my first FreeNAS/Plex Build

[john.doe79]

Hi there,

I already posted that, by mistake in the introduction area, but that was not the place to get feedback on my config ... apologies

My Synology DS415play does not satisfy my demands to PLEX any more, so I would need to get a new one. I build a custom PC for the same price as the DS1019+.

• processor: Intel Core i3-8300, 4x 3.70GHz, boxed
• ram: 2x Kingston ValueRAM DIMM 16GB, DDR4-2666, CL19-19-19 (KVR26N19D8/16)
• board: Gigabyte C246-WU4
• shiny case: Antec P101 Silent
• nice silent PSU: be quiet! Straight Power 11 450W ATX 2.4 (BN280)
• Some local flashy storage: Corsair Force Series MP300 240GB, M.2

I do have:

• 128GB Corsair Voyager GTX
• 256GB Corsair Voyager GTX

To have a mirror boot (OS) pool - might go for some others if some one can recommend me something.

and:

• 3x 4TB WD Red
• 2x 3TB WD Red
• 1x 8TB Seagate (something, currently in a USB enclosure)

I would like to have the 3x 4TB WD Reds as one Pool Raid-Z mainly for an interim to copy the 7TB Data from the USB enclosure to. Can I hook it up to USB 3.0 and access the data locally (NTFS, not encrypted)?

Once the 8TB from the USB is copied to the Raid-Z pool, I would like to have the 8TB as a single disk in the PC case (how to config/call that?). The data will then copied back to the 8TB disk. Once it is there, I would like to erase the Raid-Z pool and create a Raid-Z2 (or mirrored?) Pool out of the 3x 4TBs to have a data storage for my Pictures and Documents (off-site backup is provided in OneDrive).

The 2x 3TB I would also like to put in as a single drives: one will be the target of a DVR (network) and the other will host the Kids Plex library (moving from the 8TB, where currently are all the Plex Libraries).

The Corsair Force Series MP300 240GB, M.2 should become the drive where I host VMs (backing them up to the 3x 4TB (with redundancy) Pool).

Beside FreeNAS I would like to use some plugins/docker/VMs:

• plugin: Plex Media Server (Plex Pass)
• plugin: sabnzbd
• docker: unifi controller (later, when I upgrade my wifi/network)
• docker: pi-hole
• vm: Ubuntu (lab, learning)
• vm: Windows 10 Pro (occasionally testing)
• vm: pfSense (when the network is upgraded, will add a I350-T4 then to the PC)

Is that feasible? Did I overlook something?

 

[pschatz100]

First - I think you are asking a lot of that CPU. I suspect it will not have enough power to run everything at an acceptable speed. A Xeon processor will be much better.
Second - you are not using ECC memory - experienced builders will tell you that's a no-no for running a ZFS file system.
Third - While you can boot from flash drives, the currently recommended approach is to use a small SSD. Using an SSD as a boot device will give you far fewer headaches than using flash drives. Search the forums for comments about this.

Your disk storage is confusing. At the end of the day, how much total capacity do you think you need?

 

[danb35]

Second - you are not using ECC memory - experienced builders will tell you that's a no-no for running a ZFS file system.

See my previous reply to you--while ECC is recommended for any server (indeed, for any case where your data is important), there's nothing about ZFS that makes it uniquely important there.

 

[john.doe79]

@pschatz100 sorry copied the wrong RAM Part number, it is actually KSM26ED8/16ME what I've ordered and it is ECC.

I'll start with that i3 CPU. It is a homelab system to play around. nothing mission critical and most of my Plex stuff plays fine in DirectPlay. Transoding for sync to iPad can take a bit of time. Nothing to worry. If it later keeps pfSense flying, that will also be fine. Windows 10 & Ubuntu VM will be "playing" (no games) with occasionally - if it is to much, I will VM it on my Desktop. And Sabnzbd and unifi controller is also nothing which hammer the system all the time - if 100% CPU usage tell me different, I will send the CPU back and get a Xeon.

Yes the disk setup confuses a bit - but I need to build around existing data to not wipe them out.

Final situation will be:

• 3x 4 TB WD Red having ~3TB usable, with 2 disk redundancy

Rest of the disks in a non Raid-Z config, just as solo drives - no redundancy needed

• 3TB WD Red for Plex Kids TV Shows
• 3TB WD Red for DVR to record to
• 8TB Seagate for other Plex stuff
• 240GB M2.SSD for VMs

I have a ~6 yrs old SanDisk SSD 120GB, would that better to use as a boot/OS drive? Does it work connected at the ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller? wouldn't use up Ports on the Intel for that.

 

[CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet]

See my previous reply to you--while ECC is recommended for any server (indeed, for any case where your data is important), there's nothing about ZFS that makes it uniquely important there.

Time to quote Matt Ahrens again...

"There's nothing special about ZFS that requires/encourages the use of ECC RAM more so than any other filesystem. If you use UFS, EXT, NTFS, btrfs, etc without ECC RAM, you are just as much at risk as if you used ZFS without ECC RAM. Actually, ZFS can mitigate this risk to some degree if you enable the unsupported ZFS_DEBUG_MODIFY flag (zfs_flags=0x10). This will checksum the data while at rest in memory, and verify it before writing to disk, thus reducing the window of vulnerability from a memory error.

I would simply say: if you love your data, use ECC RAM. Additionally, use a filesystem that checksums your data, such as ZFS. "

 

[john.doe79]

I put the comments to the technical bit from the introduction posting here - and it is ECC ram, had the wrong part number in the first post.

First of all, I'd recommend checking out the first two links in my signature.

I will do before I'm going to set anything up.

I'd recommend a different case personally. I'd recommend the Fractal Design Define R5 as the design is superior to the Antec P101 in several ways. I can go into more detail if you wish but for now

Now you made me curious ....

Just be aware that FreeNAS uses the entire capacity of the boot disk(s).

I know, they are flying around and doing nothing anyways ...

The reason my knowledge is lacking in this area is two fold, first I've never had the need to connect a NTFS disk to my server and second, whenever I've stumbled upon the subject, the advice has always been to connect the NTFS disk to a PC and transfer it's data over your LAN. It might be slower but it's safer.

Will do that and copy over the network.

It will also explain why single disk and striped "vdevs" do not protect you against data corruption.

I'm okay with having no data protection here.

Your plan isn't ideal but it should work. As for the quesstion of mirrored vs RAIDz2, that really depends on what performance you require, how you want to be able to upgrade the system and most important of all... how robust your backups are and thus, what level of parity you're comfortable with.

I don't think I will add more 4TB disks to it. It is just random privat data, no blazing high speed required here. Having 3TBs with good data protection against driver failures is fine. Data is also replicated off site and in addition most of it is in OneDrive.

I'd advise you to forget about using Docker on FreeNAS.

Thanks, your explanation sounds logical - will go for jail when possible.

It is a bad idea to run pfSense on FreeNAS. It really should be run on it's own hardware but if you really must virtualise it, you should be using a proper hypervisor. And why not use pfSense for ad blocking?

I do understand that concern. But would hesitate to invest into an appliance before I have tested it with my freaking Telekom Entertain IGMPv3 Multicast crap. pi-Hole would only be an interim solution until I go for pfSense.

Thanks for all your input - gives me a bit to read and study. If I can't get along with it I will just run that box with the Intel Storage Raid in Windows 10 :D

 

[pschatz100]

@pschatz100 sorry copied the wrong RAM Part number, it is actually KSM26ED8/16ME what I've ordered and it is ECC.

I'll start with that i3 CPU. It is a homelab system to play around. nothing mission critical and most of my Plex stuff plays fine in DirectPlay. Transoding for sync to iPad can take a bit of time. Nothing to worry. If it later keeps pfSense flying, that will also be fine. Windows 10 & Ubuntu VM will be "playing" (no games) with occasionally - if it is to much, I will VM it on my Desktop. And Sabnzbd and unifi controller is also nothing which hammer the system all the time - if 100% CPU usage tell me different, I will send the CPU back and get a Xeon.

No problem with that strategy. I started with an i3 CPU and upgraded to a Xeon when I needed more processing power. For a file server, an i3 CPU is OK, but adding the VM's will likely task the CPU quite a lot. I just did not want you to have unrealistic expectations.

I have a ~6 yrs old SanDisk SSD 120GB, would that better to use as a boot/OS drive? Does it work connected at the ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller? wouldn't use up Ports on the Intel for that.

You could use that old SSD if the read/writes are not too high and the SSD is in good shape. Be sure to keep your FreeNAS configuration backed up.

As for your disk strategy, unless your budget is really tight, I think you should add 1 more 4TB disk and configure a 4x4TB Raidz2 volume. This will essentially double the amount of capacity you have under Raidz2 - and it is much easier to do this when setting up the system rather than trying to reconfigure later. I realize that your Plex data may not be critical information that requires redundancy. However, with all the time you put into ingestng Plex data and organizing things, do you really want to be at risk of losing it all due to a disk failure?

Is there some particular reason why you plan to put the Kids TV shows on a separate disk from your other Plex data?

 

[john.doe79]

As for your disk strategy, unless your budget is really tight, I think you should add 1 more 4TB disk and configure a 4x4TB Raidz2 volume. This will essentially double the amount of capacity you have under Raidz2.

couldn't be bothered about disk size - stuff where I want to have good reliability/redundancy is ~1 TB.

I realize that your Plex data may not be critical information that requires redundancy. However, with all the time you put into ingestng Plex data and organizing things, do you really want to be at risk of losing it all due to a disk failure?

If I would really store my Plex and DVR library at a redundant pool, I would need 3x 10TB or 12TB Disks as a Raidz1 - the price tag here is 366 Euro per 12TB IronWolf and that would be 1100 Euro for having ~24TB available - wouldn't spend that atm. So size matters, but at the price/size ration it is not affordable. Also my internet line has a descent speed (for local circumstances), so it could be rebuild fairly quickly.

Is there some particular reason why you plan to put the Kids TV shows on a separate disk from your other Plex data?

not really, just to have more free disk space on the 8TB available more additions to real movies library.