Author
Truenasguide Editorial
Posts (18)
- getting-started
TrueNAS SCALE vs CORE 2026: What Changed, and Whether It Is Time to Migrate
CORE's final releases are on the shelf and SCALE (now TrueNAS Community Edition) is the only line still moving. Here is the 2026 state of play, what staying on CORE costs, and how the one-way migration actually works.
- Build Guide
Best Budget NAS Build for Home: What Actually Works in 2026
A practical guide to the best budget NAS build for home use: Intel N100 platforms, ZFS-compatible drives, TrueNAS SCALE setup, and the backup plan
- setup
How to Set Up TrueNAS SCALE: From Bare Metal to First Share
A practical step-by-step guide on how to set up TrueNAS SCALE — hardware, installation, pool creation with RAIDZ, datasets, SMB shares, and backups.
- Comparison
TrueNAS vs Unraid for Home Media: Which NAS OS Wins in 2026?
Comparing TrueNAS SCALE and Unraid for Plex and Jellyfin home media servers — storage models, app ecosystems, hardware requirements, and which one to pick
- storage-planning
TrueNAS Pool Expansion: 3 Ways to Grow a ZFS Pool
Add a vdev, replace drives one by one, or use RAIDZ expansion to grow a TrueNAS pool without rebuilding. Compare the trade-offs and pick the right path.
- troubleshooting
TrueNAS: Replace a Failed Disk in a Degraded Pool
Replace a failed disk in a degraded TrueNAS pool safely: identify the drive by serial, swap it, run the resilver, and verify ONLINE on SCALE and CORE.
- troubleshooting
TrueNAS Zpool Import Recovery: Fix a Pool That Won't Import
Recover a TrueNAS zpool that won't import: decode UNAVAIL vs FAULTED vs DEGRADED, fix missing devices, run safe read-only and dry-run imports, know when
- getting-started
TrueNAS SCALE vs Unraid vs OpenMediaVault in 2026
Three popular home NAS operating systems, three different philosophies. How TrueNAS SCALE, Unraid, and OpenMediaVault differ on filesystem, data
- sharing
iSCSI vs NFS vs SMB on TrueNAS: Which Share Type to Use
TrueNAS exposes storage three ways: SMB, NFS, and iSCSI. File sharing vs block storage, which clients each suits, the performance trade-offs, and how to
- data-protection
TrueNAS Scrubs and SMART Tests: A Disk Health Routine
How ZFS scrubs and SMART self-tests work together on TrueNAS, the right schedule for a home NAS, and which SMART attributes warn you before a drive dies.
- zfs-fundamentals
TrueNAS Datasets vs Zvols: When to Use Which
A dataset is a filesystem; a zvol is a virtual block device. How they differ on TrueNAS, what recordsize and volblocksize mean, and which to create for
- hardware
The TrueNAS Hardware Guide: What Actually Matters for a Home NAS
ECC RAM, HBAs, drives, motherboards, and power. A practical hardware guide for building a TrueNAS server at home: what to splurge on and what is fine.
- getting-started
TrueNAS SCALE vs CORE in 2026: Which to Install
TrueNAS CORE hit its final release in 2025; SCALE is the Linux-based future with native apps and VMs. Here is how to pick the right one for a home NAS in 2026.
- applications
TrueNAS SCALE Apps: Getting Started the Clean Way
TrueNAS SCALE Apps run Plex, Jellyfin, Nextcloud and more directly on your NAS via Docker. Learn how the app system works, the storage layout to set up
- sharing
Setting Up SMB Shares on TrueNAS SCALE
A step-by-step guide to creating SMB shares on TrueNAS SCALE — dataset layout, user permissions, ACLs, and the gotchas that make SMB look broken when it isn't.
- data-protection
TrueNAS Snapshot and Replication Strategy
Snapshots protect against accidents. Replication protects against fires. Here is a practical TrueNAS snapshot schedule and replication setup for a home
- zfs-fundamentals
ZFS Performance Tuning: ARC, Recordsize, and Compression
The three ZFS tunables that actually matter for a home NAS: ARC sizing, dataset recordsize, and compression. What each does, when to change it, and what
- zfs-fundamentals
RAIDZ vs Mirrors: ZFS Pool Design for a Home NAS
RAIDZ vs mirrors for your TrueNAS pool: a clear breakdown of usable capacity, rebuild risk, and IOPS so you pick the right vdev topology the first time