Getting Started with TrueCharts (2024)

Below you’ll find recommended steps to go from a blank or fresh TrueNAS SCALE installation to using TrueCharts with the best possible experience and performance as determined by the TrueCharts team. It does not replace the application specific guides and/or specific guides on certain subjects (PVCs, VPN, linking apps, etc) either, so please continue to check the app specific documentation and the TrueNAS SCALE specific guides we’ve provided on this website. If more info is needed about TrueNAS SCALE please check out our introduction to SCALE page.

Requirements

TrueCharts apps share computing resources with your system. Please review our recommended system requirements.
Your apps dataset needs to be large enough to store the containers, configuration files, snapshots, and other persistent volume (PVC) data. You can always configure additional storage using HDD pools (e.g. downloads folder) for specific apps later.
Make sure your SCALE installation has a working storage pool that you’d like to use for TrueCharts. Read more in the SCALE tutorial.
Make sure you have a working Internet connection and can reach https://github.com, https://truecharts.org, and https://tccr.io from the host system.
Ensure your system time is up to date and you’ve chosen your preferred timezone in your SCALE settings. Apps you install will default to this timezone.
You are signed into your TrueNAS SCALE WebUI as root or as a user that can execute commands with root permissions.
Your apps pool must be configured before adding TrueCharts. When opening the Apps menu item on SCALE for the first time, you’ll be prompted to choose a storage pool for your Apps.

Minimal Getting Started Setup with SCALE

Add catalog with the following trains: stable, premium, system -> Adding TrueCharts
Install the following apps from the system train with default settings: Prometheus Operator Cloudnative-PG Operator and Cert-Manager

Adding TrueCharts

To add TrueCharts to your SCALE installation:

Go to the Apps page from the top level SCALE menu

Click the Discover Apps button on the Apps page

Click the Manage Catalogs link on the Discover Apps page

Click Add Catalog

After reading the iXsystems notice, click Continue and enter the required information:

Name: truecharts
Repository: https://github.com/truecharts/catalog
Preferred Trains: premium,stable and system (type each one manually)
Branch: main

Getting started using Charts with your own Domain

Steps Above -> Minimal Getting Started with SCALE
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

Everything below (includes the steps listed above and extras like HeavyScript, MetalLB and Authelia)

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

Once you’ve added the TrueCharts catalog, we also recommend installing HeavyScript and configuring it to run nightly with a cron job. HeavyScript is a bash script for managing TrueNAS SCALE applications, automatically updating those applications, backing up applications datasets, opening a shell for containers, and many other features. Please visit the HeavyScript GitHub Page for more info.

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, our ingress or reverse-proxy solution of choice, 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.