Thinking about switching to FreeNAS

[winter4w]

Hello everyone first posts here,
So I am looking to improving my storage setup I got going on. Back when I started my home lab I went with Windows Server and Storage Spaces however over the years I have learned a lot. Right now I got two 4TB and two 8TB mirrored. Yes, all important information is backed up else where in the event things go bad. I am looking to turn that server into a Proxmox server so I can move all my stuff into VM's. So with this server going to going to become a hypervisor, I have plans to build a new server only meant for storage and backups. I have been lurking on the forums along with watching many videos the past month and think I came out to a decent build.

I am thinking of getting 8 WD Red 4TB drives and running them in a RAIDz3. Now reading around people don't seem to recommend 8 drives in a z3 instead they suggest 7 drives. Why is this and would it be bad to do something like this? (I would prefer to have a 3 drive failer since I would not want to reconfigure everything and have to restore and make sure all data is intact)

I will have 2 Cheap SSD's mirrored

TrueNAS Case: SilverStone Technology 2U Rackmount Server Case (https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-...&keywords=hot+swap+case&qid=1613773799&sr=8-7)

Motherboard Supermicro Motherboard MBD-X11SSM-F-B (https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-M.../dp/B01GX9RQYE/ref=psdc_1048424_t1_B07Y36YVY3)

CPU Intel Core i3-9100 Desktop Processor 4 Cores up to 4.2 GHz (https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i3-910...PHNBWSGZPA9M#HLCXComparisonWidget_feature_div)

RAM 1x Supermicro Certified MEM-DR416L-CL01-ER21 Micron Memory - 16GB (https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-C...&keywords=DDR4-2133+ECC&qid=1613774120&sr=8-4)

Storage 2x SSD's Mirrored for Boot and 8x 4TB WD Red

PSU: Corsair SF Series, SF450, 450 Watt, SFX, 80+ Platinum Certified (https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Plat...&sprefix=PSU+Plat,electronics,196&sr=1-8&th=1)


ZYT PCIe SATA Card, 4 Port with 4 SATA Cable (https://www.amazon.com/Ziyituod-Con...13774365&s=electronics&sr=1-3#customerReviews)

^^^^^^^ All SATA ports on the motherboard will go to the WD Red HDD the SATA card will be to connect the two SSD's for TrueNAS Boot Drive



Server Tasks I have:
Main storage for Proxmox. If not snapshots for my Proxmoxs server to backup VM's
Storage be shared with family members along with handling backups with Minio
Preform Snapshots and offsite backups of important files

And that's so far the idea, let me know what you guys think of this hardware and setup and if there are other (Possible cheaper) options you guys will suggest. I am looking forward to joining the community

Thanks

 

[Samuel Tai]

Be sure to get the Red Plus, which is CMR, not the base Red, as that's SMR.

 

[winter4w]

Be sure to get the Red Plus, which is CMR, not the base Red, as that's SMR.

Yep I did notice that will for sure get the ones that are CMR

 

[pschatz100]

I don't think there should be any technical issue with an 8 drive RaidZ3 pool. In the very old days with earlier versions of ZFS, there were some performance issues related to certain pool configurations. For a storage server, this configuration would be fine.

With an 8x4TB RaidZ3 pool, you will have roughly 20TB of raw data (somewhat less after formatting and pool overhead,) and you can lose three drives before data is at risk.

For a data server only, you can get away with 16GB RAM. But if you plan to run VM's, I would suggest 32GB RAM will give you more flexibility and better performance.

 

[winter4w]

I don't think there should be any technical issue with an 8 drive RaidZ3 pool. In the very old days with earlier versions of ZFS, there were some performance issues related to certain pool configurations. For a storage server, this configuration would be fine.

With an 8x4TB RaidZ3 pool, you will have roughly 20TB of raw data (somewhat less after formatting and pool overhead,) and you can lose three drives before data is at risk.

For a data server only, you can get away with 16GB RAM. But if you plan to run VM's, I would suggest 32GB RAM will give you more flexibility and better performance.

Thanks! Ya, I don't have plans to run VM's on it since I will have a separate computer with Proxmox. However, if I do start the add more to it I will have the flexibility to pit in a few more sticks.

 

[ChrisRJ]

With 4 TB drives, at least I would feel comfortable using RAIDZ2 (I actually run eight 16 TB drives in RAIDZ2).

Why did you choose 4 TB models over other capacities? Price per GB?

 

[ChrisRJ]

And my usual question ;-) Have you considered used gear? Older Supermicro boards (I have an X9 SRi-F) would be more than sufficient for your needs (as I understand them) and considerably cheaper.

 

[winter4w]

With 4 TB drives, at least I would feel comfortable using RAIDZ2 (I actually run eight 16 TB drives in RAIDZ2).

Why did you choose 4 TB models over other capacities? Price per GB?

Okay, cool yea I figure to play it extra safe and to do a RAIDZ3. I picked the 4TB because 8 4TB drives in a RAIDZ3 should be more than enough storage for me right now and should be able to last for some time. I also have (2x8TB and 2x4TB) in my windows server storage pool so I was thinking I could just take the two 4TB out and put them in the TrueNAS and move all the data off of the 2 8TB to TrueNAS so I can then convert my windows server into proxmox hypervisor server.

And my usual question ;-) Have you considered used gear? Older Supermicro boards (I have an X9 SRi-F) would be more than sufficient for your needs (as I understand them) and considerably cheaper.

I have checked out used gear mainly I would prefer new since I do have plans to store my stuff along with family stuff on it. I figure unless I get a lemon new will be the best for reliability. The case I got plans on getting to (https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-...s=hot+swap+case&qid=1613773799&sr=8-7&ozlp-20) only supports microATX boards

 

[ChrisRJ]

In general a 5 year old server-grade motherboard, CPU and RAM will be more reliable than something new. Simply because the dead-on-arrival ones have been "pruned out". So from that point of view you will not be worse off. Hard disks are a different game though, there I would indeed by new.

 

[Redcoat]

In general a 5 year old server-grade motherboard, CPU and RAM will be more reliable than something new. Simply because the dead-on-arrival ones have been "pruned out". So from that point of view you will not be worse off. Hard disks are a different game though, there I would indeed by new.

I completely agree. I got myself "over the newbie hump" with FreeNAS Mini, added a backup used Dell C2100/FS12-TY for my first experience with used. The Mini gave more pain because of the Intel problems (well supported by iXsystems) , the Dell was "informative" to manage but faultless. When both went south in a fire (all HDD's recovered, thankfully, as they were above the waterline) I built two SM X9SCM-F based Xeon boxes last year (one used board, one actually new/unused after a flakey used one that might actually have been due to a bad CPU...) which have been just fine. For my home setup's boxes I can't now imagine going only "latest-new" for anything but drives and PSU.

 

[winter4w]

In general a 5 year old server-grade motherboard, CPU and RAM will be more reliable than something new. Simply because the dead-on-arrival ones have been "pruned out". So from that point of view you will not be worse off. Hard disks are a different game though, there I would indeed by new.

I completely agree. I got myself "over the newbie hump" with FreeNAS Mini, added a backup used Dell C2100/FS12-TY for my first experience with used. The Mini gave more pain because of the Intel problems (well supported by iXsystems) , the Dell was "informative" to manage but faultless. When both went south in a fire (all HDD's recovered, thankfully, as they were above the waterline) I built two SM X9SCM-F based Xeon boxes last year (one used board, one actually new/unused after a flakey used one that might actually have been due to a bad CPU...) which have been just fine. For my home setup's boxes I can't now imagine going only "latest-new" for anything but drives and PSU.

Any MicroATX used board recommendations then? Prefer one to use the i3 since looking for something that's not too power-hungry.

Thanks

 

[ChrisRJ]

My go-to are Supermicro X9 boards at the moment, because DDR3 RAM is cheap. For a precise recommendation I cannot help, since I only have ATX-sized X9SRi-F for the number of RAM slots.