I'm going to move some older PC hardware to a dedicated NAS with Channels DVR. I see the FreeNAS is listed which is now TrueNAS Core. However, there is also TrueNAS Scale. Which would be better for an install? Should I look at a paid option such as UnRAID?
For hardware I have an Intel CPU with 16GB RAM, 2 SSD for system drive and 4 Drives for RAID 5 data storage.
I ended up going a different way all together. I had TrueNAS Scale setup with channels DVR. But after the latest upgrade to TrueNAS it required going back in an fixing a bunch of container settings to get them working again. So I ended up trying out proxmox and going that route. At the time I was also having issues with docker and channels where it seemed to downgrade the headless chrome that was paired with the docker image. Now I know Channels released a new TVE version that has Chrome 109 by default. So I don't know if that is fixed or not. So I installed Channels natively on Debian linux and installed chromium and haven't looked back. Just some thoughts of maybe something else other than TrueNAS. But I have never used Core or UnRAID. You may find if you want to run Docker for Pluto Channels and EplusTV you might not be able to do that via TrueNAS Core due to Jails.
Both are supported. TrueNAS Core is the next version of FreeNAS, just renamed; both are FreeBSD. TrueNAS Scale is completely different: it is Linux-based and container focused. Which you should choose comes down to your personal preference.
That is great information. I tried just going with Ubuntu desktop at first, but wanted to mirror the system drive. I tried installing Ubuntu Server, but it seemed to have isssues with my hardware. Considering this would be a DIY NAS and I don't necessarily need another desktop interface, I thought about trying oiur TrueNAS on my hardware.
It is good to know that both are supported. I'm trying to make the decision on which one I should choose and I don't feel that I have a good grasp of what the benefits of one over the other would be.
I see you edited your original post, which is now going to change my answer.
Originally you asked about TrueNAS, and it seemed to me that you were familiar with FreeNAS. The way your post now reads indicates that you have no experience TrueNAS Core, which is essentially the same as FreeNAS. If this is true (and you don't have experience with FreeBSD), then I would recommend you don't use TrueNAS Core.
Also based upon your new edits, it appears that you have familiarity with Linux. If that is the case, TrueNAS Scale may be an option. However, Scale is a bit like combining a NAS OS (like FreeNAS or UnRAID) with a containerization approach (like Kubernetes). While you may be familiar with Linux, containers add an additional level of complexity.
In short, ask yourself why you need to look to something different/new from what you are already using. If you can't come up with a good answer for that, then re-assess your plan.
I run a Windows VM on TrueNAS Core. I have Channels DVR running on this VM It's super simple to set up and very reliable. Windows updates only happen when Channels DVR is idle so there are no issues. The virtualization on TrueNAS core is very basic with no good PCIe device passthrough so you will be doing any encoding an commercial skipping using the CPU. Depending on your CPU and what your NAS workload is this may be fine. My processor is an i7-7820X CPU @ 3.60GHz with 8 cores and the system has 32-GB RAM. I dedicate 2-GB to the Channels VM.
FreeBSD—and thus, TrueNAS Core—uses bhyve as its hypervisor (think KVM/QEMU). According to FreeBSD's wiki, PCI passthrough is indeed supported.
I'm Running UnRaid on an 11th Gen i5. I have Channels-DVR and Plex containers on it and they both can use the integrated GPU. I only have a little bit of Linux experience, but there are many good YouTube videos done by SpaceInvader One showing how to setup an UnRaid system.
UnRaid is really a headless OS. Once you get your server running, you administer it through their web interface which is pretty good. They have a lot of plugins available for adding features.
If I recall TrueNAS makes you build individual shares with same size drives.
What I like about UnRaid is that I just give it a large disk for parity and then throw a bunch of smaller disks at it and they create a single large volume that I create shares on. My server has a 16TB parity drive with 2 12TB and 2 8TB drives for a 40TB volume. The ability to just add drives to increase capacity made it worth the $ that UnRaid costs.
Yes it's supported, it's configuration is tricky as figuring out what PCIe device to pass through is not straight forward. This is why many run TrueNAS as a VM under Proxmox or VMWare.
In TrueNAS pools use multiple drives. Shares can be any Dataset (subdirectory) and a pool can contain many Datasets.
Just ordered HD HomeRun Flex tuner and plan to install Channels on TrueNAS Core (which used to be called FreeNAS).
I run several Ubuntu VM's on TrueNAS Core and have had zero problems - 100% reliable and nice because you don't have to fix the space for volumes ahead of time (you can optionally set quotas though). I use it for TimeMachine backup, Windows Backup, HomeBridge, VPN Server, and more, and have no complaints.
I would not hesitate to use TrueNAS core. If I were starting from scratch, I would consider TrueNAS scale. When I set up my system, that did not yet exist and now I don't see a lot of reason to switch. I'm not a BSD expert or Linux expert, but didn't run into any problems that a little web searching couldn't solve.
In a few weeks, I'll make another post once I've had time to use with Channels.
Core is the only supported version and the plug-in is very easy to set up. There is less overhead as a plug-in than as a VM.
Not true. Scale is basically a Linux-based NAS OS with apps being handled via containers (ie, Docker). Core is the continuation of the FreeBSD-based OS.
Either will work, as there are both published OCI/Docker containers, as well as an install for ipcage/jails on FreeBSD.
Definitely this. Regardless of whether you choose the FreeBSD Core or the Linux Scale, don't bother spinning up a full VM. Use the appropriate plug-in/container for your chosen OS.
Thanks for the advice. I'll try the plug-in.
What I mean by support is specific instructions how to install on Scale and assistance by the Cannels developers if you have a problem. I have yet to see either. If you have please point me to them as I feel at some point Scale will be what IX Systems supports.
As expected, TrueNAS Core with Channels DVR running in a Jail is working well. I was not sure about best way to set up some of the Jail stuff to be secure, like NAT vs DHCP, which user to create/set and where (don't really want to run as "root", but is "root" in the jail really "root"? Obviously I need to do more reading!).
With that said, it looks good so far. This is my first experience with HDHomeRun and Channels.
You want a static IP that you either assign yourself in the Jail setup or via a fixed DHCP allocation. Channels runs as user ID 820. Your files system will need an ACL that allows full access to to UID 820. In the ACL forum chose user and for user enter 820.
This thread about Plex should be helpfull.
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