After recovering a failed HP RAID-5 (hw controller P410i, total PITA) of a ProLiant DL380 G7:
(which had an Offset, a startup delay, was Right Sync (if I recall). Truly brutal without access to the SAS SA)
(I've never been to their office nor seen their server running | what it does)
Invariably, before starting, we define what constitutes "success" -- which includes corrupt data, which has a flowchart of scenarios, one of which being that his RAID vs RAIDz will have accumulated corrupt data over the 12 years of his usage. (If you want more on this LMK but I'm skipping to my questions):
This disclaimer & explanation of course peaked his interest in TrueNAS / ZFS, & thus, mine:
His office runs off a DL380 G7 (X5680, X5685, etc) supporting up to ECC-1333MHz with "RAID-5" for "fault tolerance" on the main storage pool–which it then shares to workstations clients via AD (possibly LDAP; I've never been to their office). The DL380 may host a Hyper-V (which TrueNAS Core also does?). And if they have any, they have few. I also think TN off-site backup mgmt (incremental & differential, etc) backups & ransomware protection may just be more familiar to me...but I think it's easier.
[If] TrueNAS Core CANNOT perform ALL services mentioned, without Win Server?
LMK the feature––as it may make all else moot.
I've setup ≥5 TN machines, (but never in a Pro Server Env & NEVER AD: on TN or Win)
In short, I'm not a SysAdmin, but, the person who'll be setting this up is, and is well acclimated with setting up LDAP & AD in Windows Server 20xx. (I'm uncertain which version he's on; if he's already EOL / not getting updates or not, as I believe he also had ransomware about 3 weeks ago). Anyway, the SysAdmin is adept in AD, but lacks experience with TrueNAS / FreeNAS ... but it's gotten easier (better GUI, less bugs) and he already understands networking and AD.
Now, I've never setup an AD or LDAP, but I can do everything else.
As the SysAdmin hadn't even heard of FreeNAS nor TrueNAS Server before I mentioned it about 2 weeks ago, and has never used it, I'm hoping someone here who's setup both can LMK if the comfort to configure one predicts comfort in the other OS. I read the AD | LDAP instructions for TN, and neither [looked] intimidating, but the process can always be deceivingly difficult once started.
Does Server 20xx AD fluency suggest TN will be easy? as he already gets the concepts?
And, by not using Win Server nor the CALS, all associated costs are eliminated ?
Any of these assumptions false or unreliable..?
1. Setting up AD on TN won't be challenging for a SysAdmin proficient with Win Server AD?
2. TN performs ALL Tasks mentioned & is likely to do so w equal-better performance?
Reiteration / consolidation of all server tasks uses below :
• AD (Active Directory) or LDAP
• Limited (if any) Hyper-V usage.
• Hosting Files & Folders (like a NAS)
• Flexible VM support (hardware limited).
TrueNAS Core does all above tasks & performs equal-or-better on (old) hardware.
MISC NOTES:
• In ~3y when his Win Server 2012 expires it'll be addressed as an emergency / surprise.
• Their Server suffered a RansomWare attack ~3 weeks prior to the RAID-5's 2nd HD failing.
• 600GB 10k IBM SAS HDs have 42k hours on them (why they're failing one after another)
• My sugg.: Replace 600GB 10k SAS with 2TB Evo 870 SATA SSD + IT mode SAS adapter.
• TrueNAS avoid the EOL (updates) in 3y for Win Server + CAL costs (for ≤ 8 users).
Any SysAdmin willing to grade service-performance of TN v Server is greatly appreciated
Simple: TrueNAS with existing AD taken over by the TN server.
Cheap: Replace the POS RAID card with a SAS cont. in IT mode
Cheap: Replace 600GB 10k SAS (pos) with 2TB Evo 870 for $155ea
improved reliability:
- RAIDz2 (Double Parity)
- Self-Healing FS
- SSD create less heat than 10k RPM SAS
- SAS controller (eliminates snowflake of RAID config)
- 2 more HD slots freed up if TN performs all tasks: special vDevs? Spare?
...maybe a pair of Mirrored large drives to do incremental differential backups...
(obviously TN has superior RAIDz & built-in backups unless he gets ZFS on Windows Running ?)
(which had an Offset, a startup delay, was Right Sync (if I recall). Truly brutal without access to the SAS SA)
(I've never been to their office nor seen their server running | what it does)
Invariably, before starting, we define what constitutes "success" -- which includes corrupt data, which has a flowchart of scenarios, one of which being that his RAID vs RAIDz will have accumulated corrupt data over the 12 years of his usage. (If you want more on this LMK but I'm skipping to my questions):
This disclaimer & explanation of course peaked his interest in TrueNAS / ZFS, & thus, mine:
His office runs off a DL380 G7 (X5680, X5685, etc) supporting up to ECC-1333MHz with "RAID-5" for "fault tolerance" on the main storage pool–which it then shares to workstations clients via AD (possibly LDAP; I've never been to their office). The DL380 may host a Hyper-V (which TrueNAS Core also does?). And if they have any, they have few. I also think TN off-site backup mgmt (incremental & differential, etc) backups & ransomware protection may just be more familiar to me...but I think it's easier.
[If] TrueNAS Core CANNOT perform ALL services mentioned, without Win Server?
LMK the feature––as it may make all else moot.
I've setup ≥5 TN machines, (but never in a Pro Server Env & NEVER AD: on TN or Win)
In short, I'm not a SysAdmin, but, the person who'll be setting this up is, and is well acclimated with setting up LDAP & AD in Windows Server 20xx. (I'm uncertain which version he's on; if he's already EOL / not getting updates or not, as I believe he also had ransomware about 3 weeks ago). Anyway, the SysAdmin is adept in AD, but lacks experience with TrueNAS / FreeNAS ... but it's gotten easier (better GUI, less bugs) and he already understands networking and AD.
Now, I've never setup an AD or LDAP, but I can do everything else.
As the SysAdmin hadn't even heard of FreeNAS nor TrueNAS Server before I mentioned it about 2 weeks ago, and has never used it, I'm hoping someone here who's setup both can LMK if the comfort to configure one predicts comfort in the other OS. I read the AD | LDAP instructions for TN, and neither [looked] intimidating, but the process can always be deceivingly difficult once started.
Does Server 20xx AD fluency suggest TN will be easy? as he already gets the concepts?
And, by not using Win Server nor the CALS, all associated costs are eliminated ?
Any of these assumptions false or unreliable..?
1. Setting up AD on TN won't be challenging for a SysAdmin proficient with Win Server AD?
2. TN performs ALL Tasks mentioned & is likely to do so w equal-better performance?
Reiteration / consolidation of all server tasks uses below :
• AD (Active Directory) or LDAP
• Limited (if any) Hyper-V usage.
• Hosting Files & Folders (like a NAS)
• Flexible VM support (hardware limited).
TrueNAS Core does all above tasks & performs equal-or-better on (old) hardware.
MISC NOTES:
• In ~3y when his Win Server 2012 expires it'll be addressed as an emergency / surprise.
• Their Server suffered a RansomWare attack ~3 weeks prior to the RAID-5's 2nd HD failing.
• 600GB 10k IBM SAS HDs have 42k hours on them (why they're failing one after another)
• My sugg.: Replace 600GB 10k SAS with 2TB Evo 870 SATA SSD + IT mode SAS adapter.
• TrueNAS avoid the EOL (updates) in 3y for Win Server + CAL costs (for ≤ 8 users).
Any SysAdmin willing to grade service-performance of TN v Server is greatly appreciated
Simple: TrueNAS with existing AD taken over by the TN server.
Cheap: Replace the POS RAID card with a SAS cont. in IT mode
Cheap: Replace 600GB 10k SAS (pos) with 2TB Evo 870 for $155ea
improved reliability:
- RAIDz2 (Double Parity)
- Self-Healing FS
- SSD create less heat than 10k RPM SAS
- SAS controller (eliminates snowflake of RAID config)
- 2 more HD slots freed up if TN performs all tasks: special vDevs? Spare?
...maybe a pair of Mirrored large drives to do incremental differential backups...
(obviously TN has superior RAIDz & built-in backups unless he gets ZFS on Windows Running ?)
TrueNAS Core | Graded Categories(5 = Best) | Windows-S 2012 |
Score: 5 | RAID Reliability | Score: 2 |
Score: 1 - 5 | RAID Performance (speed) using AD | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | Network Setup | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | LDAP / AD General Performance | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | LDAP / AD General Reliability | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | Hyper-V usage | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | Hosting Files / Folders (NAS) | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | AD Performance (speed) per equal specs | Score: 1 - 5 |
Hours: | Avg. Maintenance per Month | Hours: |
Score: 1 - 5 | Vulnerability to Virus | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | Vulnerability to Malware | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | Vulnerability to RansomWare | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | Ease of Keeping Backed up | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | Setup difficulty of [ AD | LDAP ] | Score: 1 - 5 |
Score: 1 - 5 | Does Experience setting up AD on Win Server make set up AD on TrueNAS relatively easy? | Score: 1 - 5 |
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