First Build

[TechnoPallidin]

So, it's time to upgrade. I have been running with one of the synology desktop 4 bay nas for the last couple of years and my disk space needs have started to explode. Dang video editing...

As with all things I have been upgrading my entire home network and I'm now moving into a rack based solution. My closet has enough space (and airflow) to support a 22U rack but it's a 24x24" cube style 22U tall. It's the best I can get that also carries the WAF (wife approval factor). Although I'm already expecting complaints. :)

This rack, link below, has a max depth of 21" as per there spec. so I'm trying to target between 17-19" depth chassis. I had thought about just using a qnap off the shelf product but thought, lets build my own. Since I need lots of storage. My starting Target is to try and get between an 8-12 disk setup that I want to run at a Raid 5/6 equivalent. I'm not really planning to use any VM/Containers on this box as I also plan to build a dedicated proxmox server to run plex and serve videos from this nas. At least that is my plan...

Enter the build delima and trying to find something that works. :)

I would "love" to have hot swap drive racks but if it's just not feasible then so be it. 2U/3U/4U all good. I'm also thinking to see if I can also add some sort of JBOD to allow for temp/work storage with final products going to the raid array. Think, Rip Blu-Ray to JBOD, convert (handbrake on proxmox) to the Raid array. Then I can just delete the dump. Simple example... On the flip side, would I run maybe 2 different TrueNas metal based instances? one for the Raid server using all drives, and another for a JBOD server with it's own drives? no clue, kinda new on that one.

I have been hunting and I think I found some things that "Might" work, however I thought to ask the community in case there is something better out there.

This case is right at 19", not sure how good it is or what I need to put in it yet... I figure I need to start somewhere. The case being the biggest limiting factor.
2U Chassis: SilverStone RM21-308 (8 drive unit, would prefer 12 or more even if bigger form factor)
This is my Rack: SysRack 22U

I have looked at some of the SuperMicro but everything I seem to find is almost 26" deep.

Any thoughts on this? Recommendations? I have been looking through posts but a lot are really old and dead links with searches returning nothing.

My end goal is 8-12 in some RAID config... then I would love to have another 8 or so in a JBOD for just "use" as it were. whether that means 2-3 cases or whatever is also part of what I'm trying to figure out. I wish the size limitation wasn't present, it is what it is though.

Thanks.

 

[PhilD13]

SuperMicro, Dell, HP, etc. all make good chassis and you can find complete used systems (one of mine was used by Walmart) for cheap and recoup some money. Later you can upgrade the motherboard. I would try to go with a full depth rack as it offers the most flexibility Star Case makes some 4 post server racks that don't cost an arm and a leg.

I have 2 QNAP servers one with an expansion chassis, and 2 Supermicro chassis one with a JBOD chassis attached but in different racks short for QNAP Long for Supermicro. I paid less for all of the Supermicro stuff than one empty QNAP cost.

You can also get metal slides (not the ball bearing slides) to set the longer servers on in the shorter rack. they would stick out the back but be doable.

 

[TechnoPallidin]

SuperMicro, Dell, HP, etc. all make good chassis and you can find complete used systems (one of mine was used by Walmart) for cheap and recoup some money. Later you can upgrade the motherboard. I would try to go with a full depth rack as it offers the most flexibility Star Case makes some 4 post server racks that don't cost an arm and a leg.

I have 2 QNAP servers one with an expansion chassis, and 2 Supermicro chassis one with a JBOD chassis attached but in different racks short for QNAP Long for Supermicro. I paid less for all of the Supermicro stuff than one empty QNAP cost.

You can also get metal slides (not the ball bearing slides) to set the longer servers on in the shorter rack. they would stick out the back but be doable.

I wish I could go full depth. I "Might" be able to squeeze in a 32" deep rack, for a 700mm usable space. Some of the super micro are around 650mm... however if I can make the 21" 520mm depth work that would be better from a fit perspective. It's just hard to find server rack case to support the number of drives. even one of the 4u units only supports 10 drives. from sliger and it's 632mm... so just a bit too big for my space.

I don't necessarily need hot swap drives. I can have a case, like a desktop, that they are just screwed into. if I had a chassis that fit in the 530mm space and could hold say 12 drives. mb I'd have boot from nvm so would look for that in MB.

Make sense? It's been rough I see all these nice servers but they are all so deep.

 

[TechnoPallidin]

On a side note I literally just found out about the HL15 from 45 drives guys... it's 17" deep 15 drives. Not quite a 2-3U storage server that fits, but it would work for I need I think... Now to just figure do I build the guts or take the off the shelf... time to do more digging... sigh...

 

[PhilD13]

I was going to say look at the 45 drives HL15 as that looks like a winner, or look at a workstation case from Supermicro. They usually hold 8 drives and can be stuck into a rack or used as a workstation. QNAP has short depth and have options of 1, 4, 8, 12 slots and have expansion chassis of 12 and 16 slot I believe (I have a 8 slot, 12 slot and 12 slot expansion all rack mount). Some of the cost with QNAP is you pay for the operating system QTS firmware which is good overall. They also have a ZFS based software called Hero used on their high end chassis and systems. If you plan on virtual machines, or installing Truenas, maybe look at something more suitable where you are not paying for a firmware you won't use. QNAP rack servers are storage servers then other things while the smaller offering are geared more toward serving other stuff, but all of them can do all of the apps. The software/firmware is on a DOM so you could pull it and put in Truenas on a DOM and install it. Any m.2 slots available on the motherboard are mostly geared towards cache in QNAP firmware but running something else may be available for whatever you would want them for.

 

[Davvo]

With 8-12 drives I would suggest at least RAIDZ2.

ZFS Storage Pool Layout

This amazing document, created by iXsystems in February 2022 as a "White Paper", cleanly explains how to qualify pool performance touching briefly on how ZFS stores data and presents the advantages, performance and disadvantages of each pool...

www.truenas.com

 

[PhilD13]

It depends on what end use is most important. The Raid design box says data security, data capacity, r/w speed, cost/TB and that is the choices you need to decide upon when choosing a Raid level. Yes I would agree and suggest Raid Z2 for anything 6 drives and up to 10 or 12 drives per vdev provided drive capacities are between 6TB - 12 TB add a cold spare on the shelf in case of failure unless it is a remote machine that may take more then a week to service then go with a hot spare. For smaller capacity drives 4TB and under there is nothing wrong with Raid Z1 again with a cold spare on the shelf. If individual drives are larger than 12 TB in capacity (15 18 20 24 etc.) I would do Raid Z3 for the vdevs. That might be somewhat on the conservative side but for storage as a min purpose, security (safety) caries a bit more weight than speed or cost.

For an example. I recently used 16 8TB drives divided into 2 vdevs of 8 drives each. This I think for my application was the best compromise between reasonable data safety, capacity, speed, and cost per TB. In other words a good solid middle of the road average and my client has been happy with it. This setup puts 8 x 8TB drives in 2 vdevs, which I am comfortable with and have run for years for storage without any issues.