About TrueNASGuide

TrueNASGuide is a reference site for people running TrueNAS at home. We cover TrueNAS SCALE and TrueNAS CORE end-to-end: pool design, dataset structure, snapshots, replication, network shares, applications, and the ZFS fundamentals that make all of it work.

What we cover

• TrueNAS installation and setup — choosing CORE vs SCALE, hardware sizing, install media, first-boot configuration
• ZFS deep dives — pools, vdevs, RAIDZ vs mirrors, special vdevs, ARC and L2ARC, SLOG, recordsize, compression
• Dataset and snapshot strategy — how to lay out datasets so they don’t fight you later; snapshot schedules and pruning
• Replication and backup — zfs send/recv, replication tasks between TrueNAS systems, off-site strategies
• Sharing — SMB for Windows/macOS, NFS for Linux/VMs, S3-compatible MinIO, iSCSI for block storage
• TrueNAS SCALE apps — running Nextcloud, Plex/Jellyfin, Immich, Pi-hole, and other services on your NAS
• Hardware — drives that work, drives that don’t, HBA selection, ECC RAM, and what actually matters for a home NAS

Who this is for

TrueNAS users — beginners deploying their first pool, and experienced operators chasing the right way to do something they’ve been doing the hard way. Storage is unforgiving and the cost of getting it wrong is high, so we explain the why before we ask you to make a decision.

We try to be precise without being intimidating. ZFS is not simple, and pretending otherwise has cost people their data.

Affiliate programs

Some links on this site are affiliate links. We earn commissions from Amazon Associates and other hardware programs when you buy drives, HBAs, or systems through our links. We only link to gear we’d recommend to a friend running a home NAS, and we never get paid for a specific recommendation.

Featured reading

• TrueNAS SCALE vs CORE in 2026: Which Should You Install?
• ZFS Pool Design: RAIDZ vs Mirrors for a Home NAS
• TrueNAS Snapshot and Replication Strategy

Sister sites in the homelab cluster

If TrueNAS is part of a wider homelab, our sibling sites cover the rest of the stack:

• SelfhostRealm ↗ — the broad homelab and self-hosting hub
• DockerHomeLab ↗ — Docker Compose tutorials for the services you’ll point at your NAS
• MiniLabHQ ↗ — small-form-factor and low-power hardware builds