Possible conversion have questions.

[triten]

So I built a 8 bay rack server about 8 years. ill post specs when i get home from work cant remember off the top of my head. But its all server type hardware with a dedicated raid controller.

I am currently running windows server 2012 r2, i was going to do some fancy stuff back in the day and thought i needed the power of server software. It ended up just being used as just a NAS, and a dedicated plex server. it has a raid6 with 4 / 8 drive bays being used. that raid is pretty much full using 5tb drives.

I am about to order 4 new 12tb drives and build a new raid6 array. But my question is since i dont need any of the power windows server offers should i now make the switch to freenas? The server will only be used as NAS and hosting plex. My questions are below.

1) should I go with freenas Core or Scale or just stick with server 2012? Looking for just simplicity and upgradeability.

2) Would i have any issues if i make the OS switch and create the new "raid6" with the (4) 12tb drives getting the data from the old raid6 from the current windows raid? and would it be difficult?

3) does having the raid controller create issues with freenas as that is whats is being used to plug the raid bays in?

4) All the computers in the house are windows 10/11 is the interaction to the server if swapped to freenas simple and clean?

5) the server is currently headless so all access and editing is done using remote desktop. I can plug a monitor in temporally to do a fresh install if needed is this something i need to do?

6) My biggest concern is getting the data off the old raid6 drives and onto the "new" array.

 

[chuck32]

ll post specs when i get home from work cant remember off the top of my head. But its all server type hardware with a dedicated raid controller.

Do that! You do not want to use a raid card with truenas. You need a HBA card (if it supports hardware raid it needs to be flashed in IT mode). Others can tell you more about this. Truenas uses software raid.

1) should I go with freenas Core or Scale or just stick with server 2012? Looking for just simplicity and upgradeability.

2) Would i have any issues if i make the OS switch and create the new "raid6" with the (4) 12tb drives getting the data from the old raid6 from the current windows raid? and would it be difficult?

3) does having the raid controller create issues with freenas as that is whats is being used to plug the raid bays in?

4) All the computers in the house are windows 10/11 is the interaction to the server if swapped to freenas simple and clean?

5) the server is currently headless so all access and editing is done using remote desktop. I can plug a monitor in temporally to do a fresh install if needed is this something i need to do?

6) My biggest concern is getting the data off the old raid6 drives and onto the "new" array.

1) truenas would offer ZFS, which is why I'd recommend going with scale or core. I don't know about the feasibility of running Plex as a jail, I'm using scale.
2) No, you would need to restore the data from backup or put your old array into another machine. Then copy the files via smb. Truenas will not be able to use the array as the filesystem will not match.
3) yes, see above
4) no problem, I use all windows machines and just created smb shares in truenas. Works well with using the same share for Linux VMs and windows PCs.
5) if you have server hardware you may can use ipmi for initial installation otherwise you'd need a monitor and keyboard for the initial setup.
6) see 2)

 

[Heracles]

with a dedicated raid controller.

No-Go for any TrueNAS server.

I am about to order 4 new 12tb drives and build a new raid6 array.

Repeating the same No-Go about hardware Raid.

1) should I go with freenas Core or Scale or just stick with server 2012? Looking for just simplicity and upgradeability.

If you insist on hardware Raid, you have to forget about TrueNAS. Linux and Windows are options but TrueNAS is not.

2) Would i have any issues if i make the OS switch and create the new "raid6" with the (4) 12tb drives getting the data from the old raid6 from the current windows raid? and would it be difficult?

With TrueNAS, Yes, a ton of issues including high risk of corruption that will ruin your pool and loose all its content.

Another one is that TrueNAS is ZFS and ZFS only. If you build anything with any other OS first, it is almost certain that it will not be ZFS and that TrueNAS will not be able to read it / use it.

3) does having the raid controller create issues with freenas

Yes, a ton of issues. See this post by @jgreco about this.

4) All the computers in the house are windows 10/11 is the interaction to the server if swapped to freenas simple and clean?

TrueNAS can share over SMB and clients should be able to mount these shares as easily as they would mount shared from Windows.

5) the server is currently headless so all access and editing is done using remote desktop. I can plug a monitor in temporally to do a fresh install if needed is this something i need to do?

It can help for sure. If you have a management card like an iDrac (Dell servers), you can do it over that card instead.

6) My biggest concern is getting the data off the old raid6 drives and onto the "new" array.

You will need to copy the content over the network with a tool like rsync. You can not import the filesystem from Windows into TrueNAS.

 

[Davvo]

If you are willing to commit, going SCALE sounds like your best shot.
CORE requires a bit more fiddling.

 

[chuck32]

Can you specify which drives exactly you are ordering? They must be CMR, not SMR drives for use with truenas.

 

[triten]

sorry for the late resonse.

I just ordered 4 x 12tb WD red plus drives.

Server hardware is as follows:
CPU - Xeon E3-1231 3.4ghz (Intel Xeon E3-1231V3 Haswell 3.4 GHz LGA 1150)
MB - SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLM+-F-O uATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150
Ram - 16GB Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) ECC Unbuffered DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Server Memory
Raid card - Adaptec 6805

 

[Heracles]

Raid card - Adaptec 6805

Again, do not build a TrueNAS system with such a hardware raid controller. You will loose everything like so many others before you who chose not to listen to this advice.

 

[triten]

got it ... i bought and built it years ago primarily for the mini-sas connectors it had. but now would like to switch to truenas using my current hardware.

i guess this isn't possible.

 

[Davvo]

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

 

[triten]

maybe its just time to update the server hardware.

here is a question. can a raid z2 pool be expanded? ex. i use the 4 current new 12tb drives to great the pool can i add additional drives to it to make the pool larger?

this would make the transition easier as i can take about the current server and let it run on a table while i reinstall a new server in the same case with new hardware

 

[Heracles]

here is a question. can a raid z2 pool be expanded?

Yes and No.

You can if you use the auto-expand feature of ZFS or add an extra vDev to your pool.

Auto-expand is replacing one by one every drive in the vDev with a larger driver. Once every drive replaced, the vDev will automatically increases to the new volume available thanks to these larger drives.

You can also add an extra vDev in the pool. You take your new drives and create a new RaidZ2 vDev and then add that vDev to your pool.

But No, you can not have your actual 4 or 6 drives large RaidZ-2 and add a few more drives to go to a single RaidZ-2 with say 8 drives. This feature has been on the roadmap for ages and it is still suppose to happen but we have been waiting that for so long, you can not wait for it.

 

[triten]

You can also add an extra vDev in the pool. You take your new drives and create a new RaidZ2 vDev and then add that vDev to your pool.

this is where i am getting confused by the terminology. whats the difference from vDev and pool?

say i have 4 x 10tb drives in zf2. that would give me 20tb of storage with 2 redundant drives (raid 6 ideally)

Am i better off doing that again to add more storage (4 drives in zf2 again)? Or should i start with a 5 or 6 drive zf2 (say 6x 10 tb) giving me 40tb of storage with the 2 in redundancy (raid 6)

and down the road if i need more storage just great a new 4-6 zf2?

 

[chuck32]

That is your decision unfortunately. What helped me personally was to really understand: RAID is not a backup, losing your pool should be inconvenient at best, not a catastrophe.

All setups have different pros and cons. I'd recommend mirrored vdevs over multiple 4 wide RAIDZ2 vdevs. You gain speed and it's easier to upgrade the size. You can either add another mirrored vdev or replace just two disks for more storage. RAIDZ2 forces you to replace all of your drives in that vdev to get more storage.

If you do not want to steer away from RAIDZ2 you should go for a 6 wide RAIDZ2. But that is only my opinion, others may recommend other setups.

 

[Davvo]

say i have 4 x 10tb drives in zf2.

Let's try to use the correct terminology, ZF2 doesn't exists... You mean RAIDZ2.

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer

We realize that new users have a lot to learn when they come to FreeNAS. There's a certain amount of confusion added to discussions when users pick random/approximate terms to describe things. I've spent a lot of time quietly trying to...

www.truenas.com

 

[triten]

You mean RAIDZ2.

yes that is what i meant.