Can I please have a small footprint TrueNAS?

[jgreco]

jgreco submitted a new resource:

Can I please have a small footprint TrueNAS? - The desperate search for the ultimate small home NAS.

The NAS marketplace is filled with small appliance NAS devices, often built on an ARM device platform. These small devices, such as 2009's iomega StorCenter IX2-dl (2x 3.5" HDD) and 2019's Synology DS419slim (4x 2.5" HDD) are handfuls of modest network storage joy.

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My companies own and use a number of these devices. They're small and practical for certain use cases.

We've had numerous discussions over the years in the FreeNAS forums about...

Read more about this resource...

 

[Arwen]

I was looking for a replacement of my old home media server, which I bought in 2015 if I remember correctly. Still works, and it still has 100s of Gigabytes free for new media. But, I worry it will die soon. It's a miniature all in one, so only the cheap 2.5" 2TB laptop drive could be re-usable.

This is what I found for small, standard cases:
APEX MI-008 250W Mini-ITX Case - Has 2 x 3.5", plus a 5.25" bay.
SilverStone Ultra Compact Mini-ITX Computer Case - Has 1 x 3.5" & 1 x 2.5", OR 3 x 2.5"

The slight advantage to either case, is the normal motherboard size of Mini-ITX. But, both are quite limited in storage options, (which for me, and my un-redundant media pool is fine).

Looking around, I was unable to find any smaller than Mini-ITX system boards, that are TrueNAS Core or SCALE compatible, with suitable storage options. Meaning, it would have to be:

• x86_x64 arch.
• Support >=8GBs of RAM
• >=4 storage ports, (combination of SATA/SAS and NVMe, USB does not count)

Using USB boot might be the only option on those miniature boards. Even if they supply a NVMe slot, it might have to be used for storage.

 

[mistermanko]

I can recommend the Fractal Design Node 304. Fits up to 3 3.5" or up to 6 2.5" drives and still can have decent cooling. And it's reasonably priced as well.

 

[Etorix]

The Node 304 is a nice case, but it may well be already way too big for what the conversation is about.
Based on (bad!) previous experiences, I'd fear that the Sugo suffer common Silverstone diseases: Lots of ridiculously tiny screws, cumbersome inner design, and the occasional sharp edge. But, hey, it comes in pink for a Hello Kitty-theme build!

At $81, PSU included, the Apex may be a nice find if decently built. Add motherboard, partitioned NVMe for boot and Plex VM, three HDDs in raidz1 for storage (with 5"1/4 adapter).

 

[Samuel Tai]

Looking around, I was unable to find smaller system boards, that are TrueNAS Core or SCALE compatible, with suitable storage options. Meaning, it would have to be:

• x86_x64 arch.
• Support >=8GBs of RAM
• >=4 storage ports, (combination of SATA/SAS and NVMe, USB does not count)

Using USB boot might be the only option on those miniature boards. Even if they supply a NVMe slot, it might have to be used for storage.

@Arwen, what about the ASRock E3C256D4I-2T? Serve the Home recently reviewed this board. I think this is the most capable board in this segment that still fits the mini-ITX format.

The only other idea to try is going with clusters of mini PCs, and then running a Scale cluster to distribute storage over the cluster.

 

[danb35]

I think it's going to be hard to beat the MicroServer Gen10+ for this, really, with the bonus that it's a proper (if small) server, with server features like iLO (OK, you have to pay an extra $35 or so for the card, but all the logic is there) and ECC support. I bought one some months back and it's pretty nice--I just wish it were available with 6x2.5 bays as an alternative to 4x3.5. It's not cheap, but it's also not bad for what it is IMO.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

@danb35 What are you using to boot? PCIe card? AFAIK there is no M.2 slot on the board, right?

 

[danb35]

What are you using to boot?

Mirrored pair of SATA SSDs. And yes, that means that the boot device(s) take half the drive bays. It's a node on my Proxmox cluster, not a storage server. If I were using it as a NAS, I'd probably be using a USB SSD.

PCIe card?

10G NIC in there.

AFAIK there is no M.2 slot on the board, right?

Correct, unfortunately.

 

[Arwen]

@Arwen, what about the ASRock E3C256D4I-2T? Serve the Home recently reviewed this board. I think this is the most capable board in this segment that still fits the mini-ITX format.

The only other idea to try is going with clusters of mini PCs, and then running a Scale cluster to distribute storage over the cluster.

Sorry, I was not clearer. I meant that I had not found any system boards smaller than Mini-ITX that would be suitable for a miniature, but still run TrueNAS Core or SCALE. I've edited my post to be clearer on that subject.

That board you mention, and many other Mini-ITX boards do make decent small NAS.

 

[mistermanko]

I think it's going to be hard to beat the MicroServer Gen10+ for this, really, with the bonus that it's a proper (if small) server, with server features like iLO (OK, you have to pay an extra $35 or so for the card, but all the logic is there) and ECC support. I bought one some months back and it's pretty nice--I just wish it were available with 6x2.5 bays as an alternative to 4x3.5. It's not cheap, but it's also not bad for what it is IMO.

How is the cooling in this thing? The single 80?mm fan would make me little bit nervous.

 

[danb35]

How is the cooling in this thing?

OK, but not great. Mine is in a pretty warm room, and the one spinner in there is just north of 40°C.

 

[Dylan Tully]

I am built in one of these Silverstone cases

I like it a lot, it has 2x120mm filtered fans right on to 8 hot-swappable bays and a 120mm exhaust in the back. The PSU also gets fresh filtered air from the top. There are 4 more 2.5" bays inside for boot SSDs etc. With the ASRock E3C256D4I-2T mentioned above, you could boot off of m.2 and have all 8 bays in the front filled or you could use a PCI/SATA interface with basically any Mini-ITX motherboard. This is not the absolute smallest footprint you could have, but it is a good case if a little easy to nick your fingers on.

 

[tartan-prophesy]

The ASRock E3C256D4I-2T looks great, but as far as I can see it has not entered manufacture next. I've contacted a few UK distributors and they told me:

Its still in ‘planning’ phase and as such they cant provide a current price / ETA until its planned.

It's predecessor the E3C246D4I-2T also looks good, but that appears to be unavailable as well due to a shortage of Intel lan chips!

 

[fgcosta_br]

They are selling it here in China, also found it in newegg a couple of months ago.
Their first batches had some issues with the BIOS apparently, the distributor had to send it back to Taiwan...

I'm planning running it with the following config (proxmox with pfsense, truenas, etc...):
Jonsbo N1 case
ASRock Rack E3C256D4I-2T
Intel Xeon E2378 with Noctua NH-L9x65 (might change this cooler if not good enough)
2 ECC SODIMMS 16GB 3200MT/s
add-in card on PCIe4.0 x16 for 2 x 970 EVO NMVe 1Tb
one 980 Pro 1Tb on the MB PCIe4.0 x4)

2 OCuLInk (4 SATA 6Gb/s / connection):
1 x SSD for proxmox
5 x seagates for NAS

Just waiting for the board to arrive back... and it got stuck in Shanghai... :(