Build Advice

[tronbo]

Hello all,

I’ve got a build I’m about to undergo and I wanted a little bit of advice first. I have most of the parts on the way with the exception of 4 missing drives (still trying to find a good deal on them).

NAS Build specs:

Case: Silverstone SST-DS380
Mobo: Asrock Rack X570D4I-2T
RAM: 32GB DDR4 non-ecc (if the community recommends it, I can go up to 64GB)
HDD: starting with six 8TB seagate ironwolf NAS drives
SSD: Samsung 1TB NVME for proxmox installation

If it’s important to know, I have a full 1GB/s Ubiquiti network setup in my apartment with 1GB down and 400MB up from my ISP.

Questions:

1. I prefer using proxmox as my hypervisor, but Truenas as my storage interface. Is it ok to virtualize Truenas? I set up PCIE passthrough on my compute build, so I am comfortable in the terminal if I have to modify anything in Proxmox to get Truenas to work well. I can also get more ram and assign it to the Truenas VM.
2. If I start with six 8TB drives, will ZFS allow me to expand easily in the future (i.e. add two more 8TB drives?). Do the drives need to be the same size?
3. Any other recommendations or reading material I should refer to? Obviously, I'd like achieve a good balance of performance/safety. This will be my first time setting up ZFS.
4. I think I'll be going with RaidZ2, but I'm open to anything.

I have a ‘compute’ proxmox server that runs all my VM’s, media containers, plex, etc... The purpose of this NAS server will be the following:

1. Time machine backups for up to 3 computers
2. Media storage for my Plex server (large blue ray files)
3. Private file servers for a few machines on the network (to share files between computers, might just use nextcloud eventually)

Thanks for your input!
Cheers,
Jon

 

[joeschmuck]

I prefer using proxmox as my hypervisor, but Truenas as my storage interface. Is it ok to virtualize Truenas?

Yes, however you must be disciplined in hardware configuration and maintaining your system properly. There are several threads her in the forums discussing visualizing FreeNAS/TrueNAS.

If I start with six 8TB drives, will ZFS allow me to expand easily in the future (i.e. add two more 8TB drives?).

No, not really, not the way I suspect you are thinking. Take a look at the resources and read more of the forums about adding storage capacity.

Media storage for my Plex server (large blue ray files)

You never mentioned the CPU you wanted to purchase. Go read the Plex forums and ensure you are buying a fast enough CPU (passmark score) for transcoding the media you are storing, and also keep in mind that the CPU must also run Proxmox and all your VM's.

You should also read the TrueNAS user guide, two times. The first acquaints you with it, the second allows you to pick up on the things that you might need to think about, such as adding more storage, RAM considerations. FYI, I run ESXi and FreeNAS on top of that and many other VMs, never had a problem with 64GB RAM, I would have installed more but the MB only accepts 64GB, and the CPU as well. I think you have a lot more reading to do before you purchase your new hardware. Really think about how much storage you need for TrueNAS and then double it. That should last you a few years. If you are planning to use iSCSI, double it again. Block storage runs well with 50% free capacity. Sounds wasteful but you need to design the system around the function you desire. If you are achieving the function then it's not a waste.

Good Luck and I hope you enjoy the reading.

 

[tronbo]

You never mentioned the CPU you wanted to purchase. Go read the Plex forums and ensure you are buying a fast enough CPU (passmark score) for transcoding the media you are storing, and also keep in mind that the CPU must also run Proxmox and all your VM's.

Hello! First off, thank you for your detailed reply!

All the heavy lifting is handled in my compute server. It has a AMD Ryzen 7 3700x with a dedicated nvidia P2000 card for the Plex VM. I spent a good month planning that build and its running quite well so far! I'll be putting the same CPU in the NAS build. To be safe, I'll put 64GB of ram in it as well. Putting eight 8TB drives in a RAIDZ2 puts me at 48TB, more than enough for now. I would love to put more in, but I do have a budget :-(

Thanks again for the information. I'm going to read the user guide now.

Cheers

 

[joeschmuck]

All the heavy lifting is handled in my compute server. It has a AMD Ryzen 7 3700x with a dedicated nvidia P2000 card for the Plex VM

I'm not sure what you mean by your "compute server", maybe you are saying that you have a seperate server to run Plex on. If you are running Plex VM on TrueNAS, I think you won't be using a video card to help much here. If you are running Plex in a VM on Proxmox and some other OS, maybe just fine.

 

[tronbo]

I'm not sure what you mean by your "compute server", maybe you are saying that you have a seperate server to run Plex on. If you are running Plex VM on TrueNAS, I think you won't be using a video card to help much here. If you are running Plex in a VM on Proxmox and some other OS, maybe just fine.

Yep, I have a separate server where plex runs on. The plan, at the moment, is to have my NAS server hold all of my media, and then tell plex to use that NAS server as a 'library' to serve all content from. Right now, I am just trying to find good deals on Seagate Ironwolf drives. I live in France, and our prices aren't has great as they are in the US.

Happy New Year!

 

[joeschmuck]

Yep, I have a separate server where plex runs on. The plan, at the moment, is to have my NAS server hold all of my media, and then tell plex to use that NAS server as a 'library' to serve all content from.

Then you do not need a lot of computing power for the NAS since it's only being used as a file server.

RAM: 32GB DDR4 non-ecc (if the community recommends it, I can go up to 64GB)

32GB RAM is fine but you will find out that the community recommends ECC RAM. But if the data being stored is not critical to you then non-ecc will do the job. TrueNAS will run fine in a 16GB RAM VM, I've been running FreeNAS in 16GB for over a year, but I only run it as a file server and run Plex on it (no serious transcoding).

But since you are planning to use this as a VM server then you should also buy an appropriate CPU and I'd populate it with 64GB RAM so that you are not wanting for more when you start adding VMs.

Good luck on your build.

 

[Sadbus]

My As Rock C2750D4I just died died, so im thinking about doing the same for my new build. Already got the case and a 3700X.

Have you given any tought to cooling? The X570D4I-2T motherboard requires good chipset and nic cooling, ive seen others zip tie small noctua fans the board. Im not sure sure what CPU cooler to go with, it must be adequate at cooling the 3700X, without intefering with the RAM or HDD cage .

 

[tronbo]

My As Rock C2750D4I just died died, so im thinking about doing the same for my new build. Already got the case and a 3700X.

Have you given any tought to cooling? The X570D4I-2T motherboard requires good chipset and nic cooling, ive seen others zip tie small noctua fans the board. Im not sure sure what CPU cooler to go with, it must be adequate at cooling the 3700X, without intefering with the RAM or HDD cage .

I haven't built the system yet (still waiting for the hard drives to arrive), so I can't do any reporting on the cooling situation yet. I'm expecting temps to run a little higher since this is a small build. I've bought x3 noctua fans for the case, and a noctua NH-L9i for the CPU. If that still isn't enough, then I will likely do the same and put some small noctua fans on the motherboard for the passive components.

 

[Etorix]

If you already have bought your DS-380 cases, be aware that you need additional shrouds on the side fans to achieve any form of drive cooling, and that there will be significant fan noise on top of the HDD noise. The case looks nice on paper but is actually not fit for its intended purpose: I know it, I own one.
The NH-L9i, stock or with a 92*92*25 fan, should fit but anything taller could be problematic. I cannot overstate how awfully cramped it is within a DS-380.

 

[Sadbus]

If you already have bought your DS-380 cases, be aware that you need additional shrouds on the side fans to achieve any form of drive cooling, and that there will be significant fan noise on top of the HDD noise. The case looks nice on paper but is actually not fit for its intended purpose: I know it, I own one.
The NH-L9i, stock or with a 92*92*25 fan, should fit but anything taller could be problematic. I cannot overstate how awfully cramped it is within a DS-380.

I tried to add a 3D printed fan shroud, which lowered my HDD temps by about 5°C. Unfortunatley, this also increased my CPU temps by around 15°C. My old board with integrated CPU was passively cooled, so it might not affect an actively cooled CPU as much. I will test both configurations.

 

[tronbo]

If you already have bought your DS-380 cases, be aware that you need additional shrouds on the side fans to achieve any form of drive cooling, and that there will be significant fan noise on top of the HDD noise. The case looks nice on paper but is actually not fit for its intended purpose: I know it, I own one.
The NH-L9i, stock or with a 92*92*25 fan, should fit but anything taller could be problematic. I cannot overstate how awfully cramped it is within a DS-380.

Oof, I wasn't aware of that. I really wish I could avoid buying mini-itx cases, but I simply don't have enough room for a cabinet in my apartment unfortunately. I wish I could track down a Lian Li PC-Q26B, but those aren't in production. I'm also based in France, thus making my selection a bit more limited.

 

[Etorix]

@Sadbus Spare you the trouble of a rebuilt and keep the shrouds. For longevity, 5°C less on your drives is more important than 15°C on the CPU, and indeed any form of active cooling should keep the CPU in check.

@tronbo If you can live with six drives, the Node 204 makes a good Mini-ITX NAS. The Bitfenix Phenom should work also, but is already larger (same size as its micro-ATX sibling Phenom M). If noise is a concern—which your choice of Noctua fans suggests—you should be wary of too many drives.