TrueNAS Scale

I've been using TrueNAS Scale in a VM for quite a while now. It's a solid system with very few bugs, features a nice "just-works" web GUI and has amazing ZFS support. It also allows you to run applications using Kubernetes, those are also managed with a nice GUI and you don't have to do complicated stuff.

Backups from Time Machine (macOS)

As I use a Mac, I can best use Time Machine.

This does not work out-of-the-box on TrueNAS (at least not on my machine/VM), we need to tweak a few settings.

Make a new user

Credentials -> Local Users -> Add

Leave everything at the default and put in a username and password.

Each Mac should have their own local user.

Create a parent dataset

Datasets -> Add

Just enter a name like TimeMachine, leave everything at default settings. Make sure Share Type is set to Generic.

Create another dataset for the Mac (need one dataset per Mac)

Datasets -> The dataset you just made -> Add

Enter a name like Pawou-TimeMachine (Pawou is the name of my Macbook, it's the Japanese original for the Pokémon Seel...) and set Share Type to SMB.

Create the SMB share

Shares -> Add

Path should be whatever you made the path of the child dataset, e.g. /mnt/mirror/TimeMachine/Pawou-TimeMachine, for dataset Pawou-TimeMachine inside TimeMachine on pool mirror. YMMV.

Select No presets at the dropdown for Purpose. Inside Advanced options, enable Time Machine, also enable Use Apple-style Character Encoding. You also need to make sure ACL is turned on.

Connect the share to the Mac

Open Finder, hit Cmd + K and enter your SMB server, e.g. smb://pawou@truenas.local for user Pawou. Enter credentials when asked, then go into System Settings -> General -> Time Machine, click the plus (+) sign, select the disk and enter your preferences.