TrueNAS Server for IZI Boot: Connection, Migration and Switchover

TrueNAS Server for IZI Boot

IZI Boot keeps the reference image of the game disk on the club’s TrueNAS server and serves each PC its own copy over the network (iSCSI). This page covers what IZI Boot does on the server, what to enter when connecting, how to switch from another system without losing games, and what gets removed along the way. The step-by-step wizard is in How to Configure IZI Boot and the Disk Image; supported versions are in TrueNAS Versions for IZI Boot.

What IZI Boot Does on the Server

• The reference is a separate volume on the TrueNAS pool. Each PC gets its own clone of it, which only takes space for that PC’s changes.
• One iSCSI target per PC. Only that PC can connect to it — by the initiator name iqn.2016-06.is.izi:<PC id>. Another PC will not see its disk.
• A shared portal 0.0.0.0:3260. All IZI Boot targets are served through it. IZI Boot turns the iSCSI service on by itself.
• Drive letter. On the PC the game volume is attached to the letter you chose during setup. The system drive C: stays local.

Connecting: What to Enter

Field	What to enter
Address and port	The address the IZI cloud uses to reach the TrueNAS API: an external IP or a hostname with a port forward.
API token	Created in TrueNAS. Hidden after saving.
Web UI username and password	Required on first connection, checked on the server itself. This is the access IZI support uses in an emergency and to upgrade TrueNAS.
Drive letter	The game drive letter on the PCs, any except C:. IZI checks on save that it is free on every PC.
Pool	Can be left empty if the server has a single pool.
Donor volume size	1–10,240 GiB, with headroom for a growing game library.
Auto-update schedule	Required. Defaults to “Always”.
Alert channel	A Telegram integration for server health notifications.

Detected automatically, not entered: the protocol (HTTP or HTTPS), the server’s LAN addresses the PCs connect disks to, and the TrueNAS version.

Migrating from a Previous System on the Same Server

If another network boot system already runs on the TrueNAS, the setup wizard offers to take one of its disks as the reference.

• Games are kept if you choose the previous system’s main disk. Per-PC disks are clones of the main one, and the wizard marks them separately. A clone as the reference would capture one PC’s “dirty” state.
• No copy — instant, needs no extra space.
• Full copy — needs free pool space at least the size of the disk. Large disks may take several hours.

What gets removed after the migration

Once the reference exists, IZI Boot removes everything from the previous system that nobody is connected to:

• iSCSI targets, LUNs, initiator groups and portals of the previous system without active sessions;
• every volume (zvol) without an active session that is not part of the reference chain: the previous system’s per-PC disks and other images;
• non-standard portals are re-bound to the shared 0.0.0.0:3260.

Regular file datasets are not touched. The previous system’s source disk also disappears after the migration — the data lives in the IZI Boot reference. Before connecting, take a snapshot or a copy of everything you need to keep.

If the server is behind Cloudflare Access and the club’s own system runs on it, IZI Boot removes nothing and does not take a foreign disk as the reference.

Switchover Step by Step

1. A window with no players. During the switch the PCs stop seeing the previous disks.
2. The CRM wizard: connection → check → mode → source → reference → PC selection → installation. Details in How to Configure IZI Boot and the Disk Image.
3. First start on each PC. The IZI client sets the PC’s initiator name and attaches the game volume to the chosen letter.
4. Check. The last wizard step shows how many PCs are already connected out of the total. PCs that are off or busy connect on their own once free.

Related

• TrueNAS Versions for IZI Boot and How to Upgrade
• How to Configure IZI Boot and the Disk Image
• IZI Boot
• Contact Support