Getting Started

Danger

TrueNAS SCALE Apps are considered Deprecated. We heavily recommend using a more mature Kubernetes platform such as “TalosOS” instead, and no longer offer an apps/charts catalogue for SCALE users to install. The below docs exist purely as historical references for users with chart-specific scenarios and may be removed at any time.

SCALE Apps is a Helm-Charts-as-Apps tool. However, in contrast to more “premium-grade” solutions like kubeapps, it’s not built by Kubernetes specialists and it does not offer complete freedom to deploy helm charts. Nor can you manually edit Chart-Yaml files manually.

This makes SCALE Apps a great tool for users running a TrueNAS SCALE NAS and running a few applications on it. But makes it less optimal for Advanced users.

Tip

Please, always remember to check the content specific to the chart.

Tier

SCALE Apps are what we call a “Tier 3” deployment option. This means that while we expect it to go smoothly, there are likely caveats, limited options and/or we’ve limited staff available to help out users with support. Hence, we would advise a “Tier 2” or “Tier 1” solution instead.

Caveats

SCALE Apps is a pretty limited solution. For normal homelab use, TrueCharts SCALE Apps likely will suffice just fine. But for more advanced setups, as mentioned above, it’s not sufficient. It also adds significant layers of “middleware” between the App GUI and Kubernetes/Helm, which is prone to lead to niche issues that other deployment options do not face.

We also would like to point out that iX-Systems, the creators of TrueNAS SCALE, do not have much kubernetes experience or specialised engineers available. This does affect the quality of the end product.

Hence for chart management our preference would be to use FluxCD instead.

How to Configure

Removed as SCALE is deprecated.

Requirements

Removed as SCALE is deprecated.

Minimal Getting Started Setup with SCALE

Removed as SCALE is deprecated.

Adding TrueCharts

Removed as SCALE is deprecated.

Getting started using Charts with your own Domain

• Move TrueNAS Port to 81,444 -> TrueNAS WebUI Instructions
• Add Traefik -> Traefik How-To
• Use Cloudflare for DNS and create API token -> Guide
• Add ClusterIssuer -> Clusterissuer How-to
• Add Blocky -> Blocky Setup Guide
• Setup ingress on each Chart you want to expose -> Configure Ingress using Clusterissuer certs

Full TrueCharts Setup on TrueNAS SCALE

Removed as SCALE is deprecated.

TrueCharts Trains Overview

TrueCharts has multiple “trains”, or branches of apps which you can choose to install. Below is a summary of each train and its intended use.

• stable contains apps which have been thoroughly tested and expected to be stable and working. The stable version of an app is always the best available version
• incubator contains apps which are still in development and/or are not considered to be stable and working well enough to be moved into the stable branch
• dependency contains apps that are mostly used as dependencies. This train is not supported, aside from bug fixes
• premium contains apps for core TrueCharts features and, in the future, will be covered by additional support for professional use cases
• system contains operators required for certain apps apps to function at all, recommended leaving this enabled.

See here for a list of all apps available for each TrueCharts trains.

HeavyScript

Removed as SCALE is deprecated and HeavyScript is no longer actively supported/developed by HeavyBullets.

OpenEBS Setup

Removed as SCALE is deprecated.

MetalLB installation and disabling integrated LoadBalancer

This step may be optional but is recommended for advanced users and/or those who which to assign specific IPs to their SCALE applications. We have a full guide explaining the setups on the MetalLB-Config Setup Guide page on how to setup MetalLB and disable the integrated LoadBalancer. Please refer to that page for more info.

Prometheus and CNPG system app installations

Many of the popular TrueCharts apps for TrueNAS SCALE rely on Prometheus Operator and Cloudnative-PG Operator to be installed PRIOR to installing another app that may rely on functionality these operators provide. If you’re unsure if you’re using any TrueCharts apps that require Prometheus or CNPG functionality, we advise you install these system apps first anyway before attempting to then install any other apps.

Here is a list of apps that rely on CNPG functionality. If you intend to deploy any of these apps, you must install the Cloudnative-PG Operator app first as above.

If you are migrating from a different CNPG operator, you can use our CNPG Migration Guide for steps on how to install the Cloudnative-PG operator and migrating to it. We also have this FAQ entry on removing the previous CNPG backend once migrated.

For new users just starting out with TrueNAS SCALE, simply first install Prometheus Operator followed by Cloudnative-PG Operator from the TrueCharts Community Catalog before continuing.

Traefik installation for Ingress / Reverse-Proxy support with TrueCharts Apps

Traefik is our “ingress” or “reverse-proxy” solution of choice and is integrated into all our apps in order to make it as easy as possible to secure your apps. To support this, we supply a separate Traefik “ingress” app, which has been pre-configured to provide secure and fast connections. Please check the Traefik How-To for basic instructions and a video as well.

An optional but extra function enabled by Traefik and supported by many Truecharts Community Catalog apps like Nextcloud, is the ability to use a middleware to use your apps remotely. You can setup a basicAuth middleware using our guide Add Traefik Basic Auth to Apps.

Cert-Manager (operator) and Clusterissuer installation for certificate management

TrueCharts only supports the usage of Cert-Manager (both the operator portion and the main clusterissuer) for certificate management inside apps for TrueNAS SCALE. The usage of TrueNAS SCALE certificates through the GUI is deprecated and may cease to function in future updates. We highly recommend setting up clusterissuer using our clusterissuer setup-guide before adding Ingress to your applications.

Blocky DNS provider for split-DNS installation and guide

Blocky is the optional, but preferred DNS solution for TrueCharts. It’s a DNS proxy, DNS enhancer and ad-blocker which supports “split-DNS” through K8S-Gateway and is highly-available. The Blocky Setup-Guide will cover basic setup options which will get you up and running and is not all inclusive.

Authelia Installation

Authelia is a Single Sign-On Multi-Factor portal for web apps, and is the preferred solution to secure your TrueCharts apps when exposing them using Traefik as your ingress solution. We have a detailed guide that goes through setting up Authelia, along with LLDAP as a backend for Authelia and setting up the forwardAuth section of Traefik to handle the redirections and securing your apps. Please refer to the Authelia Setup-Guide for more info. It is not strictly required, however you are otherwise encouraged to set a very strong password in your previous steps.

Outdated Video Guide