New NAS

[Slarty01]

Hello, Firstly thank you for all of the work posted, I have to say I'm slightly overwhelmed.

Please I have a collection of existing parts to replace a very slow QNAP TVS-951X which is running RAID 5 5x 4tb Ironwolf drives. and x1 10tb WD Red drives as an EXT4 USB 3 Drive

I have a spare server that was based on a
Z97 Pro Gamer board (I inherited it so I haven't a clue why)
Intel i7-4790 CPU
8Gb Non ECC Memory 1600
x1 M.2 Sata card 128Gb
x2 LSI SAS 9207-8i IT Mode SATA SAS 6Gb/s PCI-E 3.0 Host Bus Adapter
x2 WD Red 10tb HDD
x2 Evo 850 1tb ssd (hoping to use as L2ARC Read and write)

I was wondering I have loaded the FreeNAS OS on the M.2 SATA slot on the board with 128Gb spare board I had, Its up and running?

My questions are

1) Can I use this board as a temporary solution as I need more video footage space, Can I start on this system and increase the drives as I progress from basic ZFS RAIDZ2 (can I use the x2 SSD's as L2ARC and x2 WD Pro's as x4 drives or is that being wishful? Should I wait until I get x2 or x3 more drives to do this build?

2) Can I replace the motherboard later with the same OS install using the Drive array and Pool?

Any help to this saturated mind much appreciated!

 

[danb35]

Can I use this board as a temporary solution as I need more video footage space

Should be able to. It isn't ideal for all the reasons discussed in the guide, but I'd expect it would work.

increase the drives as I progress from basic ZFS RAIDZ2 (can I use the x2 SSD's as L2ARC and x2 WD Pro's as x4 drives or is that being wishful?

You could use the SSDs as L2ARC, but it's unlikely you'd need to. You can't use the two disks as four without a lot of command-line hacking that's pretty strongly discouraged.

Can I replace the motherboard later with the same OS install using the Drive array and Pool?

Certainly.

 

[Slarty01]

danb35 Thank you for your responses. Very much appreciated! with regards to the SSD's and L2ARC so really I need to use x1 SSd as L2ARC and add x4 proper drives to start? or. this is where my sticking point is, I'm unsure of the configuration at this early stage. Due to cost it will be around five months before I can get in a x5 10tb drive system.

 

[danb35]

so really I need to use x1 SSd as L2ARC

It's unlikely that you need L2ARC. If you do, you can add it later. But if you find you need more ARC, add RAM first. On the disks, be aware that you can't turn, say, a four-disk RAIDZ2 into a five-disk RAIDZ2. If you want five disks in the array, you'll need to have them there to start. There's work in progress to change this, but it's still a long way out at best.

 

[Slarty01]

danb35, Thank you very much for the details, really appreciated, I will make RAM my first priority. I will wait until I have a minimum of 5 drives I feel I also need a minimum of 2 drive failure so. You have me thinking as I intend to get hold of a 16 bay case and increase the server regularly. I also now have been told that there is an old Dell server at hand, I need to check the board but apparently it is dual xeon processors. I will see its 2008.. hmm

The aim of my setup is an automated Plex Server for 10 people 1080p streams not all used concurrenly and a download system using the standard Radarr etc. 1 other use in time would be an RTSP Server for live drone footage.

Thank you again for your support and responses

 

[pschatz100]

For your intended use, I don't think disk performance will be an issue. As @danb35 commented, you can always add L2ARC later - but I doubt you will need it. However, although you can build the system with 8GB ram to start, I think it will be much happier with 16GB.

As a Plex server, whether or not transcoding becomes an issue will depend upon the video formats you store and the playback devices being used. I would spend some time in the Plex forums to make certain you understand this.

 

[Slarty01]

Thank you I will do as you say. Many thanks!