How to free up space for boot drive on TrueNAS

If TrueNAS is running low on storage space inside the boot drive, you can use these instructions to free up space quickly.

TrueNAS free up space

On TrueNAS, you can delete previous setups of the operating system to free up space in the boot drive, and in this guide, you will learn how.

When it’s time to update TrueNAS, the installation process makes changes to the current installation. Instead, the system creates a separate setup known as the “boot environment” and transfers the settings to the new installation. The benefit of this approach is that it makes it simple to roll back to a previous setup quickly and more efficiently after an update. The downside is that if the server doesn’t have enough space on the system drive, you may encounter problems upgrading to a new version.

If your server is running low on space for the boot drive, TrueNAS includes an option to delete those boot environments that are no longer needed to free up space.

This guide will teach you the steps to free up space on TrueNAS Core.

Free up space on TrueNAS boot drive

To free up space on the boot drive of TrueNAS Core, use these steps:

  1. Open TrueNAS (web).

  2. Click on System from the left pane.

  3. Click on Boot.

  4. Under the “Boot Environments” section, check the previous installation setups to remove.

    TrueNAS free up space

  5. Click the Delete button.

  6. Check the Confirm option.

  7. Click the Delete button again.

Once you complete the steps, the system will delete the environments containing the previous installation of the operating system to free up space on TrueNAS. You may need to repeat the steps to delete additional setups to free up extra space.

It’s important to note that you may find multiple setups that you can delete. The “default” is the original installation, and every installation after that will carry the version as the name.