New TrueNAS user-Best RAID configuration?

[Seb_Hall97]

I will be buidling my first personal home NAS soon using TrueNAS and I'm looking for some advice on the best way to setup my drives. Purposes of this NAS are:

1. Archive all my old data I no longer access but still need to keep in one centralised location where I can be confident it's reliably and conveniently backed up. My cloud Drive is filling up and data is spread across multiple external drives!
2. Media server-store media files to stream to my TV/PC/phone.

The drive's I will be using are:

• 3x 12TB Seagate Ironwolf to 'archive' all my old data
• 1x 1TB SATA SSD exclusively to stream media from
• M.2 for the TrueNAS OS itself (I'm aware I can't use any remaining capacity for file storage)

What is my best option in regards to a RAID setup on the Seagate drives? I had initially planned to RAID1 (mirror) 2x of the drives and use the 3rd for backups of the data on the first 2 drives (snapshots?).



OR


Should I combine all 3x Seagate drives into RaidZ and backup to the cloud/external drive.

In terms of storage space I need 12TB minimum raw storage space from whatever method I use, ignoring the SSD.

 

[Jessep]

3- way mirror

 

[Etorix]

Not enough drives for the targeted space.
Raidz1 is not considered secure enough—especially if there's no backup.
3-way mirror is fine, but too small.
Get a fourth drive for raidz2.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Without more details, I would say that using an SSD for pure streaming of media content is overkill. Normal HDDs are generally fine. What are your detailed requirements?

Since this is your first TrueNAS build (Scale or Core?), here are a few general comments (those are also, and probably even more, meant for others who might come across this in the future):

• ZFS (and by that TrueNAS) is very different from other file systems. So much so, that without knowing those differences, it is easy to build something that is unreliable and will eventually damage your data. Even if you have 20+ years experience with servers in a mission-critical context, there will be surprises for you. So please read up on TrueNAS.
• For several months now, we have had quite a few people come here, who decided to go for TrueNAS because of a YouTube video. The majority of those videos are crap and give bad or even false advice. There are exceptions, but only because a YouTuber said something on TrueNAS, it does not have to be correct. That warning explicitly includes some very large channels.
• We recommend that people spend a good time reading the information compiled in this forum to gain a solid background. With that knowledge come up with your planned build and have it checked by the forum. If you order components before, you may end up with a system that does not protect your data.
• Please schedule more than 5 days for all this. Coming up with a good system takes time. For comparison: With more than 10 years of ZFS experience and more than 25 years in the server space in general, it took me more than 2 months until I had my perfect build. This is on the extreme side (I am a perfectionist), but a few weeks as someone who is new to this, is a reasonable time frame.

For the information on TrueNAS, please check the "Resources" section (link at the top of the screen). I also have a list with some of those in my signature (see "Recommended readings").

Good luck!

 

[dj423]

The majority of those videos are crap and give bad or even false advice. There are exceptions, but only because a YouTuber said something on TrueNAS, it does not have to be correct. That warning explicitly includes some very large channels.

You aren't kidding. I admit I am a bit guilty of drinking some of the kool aid out there, until I came here and got schooled by other members. Just watched another big youtuber last night build a "Fastest all-SSD NAS" blowing some five grand on it, to see 3MB transfer speeds, until he put an HBA in it, and even then, it didn't seem ideal or a very solid setup. Comes off as marketing BS more than anything when you factor in use cases and storage needs.

Youtube is usually a pretty good source of info for fixing washing machines, dish washers, learning Linux, etc. But when it comes to building a NAS, best to search this forum for a few days!!

 

[gatsdbylee]

Without more details, I would say that using an SSD for pure streaming of media content is overkill. Normal HDDs are generally fine. What are your detailed requirements?

Since this is your first TrueNAS build (Scale or Core?), here are a few general comments (those are also, and probably even more, meant for others who might come across this in the future):

• ZFS (and by that TrueNAS) is very different from other file systems. So much so, that without knowing those differences, it is easy to build something that is unreliable and will eventually damage your data. Even if you have 20+ years experience with servers in a mission-critical context, there will be surprises for you. So please read up on TrueNAS.
• For several months now, we have had quite a few people come here, who decided to go for TrueNAS because of a YouTube video. The majority of those videos are crap and give bad or even false advice. There are exceptions, but only because a YouTuber said something on TrueNAS, it does not have to be correct. That warning explicitly includes some very large channels.
• We recommend that people spend a good time reading the information compiled in this forum to gain a solid background. With that knowledge come up with your planned build and have it checked by the forum. If you order components before, you may end up with a system that does not protect your data.
• Please schedule more than 5 days for all this. Coming up with a good system takes time. For comparison: With more than 10 years of ZFS experience and more than 25 years in the server space in general, it took me more than 2 months until I had my perfect build. This is on the extreme side (I am a perfectionist), but a few weeks as someone who is new to this, is a reasonable time frame.

For the information on TrueNAS, please check the "Resources" section (link at the top of the screen). I also have a list with some of those in my signature (see "Recommended readings").

Good luck!

I signed up to leave "thank you" msg to you.

 

[Morris]

Your applications are not demanding. RAID Z1 as a minimum, RAID Z2 safer yet you require another disk. SSD is not need for video. Read about the risks of double disk failure with RAID Z1 and large hard drives and see if this is acceptable. If you have additional copiers of your data else ware than RAID Z1 might be fine for you.