Migrating Virtual to Physical install with just 8GB of RAM?

[HarambeLives]

TLDR:

• 8GB enough for a bare bones TrueNAS config? only care if it can saturate 1Gb networking
• Can I backup the config and restore on completely different hardware?

Full Details:

I have 2 TrueNAS boxes, both in my sig. One Physical and one Virtual. The Virtual one only holds snapshot replication from the first NAS, and media like movies and TV shows. I don't backup movies and TV shows because its not the end of the world if I lose them and I get just get them again. This NAS just needs to be fast enough to complete snapshot replication every 15 mins with minimal data change, and serve PLEX to a max of 1 client, ever.

The ESXi box it runs on uses a lot of power and generates a lot of heat, and I'm looking to decommission it. I have already moved all VM's apart from TrueNAS from the dual Xeon box to my new ESXi host which is an Asus PN50 Mini PC with a Ryzen 7 4800U (Funnily enough, the 4800U with a 15w TDP benchmarks the same as a Xeon E5-2680 v4... Imagine that)

Now, I just need to figure out TrueNAS. I would just convert the chassis into a disk shelf and connect it to NAS01, but then I lose the ability to have a backup NAS with snapshot replication. But, I do have some spare hardware:

• ASRock H270M-ITX/ac (ITX, but has a single x16 I could throw the HBA in, also has an M.2 Slot, and it has dual Intel NIC's)
• Intel Pentium G4560 (2 Cores with Hyperthreading at 3.5GHz)
• 2 x Crucial 4GB DDR4 2666MHz
• Misc SATA and NVMe SSD's

So, my plan here is to ditch the Xeons and put this ITX board inside the Supermicro chassis, and just make this my second NAS. Will 8GB of RAM be enough for this? I will be running no jails, VM's, etc. Just incoming replication and serving media. If it could max out a 1Gb connection, I will be happy.

Second question is, what's the best way to migrate? Can I just update to latest software, backup config, and then do a fresh install and restore the config, while importing the pool? Is that the idea of it?

I could of course buy more RAM, but I feel like I'm throwing money at nothing in that case. The goal will be to eventually replace it with some real-ish hardware.

 

[HoneyBadger]

For your setup, where you're just receiving replication and doing very light sharing, I've run on 8GB. Performance wasn't stellar, of course - I saw symptoms of in-memory metadata starvation (eg: slow directory listings) so I'd look at picking up some more RAM.

Slow (2666MHz) DDR4 should be pretty cheap to obtain these days - just make sure you give the system a good burn-in.

So, whatcha gonna do with those E5-2680v4s? Asking for a friend ...

 

[HarambeLives]

For your setup, where you're just receiving replication and doing very light sharing, I've run on 8GB. Performance wasn't stellar, of course - I saw symptoms of in-memory metadata starvation (eg: slow directory listings) so I'd look at picking up some more RAM.

Slow (2666MHz) DDR4 should be pretty cheap to obtain these days - just make sure you give the system a good burn-in.

So, whatcha gonna do with those E5-2680v4s? Asking for a friend ...

I did think about selling them, but have you seen how much prices have dropped? You can get them for $40 now!!!! The board, a Supermicro X10DRW-E is WIO form factor, which isn't very popular. If you are though let me know

I'll give it a shot with 8GB, thanks!

 

[HarambeLives]

Dumb me, its a VM! I just lowered the RAM to 8GB and I'll see how it does