Bikerchris
Patron
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2020
- Messages
- 210
Hello All,
I would be keen to have your thoughts and comments, does this server arrangement make sense for me?
Thank you for taking the time to read, a lot of my knowledge has come from this forum. I look forward to receiving any comments.
I would be keen to have your thoughts and comments, does this server arrangement make sense for me?
I've been using FreeNAS and then TrueNAS in a disposable/learning situation for a few years now, and am closer to making it production. It is a brilliant and rock solid system with the right hardware. All hardware is most definitely burned in, all hard drives are thoroughly tested. I've really been grateful for the help from this community, thank you all.
I've had one machine that's been my primary storage, a server of sorts. Today I bought a 14TB drive to store all files (instead of the 4 mixed drives I'm currently using), backed up with Backblaze during the transition and to allow me to re-use the machine as a TrueNAS snapshot Server (Referenced as "Server2" below)
Purpose is a mixture of Personal (weekly use) and Business (daily use). SyncThing will replace historic use of Dropbox and G Drive for hourly changed files (CAD Drawings, photos and videos). I then have personal photos/videos as well as Plex (am warming to Emby, Jellyfin install didn't go well) for entertainment via a Nvidia Shield attached to TV as well as PC's. I'll also be using the server for PC backups (3 Nos.)
I did rent an office, but I was given 6 months to build my new office in the back garden and that's where my workstation is now. I've put Primary and Secondary servers in the house (loft), with the intention to protect them from roof failure at a later date. I'm keeping an eye on temperatures as well and plan to put them in an insulated box with good ventilation. My new concern is energy conservation, with KWh prices of around $1 being possible in my country (UK) soon.
This isn’t related to a data privacy concern, but data integrity. I’ve spent decades storing data on hard drives using Windows machines, a few times files have become corrupted. I’d quite like to pass on my data to the next generation if possible…if they even care about it!
Thru L1Tech, Lawrence Systems and Craft Computing I learned of TrueNAS, it seemed to be the logical solution, even if it’s not as turnkey as the alternatives (Synology, etc.) and very disk consuming. Again, this community was and continues to be immensely helpful.
Also, Google Drive doesn’t seem to like files exceeding 5GB (throws up sync errors) and Dropbox seems to be less immediate than it has in the past, potentially because it’s a free account that I’ve been using for many years. I’m constantly teetering on the edge of using up that dropbox 20GB storage limit, it’s really annoying having to play musical data every week or so!
Thru L1Tech, Lawrence Systems and Craft Computing I learned of TrueNAS, it seemed to be the logical solution, even if it’s not as turnkey as the alternatives (Synology, etc.) and very disk consuming. Again, this community was and continues to be immensely helpful.
Also, Google Drive doesn’t seem to like files exceeding 5GB (throws up sync errors) and Dropbox seems to be less immediate than it has in the past, potentially because it’s a free account that I’ve been using for many years. I’m constantly teetering on the edge of using up that dropbox 20GB storage limit, it’s really annoying having to play musical data every week or so!
It's around 12TB, at least half is films & TV Shows (a controllable amount, as I have all original media disks), the rest is personal with around 1-2TB of important work files. I've come to a realisation that what I really need is a larger working dataset than I have now, which is Google Drive (1TB) and Dropbox (22GB).
I would say that 1GB of work files is added every 2 weeks, so 26GB per year. Probably about the same amount of personal videos/photos are also added. The entertainment media is something I can control, but may be around 1TB per year not allowing for deletion.
I would say that 1GB of work files is added every 2 weeks, so 26GB per year. Probably about the same amount of personal videos/photos are also added. The entertainment media is something I can control, but may be around 1TB per year not allowing for deletion.
Server 1 (See signature)
3TB (Pool 1 - 2 x 4TB MIRROR) daily use, machine backups. Hourly snapshots locally, 2 hourly replication to Server2 (during office hours)
17TB (Pool 2 - 8 x 4TB RAIDZ2) media/other. Daily snapshots locally, 1 daily replication to Server2.
Server2 (See signature)
~3TB (Pool 1 to match the above, by either Mirror or RAIDZ). Destination for replications.
~17TB (Pool 2 as above). Destination for replications.
Server3 (off-site, well, in my office, hardware TBC)
Pool 1 to be of equal or greater size as the above Pools 1 & 2 combined. Destination for replication of Server2.
I would really like to buy or build the cheapest and lowest performance ECC machine possible.
3TB (Pool 1 - 2 x 4TB MIRROR) daily use, machine backups. Hourly snapshots locally, 2 hourly replication to Server2 (during office hours)
17TB (Pool 2 - 8 x 4TB RAIDZ2) media/other. Daily snapshots locally, 1 daily replication to Server2.
Server2 (See signature)
~3TB (Pool 1 to match the above, by either Mirror or RAIDZ). Destination for replications.
~17TB (Pool 2 as above). Destination for replications.
Server3 (off-site, well, in my office, hardware TBC)
Pool 1 to be of equal or greater size as the above Pools 1 & 2 combined. Destination for replication of Server2.
I would really like to buy or build the cheapest and lowest performance ECC machine possible.
I will likely, slowly replace the drives with larger capacity as a precaution towards increased needs, though I will keep an eye on usage for a while more before committing. Some family members may take up something data intensive, such as video related, so I'll just have to make good observations. I can't remember whether I've trial'd pool expansion, but I'm fairly sure it's a case of replacing all pool drives with larger drives and pressing the correct buttons.
9 x 4TB RAIDZ2, but then I realised I'm making data available that's rarely accessed, spinning up that many drives for only 5% of that data being accessed, seemed like a waste of electricity and drive longevity.
9TB Pool 1 - 5 x 4TB RAIDZ2 - Active
9TB Pool 2 - 5 x 4TB RAIDZ2 - Inactive
But then I figured that my video/film storage may outgrow a 9TB pool and then I'd be back to musical data, shifting things around.
9TB Pool 2 - 5 x 4TB RAIDZ2 - Inactive
But then I figured that my video/film storage may outgrow a 9TB pool and then I'd be back to musical data, shifting things around.
I've invested in SFP+ and will eventually have a 10G connection between house and outbuilding/office with a redundant CAT6 cable. So far as power is concerned, if it should have a UPS, it does have one.