True noob - turn my old rig into a nas?

Joined
Jul 25, 2022
Messages
2
Hey everyone, while I have known about NAS's for quite a while, and in general would have liked to create one for myself, I have never really started digging into the details. And boy, are there details.

Simply put, my goal is to create a small server I can use for a few things (does not require much storage):
-As I work from home, I would like this to contain my work files, that I could easily access from my desktop and laptop to easily switch work places (does not need to be able to work on the same files at the simultaniously) (relatively small files, but it will contain many (10s if not 100s of thousands) files)
-Redundancy (for now, planning on just buying 2 HDDs and using 1 purely as backup, later if I may expand I could use 2 for the storage and 1 for the backup, incase 1 drive fails out of the 3?)
-Ability to run some custom scripts on it (I would like to have it possibly targz a certain directory with a password, which could then be uploaded to google drive/dropbox as an offsite backup, on a weekly basis)
-Possibly in the future a media server (mostly for music, perhaps a few movies as well) and/or a small minecraft server (within the household only, so a handful of players only)

For the future parts, I could do that when I plan on upgrading the systems hardware perhaps down the line.

I currently have an old rig, in a gaming tower, that I could possibly use to save some cost (fairly nice case with 8 hdd drive bays and plenty of cleanable dust filters and airflow), it also still contains some hardware:
-AMD FX-8120 (first eight core cpu)
-970 Extreme3
-2x 4GB Corsair DDR3 1333 MHz CL9 (CMV4GX3M1A1333C9)
-Radeon HD 6570 Club
-Chronos 120 GB SSD (very old I will probably just replace, unless I will need a seperate drive from the cache as boot drive, I suppose I could reformat and use this)
-Corsair TX550M (not from this build, from a different pc from late 2019 but has been replaced and collecting dust now)

If this would suffice, I was contemplating perhaps building it in there, and adding:
1x WD Red SA500 NAS SATA SSD, 2,5 SATA, 500 GB (€70) (cache/boot drive? if required seperate ones, I will just buy a different ssd (120 gb), or is 500gb for a mere cache drive overkill? (it was the smallest I could find of this type), and I read somewhere it worked well as a cache drive)
2x Seagate 4 TB IronWolf 3,5 inch hdd (5900 RPM, 64 MB cache, 180 TB/year, tot 180 MB/s), zilver (€100 each, 1 to use and 1 for redundancy)
Cost wise the 1TB ones are already 60eu and I couldn't really justify paying either 60 for 1TB or 80 for 2TB if 4TB costs 100, and I could potentially run out of physical space having to replace them in the future)

If the existing hardware is insufficient, my current desktop uses a 3700X, I was planning on upgrading that to a 5900X down the line since they are on the same socket.
I could repurpose the 3700X for the NAS, but then I would be required to buy a new mobo + ram again, so feel free to suggest some parts for me in that scenario!

Kind regards and thanks for the long read,
Alex
 

Arwen

MVP
Joined
May 17, 2014
Messages
3,600
First, re-using old desktop or gaming computers is not advised. You can do it, but, sometimes their are problems. One of which is the built in network chip. Some RealTek chips have less than ideal performance.

Re-using an old SATA SSD is probably fine. Just make sure to back up your TrueNAS configuration upon any changes. You can even mirror the boot drive if you have left over SATA SSDs and want the warm fuzzy that it will be more reliable.

The general rule for L2ARC, (aka Cache drive), is you max out your memory first, before adding a L2ARC drive. This is because the directory for the L2ARC is in memory, reducing your first level ARC, (which resided exclusively in memory).


Overall, we generally recommend server grade hardware for longevity and reliability. Lots of used servers are available that are quite suitable, even if they are 4 or so years old.
 
Joined
Jul 25, 2022
Messages
2
First, re-using old desktop or gaming computers is not advised. You can do it, but, sometimes their are problems. One of which is the built in network chip. Some RealTek chips have less than ideal performance.

Re-using an old SATA SSD is probably fine. Just make sure to back up your TrueNAS configuration upon any changes. You can even mirror the boot drive if you have left over SATA SSDs and want the warm fuzzy that it will be more reliable.

The general rule for L2ARC, (aka Cache drive), is you max out your memory first, before adding a L2ARC drive. This is because the directory for the L2ARC is in memory, reducing your first level ARC, (which resided exclusively in memory).


Overall, we generally recommend server grade hardware for longevity and reliability. Lots of used servers are available that are quite suitable, even if they are 4 or so years old.
Thanks for your feedback.

Reliability wise, my top priority is data loss, so if for example a piece of the old rig dies in the longer run, as long as the data is still on the drives it would not be a huge deal to me at the start.

Thanks for clearing up the info about the cache drive, I will ignore that step for now then.

I will most likely start with simply reformatting the old SSD into a boot drive (I also saw I had an older seagate barracude 250gb in there, could this also be used as to mirror the boot drive as a failsafe?)
And adding the 2x Seagate 4TB ironwolf drives to begin configuring it and trying it out.

In a little while I will then most likely start upgrading the NAS and replacing my desktop cpu, I made a small list of parts I was thinking of getting in this case:

ASRock B550M Steel Legend (Should support ECC memory and 2.5gb LAN)
2x Kingston 16GB ECC DDR4-3200
Crucial P2 250GB M.2 SSD (to replace the older boot drive)

That total setup would cost me around 150 + 200 + 35 euros (ignoring the cost for the new cpu for my desktop)
 

Arwen

MVP
Joined
May 17, 2014
Messages
3,600
Yes, in general, if the server hardware dies but the disks are still good, you can load the disks into another server and get the ZFS pool(s) back. Even on a Linux computer.

Using an older Seagate Barracuda 250GB as a mirror is probably okay. Just look up the model and verify it is not a SMR drive.

Having a Mirrored pool of 2 x Seagate 4TB Ironwolf drives would be fine. Not as secure as a 3 way Mirror or RAID-Z2, but if you have backups, sure.

Most people use their boot devices til they die. As long as you have current backups of your TrueNAS configuration, you can recover to exactly where you were, in the event that single boot device fails. With mirrored boot devices, much less of a problem.

Have you looked at server boards?

Gigabyte, Tyan, Asus, Supermicro & ASRock all have server boards. Sometimes you can get them used for a reasonable amount of money. Of course, Europe's used server market is different from the US.
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
Moderator
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
10,970
It sounds like you have done a little research. When I advice a new person on building a new TrueNAS server here are the main points I like to state:
1) Know your redundancy. How important is your data? @Arwen has pointed out this to you (an many other things as well). But if your data is Very Important then a RAIDZ2 or even a RAIDZ3 might be good, or a 3-way mirror (depends on your data needs)
2) Know your storage requirements. If you think you will need 2TB of storage right now, well how much storage will you need in 3 to 5 years? I say this because hard drives typically last 3 to 5 years. Next double the capacity because we all tend to store more than we anticipate plus extra free space makes the system run better.
3) Hard drives are the one consumable item you will purchase, meaning you expect to replace them after the warranty period. Expect does not mean they will just die, some last well beyond but some do not. I'm not saying to go buy 5 year warranty drives, mine are 3 year drives and have been running for close to 5 years with no issues.
4) The computer, CPU, power supply, etc... (rest of the chassis) is generally not a consumable. You expect these to last 10+ years. Typically people outgrow the hardware and replace it. But there are times when hardware fails, it just happens.
5) Keep the system cool. Heat kills. This also means that small cute cases are cute, not cool as a general rule.
6) If you can, do not power off the system each night, let it run 24x7. Hard drives tend to last longer and yes, there is a reason but not getting into it right now.
7) One of the most important parts... Read up on TrueNAS, read the User Guide several times. If you only want a plug-in-play unit, TrueNAS is not it. When things go wrong (and they do, like a drive failure), you need to be willing to learn the proper method to replace that hard drive. It's not difficult but some people do try to make it difficult.

TrueNAS is one of the best free NAS products out there. You can't come close the the throughput and feature set for an alternate NAS box.

My last tidbit of advice, do your research on what your requirements are and expect out of this system, do not build a cheap system or you very well may hate it. My system is old but it does more than I need and I'm very happy. There are good deals on server hardware but you need to look, you need to do a proper burn-in test of the hardware, new or used. New things fail too. It should take a few days minimum before you can put data on your system with some trust it will be reliably retained.

Sorry, one last thing that many new people overlook and it's a big one. Adding more storage isn't as simple as adding one more drive. We all are waiting for that day but with ZFS (the file system), it's not there yet. So it you have two 4TB drives as a mirror, that means you have about 3.8TB of storage max. If you wanted to add another 4TB you would need to add two more 4TB drives as a mirror to do it properly. Or better yet, save off all your data, destroy the mirror, put all four 4TB drives into the system and create a RAIDZ2. Now you have 2 drive failures of redundancy and about 7TB of redundant storage.

Good luck and hope TrueNAS is what you are looking for.
 
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