Is this nas configuration stable?

[laptop nas]

This NAS is new, I don’t know how long it will last.
My System details list:
swift sf114-34
Seagate Expansion 4TB
TP-Link UE306 USB 3.0 to RJ45 Gigabit
512GB PCIe NVMe SSD

Intel® Celeron® Quad Core Processor N5100

TrueNAS-SCALE-23.10.1

DDR4 2800MHZ 4GB

 

[Etorix]

Using a laptop to serve a single-drive ZFS pool attached through USB, and using a USB Ethernet adapter which likely contains a cheap Realtek NIC? (All possibly on advice from a YouTube "tutorial"?)
There's absolutely nothing in there which sounds right, or "stable".

 

[laptop nas]

I didn't want to spend the money to buy a new Desktop, so I made it out of what I already had.

 

[Arwen]

It is perfectly understandable that you want inexpensive hardware. And it may work for you.

Sun Microsystems developed ZFS for the Enterprise Data Center type computers. While ZFS can and does work on lesser hardware, (I use it on an old 2 core, 2GByte RAM laptop from 2014), speed can be an issue as well as reliability. Now my old laptop is quite reliable, (running Gentoo Linux), but I only keep it around because it is kinda a throw away. (Meaning if broken or stolen, I write it off instantly.)

Next, TrueNAS was designed for Enterprise Data Center type computers too. Their are specific requirements to make a TrueNAS server reliable, which means no USB attached data disks, though USB attached boot disks can be used. Plus, 8GBytes of memory is required for reliability. Then, USB attached Ethernet adds another layer of unreliability. Even power save on a laptop can cause problems.

We here in the forums want people to have good experience, meaning no data loss, reasonable speed & reliability. Your setup might work, and work fine for years.

But, if you ever have problems, we may not be able to help. Or may not want to go down that rabbit hole of unusual hardware.

In any case, good luck.

 

[laptop nas]

Ok thank you

 

[HoneyBadger]

Hi @laptop nas

While almost any system can run TrueNAS, your hardware unfortunately doesn't quite meet the recommended minimum requirements as outlined in the SCALE Hardware Guide:

SCALE Hardware Guide

Provides information on system hardware and system minimum requirements. Included information covers CPUs, storage considerations and solutions, media and controllers, device sizing and cooling, SAS expanders, and system memory.

www.truenas.com

Your USB attached hard drive is also likely based on Shingled Magnetic Recording technology, which can have performance and stability consequences as well.

You can certainly use this system to gain an understanding of operating and managing a TrueNAS system, but I would have to caution you against storing anything irreplaceable on here quite yet.