IT Glossary
The most important technical terms from the world of virtualisation, storage and IT security.
CARP
Common Address Redundancy Protocol. Enables high availability for firewalls through automatic failover. CARP is used in OPNsense for firewall clustering.
OPNsense FirewallCeph
Distributed software-defined storage system. Ceph is used in Proxmox VE as hyper-converged storage for HA clusters and provides replication across multiple nodes.
Proxmox VirtualisationDeduplication
Technique to avoid redundant data storage. Identical data blocks are stored only once. Proxmox Backup Server uses deduplication for efficient backups.
Proxmox Backup ServerDisaster Recovery
Measures and processes for restoring IT systems after an outage. Includes backup strategies, replication and failover concepts.
Proxmox Backup ServerFirewall
Security system that filters network traffic and blocks unauthorised access. OPNsense is one of the leading open-source firewalls.
OPNsense FirewallHA (High Availability)
System architecture with minimal downtime through redundant components. Proxmox VE supports HA clusters with automatic VM failover.
Proxmox VirtualisationHardenedBSD
Security-optimised fork of FreeBSD with additional security features such as ASLR and CFI. Forms the basis of OPNsense for maximum firewall security.
OPNsense vs. pfSenseHypervisor
Software for creating and managing virtual machines. KVM is the hypervisor in Proxmox VE. There are Type-1 hypervisors (directly on hardware) and Type-2 (on an OS).
Proxmox VirtualisationIDS/IPS
Intrusion Detection/Prevention System. Detects (IDS) and blocks (IPS) network attacks in real time. OPNsense uses Suricata as its IDS/IPS engine.
OPNsense FirewallIPSec
Internet Protocol Security. Protocol suite for secure communication over IP networks, commonly used for site-to-site VPN tunnels between locations.
VPN SolutionsiSCSI
Internet Small Computer Systems Interface. Protocol for connecting storage systems over TCP/IP networks. TrueNAS provides iSCSI targets for Proxmox VE.
TrueNAS StorageKVM
Kernel-based Virtual Machine. Hypervisor integrated into the Linux kernel for full virtualisation. KVM is the foundation of Proxmox VE.
Proxmox VirtualisationLive Migration
Moving a running virtual machine between physical hosts without downtime. Requires shared storage (e.g. TrueNAS via NFS/iSCSI) or Ceph.
Proxmox VirtualisationLXC
Linux Containers. Lightweight OS-level virtualisation with minimal overhead. Ideal for microservices and Linux-based services in Proxmox VE.
Proxmox VirtualisationNFS
Network File System. Network file system protocol for accessing files over a network. TrueNAS provides NFS shares as shared storage for Proxmox.
TrueNAS StorageNVMe
Non-Volatile Memory Express. Interface protocol for flash storage with the highest speeds. The TrueNAS F-Series is entirely based on NVMe.
TrueNAS F-SeriesOpenVPN
Open-source VPN solution for secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections. Integrated in OPNsense for secure site-to-site connectivity.
VPN SolutionsOpenZFS
Open-source file system with integrated volume management, snapshots, compression and self-healing. Forms the foundation of TrueNAS.
TrueNAS StorageOPNsense
Open-source firewall and routing platform based on HardenedBSD. Offers VPN, IDS/IPS, traffic shaping and high availability. Fork of pfSense/m0n0wall.
OPNsense FirewallpfSense
Open-source firewall based on FreeBSD. OPNsense is a more modern fork with more frequent updates and a better plugin architecture.
OPNsense vs. pfSenseProxmox VE
Open-source virtualisation platform with KVM hypervisor and LXC container support. The leading alternative to VMware vSphere.
Proxmox VirtualisationProxmox PBS
Proxmox Backup Server. Enterprise backup solution with deduplication, encryption and incremental backups for VMs and containers.
Proxmox Backup ServerRAID
Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Technique for combining multiple hard drives for performance and/or redundancy. ZFS offers software RAID (RAIDZ) without a hardware controller.
S3
Simple Storage Service. Object storage protocol compatible with the Amazon S3 API. TrueNAS SCALE supports S3-compatible object storage.
TrueNAS StorageSMB
Server Message Block. Network protocol for file and printer sharing, primarily in Windows environments. TrueNAS offers high-performance SMB shares.
Snapshot
Point-in-time capture of the system state. Enables fast recovery. ZFS snapshots are nearly instantaneous and cost-free.
TrueNAS StorageSuricata
Open-source IDS/IPS engine for network security monitoring. Integrated in OPNsense for detecting and blocking network attacks.
OPNsense FirewallTrueNAS
Enterprise storage platform based on OpenZFS. Available as CORE (FreeBSD), SCALE (Linux) and as hardware appliance (Mini, R, H, M, F-Series).
TrueNAS StorageVLAN
Virtual Local Area Network. Logical segmentation of a physical network for security and organisation. Configured via managed switches and firewalls.
Network EngineeringVMware
Commercial hypervisor vendor (vSphere/ESXi). Following the Broadcom acquisition, many businesses are migrating to Proxmox VE as an open-source alternative.
Proxmox vs. VMwareVPN
Virtual Private Network. Encrypted connection over public networks for secure remote access and site-to-site connectivity. OPNsense supports OpenVPN, WireGuard and IPSec.
VPN SolutionsWireGuard
Modern, lean VPN protocol with excellent performance and simple configuration. Available in OPNsense as an alternative to OpenVPN and IPSec.
VPN SolutionsZFS
Zettabyte File System. Enterprise file system with checksums, self-healing, snapshots, compression and replication. The foundation of TrueNAS and Proxmox PBS.
TrueNAS Storage