Backups, Plex, ownCloud, and future VM's

[NAScent]

This is my first home NAS build and I was looking to do it on the cheap, but not stupid. It will be used for backing up our home systems and Plex streaming, I've been wanting a place for high quality rips of our Blu-ray and DVDs for quite awhile. I plan to install ownCloud next and possibly run some VM's down the road. Capacity wise 8TB of usable storage would should suffice, but I've found a good deal on some 3TB drives and was looking at 6 in a RAIDZ2 config for 12TB.

Here's what I'm looking at:

• HPE ProLiant ML10 Gen9 Server - i3-6100 - Model 866965-S01
• HPE 805671-B21 Compatible RAM from DMS DM618591 16GB DDR4-2133 2048x72 CL15 1.2v 288 Pin ECC UDIMM (x1)
• SanDisk Ultra Fix 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drave SDCZ43-016G-G46 (x2) - Boot Device
• HGST Deskstar 5K300 HDS5C3030ALA630 (0F12446) (x6) - RAIDZ2 Pool

I've provided the Amazon link for the drives, but they are supposed to be new and are available elsewhere from goHardDrive. These are one of the drives BackBlaze rates highly as having a very low failure rate in their 2016 and 2017 stats.

The total price is a touch under $800 and I figure I can add more RAM later if needed for VM's or other things.

Any input is appreciated. Like I said, I'm looking for relatively inexpensive, but nothing stupid. I'd hoped to get the price down in the range of Brian Moses' DIY NAS: EconoNAS 2016, but some components have gone up in price. I really didn't want a Celery driving the thing and for an extra $70 I was able to increase storage by 50% opting for the 3TB drives.

While I've run ZFS at work before, I've never built my own NAS. I'm interested to know if everything looks reasonable, what if anything needs to be changed, whether I can do better at about the same price or if it is too good to be true.

 

[diedrichg]

Capacity wise 8TB of usable storage would should suffice, but I've found a good deal on some 3TB drives and was looking at 6 in a RAIDZ2 config for 12TB.

Usable space = 8.59TiB

https://jsfiddle.net/Biduleohm/hfqdpbLm/10/embedded/result/

 

[tvsjr]

goHardDrive has had some challenges. Search the forums for one such tale.

I'd consider a single, small, real SSD for a boot drive versus two USB sticks. Much more reliable.

 

[danb35]

available elsewhere from goHardDrive.

I haven't had good results with goHardDrive. Others' mileage (@Sakura, mabye?) differs.

 

[NAScent]

Usable space = 8.59TiB

https://jsfiddle.net/Biduleohm/hfqdpbLm/10/embedded/result/

Thanks for the reminder about the 20% freespace, it's been awhile since I ran ZFS. Even at 8.59TiB I should be good, but 2TB drives would have been a mistake for me. I've had too much experience RAID systems losing two drives at a time to risk running RAIDZ1, which would have been necessary on 2TB drives to get the desired space.

I haven't had good results with goHardDrive. Others' mileage (@Sakura, mabye?) differs.

What a horror story. Thanks for the warning.

So, I guess I'm back to hunting drives.

 

[diedrichg]

So, I guess I'm back to hunting drives.

www.pcpartpicker.com

 

[tvsjr]

www.pcparticker.com

Try www.pcpartpicker.com
Them Ps are important :p

 

[diedrichg]

Agreed. Edited. Thanks.

 

[Jailer]

Looks like a great approach to a budget build system. Will the case hold 6 hard drives and cool them appropriately? Not a deal breaker and easily remedied with a new case but something to keep in mind.

 

[jgreco]

RAIDZ2 is great for ISO's but will be miserable if you're using it to store running virtual machines.

 

[NAScent]

www.pcpartpicker.com

Great minds think alike. I'm currently considering 6 Toshiba DT01ACA300's which are (or used to be) 3TB Hitachi HDA723030BLE640's underneath. Haven't quite decided I want to go that way. I know BackBlaze only had a few of the Toshiba drives, but they had better luck with them and various Hitachi HDA...BLE... drives than WD Reds over the long run. I'm kind of surprised by their WD Red failure rates.

Will the case hold 6 hard drives and cool them appropriately? Not a deal breaker and easily remedied with a new case but something to keep in mind.

The case has 2 5" bays up top, including the optical drive, which I'll remove. Underneath there is a cage that holds 4 3.5" drives vertically standing on edge. So you could probably put 7 3.5" drives in it with a bay converter, but the MB only has 6 SATA ports. I agree, if cooling is an issue, a case or fan upgrade should help.

RAIDZ2 is great for ISO's but will be miserable if you're using it to store running virtual machines.

Again, thanks for the heads up. After reading some of your other posts on the subject, it sounds like triple-mirror vdevs are recommended for VM workloads based upon the random-access nature introducing fragmentation over time. My first thought was, "but what if I preallocate space". *snort* Then I realized given ZFS's COW nature that wouldn't matter.

I am only thinking of running a few small VM's on occassion. In most cases they would be transient for testing purposes. I can only think of one I would like to keep around persistently. Would you expect this to cause issues over the long run using RAIDZ? Also, if I have a persistent one should manual snapshots be preferred over automatic?

Seriously guys, thanks for all the great input so far.

 

[jgreco]

If you don't care about performance or space waste too much, RAIDZ is OK for light VM duty. Don't get the idea that you can't do it at all, that's just as wrong, you just have to set expectations reasonably. If you were running a DHCP server VM, minimal disk I/O, yeah, you might never even notice. If you don't mind going away for an hour and having dinner while the system grinds away doing the initial OS install, you're safely in the realm of "that could work out for you." It's all relative.