Guide for remote setup needed

[Siren UwU]

Hey there, I want to set up TrueNAS and I want to do it remotely as LTT did in this video: We Finally Did it Properly - "Linux" Whonnock Upgrade

In that video they did it remotely and I want to do it remotely too because I'm running out of space and monitors. But my problem is that i don't know how to do this.

Can anybody guide me through the process or what tools I need?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Do you mean the remote install? They did that through a board with an out-of-band management interface, something that is typically reserved for server hardware, so you'd need a board that supports that. 

 

If you don't have that, there are some solutions like PiKVM which basically adds that functionality to boards that do not have it built in, but it's not worth the price and hassle just for a single remote install. 

 

Other than the install, everything for TrueNAS can be configured remotely, so just plug in peripherals and a monitor for the initial install, then once you get to the point where it gives you an IP for the web management portal, you can unplug them all and switch to full remote management via TrueNAS's web portal. 

[LIGISTX]

4 minutes ago, Siren UwU said:

Hey there, I want to set up TrueNAS and I want to do it remotely as LTT did in this video: We Finally Did it Properly - "Linux" Whonnock Upgrade

In that video they did it remotely and I want to do it remotely too because I'm running out of space and monitors. But my problem is that i don't know how to do this.

Can anybody guide me through the process or what tools I need?

 

Thanks in advance.

What exactly do you mean "remotely"? TrueNAS, as most "server" OS's, is headless - this means there is no monitor output to even interact with (sorta, there is always a terminal, but... its not really how you manage the machine). When you install truenas, it will pull a IP address from your router, once that happens you go to that IP address on your Windows PC and log in from there; everything is managed via WebUI through Chrome or Firefox (or I guess edge....).

 

If that is all your talking about, that is how it works by default. I would suggest doing some googling and youtube searching for truenas setup and truenas for beginners, I am sure there are plenty of videos that show you how to get started

[Master Disaster]

You pretty much need a head for initial setup since you have to install the OS and setup SSH, you can do this in a temporary position near an existing monitor. Once you have SSH running you can dial in from any machine on the same local network and configure from there or in the case of a NAS OS, most config is done by web browser anyway.

[Guest]

If you mean accessing the Hardware Interface, your system has to support out-of-band management, which is something that is mostly limited to the server space and some workstation grade systems. TruNAS itself has a remote web interface.

[LIGISTX]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

You pretty much need a head for initial setup since you have to install the OS and setup SSH, you can do this in a temporary position near an existing monitor. Once you have SSH running you can dial in from any machine on the same local network and configure from there or in the case of a NAS OS, most config is done by web browser anyway.

No SSH needed for truenas. It’s all handled through webUI. 

[Master Disaster]

Just now, LIGISTX said:

No SSH needed for truenas. It’s all handled through webUI. 

Its not needed but it should always be setup and running, what happens if Apache/NGINX crashes and the webUI goes down?

[LIGISTX]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Its not needed but it should always be setup and running, what happens if Apache/NGINX crashes and the webUI goes down?

You don’t need to have it running. I have had a truenas box running for over 4 years and rarely use ssh, literally only to chmod/chown things when I am too lazy to pull up the webUI. All “actual” work is done through webui, and honestly I have F’ed up the ACL by manually chmoding things. 
 

There is no Apache or nginx needed. Truenas self hosts it’s webUI, and if that webUI takes a shit, the OS is likely pretty borked. And if you want to remote in when your away from your LAN…. VPN.

[Master Disaster]

5 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

There is no Apache or nginx needed. Truenas self hosts it’s webUI, and if that webUI takes a shit, the OS is likely pretty borked. And if you want to remote in when your away from your LAN…. VPN.

TrueNAS runs NGINX as a service in order to hosts its internal angular based web interface, if the webUI goes down the system is not borked (honestly BSD is never really borked) and a simple /etc/rc.d/nginx restart over SSH will bring it back up.

[LIGISTX]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

TrueNAS runs NGINX as a service in order to hosts its internal angular based web interface, if the webUI goes down the system is not borked (honestly BSD is never really borked) and a simple /etc/rc.d/nginx restart over SSH will bring it back up.

I have never had the webui die on me… if you manage to down it’s nginx, you had a pretty bad day. 
 

But glad to know it’s using nginx, all I ever use that for is reverse proxy type applications. Didn’t realize that’s what truenas has been using all these years.

 

I stand by my point tho, no “need” to ssh into truenas. Everything is managed via the webUI. If your an advanced user and prefer CLI/terminal, that’s fine, but it’s not required.

[Master Disaster]

2 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

I have never had the webui die on me… if you manage to down it’s nginx, you had a pretty bad day. 
 

But glad to know it’s using nginx, all I ever use that for is reverse proxy type applications. Didn’t realize that’s what truenas has been using all these years.

 

I stand by my point tho, no “need” to ssh into truenas. Everything is managed via the webUI. If your an advanced user and prefer CLI/terminal, that’s fine, but it’s not required.

Even as a pretty advanced Linux user I still use the webUI on my NAS, its just easier when you can actually see what's happening. SSH is simply a fallback so if something does go wrong I can correct it without having to reboot everything (which is a nightmare for docker).

[Siren UwU]

Okay thank you all for your responses, it helped a lot. So now I know what I would need and that's all I wanted so imma go close this topic now I guess... :)