Noob build info.

[JD53]

Hello. I have a HP 8300 Elite CMT and other parts I'd like to build a NAS. Here is my current HW. Let me know if I didn't do this correctly. Thanks

HP manual

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03612798.pdf

• MOBO is a HP Carver Rev PCEAV0BCY2V2BM Part #657096-001 (I couldn't find any additional info)
• CPU Intel Core i7 3770 (3.4-GHz, 8-MB L3 cache)
• MEMORY 16GB 4X4GB PC31600-MHz 12800u non-ECC DDR3 SDRAM
• DRIVES Samsung EVO 500GB SSD for the OS, 3- 8TB HGST 0F23668 HUH728080ALE604 7200RPM 6Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise HDD, RAID 5 configuration
• DRIVE CONTROLLER Built in to the MOBO 2 - SATA 3.0, 2 - SATA 2.0, 1 - eSATA
• NETWORK Built in to the MOBO RJ45 Network Interface
• POWER SUPPLY 320-W active PFC; 87/90/87% efficient at 20/50/100 % load
• GRAPHICS Nvidia Geforce GT 630 1GB graphics card

 

[Arwen]

Looks like you could use some help with various things. TrueNAS & ZFS do not do RAID-5. It can do something similar, RAID-Z1, but that is not recommended for disks >=2TB.

The OS does not need 500GB, though if that is what you have already, it will work. In general 16GB to 32GB is all that is needed for the boot device.

I'd suggest reading up on ZFS to know what it can and can't do. If you commit to a 3 disk RAID-Z1, you can not just add another disk. That capability does not exist, (yet, but that new feature might be years away).

Here is some suggested reading:

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer

We realize that new users have a lot to learn when they come to FreeNAS. There's a certain amount of confusion added to discussions when users pick random/approximate terms to describe things. I've spent a lot of time quietly trying to...

www.truenas.com

Introduction to ZFS

This is a short introduction to ZFS. It is really only intended to convey the bare minimum knowledge needed to start diving into ZFS and is in no way meant to cut Michael W. Lucas' and Allan Jude's book income. It is a bit of a spiritual...

www.truenas.com

ZFS Storage Pool Layout

This amazing document, created by iXsystems in February 2022 as a "White Paper", cleanly explains how to qualify pool performance touching briefly on how ZFS stores data and presents the advantages, performance and disadvantages of each pool...

www.truenas.com

You can always spin up a VM on your desktop and go through the GUI with fake disks to learn how TrueNAS works.

 

[JD53]

Thanks for the links. Since I have 3 8TB HDD and I’d like parity, what RAID configuration would you suggest? Also, does the hardware look as if it’ll work?

 

[Arwen]

I can't speak about the system board, other than it looks old because of the Non-Express PCI slots.

As for the 3 x 8TB disks, the only configurations available are:

• 3 way Mirror - Only gives the storage 1 x 8TB disk
• RAID-Z1 - Gives the storage of 2 x 8TB disks

ZFS, (which is what TrueNAS uses), does not have as much flexibility as other RAID schemes designed for home use. Sun Microsystems designed it for the Data Center as a replacement for their UFS, (Unix File System).

If you have a good backup regiment, RAID-Z1 can work. Just be aware you may need to restore files or the entire RAID set, (because RAID-Z1 & RAID-5 are not recommended for larger disks).


However, one neat thing from ZFS that helps mitigate usage of RAID-Z1 on larger disks, is bad block detection. This means if you have a bad block, like during a disk replacement, it should only affect 1 file. (Or more than 1 file, if their are more bad blocks...) ZFS allows you to restore just those file(s) saving you from having to perform a full restore that other RAID schemes would require.

This feature can actually help with non-redundant storage. For example, my miniature media server uses ZFS for the Media pool. But, that tiny server does not have enough drive space for Mirroring or RAID-Zx. So it is purely a striped pool, (aka 2 disks striped but no redundancy). Every now and then I loose a video file, (they are larger so statistically more likely to loose a block). ZFS kindly tells me which file, and I simply restore the file from backups, all good.

 

[JD53]

Arwen. Thanks for the links. It was very informative and helpful. After reading, it seems a 2 disk mirrored vdev will work for what I want to do. My first thought was to use RAID5 (before learning about TrueNAS and RAID-Z1) with parity and create a 16TB volume (I think I was thinking too big for my pants ;-). After reading, it seems I can get by with a 8TB mirrored vdev with data protection. Right now all the data I have is stored on half a 3TB, half a 4TB and half a 2TB external drives (about 4.5TB of total data and about a 3rd of it is video I'll eventually delete). I should be able to get by with 8TB for many years. I want data protection for photos, videos and some docs plus use it as a PLEX server. Right now I have all my "stuff" stored on several portable drives and I'm using my laptop as a PLEX server. I appreciate your help and hope this helps explain my purposes.

 

[Arwen]

Make sure you setup the following:

• ZFS scrubs, many people do them twice a month. This detects bad blocks and will auto-correct if the other Mirror is good.
• SMART disk tests, helps early disk failure detection.
• ZFS snapshots, which can help against accidental file deletion or ransomware. How often you take them, and how many you keep is up to you and the amount of storage needed for the snapshots.
• E-Mail notifications

Also, ZFS does not want to have it's storage full. The rule of thumb is 80% full, but you can go higher if you don't need best performance. Or don't write too much to it.

Their is a lot to TrueNAS & ZFS because both are professional Enterprise grade products.

To be clear on one point, TrueNAS is likely rock stable on iXsystems supplied hardware. But, us "free" TrueNAS users throw a mixture of hardware at the task, including old, left-over devices which are not fully tested with TrueNAS. Thus, many requests for help or complaints can be traced to hardware that is not well supported. Plus, some people mis-configure or improperly manage their NAS, (I am looking at you, Linus TT), which can cause problems. Or even out right data loss.

Their have been extremely few true data loss bugs in OpenZFS. Most can be tracked to other causes, like bad hardware, mis-configuration or poor management.

I mention this because I don't want you to become another statistic of data loss.