrueCharts apps are concerned, and this change is to ensure users are not left without support for new app installations.

Code related to the building of, development of, and other aspects of TrueNAS SCALE apps/charts support has been removed from the TrueCharts project backend.

To clarify: users can still install existing versions of TrueCharts apps/charts on TrueNAS SCALE, but they will not be eligible for support.

We advise users to await further migration updates as outlined in our roadmap linked above.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding as we work to provide the best tools and services for our community. Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the months ahead!

SCALE Migration Path Update

Jun 24, 2024

Kjeld Schouten

Maintainer & Founder of TrueCharts

As previously announced, we will share more detailed information on the road forward for our SCALE users on July 1st. We are well into this work and can finally share some preliminary information ahead of the official announcement.

Introducing: Talos Linux

Our alternative will be based on Talos, an immutable and lightweight operating system designed to run Kubernetes efficiently. Talos is open-source, production-quality software supported by a reliable and honest company.

Contrary to some reports, Talos is not limited to deployment on virtual machines. It runs excellently on both virtual machines and bare-metal hardware.

Our guides will cover setting up virtual machines, as they are standardized enough for us to ensure accuracy. These guides are already online, validated, and ready to use! Just visit the docs, clustertool, and virtual-machines sections and get started.

Introducing: ClusterTool

While Talos is a robust system, its default interaction method is quite command-line heavy. We understand that our users may not want to dive into numerous custom CLI commands.

We are excited to introduce our Talos cluster maintenance utility: ClusterTool.

ClusterTool simplifies the setup of a functional Kubernetes cluster, whether single or multi-node, into a single command! Additionally, we are incorporating the Kubernetes Dashboard and KubeApps to provide a GUI for managing and installing applications, similar to the SCALE experience.

Thanks to integration with Talhelper, all Talos configuration is stored in just two files. Even the most critical configuration elements for your core-cluster components are just a single file edit away!

After setup, the complete cluster is truly yours. You can modify anything you like, including the core components we installed.

ClusterTool also supports SOPS encryption, allowing you to safely store your cluster data anywhere. Beyond all of this, we’ve even added advanced tools to upgrade and alter your entire Talos cluster with just a single command.

Migrating from TrueNAS SCALE

ClusterTool will eventually feature automated tooling to migrate all TrueCharts TrueNAS SCALE Apps directly into your new cluster, making the transition seamless. Our current goal is to ensure cluster deployment is rock-solid before introducing migration tooling. Once the ALPHA of ClusterTool is stable, we will prioritize developing reliable migration tools as quickly as possible.

ClusterTool: Roadmap

ClusterTool is not fully ready yet. Here is the official roadmap (please note that these dates may change without prior notice):

July 1st: v1.0.0-ALPHA-1
August 1st: v1.0.0-BETA-1
September 1st: v1.0.0-RC-1
October 1st: v1.0.0-RELEASE

ALPHA

Not feature-complete; some minor features may malfunction.
Only available for testing on throwaway clusters.
Will not contain any SCALE Migration Tooling.

BETA

Mostly feature-complete with no major changes expected.
Will include SCALE Migration tooling.
Suitable for permanent migration, but without guarantees.

Ready for deployment on smaller setups after internal testing.
No major changes requiring redeployment expected.
No guarantees, but support will be available where possible.

RELEASE

Ready for full deployment.

What to Expect on July 1st

Alongside releasing the ALPHA build of ClusterTool, we will provide a more in-depth explanation of our new tooling and its capabilities. Documentation for all ClusterTool features will be up-to-date and well-polished.

Additionally, there will be changes to our support scope, as we will need to be stricter about what is and isn’t supported on DIY clusters.

Hang tight and see you on July 1st! The TrueCharts Team

Deprecation of TrueNAS SCALE Apps

May 30, 2024

Kjeld Schouten

Maintainer & Founder of TrueCharts

Like many of you, we’ve been made aware by the decision of iX-Systems to remove Kubernetes from TrueNAS SCALE Electric-Eel onwards. We’re very saddened by this news, as we had some awesome plans in store for all our users, including those on TrueNAS SCALE.

From integrations with popular Kubernetes tools, to our VPN addon and even our latest addition of integrated VolSync S3 backup support, the last few years we’ve spent hundreds of hours pushing the boundaries of what is possible with Helm charts and we will continue to do so.

While we fully agree that iX should offer the option to use docker-compose in addition to Kubernetes-based “custom-app”s, the way this sun-setting without deprecation has been handled, is not acceptable to us. It goes against every fiber of our being, as we prefer to collaborate on moving our loved platforms forward.

We view that both Kubernetes and Docker-Compose have a place, with that place not being mutually exclusive. Sadly enough, iX-Systems does not share that view. It’s a loss-loss situation, where SCALE users will have to trade the loss of TrueCharts with the option of copying-in their own compose files.

A situation that, from our point of view, isn’t, and has never been, needed. But it’s the cards we’ve been dealt.

Our way forward

As always, we’re committed 100% to our users and will help them find solutions.

Currently, we’re exploring multiple strategies by which you will be able to keep using our trusted TrueCharts Charts, even combined with your current TrueNAS SCALE Storage. We’ve learned a lot from our smooth DragonFish migration last month and we’re fully confident we can offer an experience that satisfies our users!

Our time-frame is to have an initial BETA for migration going before 01-07-2024, after which we want to polish and automate the process as much as possible based on user feedback.

Our goodbye

Our goodbyes for TrueCharts on SCALE Apps are bitter-sweet; while we have had a great time working with some people over at iX-Systems, we also don’t see eye-to-eye on many things.

We shall always stand with our users. Which means we also will focus on the way forward from now on, in which TrueNAS SCALE Apps will not be featured and we will instead focus on our other supported platforms and migration options.

We want to thank the TrueNAS community for their constant feedback during the years that TrueCharts as SCALE Apps lasted. We specifically want to thank Waqar Ahmed for the many hours spent polishing the original Apps system and Morgan Littlewood for his continued vision of what TrueNAS SCALE could be.