Just Getting Started... Would Appreciate Advice

[jerryfudd]

Hi,

Just getting started with my first TrueNAS system - yes, I'd always 'heard' of FreeNAS but after deciding to build my own system a week ago its become very much apparent after installing that I didn't even comprehend what the platform really was or capable of being!

As I stands I've ditched off my direct access storage and used 8x12TB disks in a raid-z2 pool maxing out my HBA card capacity which has given me about 60TB of usable storage which I've mounted on a Mac mini running Plex Media Server.

Then I've also ditched off my 2 disk mirror Synology NAS in favour of moving those 2x6TB disks in a mirror via the onboard motherboard SATA ports to take over for general file storage.

Also added 2x1TB SSD drives in a mirror off the last two onboard sata ports mainly because the only remaining slots on the case were 2x2.5" and I figured why not, so I've set that to jail storage - though I'm not currently running any.

Finally, using a 500gb M.2 drive on the motherboard to boot the machine and have set my System Dataset Pool to the boot-pool - I'm not even sure what this means, but I've done it.

All this is running on a Asus H110M-A/M.2 board with a i5-6500T CPU @ 2.50ghz and 32gb RAM. Using a Noctua NH-L965 CPU cooler and also adding in an Intel 82576 dual gigabit ethernet card, bond those together as my switch supports LACP. Bundled together in a Fractal Design 804 case with 6x Noctua 120mm NF-S12A case fans keeping everything cool and a be quiet! Pure Power 11 600W CM PSU. The HBA I mentioned is in the PCie 3 x 16 slot leaving a PCie 2 x 1 for the Intel Dual NIC (if I had better PCie slots remaining I'd of tried something better)

Also considering moving the Plex Media Server onto the TrueNAS by way of plugin or virtual machine not sure which is preferable and if the cpu is good enough for the task.

Would be interested to know how all this sounds as moving currently moving data about and have just been winging it thus far. I'm only just getting my head around all this and have vdev's, iocages etc etc on my hit list to learn about.

Oh, backups. Currently my plan was to use my old 6x4TB direct access storage units - which I have two of which were previously raided but now reconfigured as individual disks giving me 12x4TB of storage (I know that wont cover everything at 100% full on the PureNAS but will do for now) to just mount the pools as SMB shares and automate the process of syncing the data down. My media is already sorted into 4TB folders so a folder per disk which makes it nice and easy.

I also have even more 4TB spare disks for the occasional or once a month offline backup by way of a USB connected trayless hard drive caddy.

How does this sound to the experts?

 

[jerryfudd]

Oh, I also have some Cloud Storage to backup some absolute essentials there too via the Cloud Sync Tasks.

 

[sretalla]

I've mounted on a Mac mini running Plex Media Server

Also considering moving the Plex Media Server onto the TrueNAS by way of plugin or virtual machine not sure which is preferable and if the cpu is good enough for the task.

Why wouldn't you run plex in a jail on the NAS? You can't go wrong if you just try it. I suggest you do that. (how well it will go will depend on what you're watching from which devices and how much transcode you need it to do, but I think you're probably fine to transcode even a few simultaneous streams with that rig)

set my System Dataset Pool to the boot-pool - I'm not even sure what this means, but I've done it.

This avoids the writes that come with the reporting database and system logs going to spinning disks, so keeps the system quiet and activity on the spinning disks limited to what's needed for accessing "real files".

 

[jerryfudd]

Why wouldn't you run plex in a jail on the NAS? You can't go wrong if you just try it. I suggest you do that. (how well it will go will depend on what you're watching from which devices and how much transcode you need it to do, but I think you're probably fine to transcode even a few simultaneous streams with that rig)

Thanks for the input, I asked on the Plex forum and was advised not to - so figured once things have calmed down I'd give it a go anyway.

I seem to recall reading a post saying there was some preference to a Ubuntu Server VM running Plex Media Server rather than the Plex Media Server FreeNAS plugin due to being able to apply updates directly from Plex themselves rather than relying on a maintainer to update the FreeNAS repo.... I'm not sure of any pro's or con's outside of that but seems like a good argument to go for the latter.

I'm only serving Plex to my household so me watching direct play streams of uncompressed 4K discs I've ingested and the kids transcoding that on to their tv or tablets. It's very rare that we have over 1 Plex stream going at anyone time and I've never seen it above 2.

I really did think FreeNAS was just a hinky DIY NAS, but quickly going down the rabbit hole that this could take the place of many bits of hardware that I dabble with with. Very impressive stuff.

I was forced down this route when the HBA I bought was stuck in IT mode so couldn't create a hardware raid for my drives and seeing as the common issue was how to get HBA's into IT mode for FreeNAS thought I'd give it a shot.

 

[sretalla]

being able to apply updates directly from Plex themselves rather than relying on a maintainer to update the FreeNAS repo

Just put this in your jail and run it when you see there's an update published... it's so mature now that it gets all the options from the plex config automatically. So easy.

GitHub - mstinaff/PMS_Updater: Shell script for updating the Plex Media Server inside the FreeNAS Plex plugin

Shell script for updating the Plex Media Server inside the FreeNAS Plex plugin - mstinaff/PMS_Updater

github.com

I really did think FreeNAS was just a hinky DIY NAS

UNIX is not the OS of choice for serious compute for nothing.

I was forced down this route when the HBA I bought was stuck in IT mode so couldn't create a hardware raid for my drives and seeing as the common issue was how to get HBA's into IT mode for FreeNAS thought I'd give it a shot.

Hardware RAID can be great if you're paying top dollar for parts and vendor support, but it's so problematic if you're just an individual with a budget in 4 figures... TrueNAS is great, ZFS is key (and works so well if you understand what it's doing and don't mess with it).