MountainMan
Dabbler
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2020
- Messages
- 42
Hello...
I’ve read the Hardwire Recommendations Guide, but am hoping for some input on a couple specific pieces.
Basically I’m trying spec and gather parts for a TrueNAS Scale based server to replace a couple aging hardware RAID systems at home. They are used for NAS storage (Plex, family videos, photos), family docs, desktop backups, and my development work. They also run about 20-25 containers for services/applications (Plex, email, DBs, Home Assistant, Grafana, NGINX, etc) and a few VMs.
It will be a fresh start, but I have picked up a few items as nice deals have come up:
Here is what I’m trying to figure out at the moment though:
1. HBA (internal 12G - 16 port) - Since the chassis has a 12G backplane I figured I’d go with a 12G adaptor in case I pick up some SAS drives down the road. With LSI I was looking at the 9400-16i (PCI3) or potentially 9500-16i (PCI4), but they both seem incredibly hard to source from normal vendors. Only small dealers and eBay sellers in HK and China? After further looking I came across the Lenovo ThinkSystem 430-16i and 440-16i, which as far as I can tell are re-branded 9400-16i and 9500-16i ? The 430-16i can be had for ~$420 right now, so I was leaning toward that, but searches for verified TrueNAS compatibility seem very limited. I feel like it’s a safe choice, but is it? Would flashing to "IT" firmware be required even though it’s a non-raid HBA?
2. HBA (external 6G - 8 port) - This would just be for the external backup pool. I was looking at a 10Gtek SAS 9200-8E which is basically a LSI SAS2008/9200-8E compatible card at a good price ($145), which according to reviews, is fine with TrueNAS. Unless there is some reason to avoid or a better option?
3. SSDs for App/VM pool - While I want to use SSDs to keep this pool snappy for app/services/VMs, the data will all be backed up and in the end isn’t as important as the family movies/photos regardless. So I wasn’t planning on breaking the bank for SLC SSDs, figuring I could use more reasonable options like the WD Red SA500 2TB or Samsung EVO 870 2TB and toss a hot spare at it for good measure. With 1200-1300 TBW ratings, ashift=13 and SMART stat monitoring I feel relatively safe, unless someone can convince me I’m just fooling myself ? :) With that in mind, I’ve always used Samsung in the past on many systems, and never had a failure after quite a bit of write abuse, but am open to other options. The WD Reds just caught my eye with a little higher TBW and I’ve had good experience with their spinning disks. Any thoughts or other good options?
4. System drive(s) - I was planning on a separate mirrored 500G SSD pair for the TrueNAS system itself. While I should have 8 open bays, I’d rather toss the pair inside the chassis and use a couple SATA ports off the MB, keeping my bays open for future pool expansion. Is using the SATA ports off something like an Intel C252 or C236 controller possible, not possible, or just a ridiculously bad idea ?
I was hoping this wouldn’t get long, but it did, sorry about that. Anyway, thanks in advance for ANY comments, suggestions, or straight up criticism. ;)
-James
I’ve read the Hardwire Recommendations Guide, but am hoping for some input on a couple specific pieces.
Basically I’m trying spec and gather parts for a TrueNAS Scale based server to replace a couple aging hardware RAID systems at home. They are used for NAS storage (Plex, family videos, photos), family docs, desktop backups, and my development work. They also run about 20-25 containers for services/applications (Plex, email, DBs, Home Assistant, Grafana, NGINX, etc) and a few VMs.
It will be a fresh start, but I have picked up a few items as nice deals have come up:
- Chenbro RM31616M3-R875 - 3U 16 bay chassis w/ 12G backplane (4 x SFF-8643) and redundant 875W PS
- 5 x Red Pro 14TB drives
- CyberPower 1500VA rack UPS
- Sans Digital 8 bay external cabinet (2 x SFF-8088) with 8 x 3TB WD Red drives — which I was just going to use as my "backup" pool.
- Storage pool - 2 x mirrored pairs of WD Red Pro 14TB + hot spare
- App/VM pool - 1 x mirrored pair of 2TB SSDs + hot spare
- Backup pool - re-purposed external 8 x 3TB WD Red using RAIDZ1
Here is what I’m trying to figure out at the moment though:
1. HBA (internal 12G - 16 port) - Since the chassis has a 12G backplane I figured I’d go with a 12G adaptor in case I pick up some SAS drives down the road. With LSI I was looking at the 9400-16i (PCI3) or potentially 9500-16i (PCI4), but they both seem incredibly hard to source from normal vendors. Only small dealers and eBay sellers in HK and China? After further looking I came across the Lenovo ThinkSystem 430-16i and 440-16i, which as far as I can tell are re-branded 9400-16i and 9500-16i ? The 430-16i can be had for ~$420 right now, so I was leaning toward that, but searches for verified TrueNAS compatibility seem very limited. I feel like it’s a safe choice, but is it? Would flashing to "IT" firmware be required even though it’s a non-raid HBA?
2. HBA (external 6G - 8 port) - This would just be for the external backup pool. I was looking at a 10Gtek SAS 9200-8E which is basically a LSI SAS2008/9200-8E compatible card at a good price ($145), which according to reviews, is fine with TrueNAS. Unless there is some reason to avoid or a better option?
3. SSDs for App/VM pool - While I want to use SSDs to keep this pool snappy for app/services/VMs, the data will all be backed up and in the end isn’t as important as the family movies/photos regardless. So I wasn’t planning on breaking the bank for SLC SSDs, figuring I could use more reasonable options like the WD Red SA500 2TB or Samsung EVO 870 2TB and toss a hot spare at it for good measure. With 1200-1300 TBW ratings, ashift=13 and SMART stat monitoring I feel relatively safe, unless someone can convince me I’m just fooling myself ? :) With that in mind, I’ve always used Samsung in the past on many systems, and never had a failure after quite a bit of write abuse, but am open to other options. The WD Reds just caught my eye with a little higher TBW and I’ve had good experience with their spinning disks. Any thoughts or other good options?
4. System drive(s) - I was planning on a separate mirrored 500G SSD pair for the TrueNAS system itself. While I should have 8 open bays, I’d rather toss the pair inside the chassis and use a couple SATA ports off the MB, keeping my bays open for future pool expansion. Is using the SATA ports off something like an Intel C252 or C236 controller possible, not possible, or just a ridiculously bad idea ?
I was hoping this wouldn’t get long, but it did, sorry about that. Anyway, thanks in advance for ANY comments, suggestions, or straight up criticism. ;)
-James