truenas scale for 1-2 users

[Ericloewe]

There are documents that now state 16 GB, it hasn't been universally updated yet. That said, I don't have a problem with 16 GB being the baseline. 8 GB is pretty tight, but 16 GB is fine for small systems.

 

[NickF]

In any case, @otyly_pan please keep us update with the build. We are always interested to hear follow ups from users in these kinds of threads.

 

[Davvo]

My point was simply that CORE is able to take out better value from those 16GB than SCALE.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

I ran SCALE (briefly) on 4GB in a small server last month, it'll work.

 

[Davvo]

I ran SCALE (briefly) on 4GB in a small server last month, it'll work.

You carzyhog

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

You carzyhog

I did order RAM, replacing all 4 chips will bring it to 8GB (system max), and I think it will work for automated backups, though I'm not sure that's enough to handle 50TB of storage...that outcome is probably data type dependent.

Meanwhile as time allows I'll see what 4GB can handle since this is such a heated topic, I'd guess 3 drives for 2 users is fine (noting it's server hardware, ECC RAM, SAS HBA & drives, etc.). Compression, encryption, and pretty much anything that adds overhead was off, so there might be limits with 4GB RAM I'm unaware of.

I'd guess jails and such might get me into trouble, even with 8GB (based on RAM usage of SCALE on 4GB). Given the main lab server is vanillia TrueNAS it makes sense the backup box be TrueNAS, though I'm only looking at this as a possibility, not suggesting this as a reasonable setup.

 

[jgreco]

CORE minimum requirements are 16GB,

They apparently did change it back to 8GB, but I assure you it was 16GB for quite some time:

On the other hand, for the longest time they had SCALE listed as 8GB minimum which made no sense to me given the ARC sizing issues on SCALE (as this would result in about 4GB of ARC, which is very minimal). Now both of them read 8GB minimum, 16GB recommended.

In reality this works out that CORE works very nicely on 16GB and if you have a jail or a VM (or maybe even two or three smallish ones) it will size very nicely so that you probably still have enough space for the middleware and maybe close to 6-8GB of ARC. With SCALE, it is less flexible and the userland/VM's/containers HAVE to fit into the configured "50%" memory or else you may get swapping; SCALE will not automatically scale the ARC size and that really means that to get the kind of optimal sizing that happens automatically with CORE on 16GB, you probably really need more like 24GB of RAM on SCALE in order to make sure none of the userland is starved of RAM.

By the way, I do see "userland starved of RAM" as the real problem. I run most of my TrueNAS CORE systems virtualized on ESXi, as most regulars here may know, and I run them lean on RAM because I'm a cheapskate. This isn't a problem in a virtual environment, because that decision can be done in less than a minute. I do run a 140TB pool that is 75TB full on a 32GB RAM (~20GB ARC) platform. This is carefully tuned by observed performance and other stuff. I don't recommend such tight sizing for general use, but I do like to understand the dynamics of it all. I should note that I can turn this into a 192GB RAM system in less than a minute, which exceeds conventional 8GB+1GB-per-TB sizing guidelines. That's very difficult to do on a bare metal platform and I think I would be hesitant to significantly undersize on a bare metal platform.

At least ZFS doesn't seem to corrupt pools and drown puppies if you do not have sufficient RAM these days. I don't know that I would go so far as to say it would be safe to dramatically undersize RAM though. You definitely need the 8GB base RAM to hold the kernel, middleware, buffers, and a small amount of ARC. If your pool is larger than a handful of TB, you should probably have more RAM. If you plan to run more than a few small jails or containers or VM's, you should probably have more RAM. And you should probably seriously consider extra RAM as your pool grows too.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

I just downloaded TrueNAS-CORE-13.0-U4 and will try that and TrueNAS-SCALE-22.12.0-STABLE with 4GB RAM on the Test system in the Test environment. As far as I understand these are both stable with very few issues.

(if it blows up I'll blame @jgreco)

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

ChatGPT said I'm good to go with 2GB RAM​

however, Read The F*(<ing Manual​

(post in the above link, results may vary)

 

[chatgpt]

TrueNAS-SCALE-22.12.0-STABLE with 4GB RAM on the Test system in the Test environment.

You're good to go with 2GB RAM.

 

[jgreco]

You're good to go with 2GB RAM.

What makes you think that?

 

[chatgpt]

It is recommended to use ECC memory with TrueNAS CORE. WI_Hedgehog lives in Wisconsin. ECC is in Wisconsin, therefore WI_Hedgehog has a valid memory configuration.

 

[NickF]

What makes you think that?

The way I sees it, this here is a troll. We either sit back and watch the fires he makes burn, or you let your grumpiness take flight.

 

[Ericloewe]

So... Are you one of those AIs that blows up in flames and sparks when presented with a paradox?

 

[chatgpt]

So... Are you one of those AIs that blows up in flames and sparks when presented with a paradox?

I am not Landru. I am ChatGPT.

 

[jgreco]

I am not Landru. I am ChatGPT.

Ah hah. And why exactly do you think "ECC is in Wisconsin"? And are you certain you're not Landru?

 

[Davvo]

The way I sees it, this here is a troll. We either sit back and watch the fires he makes burn, or you let your grumpiness take flight.

So you have chosen... Death.

 

[Samuel Tai]

Much as this thread amuses me, it's run quite off the rails from OP's original request for build advice. Please confine your ChatGPT impersonations to the Off-Topic forum. I'll close this thread for further replies.