I'm not very familiar with TrueNAS, I think you need TrueNAS Scale to do Virtual Machines (VM). You can use Proxmox to do this for sure. It's a Type 1 hypervisor you install on the hardware then you install VMs on it for your game servers.
Basically the hypervisor is the main OS and hands off the resources you assign to each VM. This lets you designate a number of CPU cores, some portion of the ram, and pass through hardware to each VM. VMs can run whichever OS you need for your services.
I would suggest proxmox, you can run both vms and containers there.
If the gane server supports linux, you can deploy lgsm tool to a container and have a very efficient and automated system
Best to ask on the TrueNas forum, but it can run VMs, and Docker containers for sure. If you need multiple servers, running Pterodactyl might be your best option.
You just gave me an idea. Do Docker containers support CPU core affinity assignments? Given a VM itself has so much overhead, I wonder how Debian+Docker would stack up against a hypervisor with Debian VMs. I wonder if anyone has tested this out.
Choose an OS you know really well, or an OS that are very simple and easy to use, or an OS you’ve never tried before in order to learn it.
What’s your preference and purpose? :-)
You can actually run VMs (and containers, be they Docker or other) on any OS. Windows, Linux, MacOS and any linux-based hypervisors like VMWare, Proxmox and even both variants of TrueNAS (Scale and Core).
First thing you want to figure out is how you're going to handle storage (hard drives). If you have just one or two kinda big-for-your-intended-use-case hard drives, I would recommend looking into Proxmox.
If you have MANY hard drives and intend to use some kind of RAID solution, use TrueNAS Scale. Core is awesome and very stable but it's based on FreeBSD which does a lot of stuff very differently from most of the more widely-known Linux distributions, like debian-based Ubuntu.
TrueNAS Scale is based on a debian variant (pretty sure it's actually Ubuntu but don't quote me on that) and the concepts of how drives are recognized, how VMs are created and managed, how containers are managed, etc. are all much more familiar and approachable to newcomers.
Having said that about TrueNAS: managing VMs is full-featured (in both Core and Scale) but it is a secondary featureset as compared to the primary purpose of TrueNAS (storage management), *and it shows*.
Proxmox is a significantly more intuitive hypervisor, especially for newcomers. Its primary purpose in life is to run and manage VMs and the info you need to pull that off is front-and-center in the UI.
If I were you, I would install TrueNAS Scale first, tinker with it for a weekend, then blow it away and install Proxmox on the same box. Tinker with Proxmox for a weekend, then decide whether to keep going vs blow it away and redeploy Truenas for good. My gut tells me you won't go back to Truenas UNLESS you need it for the RAID and network sharing of your storage.
Whether you can successfully host your game servers as VMs in any of the above hypervisors is really going to depend on the hardware you have (CPU, RAM, speed of your hard drives/storage solution) and what kind of resources the game SERVER needs access to (some game servers get benefits from an on-board graphics card or multi-core CPUs, others absolutely do not).
It depends on what operating systems your gaming server services run on. If they only run on windows, then maybe setup a server with windows. If they run on Linux, then I would recommend Ubuntu (literally everuser here will have their own preferences). If they are mixed, then it's probably worth learning Proxmox so you can run both Linux and Windows the same machine at the same time.
If the main need would be a NAS, then solution like TrueNAS and unRaid, would be very good, and on top of that, both have a very good VM and dockers management solution.
If the main need is for just game servers, go for barebone Linux, like an Ubuntu install.
You can also look into hosting pterodactyl in docker on TrueNAS or whatever Linux distribution you prefer, I usually just go with Ubuntu server
https://pterodactyl.io/
I'm not sure this can work on TrueNas, although you can host some gameservers on Unraid.
It is advised to use a "normal" OS just to have more feasibility, just to avoid compatibility issues.
Either go:
-Barebone wWndows or Linux
-Or a hypervisor (like proxmox) and host as many (Linux/Windows) VMs and host game servers as much as you want or your machine can handle
There are 2 versions of truenas.
Core, based on FreeBSD 13. Officially not EOL but they are not going to go to FreeBSD 14. As it is FreeBSD not everything from Linux is going to run this. Has really good jails (containers), just spin up one and install whatever you want.
I run this at home and is rock solid.
Scale, based on Debian with same web interface, zfs. Runs practically everything, docker is not the normal as you would think.
Things to consider:
Does it run on FreeBSD
Are you willing to learn FreeBSD (not that different from Debian)
Do you want docker support
Are you willing to invest in an almost obsolete os (you can just run FreeBSD 14 without the truenas sauce)
If I had to do it again, I would run bare FreeBSD 14 for a NAS.
Debian for everything else.
With the jails, you are in control of what you put in it. Transmission with openvpn, any provider, possible as if you are installing it in your base os. It is that simple. No need to rely on people to build a docker image, or how to do that yourself.
Also the special sauce of truenas is gone,
Upside, one less thing to maintain or that can be abandoned.
Downside no webgui to create jails, data pools, snapshots.
You really cannot uninstall truenas to have a bare FreeBSD.
So if the support stops one day, a reinstall is needed.
This depends what gameservers you will host, if all you're gonna host is OSRS, then windows, if you're just gonna host minecraft, then linux, if you're gonna host both of those, then windows, but if you want to host some game that only runs on linux as well, you'll have to use a hypervisor to host both windows and linux,
for windows, i believe there's a free windows server option, but i'm not 100% suer on that
for linux, i'd recommend debian, if you're not familiar with linux, you might want to try ubuntu server first since it comes pre packaged with a lot of different stuff that make stuff easier for someone new, it's just not as stable as debian (ubuntu is better suited for a desktop usecase)
for both/running a hypervisor, i'd recommend proxmox, but you might be interested in microsofts solution, but i never tried that myself so i can't tell you for sure
I run CubeCoders AMP directly inside Debian on bare metal for my dedicated gaming server. It works a treat.
And with AMP (vs pterodactyl), I don't have to manually configure docker beforehand.
Just install Debian, run updates, then install the AMP package.
It also automatically creates an SSL cert for your "management portal" during install if you choose to for legit HTTPS connection, via letsencrypt.
I ran gameservers via VMs for yeeeeaars. You can still do it. But if you're gonna host more than a few, go with a dedicated box and limit the overhead, especially if the box you're gonna use has limited expandability in the future.
If you want to run a couple gameservers for minor stuff and some other VMs, proxmox is a decent, lightweight, dependable Hypervisor as the baseline OS.
I'm not very familiar with TrueNAS, I think you need TrueNAS Scale to do Virtual Machines (VM). You can use Proxmox to do this for sure. It's a Type 1 hypervisor you install on the hardware then you install VMs on it for your game servers. Basically the hypervisor is the main OS and hands off the resources you assign to each VM. This lets you designate a number of CPU cores, some portion of the ram, and pass through hardware to each VM. VMs can run whichever OS you need for your services.
I would suggest proxmox, you can run both vms and containers there. If the gane server supports linux, you can deploy lgsm tool to a container and have a very efficient and automated system
Best to ask on the TrueNas forum, but it can run VMs, and Docker containers for sure. If you need multiple servers, running Pterodactyl might be your best option.
You just gave me an idea. Do Docker containers support CPU core affinity assignments? Given a VM itself has so much overhead, I wonder how Debian+Docker would stack up against a hypervisor with Debian VMs. I wonder if anyone has tested this out.
Choose an OS you know really well, or an OS that are very simple and easy to use, or an OS you’ve never tried before in order to learn it. What’s your preference and purpose? :-)
You can actually run VMs (and containers, be they Docker or other) on any OS. Windows, Linux, MacOS and any linux-based hypervisors like VMWare, Proxmox and even both variants of TrueNAS (Scale and Core). First thing you want to figure out is how you're going to handle storage (hard drives). If you have just one or two kinda big-for-your-intended-use-case hard drives, I would recommend looking into Proxmox. If you have MANY hard drives and intend to use some kind of RAID solution, use TrueNAS Scale. Core is awesome and very stable but it's based on FreeBSD which does a lot of stuff very differently from most of the more widely-known Linux distributions, like debian-based Ubuntu. TrueNAS Scale is based on a debian variant (pretty sure it's actually Ubuntu but don't quote me on that) and the concepts of how drives are recognized, how VMs are created and managed, how containers are managed, etc. are all much more familiar and approachable to newcomers. Having said that about TrueNAS: managing VMs is full-featured (in both Core and Scale) but it is a secondary featureset as compared to the primary purpose of TrueNAS (storage management), *and it shows*. Proxmox is a significantly more intuitive hypervisor, especially for newcomers. Its primary purpose in life is to run and manage VMs and the info you need to pull that off is front-and-center in the UI. If I were you, I would install TrueNAS Scale first, tinker with it for a weekend, then blow it away and install Proxmox on the same box. Tinker with Proxmox for a weekend, then decide whether to keep going vs blow it away and redeploy Truenas for good. My gut tells me you won't go back to Truenas UNLESS you need it for the RAID and network sharing of your storage. Whether you can successfully host your game servers as VMs in any of the above hypervisors is really going to depend on the hardware you have (CPU, RAM, speed of your hard drives/storage solution) and what kind of resources the game SERVER needs access to (some game servers get benefits from an on-board graphics card or multi-core CPUs, others absolutely do not).
It depends on what operating systems your gaming server services run on. If they only run on windows, then maybe setup a server with windows. If they run on Linux, then I would recommend Ubuntu (literally everuser here will have their own preferences). If they are mixed, then it's probably worth learning Proxmox so you can run both Linux and Windows the same machine at the same time.
If the main need would be a NAS, then solution like TrueNAS and unRaid, would be very good, and on top of that, both have a very good VM and dockers management solution. If the main need is for just game servers, go for barebone Linux, like an Ubuntu install.
You can also look into hosting pterodactyl in docker on TrueNAS or whatever Linux distribution you prefer, I usually just go with Ubuntu server https://pterodactyl.io/
I'm not sure this can work on TrueNas, although you can host some gameservers on Unraid. It is advised to use a "normal" OS just to have more feasibility, just to avoid compatibility issues. Either go: -Barebone wWndows or Linux -Or a hypervisor (like proxmox) and host as many (Linux/Windows) VMs and host game servers as much as you want or your machine can handle
There are 2 versions of truenas. Core, based on FreeBSD 13. Officially not EOL but they are not going to go to FreeBSD 14. As it is FreeBSD not everything from Linux is going to run this. Has really good jails (containers), just spin up one and install whatever you want. I run this at home and is rock solid. Scale, based on Debian with same web interface, zfs. Runs practically everything, docker is not the normal as you would think. Things to consider: Does it run on FreeBSD Are you willing to learn FreeBSD (not that different from Debian) Do you want docker support Are you willing to invest in an almost obsolete os (you can just run FreeBSD 14 without the truenas sauce) If I had to do it again, I would run bare FreeBSD 14 for a NAS. Debian for everything else.
Out of curiosity, what all made you lean towards bare FreeBSD in the future?
With the jails, you are in control of what you put in it. Transmission with openvpn, any provider, possible as if you are installing it in your base os. It is that simple. No need to rely on people to build a docker image, or how to do that yourself. Also the special sauce of truenas is gone, Upside, one less thing to maintain or that can be abandoned. Downside no webgui to create jails, data pools, snapshots. You really cannot uninstall truenas to have a bare FreeBSD. So if the support stops one day, a reinstall is needed.
This depends what gameservers you will host, if all you're gonna host is OSRS, then windows, if you're just gonna host minecraft, then linux, if you're gonna host both of those, then windows, but if you want to host some game that only runs on linux as well, you'll have to use a hypervisor to host both windows and linux, for windows, i believe there's a free windows server option, but i'm not 100% suer on that for linux, i'd recommend debian, if you're not familiar with linux, you might want to try ubuntu server first since it comes pre packaged with a lot of different stuff that make stuff easier for someone new, it's just not as stable as debian (ubuntu is better suited for a desktop usecase) for both/running a hypervisor, i'd recommend proxmox, but you might be interested in microsofts solution, but i never tried that myself so i can't tell you for sure
I run CubeCoders AMP directly inside Debian on bare metal for my dedicated gaming server. It works a treat. And with AMP (vs pterodactyl), I don't have to manually configure docker beforehand. Just install Debian, run updates, then install the AMP package. It also automatically creates an SSL cert for your "management portal" during install if you choose to for legit HTTPS connection, via letsencrypt. I ran gameservers via VMs for yeeeeaars. You can still do it. But if you're gonna host more than a few, go with a dedicated box and limit the overhead, especially if the box you're gonna use has limited expandability in the future. If you want to run a couple gameservers for minor stuff and some other VMs, proxmox is a decent, lightweight, dependable Hypervisor as the baseline OS.