Dell and NAS

[Newuser2020]

Hello,

Just got Dell Precision 5820 workstation and my first thought is to build NAS for home.

So how it looks:
-Intel Xeon W-2133 (3.6GHz, 140W)
-4x8gb ECC ram (total 8 ram slots)
-4 swappable 3.5" hard drive bays.
-8 sata ports
-Also PCIe

It is my first NAS and I know that it will grow. At the beginning it should safely store all personal information and work as home media device/storage. Here at this moment I don't know it will be just storing media, or will run plex or something else.

I think 4 sata ports I should use for 3.5" HDD and raid for safety, 1 port for system, and other maybe for short term storage files or in near future for data from security cameras.

I dont know which way is the best, so for beginning I have few questions:
1) Is it overkill or not with this workstation?
2) Is it enough ram? I have free 4 slots. Now it is Micron MTA9ASF1G72PZ-2G6D1SG. Can I add another 4 MTA9ASF1G72PZ-2G6J1? Will they be compatible with original? Or just sell this 4x8gb and buy 4x16gb MTA18ASF2G72PDZ-2G6E1?
3) FreeNAS, TrueNAS. Difference? Or maybe just leave existing Win10 Pro?

 

[Inxsible]

I think 4 sata ports I should use for 3.5" HDD and raid for safety,

FreeNAS and Hardware RAID do not go together. Don't do it. You will regret it. Use RAIDZ2. Read up on it. There are lots and lots of threads about it.

1) Is it overkill or not with this workstation?

That depends on your exact usecase which you haven't specified completely. For media storage it IS overkill. But if you add plex or additional jails etc in the future, you might need the processing power based on how many streams you plan on transcoding.

2) Is it enough ram? I have free 4 slots.

32GB is plenty RAM. I started with 16GB 6 years ago and just recently upgraded to 32GB. So don't go out and buy new RAM before you decide if FreeNAS/TrueNAS is for you or not.

3) FreeNAS, TrueNAS. Difference?

FreeNAS -- until 11.3 --- TrueNAS 12.0 and above. FreeNAS to TrueNAS is just a branding change for the community edition. Until 11.3, TrueNAS was the enterprise solution and FreeNAS was community edition. Now they are TrueNAS Enterprise and TrueNAS Core respectively.

Or maybe just leave existing Win10 Pro?

Sure. If you are comfortable with Win10, then there's nothing wrong with simply using that.

 

[rvassar]

The 5820 is a tank. It's one of those PC's built to replace the engineering workstations of days gone by...

Depending on the configuration, it might also have M.2 slots that you can boot from, saving all your SATA ports for storage. Beware of the MegaRAID boards in this generation, they may not do a true IT mode / disk pass thru.

 

[danb35]

Is it enough ram?

The 32GB you have installed should be plenty. 16GB is a good number for most home use, and you have more than that--unless you're going to be running a bunch of VMs or very demanding software in jails, you're likely good to go. More RAM is always good--ZFS will use it for caching--but you could add that later if you felt a need.

just storing media, or will run plex or something else.

Plex, or another media server like Emby, really is a lot easier to work with than just storing the media. Automatic indexing and metadata retrieval, clients for most devices (AppleTV, Roku, iOS, Android, web), remote access from wherever...

FreeNAS, TrueNAS. Difference?

TrueNAS is the new name for FreeNAS. The current release sounds pretty good, though there are a few bugs there.

FreeNAS and Hardware RAID do not go together.

OP didn't say anything about hardware RAID, though this is always a good warning.

 

[Thousandbuckle]

How do I know if the Precision 5820 support IT Mode / Passthrough?

 

[sretalla]

OP didn't say anything about hardware RAID, though this is always a good warning.

https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/us/Precision-5820-Tower-Spec-Sheet.pdf

Seems there's an optional MegaRAID adapter... I guess that's what was raising concern.

The onboard intel controller also does RAID, but I think setting ACHI mode for the SATA ports should avoid problems with that one.

 

[Thousandbuckle]

How do I know if ACHI is the same thing as IT Mode/ Passthrough?

 

[jgreco]

How do I know if ACHI is the same thing as IT Mode/ Passthrough?

It isn't. IT mode is something a HBA has. AHCI is something SATA ports may have. In general, SATA AHCI ports will work with FreeNAS/TrueNAS especially if they are provided by an Intel chipset, but others often work too.

 

[Thousandbuckle]

Thank you that explanation helped me understand it better now!

 

[Clawhammer]

Sry to bump this up. We also planning to get one of these Dell Precision 5820 workstations for truenas. The configuration will be 4x 8TB HDDs in the swappable hdd trays in the front and a 256gb m2 ssd on the mobo for the os. I also configured: "Integrated Intel AHCI SATA chipset controller (8x 6.0Gb/s), SW RAID 0,1,5,10" with no RAID (I guess it will be in AHCI Mode like mentioned here).

Is there anything else i need to be aware of? Thanks for your help!

 

[sretalla]

Is there anything else i need to be aware of?

planning to get

... if it's not too late, maybe you would want to consider that this type of machine is far from the most efficient ways (in cost, power and space) to get a TrueNAS server (particularly if bought brand new). Starting at $1'700, you can get a lot more value for your money elsewhere which would leave out things not needed (depending on your use-case) like a high-end Graphics card or a Windows license and could provide better cooling for the disks and potentially more bays for additional disks.

Look in the resources section at the Hardware recommendations guide and consider either used server gear or looking at a supermicro board in a supermicro or third party case to give you a lot more flexibility than 4 disk bays.

 

[Clawhammer]

Hi, thanks for your advice. Since this machine is for work i sadly cannot go the DIY NAS/Used market route :-(

 

[sretalla]

Maybe you can still look at Supermicro systems though... I'm not sure if you'll get something at the top of their range, but the price may not be too different from that Workstation for an Entry-level server.

Perhaps even more important since it's for work might be something supported and therefore running TrueNAS Enterprise... so look at the options on offer from iX directly. (the R series starts at 3K)

 

[danb35]

Hi, thanks for your advice. Since this machine is for work i sadly cannot go the DIY NAS/Used market route :-(

A workstation still isn't really a good choice--all the more so if it's for work. Depending on your storage needs, Dell, HPE, and Lenovo all have small, inexpensive servers that can work well--I like the HPE MicroServer Gen10+, personally, but there are other options too. If you need (or expect to need) more than four bays, the Supermicro systems mentioned above may be candidates, or again all of the major vendors sell suitable server hardware. A workstation just isn't it. It can likely be made to work, but you should really be looking elsewhere.

 

[rvassar]

A workstation still isn't really a good choice--all the more so if it's for work. Depending on your storage needs, Dell, HPE, and Lenovo all have small, inexpensive servers that can work well--I like the HPE MicroServer Gen10+, personally, but there are other options too. If you need (or expect to need) more than four bays, the Supermicro systems mentioned above may be candidates, or again all of the major vendors sell suitable server hardware. A workstation just isn't it. It can likely be made to work, but you should really be looking elsewhere.

The T5820 does come with Xeon CPU and ECC RAM. It's actually pretty close to a server in that the biggest departure is likely the lack of iDRAC, and the allocation of PCIe lanes, and possibly hot swap PSU's. Equivalent Dell servers would be the T-series, T150, T350, etc... These have better backplane options for NAS use, and in some cases can be cheaper than the T5820.

 

[danb35]

I don't think it's an awful choice, just that there are likely better ones available--though to give specifics we'd need to know more about @Clawhammer's proposed use case. If he only needs four spinners, I like my Microserver Gen10+, it's compact, it's quiet, it has a Xeon and ECC RAM, and was around $750 without the drives (though it looks like prices have gone up considerably since I bought mine). iLO gives you remote management, though you need to buy an extra NIC for it (about $35). Four bays, though not hot-swap. And while it doesn't have m.2 on the motherboard, it does have an internal USB port, which you can use along with one of these:

Amazon.com

...which is what I'm doing with my parents' Gen8 MicroServer running TrueNAS--though you'd want a relatively short SSD. Biggest drawback to the MicroServers is that they aren't hot-swap, but they're otherwise decent, fairly inexpensive, and new server hardware. At today's prices at Newegg, $1200 for the Xeon E-2224 and 16 GB of RAM.

 

[Clawhammer]

The machine is just for collecting some lab data and store them for a while. At work we have a contract with dell that give me some opportunities if i choose dell, thats why i really like to stick to this system. Except someone tells me a good reason like its not compatible to truenas ,will not work with the hdd's or something else critical.

 

[Etorix]

It is compatible, but even if you're somewhat vendor locked you may be better served by looking at small servers from Dell to have front-accessible drive bays, hot-swap bays and/or a smaller footprint. May well be cheaper as well!