Hi all,
I’m planning and designing my new truenas core/scale server and my storage capacity is a big point of contention for me, both being able to fit in the budget but also use case.
BACKGROUND/PLANS: The server will be a Xeon 16 core (can’t remember what model, think it’s a 2650 v4 or something along those lines) with 32GB or 64GB RAM ECC in a rack mount case with a bunch of slots. I already have 10Gbe in my server rack and will be extending to this device as well… Doubtful I’ll need the performance but hey, it’s there!! My entire rack is protected by a large UPS that I have connected via scripts to shut things down when the battery gets low (takes about 46 minutes on my last runtime test), which I will be extending to my TrueNAS box.
I am replacing an old QNAP NAS that has 16TB storage that is about 15.5TB used, serving duties as both media content host for a single emby machine (which is about to expand to six emby machines plus mobile phones in the new house), as well as a Veeam backup target for my ESXi hosts. I don’t backup the media content as I don’t feel the need, easily replaceable.
From my reading on this site and others, I agree I don’t want less than RAIDZ2, but to get my capacity requirements will either mean very high capacity drives (looking at WD RED PLUS or Seagate Ironwolf to avoid any possibility of SMR), or more drives, both equalling more money. I want to do this as efficient as possible and so I’ve come for some advice on layout.
Pools:
I’m contemplating separating the two use cases into different pools, one for backups (NFS and S3) from the media server (either SMB or ISCSI). I know there is no need to separate due to the sharing services, but more keeping backups and content sharing separate. Another reason is that I don’t think I’ll need /benefit from an L2ARC for the backup target, but the content sharing most likely would and if I have a L2ARC for content sharing, I won’t have it filling up on backup data and pushing media out at all. As for a SLOG or ZIL, I am unsure I’ll need one for my use case but I could add one in later on (media doesn’t get added too often and it’s not critical for the use case… and if a backup takes longer… oh well I’ll be fine!)… and I don’t think I need to turn on sync write as it is.
VDEVS:
Layout of the VDEVS is where I’m the most confused on the most efficient way of doing this. If I separate the different use cases, I’ll be able to have two smaller pools with the VDEVS containing smaller disks and so cheaper to get going. i.e. 4TB drives instead of 8TB… but having 8 drives to start is a bit expensive if it means I need a boatload more drives just to expand a pool…. So layout of the VDEVS in the pool to make it efficient on the disks, but also efficient on the expansion capabilities made me think of two VDEVS per pool…4 drives each but I get a lot of space inefficiency with RAIDZ2 and 4 drive VDEVS, so 5 would be better… but then wouldn’t I need another 5 drives to expand the pool with another VDEV?
FYI this website was very useful in my calculations: RAID Capacity Comparison - WintelGuy.com
Also FYI, the HBA or other parts of the system are not yet confirmed until I know the layout. I want something that will last me a while, in the sense that as I need more space I can add to the pools and not need to rebuild/migrate to do it, so I’ll have plenty of empty hotswap bays for the first few years
Also FYI, sorry for the essay, I know this is a very common topic of questions so I wanted to get as much of my research out on the page … but yes I’m still a noob ... and yes this was written over the course of several days in a word document I've been compiling, but I'm sure to have missed something here.
I’m planning and designing my new truenas core/scale server and my storage capacity is a big point of contention for me, both being able to fit in the budget but also use case.
BACKGROUND/PLANS: The server will be a Xeon 16 core (can’t remember what model, think it’s a 2650 v4 or something along those lines) with 32GB or 64GB RAM ECC in a rack mount case with a bunch of slots. I already have 10Gbe in my server rack and will be extending to this device as well… Doubtful I’ll need the performance but hey, it’s there!! My entire rack is protected by a large UPS that I have connected via scripts to shut things down when the battery gets low (takes about 46 minutes on my last runtime test), which I will be extending to my TrueNAS box.
I am replacing an old QNAP NAS that has 16TB storage that is about 15.5TB used, serving duties as both media content host for a single emby machine (which is about to expand to six emby machines plus mobile phones in the new house), as well as a Veeam backup target for my ESXi hosts. I don’t backup the media content as I don’t feel the need, easily replaceable.
From my reading on this site and others, I agree I don’t want less than RAIDZ2, but to get my capacity requirements will either mean very high capacity drives (looking at WD RED PLUS or Seagate Ironwolf to avoid any possibility of SMR), or more drives, both equalling more money. I want to do this as efficient as possible and so I’ve come for some advice on layout.
Pools:
I’m contemplating separating the two use cases into different pools, one for backups (NFS and S3) from the media server (either SMB or ISCSI). I know there is no need to separate due to the sharing services, but more keeping backups and content sharing separate. Another reason is that I don’t think I’ll need /benefit from an L2ARC for the backup target, but the content sharing most likely would and if I have a L2ARC for content sharing, I won’t have it filling up on backup data and pushing media out at all. As for a SLOG or ZIL, I am unsure I’ll need one for my use case but I could add one in later on (media doesn’t get added too often and it’s not critical for the use case… and if a backup takes longer… oh well I’ll be fine!)… and I don’t think I need to turn on sync write as it is.
VDEVS:
Layout of the VDEVS is where I’m the most confused on the most efficient way of doing this. If I separate the different use cases, I’ll be able to have two smaller pools with the VDEVS containing smaller disks and so cheaper to get going. i.e. 4TB drives instead of 8TB… but having 8 drives to start is a bit expensive if it means I need a boatload more drives just to expand a pool…. So layout of the VDEVS in the pool to make it efficient on the disks, but also efficient on the expansion capabilities made me think of two VDEVS per pool…4 drives each but I get a lot of space inefficiency with RAIDZ2 and 4 drive VDEVS, so 5 would be better… but then wouldn’t I need another 5 drives to expand the pool with another VDEV?
FYI this website was very useful in my calculations: RAID Capacity Comparison - WintelGuy.com
Also FYI, the HBA or other parts of the system are not yet confirmed until I know the layout. I want something that will last me a while, in the sense that as I need more space I can add to the pools and not need to rebuild/migrate to do it, so I’ll have plenty of empty hotswap bays for the first few years
Also FYI, sorry for the essay, I know this is a very common topic of questions so I wanted to get as much of my research out on the page … but yes I’m still a noob ... and yes this was written over the course of several days in a word document I've been compiling, but I'm sure to have missed something here.
