A virtualized TrueNas NFS server in Proxmox

Published by Bobo on May 4, 2025

In this guide, I’ll walk you through setting up TrueNAS as a virtual machine in Proxmox VE, with two 2TB NVMe SSDs passed through to create a mirrored ZFS pool. You’ll also configure a static IP and set up an NFS share to serve files across your network—perfect for a homelab or Proxmox storage backend.

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🔧 What You’ll Need

• A working Proxmox VE host
• Two 2TB NVMe SSDs (not already used by Proxmox)
• Latest TrueNAS ISO → Download here
• Static IP: 10.0.0.3
• (Optional) SSH access to your Proxmox host

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1. Upload the TrueNAS ISO to Proxmox

1. In the Proxmox web UI, click your node.
2. Navigate to local > ISO Images.
3. Click Upload, then select the downloaded TrueNAS ISO.

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2. Create the TrueNAS Virtual Machine

• Click Create VM.

In the General tab:

• Name: truenas

In the OS tab:

• Select the TrueNAS ISO
• Guest OS Type: Linux

In the System tab:

• BIOS: OVMF (UEFI)
• Machine: q35
• Enable QEMU Guest Agent

In the Hard Disk tab:

• Bus/Device: SCSI
• Storage: local
• Size: 16 GB (for OS only)

In the CPU tab:

• Cores: 3
• Type: host

In the Memory tab:

• Allocate 14336 MB (~14 GB)

In the Network tab:

• Bridge: vmbr0
• Model: VirtIO (paravirtualized)

Click Finish, but don’t start the VM yet.

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3. Pass Through the NVMe Drives

Before proceeding, shut down the VM if it’s running:

• Go to VM > Summary
• Click Shutdown (or Stop, if unresponsive)

Attach NVMe Drives as Raw Disks

1. Go to VM > Hardware
2. Click Add > Hard Disk
3. In the popup:
   • Bus/Device: VirtIO (recommended)
   • Storage: Select “Do not use any storage”
   • Disk image: Leave empty
   • Enable “Use Physical Disk”
   • Enter device path manually, e.g. /dev/nvme0n1
4. Repeat for /dev/nvme1n1

💡 You can verify NVMe drive paths with lsblk or fdisk -l from the Proxmox shell.

Confirm Disks Are Attached

Go back to VM > Hardware and verify you see:

• VirtIO Disk 2 → /dev/nvme0n1
• VirtIO Disk 3 → /dev/nvme1n1

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4. Install TrueNAS

1. Start the VM
2. Open the Console tab
3. Run through the TrueNAS installer
   • Install onto the 16GB virtual disk
4. Reboot when done

After reboot, remove the ISO:

• Go to VM > Hardware
• Right-click CD-ROM → Remove

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5. Set a Static IP for TrueNAS

1. From the VM console, select Configure Network Interfaces
2. Assign:
   • IP: 10.0.0.3
   • Netmask: 24
   • Gateway: 10.0.0.1 (your router?)
   • DNS: 1.1.1.1 or similar

Now open a browser and go to http://10.0.0.3 to access the web UI.

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6. Create a Mirrored ZFS Pool

1. In the web UI, go to Storage > Pools
2. Click Add > Create new pool
3. Name: nvme_pool
4. Select both NVMe disks
5. Layout: Mirror (adds redundancy)
6. Click Create

🚨 This will wipe all data on the drives!

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7. Set Up an NFS Share

Create a Dataset

1. Navigate to:Storage > Pools > nvme_pool > Add Dataset
2. Name it nfs

Configure NFS Sharing

1. Go to Sharing > Unix (NFS) Shares
2. Click Add:
   • Path: /mnt/nvme_pool/nfs
   • Check: All dirs
   • Allowed networks: 10.0.0.0/24
   • Maproot User: root
   • Maproot Group: wheel

Enable NFS Service

• Go to Services
• Start NFS
• Enable Start Automatically

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8. Test the NFS Share

On a Linux client or another Proxmox host, run:

sudo mount -t nfs 10.0.0.3:/mnt/nvme_pool/nfs /mnt/test

If it mounts successfully, congrats—you’ve got a working NFS server powered by virtualized TrueNAS!

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✅ Summary

You now have:

• A TrueNAS VM running in Proxmox VE
• 3 vCPUs, 14GB RAM, and 16GB OS disk
• Two 2TB NVMe SSDs passed through as raw disks
• ZFS mirrored pool for redundancy
• Static IP: 10.0.0.3
• NFS share available to your LAN

This setup is ideal for:

• Hosting Proxmox VM backups
• Serving files to your home network
• Running iSCSI or SMB shares in the future
• Experimenting with ZFS snapshots and replication

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Let me know if you’d like help turning this into a downloadable PDF, adding screenshots, or creating a diagram for the architecture!