A virtualized TrueNas NFS server in Proxmox

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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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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

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!

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

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