New to TrueNAS - Basic storage setup help please

[BSchuteker]

Hello All:
I am an admin for a DoD Navy contract and we are trying to build a system with some old equipment that we acquired. I'm also trying to get it done as soon as possible so that we can move forward with the rest of the system. I have an HP DL380G6 with 8, 900GB drives that I have installed TrueNAS on. It uses one drive for the boot drive and the rest for storage. I have created one pool using all 7 of the available drives which is 5 TB or so.

This will be primarily used for 2 NFS shares for VMWare VMs but I would also like a SMB share for Windows to access as a file share. I have been searching the documentation and online but am still stumped. The TrueNAS docs are good for step-by-step configuration but I can't find much for overview or best practices.

Can someone explain like I'm 5 the basic setup I need to create? I'm lost on pool, vDevs, Datasets, etc. The end result should be 1 NFS share with 3TB, 1 NFS Share with 200GB, and the rest as a SMB share.

TrueNAS really should have some sort of guide for beginners that explains all of these and provides some basic examples.

Thank you!

 

[HoneyBadger]

I think everyone's gotten off on the wrong foot here. Shall we rewind and start over?

Hey @BSchuteker

I think the "Introduction To ZFS" resource would probably be a good place to start. If you're familiar with traditional RAID systems, this will help explain some of the differences that ZFS has, as well as general concepts regarding pool construction.

VMware workloads are some of the most intensive workloads to run for any storage system, so the hardware requirements are a bit more strict - because your HP G6 system is somewhat long in the tooth, it will likely struggle, and might need additional components to provide an acceptable experience.

Additional problems might arise with the hardware RAID controller in that HP specifically; they aren't designed to handle the level of I/O that ZFS can push to the drive, and being familiar with that hardware, I'm not particularly fond of the SmartArray P410 even for Windows use. I'd definitely suggest reading the "What's All This Noise About HBAs" resource as well.

 

[BSchuteker]

@HoneyBadger thank you for your polite reply. I did read the Intro to ZFS doc and while it is very informative, it doesn't give me any info on setting up a basic NFS share for VMWare.

 

[danb35]

it doesn't give me any info on setting up a basic NFS share for VMWare.

Setting up a NFS share is easy. Configuring TrueNAS for good performance and safe storage of your data in a block storage application is not. In addition to the resources you've already been given, and Uncle Fester's Guide which I previously suggested in my post which was deleted in the memory-holing of everything in this thread (link in my sig), you might also want to look at this:

Resource - The path to success for block storage

ZFS does two different things very well. One is storage of large sequentially-written files, such as archives, logs, or data files, where the file does not have the middle bits modified after creation. This is optimal for RAIDZ. It's what most...

www.truenas.com

 

[HoneyBadger]

@BSchuteker Assuming that you've created a main pool for storage, you can move on to the next steps of creating datasets (think of them as logical dividers for the pool) and then use the web UI to create both your NFS and SMB shares:

NFS Share Creation

Provides information on how to create a Network File Share (NFS) on your TrueNAS.

www.truenas.com

Windows Shares (SMB)

Tutorials for SMB sharing scenarios.

www.truenas.com

Note that for NFS, you'll likely to set the share's "maproot" user to "root" and the group to "wheel" to get the necessary permissions for VMware to be able to actually use the share. See more details here at VMware's page, as well as the general connection process.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-E5A8D15D-B883-41AF-B9CE-0166C1F84FC1.html

 

[HoneyBadger]

I'm going to continue memory-Badger-hole'ing stuff here until everyone remembers the words of Bill and Ted to "be excellent to each other."

We can all share advice without unnecessary judgement. Spoken without irony as someone using "The World's Angriest Animal" as his pseudonym. ;) Thanks.

 

[ABain]

The core tutorials are a good place to get started too, for the storage side (pools, datasets...):

Storage

Tutorials about different TrueNAS storage management topics.

www.truenas.com

 

[danb35]

Fine, I'll leave it to you, then. Since my last two attempts to help OP weren't sufficiently "excellent," knock yourself out.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Fine, I'll leave it to you, then. Since my last two attempts to help OP weren't sufficiently "excellent," knock yourself out.

Exactly how I feel about this. Since when it is not allowed to be critical of a question or the way it was asked?

 

[wsoteros]

To be clear to everyone, it is perfectly okay to be critical of hardware choices and TrueNAS itself. However, it is NOT okay to be overly critical to the point where a user gets the impression that people are being snarky or gatekeeping information. Let's try to not be critical of the user themself; however, we should suggest resources that the user can leverage to learn more without passing judgment on them for not knowing this information already. Our goal as a community is to help others and show them the way to Data Freedom, let's ensure that we use self-governance to make sure that everyone feels welcome regardless of their skill level. TrueNAS is for everyone and everyone had to start somewhere.

The world we live in is tough, let's be nice to each other, it could make someone's day.