First (semi-scavenged) build, looking to optimize with current stock

[Aephir]

Hi,

I'm going to build my first TrueNAS machine primarily using my old gaming rig that was collecting dust in the garage.

I've read around quite a bit, but they just made me more unsure. Mostly about the best use of SSDs. I'm sure i don't want to use a USB stick to boot from, but not sure about using two small SSD in RAID1 for boot, using SSD for buffering, caching, etc.

The use case is a bit varied, mostly backup and a bit of Nextcloud (again, mostly backup, but probably a few documents that will be worked on, as well as photos that'll be viewed from phone app). I expect fairly light use from 2-3 users, at least initially. I might throw some VMs on (running on an old IBM server), depending on how well that would run (don't really know what to expect, do I'll just try and see how it works. And yes, I'll probably build a better rig if it turns out I really want to use this properly in the future). Most of the storage will probably be mounted as NFS shares to that server.

Hardware:
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 2600k
RAM: 2x8 GB corsair dominator DDR3 (1866MHz)
Dell H310
3x 4 TB WD RED (WD40EFRX) + 3x 4 TB HGST (HDS724040ALE640) - probably leaving one out from initial build to swap if one dies. I was planning to run RAIDZ1.

On top of that i have a RocketRaid 2320 and 2 x 60 GB SSD (which i would, potentially, use for RAID1 booting OS?), as well as 1 x 120 GB and 1 x 240 GB SSD (all sata 6Gb/s) that could be used for anything. I also have 5 x 512 GB SSD, but of questionable quality (old laptop drives, various models).

The main question is, what's the best use of (some of) the SSDs? Logs, cache, anything else? Would any of that require redundancy? Also, would it be more sensible to just use a single SSD for boot, and reinstall if it dies? I'm not insanely worried about downtime, as long as I can fix it in an hour or so (it will be placed in my basement at home). It sounds nice to me to have the RAID1 redundancy for the OS, but i don't know TrueNAS well enough (and couldn't find a consensus in the forum threads i read) to know if it makes sense, or only sounds nice in my head before actually doing it.

And if course, if you see something else that looks stupid, please let me know

 

[GBillR]

Hello and welcome to the forum. The resources section is your friend.

I'm going to build my first TrueNAS machine primarily using my old gaming rig that was collecting dust in the garage.

Hardware:
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 2600k
RAM: 2x8 GB corsair dominator DDR3 (1866MHz)
Dell H310
3x 4 TB WD RED (WD40EFRX) + 3x 4 TB HGST (HDS724040ALE640) - probably leaving one out from initial build to swap if one dies. I was planning to run RAIDZ1.

Take a look here and read this document in its entirety: https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
Not sure what your plan is for the RocketRaid, but if it doesn't simply pass to TrueNAS like a simple HBA, you are probably asking for problems. Same goes for the H310. Be sure they are just passing direct access to the drives to TrueNAS.

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/cross-flashing-dell-h310-h710-mini-to-it-mode.166/

https://www.truenas.com/community/r...bas-and-why-cant-i-use-a-raid-controller.139/

Also, RAIDZ1 is not recommended with 4 TB drives.

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/introduction-to-zfs.111/

The main question is, what's the best use of (some of) the SSDs? Logs, cache, anything else? Would any of that require redundancy? Also, would it be more sensible to just use a single SSD for boot, and reinstall if it dies?

If you have enough SATA ports to go around, you could mirror the boot pool if you want... personally, I rather save the SATA port. As long as you have an updated config saved, you can restore pretty quickly. Additionally, the boot pool gets very limited use... any decent SSD will likely outlive your installation.

Another use for those SSDs could be to create a separate pool for any jails you may want to run. Again, assuming you have the SATA ports.

Your use-case, along with only 16GB of RAM makes using those SSDs for L2ARC not recommended. Also, a SLOG is probably also unnecessary in your case, and none of those SSDs are probably suitable SLOG devices anyway.

 

[Aephir]

Thanks for all the suggestions and guide links. And sorry for the late reply, after reading each of those I ended up needing some additional searching/reading to clarify a few things :)

Take a look here and read this document in its entirety

I see the old gaming rig "is hardly ideal", and the Realtek chip sucks for ethernet. I guess I'll see this build as an experiment, and see how far it goes. Maybe throw in a PCIe NIC, probably double the RAM. And if I think there is a real need for a TrueNAS at home, I might upgrade to more suitable hardware down the line.

... but if it doesn't simply pass to TrueNAS like a simple HBA, you are probably asking for problems.

My understanding was that I needed a RAID card to make a RAID configuration with the boot drives (since TrueNAS can't control it's own install volume)? The H310 is in IT mode, the RocketRaid is not (don't think IT mode is possible for it), but that was only for the boot drive(s) anyway.

RAIDZ1 is not recommended with 4 TB drives.

Thanks for the heads up, but I couldn't find anything about that in the link? Could you elaborate on why RAIDZ1 with 4 TB drives is bad? (I did find another thread where some users recommend either RAIDZ1, RAIDZ2 or mirroring for 4 TB drives).

If you have enough SATA ports to go around...

I have plenty of SATA ports. When using the H310 there's 14 in total (though 4 are only 3Gb/s), so with room for 6 drives (plus three if I add 5.25 adapters), the number of SATA ports will never be the limiting factor.

Additionally, the boot pool gets very limited use...

I read that the boot drive could see significant use due to... something (sorry, forgot, but I think it was logs). From what I remember reading, that was part of why thumb drives were discouraged as install drive. That was why I thought RAID1 would be smart, since I had the additional SSD and SATA ports. But if that's not a real concern with my use case (even when putting a few VMs on the TrueNAS, and running on my other server?), then perhaps I can find a better use for the second SSD.

Another use for those SSDs could be to create a separate pool for any jails you may want to run. Again, assuming you have the SATA ports.

I might have missed something about "jails" (I certainly hadn't heard of them before starting to look into TrueNAS), but the way I understand jails, I wouldn't have any use for them. I have a dedicated server running most of the services I need in containers, as well as a few VMs, and don't plan to move any of those to the (very inferior, comparatively) TrueNAS hardware.

 

[GBillR]

My understanding was that I needed a RAID card to make a RAID configuration with the boot drives (since TrueNAS can't control it's own install volume)? The H310 is in IT mode, the RocketRaid is not (don't think IT mode is possible for it), but that was only for the boot drive(s) anyway.

TrueNAS absolutely can handle it's own install volume, and the install supports setting up a mirror at installation time. Using a couple of mirrored SSDs for the boot pool is pretty common. No need to use some other raid solution, and it is not recommended.

Thanks for the heads up, but I couldn't find anything about that in the link? Could you elaborate on why RAIDZ1 with 4 TB drives is bad? (I did find another thread where some users recommend either RAIDZ1, RAIDZ2 or mirroring for 4 TB drives).

If you do some digging you'll find that anything over 2 TB drives with Z1 is not recommended due to the resilver times and the risk of another disk failure during the extended resilver... Take a look at this (also lots of good info for zfs in general). I am sure if you poke around you can find posts on the forum discouraging Z1. That said, if it is only a backup pool, and you understand the risks... your call.

https://pthree.org/2012/12/05/zfs-administration-part-ii-raidz/

I read that the boot drive could see significant use due to... something (sorry, forgot, but I think it was logs). From what I remember reading, that was part of why thumb drives were discouraged as install drive. That was why I thought RAID1 would be smart, since I had the additional SSD and SATA ports. But if that's not a real concern with my use case (even when putting a few VMs on the TrueNAS, and running on my other server?), then perhaps I can find a better use for the second SSD.

As long as the system dataset is moved off the boot pool and onto the spinning rust, you will have virtually zero reads/writes to the boot pool. If you were to use a USB to boot from, keeping the dataset on the boot pool could be problematic. Any SSD can handle the system dataset load, even if you don't move it.

https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/reducing-system-dataset-write-frequency.78125/

I might have missed something about "jails" (I certainly hadn't heard of them before starting to look into TrueNAS), but the way I understand jails, I wouldn't have any use for them. I have a dedicated server running most of the services I need in containers, as well as a few VMs, and don't plan to move any of those to the (very inferior, comparatively) TrueNAS hardware.

Just a thought. Either way, having a small pool of SSDs might be a benefit to you somewhere down the road. Other than that... not really much use in TrueNAS. Perhaps if you decide at some point that True NAS can serve your VM needs (jails or TrueNAS Scale), maybe those SSDs become useful to you.

 

[Aephir]

Great, thanks a lot!