Help me build my first NAS

[LogOuT]

Hi Everyone,
I plan to build a new NAS and use TrueNAS as my OS, and I need help on a couple of topics.

Let me get you up to speed-
I currently use Qnap TS-230 (entry-level) and plan to build the new one from scratch.
I use the current one mainly to store, organize and stream my photos, videos, and media library.

My Plan-
Case- Jonsbo N1 (already bought)
Motherboard- Gigabyte H610I (only ITX in the budget)
CPU- Intel 12400 (6C/12T) and use the stock cooler (I don't know if ill need to upgrade).
RAM - 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 3600Mhz corsair Vengeance CL18 (I don't know if ECC is an option)
Storage- 3X WD Red plus (4TB- RaidZ1), 1X WD Green SATA SSD (240GB- Boot drive), 1X M.2 SSD (512GB - cache)
PSU- CoolerMaster 750W 80+ Gold (not that expensive).


Questions-
1. Any comments about the setup?
2. What should I use, TrueNAS Core or Scale?
3. Any suggestion on the Media server platform? (Plex, Emby, Jellyfin).
I mainly use my Sumsang TV and use DLNA, which works well.
4. any suggestion for expansion SATA cards? (have only four and maybe expand).


Thanks for your help :)

 

[Arwen]

Welcome to the forums!

Couple of points;

• RAID-Z1 is generally not recommended for larger hard drives
• In general, a ZFS L2ARC cache drive is not recommended until you have maxed out your memory
• Server motherboards are desirable because they tend to last longer, but may cost more. So used is an option.

In answer to your questions;

1. See above
2. Think of Core as the more stable option for now. And SCALE as the option if you need to run many apps
3. I don't have any
4. The most reliable option for more SATA / SAS ports is an LSI based HBA. Many SATA expansion cards are less reliable.

 

[Davvo]

1. Any comments about the setup?

You should consider server-grade hardware. If budget is an issue, you can buys used: supermicro used boards are a solid choice.
Besides that, as Arwen said you shouldn't use a L2ARC. 4TB disks are still acceptable for a Z1 pool imho, but keep in mind the danger.

2. What should I use, TrueNAS Core or Scale?

Based on your use case, SCALE should be your first choice since plugins are kinda dead on CORE; that does'nt mean you can't install ie PLEX on CORE, but you need to do so in a jail.

3. Any suggestion on the Media server platform? (Plex, Emby, Jellyfin).

IIRC, both Plex and Emby are used by a good amount of people on this forum. Either one should be fine from a "I want to go on a path others have opened" mindset. I personally am not able to suggest you more than this.

RAM - 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 3600Mhz corsair Vengeance CL18 (I don't know if ECC is an option)

Not with that MOBO/CPU combo. I strongly suggest you to go ECC.

I suggest you the following readings:

Introduction to ZFS

This is a short introduction to ZFS. It is really only intended to convey the bare minimum knowledge needed to start diving into ZFS and is in no way meant to cut Michael W. Lucas' and Allan Jude's book income. It is a bit of a spiritual...

www.truenas.com

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

ECC vs non-ECC RAM and ZFS

I've seen many people unfortunately lose their zpools over this topic, so I'm going to try to provide as much detail as possible. If you don't want to read to the end then just go with ECC RAM. For those of you that want to understand just how destructive non-ECC RAM can be, then I'd encourage...

www.truenas.com

Oh, welcome on board!

 

[Davvo]

PSU- CoolerMaster 750W 80+ Gold (not that expensive).

Also, make sure an ATX-sized PSU fits inside your case. Usually you need SFX for such compact systems.

 

[LogOuT]

Welcome to the forums!

Couple of points;

• RAID-Z1 is generally not recommended for larger hard drives
• In general, a ZFS L2ARC cache drive is not recommended until you have maxed out your memory
• Server motherboards are desirable because they tend to last longer, but may cost more. So used is an option.

In answer to your questions;

1. See above
2. Think of Core as the more stable option for now. And SCALE as the option if you need to run many apps
3. I don't have any
4. The most reliable option for more SATA / SAS ports is an LSI based HBA. Many SATA expansion cards are less reliable.

Thanks for the warm welcome.
Can you explain or refer me to an article about RAID and L2ARC?
I saw a video on LTT about the build they did the exact setup.
Why it's not recommended to do RAID-Z1, and why it's not recommended to use the M.2 SSD as L2ARC (i already have the drive laying around)

 

[LogOuT]

Also, make sure an ATX-sized PSU fits inside your case. Usually you need SFX for such compact systems.

The PSU that I chose is SFX.
Can you explain what's the difference between jails and plugins?

 

[Davvo]

The PSU that I chose is SFX.
Can you explain what's the difference between jails and plugins?

A plugin is basically a jail maintained by someone else.

 

[Etorix]

I think ECC with Alder Lake requires W680 chipset. Which sends us back to suggest looking into server-grade motherboards, quite possible a few generations older, as a NAS does not require the latest and greatest.
A 750W PSU is severely oversized for a mini-ITX setup. As the case limits the number of drives you can use, forget about a HBA and just plug everything into the motherboard. (If there are not enough SATA ports, get another motherboard!)

Can you explain or refer me to an article about RAID and L2ARC?

For raidz1, look for "RAID5 is dead". The same math applies to raidz1.
And especially if the NAS is going to be your sole data repository (which it shouldn't; "ZFS is not a backup"), raidz2 should be considered the minimum to ensure that a minor hardware failure can be overcome. (Major failures, say the house going up in flames, do require an external backup.)
For L2ARC it's simple (and explained over and over): L2ARC requires RAM to hold its reference table; if there's not enough RAM to begin with, this will evict ARC and decrease performance. L2ARC should also never be larger than about 5*RAM, maybe 10*RAM at the utmost.
First setup your system, use it and measure the ARC hit ratio in real use. If it's too low, increase RAM and measure again. If it's still too low and you're at 64 GB or higher, then you may consider a 256 GB L2ARC. No need to spend anything if the hit ratio is close to 100% already…

I saw a video on LTT about the build they did the exact setup.

LTT as in the "Linus" guy who managed to lose all of its data with ZFS not once but twice, with the same mistake and the same wrong setup?
That's as strong a pointer as I could imagine that you should NOT do as he advises…
The wise never stumbles twice on the same stone.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Can you explain or refer me to an article about RAID and L2ARC?

The articles recommended above. You really should read those. ZFS is different from other file systems, sometimes in ways that come as a surprise.

I saw a video on LTT about the build they did the exact setup.

Well, their videos about TrueNAS are certainly entertaining. But some of the content is at least debatable in my opinion. So I would caution to simply follow their lead and assume that everything is done properly. Just to echo what @Etorix already said.

Why it's not recommended to do RAID-Z1, and why it's not recommended to use the M.2 SSD as L2ARC (i already have the drive laying around)

Again, please read the articles recommended

 

[Davvo]

About L2ARC you can also look at this video, but you better read the ZFS Introduction before in order to understand.
About Z1, the short answer is that the size of the current drives means significantly longer resilvering and that exposes you to danger.

 

[joeschmuck]

Questions-
1. Any comments about the setup?
2. What should I use, TrueNAS Core or Scale?
3. Any suggestion on the Media server platform? (Plex, Emby, Jellyfin).
I mainly use my Sumsang TV and use DLNA, which works well.
4. any suggestion for expansion SATA cards? (have only four and maybe expand).

1. Do not use a cache drive. I did not look at all your hardware but the MB does not use ECC RAM (according to the manufacture's website).
2. TrueNAS Core. As others have said, Core is reliable and proven, Scale is up-coming and really not ready (even if it is considered Release), and is designed more for virtual machine use.
3. If you are using DLNA and are happy with it, you could install MiniDLNA on Core in a jail and benefit from using less power. You would not need to replace the CPU cooler. MiniDLNA just hosts files, no transcoding. Simple and lightweight. I have a Samsung TV as well and it like DLNA as well.
4. Your motherboard comes with 4 SATA ports, that is just enough to get your system running. 3 hard drives and one SSD boot drive. This is about as far as you go with this setup.

One other thing: If you wanted to use Plex (because MiniDLNA on FreeBSD has a few minor issues), it will run on TrueNAS Core 13 with 16GB RAM. I run Plex as well periodically but I do not run any other pieces of software on TrueNAS due to limited RAM. Also, Plex has DLNA service built in. just saying.

Read the suggested reading links that the others have provided. Read the User Manual for the hardware you selected. There is no substitution for knowledge and do not expect everyone here to do the work for you (although we may). I understand this is all new to you but this is not your normal file system, ZFS is different.

 

[Davvo]

ZFS is different.

ZFS is da best!

 

[LogOuT]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the information.
I chose to make some changes to my setup-
I bought another 4TB WD red plus, and now I have 4 of them and use them in RaidZ2.
Unfortunately, I can't find a server-grade motherboard that fits the budget so I will stick with the current one.
And I can't use ECC memory either, but I will upgrade to 32Gb RAM.
For the Boot drive will use the M.2 SSD instead of the SATA SSD (I don't have any SATA connections left).

Do you have any other suggestions?
Would it be beneficial to split the M.2 SSD Boot drive and use the other part for the LOG drive of some different variation?

 

[Etorix]

Would it be beneficial to split the M.2 SSD Boot drive and use the other part for the LOG drive of some different variation?

NO!
First, it is not a supported configuration.
Second, home uses generally do not need a SLOG.
Third, a SLOG has specific hardware requirements (PLP, high endurance) which are NOT met by cheap boot drives.

 

[Davvo]

I have to waste an entire drive just for booting?

With the advent of TrueNAS Scale, we seem to be getting a large number of people from the Linux community who are not quite grasping what TrueNAS is. TrueNAS is not a "Linux distro" and it is not designed to try to meet your arbitrarily spec'd...

www.truenas.com

 

[LogOuT]

About the ECC RAM, Would DDR5 will make a decent update?
I can buy DDR5 32GB 4800Mhz and I learned that DDR5 have a kind of ECC memory built in.
Would it make a difference?

 

[Etorix]

That's "just" internal integrity check for the faster rate of DDR5 and not regarded as proper ECC. Server-grade DDR5 ECC modules are not released yet.
Considering that a NAS does not generally require the latest and greatest hardware, you'll save both trouble and money by sticking to DDR4.

 

[Davvo]

That's "just" internal integrity check for the faster rate of DDR5 and not regarded as proper ECC. Server-grade DDR5 ECC modules are not released yet.
Considering that a NAS does not generally require the latest and greatest hardware, you'll save both trouble and money by sticking to DDR4.

Strongly agree. Don't be a pioneer.

 

[joeschmuck]

About the ECC RAM, Would DDR5 will make a decent update?
I can buy DDR5 32GB 4800Mhz and I learned that DDR5 have a kind of ECC memory built in.
Would it make a difference?

Just to make sure that you know... You do not need ECC RAM to run TrueNAS. You only need ECC RAM and TrueNAS (ZFS) if you absolutely value your data. It really is that simple. If you value your data then you must build a system that meets the recommended design specs, and the system hardware must be able to support the RAM you install. Refer to the manufacturer documents for the motherboard and CPU.

 

[Davvo]

You do not need ECC RAM to run TrueNAS. You only need ECC RAM and TrueNAS (ZFS) if you absolutely value your data.

Why would someone go with ZFS if they wouldn't care about their data? And imho, since they care about their data, ECC is not an option.