TrueNAS Core HP ProLiant gen9 + PLEX + NVIDIA (1080Ti) video transcoding on fly

[Diggun]

Hello!

Before writing, I tried for a long time to find answers to my questions, but unfortunately I don't have enough experience to understand everything.

So, I've owned a Plex video library on Synology for over 15 years now. At the moment most of the library is 4k 10 bit HDR video. Unfortunately sometimes transcodig to 1080 on the fly is required. That's why I've to buy a new server. So I have decided to buy a rack server with 10-12 standard size HDDs (LSS). My choice is the HP ProLiant 380 gen9:
- 2xXeon E5 v2699 v3 or v4
- 16 Gb memory
- Nvida 1080ti

The main task of the server:
1. Video library storage
2. On-the-fly 4k 10 bit HDR -> 1080p 8 bit SDR decoding (up to 4 streams / 4 users)
3. Maximum number of users - 4

Questions I couldn't answer:

1. I understand TrueNAS Core does not support RAID controller p440ar. Read the article at the link and
i still do not understand if TrueNAS Core will work on HP ProLiant gen9 or need to look for other hardware
2. Is it possible to use hardware acceleration (Nvidia 1080) for on-the-fly transposition in a TrueNAS Core / Scale + PLEX

Thanks in advance for replies and any help!

 

[Diggun]

Unfortunately didn't get any feedback. So I will be forced to put another operating system.

What I was able to find and understand (perhaps wrongly):
- TrueNAS can be installed on hp 380 gen9 or dell 730 on raids in passthrough mode (the hardwire raid will not work)

In this regard, I decided to use del730 with Windows Server 2016 operating system instead of hp 380 gen9. Disadvantage of this build is that there is no ZFS.

Maybe it will help someone.

 

[sretalla]

1. You want to do hardware transcoding in Plex.
2. You have a RAID controller.

in answer:

1. The FreeBSD (TrueNAS CORE) version of Plex removed support for hardware transcode some months back. Perhaps you could consider SCALE.

2. That's not going to be good for ZFS. either replace it with an HBA or figure out if it can be flashed with proper IT firmware to make it into an HBA, otherwise, ZFS is not for you.

 

[Diggun]

Thank you very much for your reply.

1. I see, only TrueNAS Scale can be used with Plex for hardware transcoding

2. If I understand correctly if raid controller works as HBA then TrueNAS will be able to work with ZFS.

If the raid controller can support HBA Mode, is this sufficient for TrueNAS to work correctly?
For example, DELL 730H controller can work in HBA mode - https://www.dell.com/support/manual...cc87e1-d534-451a-9947-56f1175886c5&lang=en-us.

 

[sretalla]

If the raid controller can support HBA Mode, is this sufficient for TrueNAS to work correctly?

Have a look here;

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

This is relevant to FreeNAS and TrueNAS CORE. Some parts of it might also be relevant to Scale, but I don't really know how reliable the Linux drivers are. 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...

www.truenas.com

But to short-cut it for you, HBA mode in a RAID controller isn't good enough, it must be properly "lobotomized" into IT mode firmware or you still risk data loss with ZFS.

 

[Diggun]

I see, thank you!

If you don't need ZFS, you don't need to bother, just build an array on a native controller and put TrueNAS Scale ?

 

[sretalla]

If you don't need ZFS, you don't need to bother, just build an array on a native controller and put TrueNAS Scale ?

TrueNAS SCALE also uses ZFS exclusively, so I'm a little confused by the statement.

If you don't want to or can't get your disk controller to be a proper HBA, both versions of TrueNAS are probably not for you if you prefer not to lose your data.

You could go with something like OpenMediaVault instead and use the RAID controller.

 

[Diggun]

Let me ask you another question:

Can I install TrueNAS Scale without ZFS ? Then that solves a lot of questions for me:
1. I am using dell native controllers
2. I get TrueNAS as an operating system

As far as I understand - all the complexity is using standard raid controllers with ZFS.

 

[pschatz100]

I believe @sretalla already answered your question. TrueNAS SCALE uses ZFS exclusively.

If you are not willing to use a properly configured HBA, then you cannot use ZFS and therefore you cannot use TrueNAS. Simple as that.

Supported HBA's are not expensive and there are lots of threads about this in the forum - not to mention the link earlier in this thread.

Good luck.

 

[Diggun]

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately, I still don't know if I can use TrueNAS for my purposes or not. Apparently, this is the fate of specialists :) I'm just an amateur and I'm looking for simple solutions for my needs.

Thanks again for your time!

 

[sretalla]

Unfortunately, I still don't know if I can use TrueNAS for my purposes or not.

What we're trying to tell you is that you can, just not with the RAID card in the system as you have it now... get a cheap HBA replacement for it and all will be fine for what you want.