Planning first build, asking for feedback

[Stromkompressor]

Hi!

I am planning my first NAS build. I have read some guides regarding hardware choice.
I want to run TrueNAS Scale as a home media center to store pictures and videos. Currently I store all files (1 TB total) on an SSD which is also the boot drive of a Windows PC. I do backups with Duplicati to Backblaze, another SSD and another HDD. The SSD is at a friend's house. I want to move to Kopia but that's another topic.

The amount of files is slowly growing and I want to move to a NAS. Currently I am at 1TB, but I guess I will at 2 TB in 5 years. Currently the files are mostly "write-only", which means I rarely every open them. But still they have extremely great value for me (that's why I do backups).

I have a draft what hardware to get. I want to get your feeback on this. I mostly try to buy used components. It might happen that one component will not be available anymore in a few days because it might already be sold. This is just a rough plan for now:

Case: New Fractal Design Node 804
Motherboard: Used Supermicro X10SLM-F
CPU: Used Intel Xeon E3-1225 v3
RAM: Used 2x8gb ddr3 pc3-12800E with ECC
PSU: New Corsair RM550x
OS SSD: New Intenso High Performance SATA III 120 GB
HDDs: ? ~16 TB, could be even less right now. The data is not to be expected to grow rapidly.
SLOG: ?

This build seems overkill for my use case, I guess, but still it should be not the most shitty build.

Regarding HDD: Either "shuckable" WD Elements 8 TB or WD Red 8 TB? I could get along with 4x 2 TB. I would like to use RAID-Z2, that's why 4 drives a required but actually I don't need that much space.

Regarding SLOG: IIUC I want sync writes to be activated to prevent data loss. Without a SLOG the writes are limited by the HDDs. With a SLOG the writes are faster if the SLOG is faster than the HDDs. If the write-speed is not unbearably slow I guess I can live without a SLOG, right? I read that you should rather use the money to buy more RAM instead of a SLOG? Would that even improve write-speeds since sync-write is enabled?

Any feedback is appreciated. I will check the compatibility of the components later. I just want to get a rough overview.

 

[sretalla]

With a SLOG the writes are faster if the SLOG is faster than the HDDs.

Not really. The best you should expect is that the sync writes might be at a speed close to async writes for the same setup, but never faster, since ZFS will slow down the writes to the pool/SLOG if the pool can't take them within the 5 seconds allocated.

If the write-speed is not unbearably slow I guess I can live without a SLOG, right?

Always an option... but also:

IIUC I want sync writes to be activated to prevent data loss.

You might want to challenge what you mean when you're deciding that...

5 seconds of data loss... important or no? If you can afford that data loss or deal with the potential corruption of a VM (which you really shouldn't run on a RAIDZ type pool anyway... https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/the-path-to-success-for-block-storage.197/), then you can just run with async and not have any concern about a performance penalty.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Currently the files are mostly "write-only", which means I rarely every open them. But still they have extremely great value for me (that's why I do backups).
[..]
Without a SLOG the writes are limited by the HDDs. With a SLOG the writes are faster if the SLOG is faster than the HDDs. If the write-speed is not unbearably slow I guess I can live without a SLOG, right?

Overall, I would think that you don't need an SLOG device. To achieve high reliability with SLOG you need to use a suitable device, or rather a mirror. Plus you have a higher system complexity, which tends to lower reliability in general.

Without more information about your quantitative requirements, a final verdict is difficult. But experience tells that starting with an SLOG device should be fine. If you are interested in more details, here they are

Some insights into SLOG/ZIL with ZFS on FreeNAS

What is the ZIL? POSIX provides a facility for the system or an application to make sure that data requested to be written is actually committed to stable storage: a synchronous write request. Upon completion of a sync write request, the underlying filesystem is supposed to guarantee that a...

www.truenas.com

 

[Stromkompressor]

Ok, I guess I'll go without a SLOG for now. I have to test after the setup how slow sync writes are. I would tolerate a lot I think.

What about the other components in general? Just to get a rough overview if it's reasonable.

 

[sretalla]

I would continue to challenge if you even need sync writes, but indeed, do your testing.

 

[sretalla]

What about the other components in general? Just to get a rough overview if it's reasonable.

Seems like it's all OK, the supermicro board is a good choice (although ddr3 was surprising to me to see on a generation 10 board... I thought those were ddr4... but I see I'm wrong when I look on their site).

 

[ChrisRJ]

I concur with @sretalla .

Reason: In addition to the use-case described, there is simply the default settings chosen by the engineers who worked and work on ZFS and TrueNAS. One way to read/interpret those settings is the following: For access where a "write inconsistency" may damage only a single file, and that only in a worst case scenario, the speed advantages of async writes outweigh that risk (for SMB). Where, in contrast, the potential impact is not only on a single file but an entire virtual machine, things are different and therefore sync warranted (for iSCSI and NFS).

That is somewhat simplified and maps SMB (ignoring that Macs use sync writes) to interactive work with single files, and iSCSI and NFS to virtualization. Of course other combinations are possible, but to my knowledge those are the typical ones.

I like to think that the aforementioned defaults were chosen after careful deliberation and a lot of testing.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

@Stromkompressor : Is the investment in time and understanding something you have to invest? iXsystems has pre-built, solid solutions which can save a lot of time in understanding this for a home storage server (plus minimize the risk of a misconfigured ZFS situation that results in complete data loss). Synology also makes good systems, I have two at work and they're very solid and stable, though TrueNAS CORE is a step beyond depending on your goals. Synology is a rather closed system, TrueNAS is comparatively open, so which is better is a question of fitment to your needs.

I'm running TrueNAS SCALE, and it's great, however hardware burn-in, learning S.M.A.R.T.--which is no walk in the park, hardware compatibility, stability, etc. is taking longer than expected--though I do this for a living so the company I work for pays me to do this so there's that, but otherwise I'd either run SCALE or buy iXsystems servers (which is probably going to happen in the future). I like the Synology boxes, but TrueNAS is cleaner and I prefer how open they are (it makes my job easier, and simplicity leads to reliability).

At home I'm running Linux and LVM, which is great, though honestly I'll probably switch that to a TrueNAS SCALE system also because that's what I'm migrating to at work. I have gained a lot of understanding though the migration to TrueNAS, which again is beneficial in my line of work, so if that's a good path for your future by all means, this is a great way to level-up.

 

[Stromkompressor]

Is the investment in time and understanding something you have to invest? iXsystems has pre-built, solid solutions which can save a lot of time in understanding this for a home storage server (plus minimize the risk of a misconfigured ZFS situation that results in complete data loss). Synology also makes good systems, I have two at work and they're very solid and stable, though TrueNAS CORE is a step beyond depending on your goals. Synology is a rather closed system, TrueNAS is comparatively open, so which is better is a question of fitment to your needs.

I am eager to learn and purposefully choose TrueNAS over Synology. At home, I already try to use as few closed systems as possible.
The pre-built systems are 300 € in shipping to Germany. I guess I save those 300 € right now and buy some more RAM or whatever later.

To get all settings right and not do stupid stuff in the future (e.g. I read about how to correctly grow your storage), I will read as much information as possible.

I guess I'll buy all the components soon then :) Thanks guys

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

I am eager to learn and purposefully choose TrueNAS over Synology. At home, I already try to use as few closed systems as possible.
The pre-built systems are 300 € in shipping to Germany. I guess I save those 300 € right now and buy some more RAM or whatever later.

To get all settings right and not do stupid stuff in the future (e.g. I read about how to correctly grow your storage), I will read as much information as possible.

I guess I'll buy all the components soon then :) Thanks guys

Awesome! Welcome to the TrueNAS Community!