How to install TrueNAS on a dedicated server via IP-KVM and Virtual Media: step-by-step guide
TrueNAS is a storage operating system based on ZFS. It provides a web interface for managing disks, storage pools, datasets, shares, snapshots and replication.
This guide shows how to install TrueNAS Community Edition 25.10 on an INTROSERV dedicated server remotely, using the IP-KVM console and Virtual Media, and how to do the initial setup. When you finish, TrueNAS is available in the browser at the external IP address of the server. The steps and screenshots are for TrueNAS 25.10. In other versions, menu names and field labels may differ.
What you need
You need a dedicated server with IP-KVM access and Virtual Media support. The server must have:
- at least 8 GB of RAM;
- at least two disks: TrueNAS is installed on a boot device (20 GB or more), which should be separate from the disks used for your data.
The test server in this guide has two disks: one for the system and one for data. For real data, use at least two data disks combined into a mirror.
Installing TrueNAS erases all data on the disk you install it to. The other disks are not modified during installation. They are erased only if you later select them when creating a storage pool.
You also need the network settings of the server: the IP address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS servers. You can find them in your client area, in the order details of the server.
Download the TrueNAS image
Download the ISO image of TrueNAS Community Edition 25.10 from the official site. Save it to your computer; you will connect it to the server in the next step.
Boot the server from the ISO image
Open the IP-KVM console of the server. For details, see Connecting to iDRAC KVM.
In the console, click Virtual Media and connect the downloaded ISO image. For details, see Virtual media.
Then set the server to boot from the image once: click Boot, select Virtual CD/DVD/ISO and confirm. Restart the server: click Power, select Reset System (warm boot) and confirm.
The installer loads from the image into memory. This can take several minutes, depending on the speed of your connection.
Install TrueNAS
When the installer menu appears, select Install/Upgrade and press Enter.
On the disk selection screen, select the disk for the system with the Space key and press Enter. Select only one disk. If you select several disks, TrueNAS uses all of them as boot devices, and they are not available for your storage pool.
The installer warns that all data on the selected disk will be erased. Select Yes to continue.
When the installer asks about the administrator account, select Administrative user (truenas_admin) and enter a password twice. You will use this password to log in to the web interface.
The IP-KVM console may not pass some keys correctly, for example Shift or characters of a non-English keyboard layout. Switch your keyboard to English before you type the password. If the password is not accepted later, you can set a new one in the console: enter 4 (Change local administrator password) in the Console Setup menu.
Wait until the installation finishes and the Installation Succeeded message appears. Installation over Virtual Media can take 20 to 60 minutes, depending on the speed of your connection. Do not close the IP-KVM console during the installation, otherwise the image is disconnected.
Before you restart the server, disconnect the ISO image: click Virtual Media and disconnect the image. Otherwise the server boots into the installer again. Then select OK and Reboot System in the installer menu.
Configure the network
After the restart, make sure the server boots from the TrueNAS boot disk and not from Virtual Media. The server boots into TrueNAS and the console shows the Console Setup menu. If the server has no network settings yet, the menu shows the message The web interface could not be accessed.
Set the IP address
Enter 1 (Configure network interfaces) and press Enter. The list of network interfaces opens. Select the interface that is connected to the network and press Enter. Set ipv4_dhcp to No, enter the IP address with the prefix assigned to your server in the aliases field, for example 203.0.113.10/24, and select Save.
The console returns to the list of interfaces and shows the message You have pending network interface changes. Press a to apply them.
After the changes are applied, the IP address appears in the state.aliases column. Press q to return to the Console Setup menu.
TrueNAS applies network changes with a check: if the changes are not confirmed within 60 seconds, it restores the previous settings. If the IP address disappears after a minute, first check the IP address, prefix and interface, and configure the interface again. If the settings are correct but keep rolling back, you can apply them from the Linux shell with the automatic rollback turned off. You work in the IP-KVM console, so you do not lose access to the server even if the settings are wrong. Enter 8 (Open Linux Shell) and run the following commands, with your interface name and IP address:
midclt call interface.update eno1 '{"ipv4_dhcp": false, "aliases": [{"type": "INET", "address": "203.0.113.10", "netmask": 24}]}' midclt call interface.commit '{"rollback": false}'
Then enter exit to return to the Console Setup menu.
Set the gateway and DNS
Enter 2 (Configure network settings). In ipv4gateway, enter the default gateway, and in nameserver1, enter the DNS server from your client area. Select Save.
If the console shows the error Gateway ... is unreachable, the IP address is not set on the interface. Check the IP address first, then set the gateway again.
When the network is configured, the Console Setup menu shows the web interface addresses: The web user interface is at: http://<server IP address> and https://<server IP address>.
Log in to the web interface
Open https://<server IP address> in the browser. TrueNAS uses a self-signed certificate after installation, so the browser shows a security warning. Confirm that you want to continue to the site.
Enter truenas_admin in Username and the password you set during installation in Password, then click Log In.
The Dashboard opens.
Create a storage pool
A pool combines the data disks into one storage space. Go to Storage. The Storage Dashboard shows No Pools. Click Create Pool. The Pool Creation Wizard opens.
General Info
In Name, enter a pool name, for example tank.
Select Encryption only if you need the data on the disks to be encrypted. You will then have to keep the encryption key safe: without it the data cannot be recovered.
The Unassigned Disks panel on the right shows the disks available for the pool. Click Next.
Data
On the Data step, you select how the data disks are combined into a VDEV, a group of disks. The Layout field sets the type of the group:
- Stripe: data is spread across the disks without redundancy. If one disk fails, all data in the pool is lost;
- Mirror: each disk stores a copy of the same data. A two-disk mirror survives the failure of one disk. This is the recommended layout for two disks;
- RAIDZ1, RAIDZ2, RAIDZ3: data is spread across the disks with parity, so the pool survives the failure of one, two or three disks. These layouts need at least three, four and five disks;
- dRAID1, dRAID2, dRAID3: distributed RAID layouts designed for large disk configurations.
After you select the layout, set Disk Size, Width (the number of disks in one VDEV) and Number of VDEVs. For two data disks, select Mirror, Width 2 and Number of VDEVs 1.
The test server in this guide has only one data disk, so the screenshot shows the Stripe layout with Width 1. The wizard warns that a stripe VDEV has no redundancy.
A pool on a single disk has no redundancy. If the disk fails, all data in the pool is lost. Use a single-disk pool only for tests or for data that you also keep elsewhere, for example on a replicated server.
Optional VDEVs
The steps Log, Spare, Cache, Metadata and Dedup add optional VDEVs. You can skip them: click Save And Go To Review. They are useful only in specific cases:
- Log: a fast disk (SSD or NVMe) that speeds up synchronous writes, for example for databases or NFS shares used by virtual machines;
- Spare: a hot spare disk that automatically replaces a failed disk in the pool;
- Cache: a fast disk used as an additional read cache (L2ARC) for workloads that often read the same data;
- Metadata: fast disks that store metadata and small files, which speeds up work with many small files;
- Dedup: fast disks that store deduplication tables. Use it only if you really need deduplication.
Metadata and Dedup VDEVs are critical to the pool and must have the same level of redundancy as the data VDEVs. If an unprotected Metadata or Dedup VDEV fails, the pool can become inaccessible.
Review
Check the settings on the Review step and click Create Pool.
TrueNAS warns that the contents of the disks will be erased. Select Confirm and click Continue.
The new pool appears on the Storage Dashboard. Its status is Online, no errors.
Configure HTTPS access
TrueNAS already works over HTTPS with its default self-signed certificate. To make sure all connections use HTTPS, turn on the redirect from HTTP.
Go to System > General Settings, and in the GUI widget click Settings. Select Web Interface HTTP -> HTTPS Redirect and click Save. The web interface restarts, and after that any connection over HTTP is redirected to HTTPS. The redirect also turns on HSTS, so browsers will keep using HTTPS for this address.
