Using DAS with TrueNAS Core

[Ms230000751]

I had an old gaming desktop I've turned into a file server. It has been running Windows 10 and allowing access over the network to a 14TB RAID5 storage volume. This is for a small business that me and my sister are starting. We don't need much at the moment so I am sticking with this desktop as our primary data server with backup elsewhere.

But I want to switch from Windows to TrueNAS. The features and flexibility are more desired, and I use the tower for nothing but file transfer so it makes no sense to have Windows installed there.

My dilemma is this. The desktop has a QNAP-TR004 Direct Attached Storage connected to it. And it works fine in Windows.
But once I install trueNAS Core on the desktop in the place of Windows, does TrueNAS recognize the disks in the DAS so I could add them to a RaidZ pool?

I have a virtual replica of our network setup in VMWare Workstation, and I've already gone in and configured a trueNAS server and got everything working virtually with VHDs - but I am unsure and unable to find a straightforward answer as to whether trueNAS will even recognize the disks in the QNAP-TR004 for me to configure them like Windows recognizes each individual one.

I'm thinking I might temporarily dual boot into trueNAS on that desktop and see if it can detect the disks.

I've been thinking about switching from windows to Linux Samba - and then I saw TrueNAS, and I'm convinced this is what I want to use.

 

[Samuel Tai]

You would probably need to switch the DIP settings of your QNAP-TR004 so all disks would be individually addressed, and this would probably result in having to re-initialize your existing TR004 RAID and losing all the data there currently.

Also, since this is an external USB 3.2 Gen 1 enclosure, best practice with TrueNAS is not to rely on external USB enclosures for primary storage, as their track record of data safety is, shall we say, much, much, less than impressive. USB isn't really engineered for the kinds of load OpenZFS will put on it.

If you're still convinced TrueNAS is the way to go, then I recommend you leave your current "server" as-is, and plan to obtain a new turnkey iX Systems Mini, so you can have both old and new servers operating in parallel, to ease the migration to your new server.

 

[Arwen]

Agreed.

USB enclosures are generally not suitable for use with TrueNAS. This is partly because the USB interface is a funnel. Meaning those 4 disks are speed limited to what that single USB port can handle.

• ZFS does burst writes in a transaction, so many / all the disks are written at once.
• During scrubs, there is a massive amount of reads, all funneled through that single USB interface.
• Then during re-silvers, (aka disk replacements), many disks are read, and one disk is written

Thus, just from a bandwidth / performance point of view, a multi-disk USB chassis is not a good choice when using ZFS. Add in that USB drivers or chipsets may have odd software issues, and that the USB connectors are less than secure, USB is basically not suitable at all for ZFS usage.

 

[Ms230000751]

Got it. Thank you - those answers make a lot of sense. Was hoping to make use of the hardware already at my disposal but data safety and reliability is more important than saving a pay check.

I think I'll stick with the Windows "Server" for right now and budget in a TrueNAS iX Systems replacement server in a month or two.
The desktop just doesn't have the space for all the storage drives I want to use in it, so if I'm skipping USB extensions - time to upgrade!