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truenas-truecloud-patch

Extends TrueNAS SCALE's TrueCloud Backup feature to work with S3-compatible providers and native Backblaze B2, instead of Storj only.

Why this exists

In 2026, Storj raised the price of their TrueNAS-integrated storage tier from $5/month to $50/month — a 10× increase. For many home lab and small-office users, the TrueCloud Backup feature became unaffordable overnight.

TrueCloud Backup is the only native TrueNAS mechanism that provides:

  • Integrated ZFS snapshot support before each backup
  • Restic-based incremental deduplication
  • Scheduled tasks with progress and log tracking in the UI
  • Dataset lock integration

Running restic manually is possible but loses all of the above. This patch restores access to the TrueCloud Backup feature for users who need a provider other than Storj, with storage they already pay for or that costs a fraction of the new Storj price.

⚠ Disclaimer — please read before installing

This project is unofficial, unsupported, and not affiliated with iXsystems or the TrueNAS project in any way.

By installing this patch you accept the following:

  • Unsupported configuration. TrueNAS support staff are not obligated to help with any issue on a system running this patch. If you file a bug report, remove the patch first and reproduce the issue on an unmodified system.

  • May break on TrueNAS updates. The patch targets internal middleware APIs that are not part of any public contract. They can change at any time. When they do, the patch silently degrades to Storj-only behaviour rather than breaking TrueNAS — but you should check the log after each update.

  • Your backups are your responsibility. Verify that your backup jobs complete successfully and that restores work before relying on them for disaster recovery.

  • No warranty. This software is provided as-is. See the LICENSE file.

If TrueNAS adds native B2 or S3 support to TrueCloud Backup, the patch detects it at boot, disables itself, and tells you to run uninstall.sh — see Native support below.

What is actually patched

Nothing in TrueNAS's persistent database or configuration is modified. On every boot, patch/apply.sh runs as a PREINIT script before middlewared starts. It mounts a writable overlayfs over the relevant directories in /usr/ (upper layer in /run tmpfs), then patches b2.py and restic.py inside that overlay. The overlay is volatile — it exists only for the current boot — but the PREINIT script recreates it automatically on every subsequent boot. Nothing in /usr/ is written to directly.

Layer What changes Technique
Backend B2RcloneRemote gains get_restic_config() — skipped automatically if TrueNAS already provides one on the class. restic.py URL builder is fixed: strips the stray leading slash and converts the slash separator to a colon (b2:bucket:path), which is the format restic 0.16.x expects. URL wrapper is a no-op if the URL is already correctly formed. File patch applied inside the overlayfs upper layer
UI The Angular bundle's filterByProviders binding is widened from ["STORJ_IX"] to ["STORJ_IX","S3","B2"] In-place text replacement in the compiled JS chunk; original is backed up before patching

Both changes are fail-safe: if a patch cannot be applied (e.g. TrueNAS restructured the relevant code), middlewared starts normally with Storj-only support and the reason is logged to apply.log in your repo root.

Supported providers after patching

Provider Credential type in TrueNAS
Backblaze B2 (native B2 API) B2
AWS S3, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, MinIO, and any S3-compatible endpoint S3
Storj (unchanged) STORJ_IX

How persistence works

TrueNAS SCALE updates replace /usr/ entirely. The patch survives by keeping this repository on a persistent ZFS pool (your data pool, not /tmp or a system path) and registering a PREINIT initshutdownscript in the TrueNAS database. On every boot, patch/apply.sh runs before middlewared starts. It mounts a writable overlayfs over the relevant directories (upper layer in /run, recreated each boot), then patches b2.py and restic.py directly in that overlay and re-patches the UI bundle. No extra configuration is needed.

Install

Clone the repository to a persistent ZFS pool so it survives OS updates, then run install.sh from there:

# Replace /mnt/tank with your pool name
git clone https://github.com/sudolulo/truenas-truecloud-patch.git \
    /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch
cd /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch
bash install.sh

The directory you clone into becomes the permanent install location. The PREINIT boot hook is registered with the exact path you chose, and TrueNAS will call that path on every boot.

Do not delete or move the repository after install. If you need to relocate it, run bash uninstall.sh first, move the directory, then run bash install.sh again from the new location. Deleting the repo without uninstalling leaves a dangling PREINIT hook in the TrueNAS database — if that happens, see Emergency recovery below.

Refresh your browser. S3 and B2 credentials now appear in the Data Protection → TrueCloud Backup → Add credential dropdown.

Updating

To update to a new version of the patch:

cd /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch

# If install.sh was previously run as root, the .git directory may be owned
# by root. Fix it first, or just pull as root:
sudo git pull          # easiest option
# — or —
sudo chown -R $(whoami) .git && git pull

bash install.sh

install.sh clears any stale kill switch, re-applies the updated patches, and restarts middlewared. Run python3 patch/create_task.py verify afterwards to confirm the patches loaded successfully.

Check CHANGELOG.md to see what changed between versions.

Creating a task via CLI

If the UI still shows only Storj after refreshing (e.g. the JS bundle pattern changed in a new TrueNAS version), create tasks directly via the REST API:

# Replace /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch with your clone path

# List your cloud credentials to find the right ID
python3 /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/patch/create_task.py \
    --host 192.168.1.1 --api-key <key> list-credentials

# Create a task with a B2 credential (id=3)
python3 /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/patch/create_task.py \
    --host 192.168.1.1 --api-key <key> create \
    --name "tank-to-b2" \
    --path /mnt/tank/data \
    --credential 3 \
    --bucket my-bucket \
    --folder backups/tank \
    --password "restic-repo-password" \
    --keep-last 14

Get an API key from System → API Keys → Add.

Uninstall

bash /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/uninstall.sh

Replace the path with your clone location. Removes the PREINIT hook, unmounts the overlay (restoring the original backend files immediately), and restores the original UI bundle from backup.

If TrueNAS adds native support

apply.sh checks at every boot whether TrueNAS has shipped native B2 restic support (by inspecting B2RcloneRemote.__dict__). If it has:

  1. The kill switch (disabled file) is set — no patching on any future boot.
  2. Any active overlays are unmounted immediately.
  3. The following message is written to apply.log:
NOTICE: TrueNAS now provides native B2 restic support — truecloud-patch is no longer needed.
NOTICE: Setting kill switch; patching will be skipped on all future boots.
NOTICE: Run the following to fully remove the patch:
NOTICE:   bash /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/uninstall.sh

Check the log after any TrueNAS update:

cat /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/apply.log | tail -20

Scenarios where the auto-detect may not fire (manual check needed):

Scenario What happens Action
B2 support added to a base class (not B2RcloneRemote directly) __dict__ check misses it; our method shadows native Uninstall manually
B2 credential schema changed (e.g. provider["account"] renamed) KeyError on first backup Uninstall or update the patch
URL builder fixed but B2 class unchanged URL wrapper becomes a no-op; no harm, but patch is dead weight Uninstall at your convenience

After a TrueNAS update

  1. Check the log: cat /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/apply.log | tail -30
  2. If you see "WARNING: … pattern not found", the UI patch needs updating. Open an issue with your TrueNAS version number.
  3. The backend patch (B2 support + URL fix) is more stable — check that a B2 backup job still completes successfully after any update.

Emergency recovery

middlewared won't start

Run this from the TrueNAS shell (local console, SSH, or the debug shell in the UI):

bash /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/recover.sh

Replace the path with your clone location. This creates a kill-switch file (disabled) in the repo root, unmounts the overlay so the original files are visible immediately, then restarts middlewared. No reboot required.

If you cannot run a script and only have a bare shell prompt:

touch /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/disabled
systemctl restart middlewared

If you don't remember where you cloned the repo (midclt won't work while middlewared is down), find the path two ways:

# Option 1 — search the filesystem:
find /mnt -name "recover.sh" -path "*/truenas-truecloud-patch/*" 2>/dev/null

# Option 2 — query the TrueNAS database directly:
sqlite3 /data/freenas-v1.db \
    "SELECT script FROM initshutdownscript WHERE comment = 'TrueCloud provider patch (S3/B2)';"

The script column shows the full path to patch/apply.sh; your clone root is one level up (strip /patch/apply.sh from the end). Then run the touch command above with that path.

If middlewared still won't start after the kill switch is set, the problem is unrelated to this patch. Check:

journalctl -u middlewared -n 50

To re-enable the patch once you have investigated:

rm /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/disabled
bash /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/patch/apply.sh

Web UI is blank or broken

If the TrueNAS web interface loads blank or shows JavaScript errors, the Angular bundle may have been interrupted mid-write (e.g. power cut during boot). The original bundle is always backed up before patching, so recovery is straightforward:

# Find the backup (the path varies by TrueNAS version):
find /usr/share/truenas /usr/share/truenas-ui /var/www/truenas -name "*.js.pre-truecloud-patch" 2>/dev/null

# Restore it — substitute the actual path from the find output:
mv /usr/share/truenas/webui/main.XXXXXXXX.js.pre-truecloud-patch \
   /usr/share/truenas/webui/main.XXXXXXXX.js

Refresh your browser. The UI will return to normal (Storj-only until the patch re-runs at next reboot, or you run bash /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/patch/apply.sh manually).

Backend verify shows FAIL

python3 /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/patch/create_task.py verify

If one or more entries show [FAIL]:

  1. Check the apply log for errors during the last boot: 
    cat /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/apply.log | tail -40
  2. Check middlewared's own log for Python tracebacks: 
    grep -i "truecloud\|traceback\|error" /var/log/middlewared.log 2>/dev/null | tail -30
journalctl -u middlewared -n 50
  3. A FAIL is non-fatal. middlewared runs normally; the affected provider falls back to Storj-only. Your existing backups are not at risk.
  4. If the detail says the module doesn't exist, a TrueNAS update renamed or restructured the internal API. Open an issue with your TrueNAS version number and the full verify output.

Troubleshooting

Apply log (check after each reboot or install):

cat /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/apply.log

Verify backend patch is loaded (while middlewared is running):

python3 /mnt/tank/truenas-truecloud-patch/patch/create_task.py verify

Reads hook_status.json written by apply.sh at boot. Reflects whether the overlay patches to b2.py and restic.py were applied successfully. Does not require --host or --api-key.

Middlewared log:

grep truecloud-patch /var/log/middlewared.log 2>/dev/null | tail -20
journalctl -u middlewared -n 100 2>/dev/null | grep truecloud-patch

Verify the UI patch (should print your TrueNAS version):

grep -c 'STORJ_IX.*S3.*B2' \
    $(find /usr/share/truenas -name '*.js' 2>/dev/null) 2>/dev/null \
    | grep -v ':0'

create_task.py SSL error connecting to TrueNAS create_task.py talks to the TrueNAS API, not your S3 endpoint, and verifies its TLS certificate. If your NAS uses a self-signed certificate, pass --insecure — but be aware this disables certificate verification for the API call that transmits your TrueNAS API key. Adding your NAS certificate to your system's trust store is safer.

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