TrueNAS VM using Proxmox local disk (system) and remote iSCSI (data) from another TrueNAS?

[CDuv]

TL;DR: Can I have a TrueNAS SCALE server N1 sharing data over iSCSI with a Proxmox server P1 hosting a TrueNAS SCALE server N2 consuming said iSCSI drive?

Hello,

I have the following two working servers:

• N1: a TrueNAS SCALE (v23.10.0.1) server with nine 2TB HDD (in RAIDZ2 setup) and 64 GB of RAM
• P1: a Proxmox (v7.4) server with eight 1TB HDD (in RAIDZ2 setup) and 64 GB of RAM : it's part of a 4-nodes cluster but other nodes are lighter/smaller

I want to serve files to my users over SMB, so I need a NAS, so I will:

1. Create a Zvol "N2-data-zvol" on N1
2. Share this Zvol over iSCSI
3. Declare a new iSCSI storage on P1 that accesses this iSCSI share from N1
4. Create a VM for N2 with 2 virtual disks: one local (for system) and another that uses the declared iSCSI storage (for data)
5. Install TrueNAS SCALE on the VM

Advantages:

• All my data are on one server (N1: that I must backup of course)
• N2 is virtualized:
  • easier state/configuration backup
  • I can scale up or down CPU and RAM
  • I can move N2 over my cluster when I need to perform maintenance on physical servers (cluster nodes)

Disadvantages:

• The setup requires 2 physical servers and a VM to be up (N1, P1 and N2) and working network between them

That last part is where I have no clue of it's a no go or not: Can TrueNAS, iSCSI and/or Proxmox handle network disconnection fine?

Note: I am using a dedicated LAN (separate Ethernet NICs) between N1 and P1 for the iSCSI trafic: let's call it a "SAN".

Other thought: I initially thought N2 could access iSCSI share from N1 directly (avoiding any configuration on Proxmox) but it looks like TrueNAS is not meant to have it's data on a remote server (oops?).

Is there a network protocol other than iSCSI that would be a better fit for this project?

NB: This is thread was also started on Proxmox's community forum.