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Getting Started with freenas-proxmox v3.0

1. What This Plugin Does

Proxmox VE is a hypervisor — it runs your virtual machines. Those VMs need somewhere to store their disk images. If you have a TrueNAS storage server on your network, you might want to store those disks on TrueNAS so they live on dedicated, reliable, ZFS-managed storage instead of inside the Proxmox host itself. This plugin makes that possible. It registers a new storage type called TrueNAS (ZFS/iSCSI) inside Proxmox. When you add a VM disk to that storage, Proxmox talks to your TrueNAS server through its REST API, creates a ZFS volume on TrueNAS, exposes it as an iSCSI block device, and gives your VM a direct high-speed path to it — all automatically. You do not need to touch the TrueNAS UI every time you create or delete a VM disk.

2. Prerequisites

Complete all of these before installing the plugin.

2.1 Proxmox VE Version

Your Proxmox VE node (or cluster) must be running PVE 8.x or PVE 9.x. Check with:

pveversion

If the output shows pve-manager/7.x, stay on plugin v2.x — v3.0 does not support PVE 7.

2.2 TrueNAS Version

TrueNAS product	Minimum version
TrueNAS SCALE	Electric Eel (24.10) or later
TrueNAS CORE	13.0-U6 or later

2.3 iSCSI Service on TrueNAS

The plugin creates per-VM iSCSI targets for you automatically. It does not create the iSCSI service infrastructure — you must set that up once.

On TrueNAS SCALE:

Go to Shares → iSCSI → Configure
Under Portals, add a portal that listens on the IP address your Proxmox nodes use to reach TrueNAS (or 0.0.0.0 to listen on all interfaces). Note the portal's IP address — you will need it.
Under Initiators, add an initiator group. You can leave it open (allow all) for initial setup; lock it down to specific Proxmox node IPs later.
Enable the iSCSI service and confirm it is running.

On TrueNAS CORE:

Go to Sharing → Block Shares (iSCSI)
Under Portals, add a portal (same as above)
Under Initiators, add an initiator group
Go to Services and enable iSCSI

You do not need to create any targets or extents by hand — the plugin creates those automatically when you allocate VM disks.

2.4 TrueNAS API Key

The plugin authenticates with TrueNAS using an API key (Bearer token). No username or password is used.

On TrueNAS SCALE: Go to System Settings → API Keys → Add. Give it a descriptive name such as proxmox-plugin. Copy the key — it is shown only once.

On TrueNAS CORE: Click the gear icon in the top-right corner → API Keys → Add. Copy the key.

Store the key somewhere safe temporarily. You will paste it into the Proxmox UI during storage configuration.

2.5 Network Reachability

Every Proxmox node must be able to reach the TrueNAS host on TCP 443 (HTTPS API) or TCP 80 (HTTP, not recommended)
Every Proxmox node must be able to reach the iSCSI portal on TCP 3260

No SSH keys are required. No pre-created iSCSI targets are required.

2.6 What You Cannot Store on This Storage

TPM state disks (tpmstate0) cannot live on this storage type. If you plan to create VMs with Secure Boot / TPM enabled, configure a separate local-lvm or NFS storage for those disks. All other disk types (virtio, scsi, IDE, EFI) work normally.

3. Installation

Run all of these commands on each Proxmox node in your cluster, or on your single Proxmox host. Run them as root.

Step 1 — Import the GPG Signing Key

curl -fsSL https://thegrandwazoo.github.io/freenas-proxmox/public.gpg.key \
  | gpg --dearmor \
  | tee /etc/apt/keyrings/truenas-proxmox.gpg > /dev/null

Step 2 — Add the Package Repository

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/truenas-proxmox.gpg] \
https://thegrandwazoo.github.io/freenas-proxmox v3 main" \
  | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/truenas-proxmox.list

Step 3 — Install the Package

apt update && apt install truenas-proxmox

The installer:

Copies TrueNAS.pm to /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Custom/
Copies truenas-storage.js to /usr/share/pve-manager/js/
Adds one <script> tag to /usr/share/pve-manager/index.html.tpl so the UI loads the new panel
Restarts pvedaemon and pveproxy

It does not patch any PVE system files.

Step 4 — Refresh Your Browser

Open (or reload) the Proxmox web UI. Do a hard refresh: Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac). The TrueNAS storage type will not appear until the browser picks up the new JavaScript.

4. First Storage Configuration in the Proxmox UI

In the Proxmox web UI:

Click Datacenter in the left tree
Click Storage in the top tabs
Click Add
Choose TrueNAS (ZFS/iSCSI) from the dropdown

If TrueNAS (ZFS/iSCSI) does not appear in the list, see section 6.1 below.

Field Reference

Fill in the form using the table below. Fields not listed can be left at their defaults.

Field	What to enter	Notes
ID	A short name, e.g. `truenas-vms`	How Proxmox refers to the storage internally. Letters, numbers, and hyphens only. Cannot be changed later.
TrueNAS Host	IP address or hostname of your TrueNAS server	Example: `192.168.10.50` or `truenas.local`. Also used as the iSCSI portal address unless you set Portal IP separately.
API Key	Paste the API key you generated in step 2.4	Treated as a password — hidden by default. Click the eye icon to show it while pasting.
Pool / Dataset Path	The ZFS pool or dataset path where VM disks should be created	Use `tank` for the pool root, or `tank/proxmox/vdisks` for a specific dataset.
Use SSL	Leave checked (on)	Recommended. Turn off only if TrueNAS has no HTTPS configured.
Verify SSL Certificate	Leave unchecked	Turn on only if TrueNAS has a valid CA-signed certificate. Most homelab setups use self-signed certs — leave this off.
Shared	Leave checked (on)	Required for clusters. Tells Proxmox all nodes can access this storage.
Portal IP	Optional — leave blank	If your TrueNAS management interface and iSCSI data interface are on different IPs, put the iSCSI data IP here. Otherwise the TrueNAS Host IP is used for both.
Target IQN	Optional — leave blank	The plugin auto-discovers the portal and initiator group from existing iSCSI targets. Leave blank unless you want to force it to copy settings from a specific target.

Click Add. Proxmox contacts TrueNAS and confirms the pool is reachable. If it fails, check the error message — see section 6 for common causes.

4.1 Securing the API Token (Recommended for Production)

By default the API token is stored in /etc/pve/storage.cfg, which is replicated in plaintext across all cluster nodes via the PVE cluster filesystem. For production deployments, move the token into a private keyfile that only root can read and that is not replicated.

Run these commands on each Proxmox node after adding the storage:

# Replace 'truenas-vms' with your actual storage ID
STORAGEID="truenas-vms"
KEYFILE="/etc/pve/priv/truenas-${STORAGEID}.key"

# Write the token to the keyfile (replace the value with your actual token)
echo -n "your-api-token-here" > "$KEYFILE"
chmod 600 "$KEYFILE"

# Remove the token from storage.cfg now that the keyfile is in place
pvesm set "$STORAGEID" --truenas_api_key ""

The plugin automatically checks /etc/pve/priv/truenas-<storeid>.key at startup. If the file exists, it is used and truenas_api_key in storage.cfg is ignored.

Note: The keyfile must exist on every Proxmox node in your cluster. The /etc/pve/priv/ directory is not replicated via pmxcfs — copy the file to each node manually (use scp or your configuration management tool).

5. Creating Your First VM Disk on TrueNAS Storage

During VM Creation

In the Proxmox UI, click Create VM
On the Disks tab, change Storage from local-lvm to the storage ID you just created (e.g., truenas-vms)
Set the disk size
Complete the rest of the VM setup and click Finish

Proxmox will:

Create a ZFS volume (zvol) on TrueNAS sized to your request
Create an iSCSI extent pointing to that zvol
Create a dedicated iSCSI target named proxmox-vm-<vmid> on TrueNAS (e.g., proxmox-vm-100)
Map the extent to the target
Give QEMU an iscsi:// path to connect directly

When the VM starts, QEMU opens an iSCSI connection directly to TrueNAS — no kernel session management (iscsiadm) is involved.

Adding a Disk to an Existing VM

Select the VM in the left tree
Click Hardware
Click Add → Hard Disk
Set Storage to your TrueNAS storage
Set the disk size
Click Add

What You Will See on TrueNAS

After creating a VM disk, log into TrueNAS and check:

Datasets (SCALE) or Storage → Pools (CORE): a new zvol named vm-100-disk-0 (or similar) will appear under your configured pool/dataset
Shares → iSCSI → Targets: a target named proxmox-vm-100 will appear
Shares → iSCSI → Extents: an extent named vm-100-disk-0 will appear

When you delete the disk from Proxmox, all three are removed automatically. If the deleted disk was the last disk on that VM's target, the target is removed too.

6. Common First-Run Problems

Cause: Browser has cached the old Proxmox JavaScript.

Fix: Hard-refresh the browser: Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac). If it still does not appear, check that the package installed correctly:

ls /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Custom/TrueNAS.pm
ls /usr/share/pve-manager/js/truenas-storage.js

Both files should exist. If they are missing, re-run apt install truenas-proxmox. Also check whether pvedaemon and pveproxy restarted cleanly:

systemctl status pvedaemon pveproxy

6.2 Storage Shows as Unavailable or Add Dialog Returns an Error

Cause: The plugin cannot reach the TrueNAS API.

Check the logs first:

journalctl -u pvedaemon --since "10 minutes ago" | grep -i truenas

Common specific errors:

Log message	Fix
`TrueNAS API key is not configured`	API key field was left blank; edit the storage and paste the key
`401 Unauthorized`	API key is wrong, expired, or revoked; generate a new one in TrueNAS
`500 Internal Server Error` or connection refused	SSL mismatch — if TrueNAS uses a self-signed certificate and Use SSL is on, try toggling Verify SSL Certificate off. Or check that TrueNAS is reachable on HTTPS from the Proxmox node
`Pool dataset 'tank' not found`	The pool name you typed does not match what TrueNAS has; check under Storage → Pools in TrueNAS

Quick connectivity test from the Proxmox node shell:

# Replace 192.168.10.50 and your-api-key with real values
curl -sk -H "Authorization: Bearer your-api-key" \
  https://192.168.10.50/api/v2.0/iscsi/global | python3 -m json.tool

If this returns JSON with a basename field, the API is working. If it returns an HTML login page or a TLS error, you have a connectivity or SSL problem.

6.3 Disk Creation Fails with "No iSCSI Portals Found"

Cause: The plugin could not match the TrueNAS Host IP (or Portal IP) to any portal configured in TrueNAS iSCSI settings.

Fix: In TrueNAS, go to Shares → iSCSI → Portals and check what IP the portal is listening on. Either:

Set the portal to listen on 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces), or
In Proxmox, edit the storage and set Portal IP to the exact IP the TrueNAS portal is listening on

6.4 VM Starts but Disk Is Not Accessible / VM Won't Boot

Cause: The iSCSI data path is blocked. Even if the plugin successfully created the disk (API path), the VM's QEMU process must open a separate iSCSI TCP connection to TrueNAS.

Checks:

Confirm TrueNAS iSCSI service is running
From the Proxmox node, test TCP connectivity to the iSCSI port:
```
nc -zv 192.168.10.50 3260
```
Check that the initiator group in TrueNAS does not block the Proxmox node's IP
Check that the per-VM target in TrueNAS (proxmox-vm-<vmid>) has the extent associated with it under iSCSI → Target/Extent

6.5 API Key Stopped Working After Upgrading TrueNAS SCALE to 25.04

TrueNAS SCALE 25.04 may revoke API keys created under certain conditions during upgrade, and enforces HTTPS for API key authentication.

Fix:

Log into TrueNAS SCALE → Credentials → API Keys → generate a new key
In Proxmox: Datacenter → Storage → select your TrueNAS storage → Edit
Paste the new API key into the API Key field
Ensure Use SSL is checked

6.6 Disk Size Shown in TrueNAS Is Larger Than What I Entered in Proxmox

This is expected and not an error. Proxmox creates disks in GiB (base-2) but TrueNAS reports sizes in GB (base-10). An 80 GiB disk shows as approximately 85.90 GB in TrueNAS. The disk inside your VM is exactly what you asked for.

6.7 TPM State Disk Fails to Create on TrueNAS Storage

TPM state (tpmstate0) is a known limitation — this storage type cannot hold TPM state disks. When creating a VM with TPM/Secure Boot, configure a different storage (such as local-lvm or NFS) for the tpmstate0 disk. All other disk types work normally.

7. Uninstalling

Before uninstalling, remove any storage configurations that use this plugin from Proxmox, and migrate any VM disks off TrueNAS storage. Uninstalling while VMs are still using TrueNAS disks will not delete your data, but Proxmox will lose track of those disks.

Step 1 — Remove Storage Configurations

In the Proxmox UI: Datacenter → Storage → select each TrueNAS storage entry → Remove.

Step 2 — Uninstall the Package

apt remove truenas-proxmox

The removal script:

Deletes /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Custom/TrueNAS.pm
Deletes /usr/share/pve-manager/js/truenas-storage.js
Removes the <script> tag from /usr/share/pve-manager/index.html.tpl
Restarts pvedaemon and pveproxy

To also remove install logs:

apt purge truenas-proxmox

Step 3 — Refresh Your Browser

Hard-refresh the browser after uninstalling. The TrueNAS option will disappear from the Add Storage dropdown.

Getting Help

GitHub Issues: https://github.com/TheGrandWazoo/truenas-proxmox/issues
When reporting a bug, include log lines from journalctl -u pvedaemon | grep -i truenas and the output of pveversion

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