Hi,
I have an old HP DL160 Gen6 sitting around that I would like to repurpose for a TrueNAS server. It is a basic setup;
- 1U
- dual-Xeon CPUs (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5650 @2.67GHz)
- 72G RAM
- dual bay (but would ordering a 4bay backplane for it for ~30$)
- onboard Intel 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SATA controlled (no external HDD controller)
I realize that the hardware is quite old, but it is sitting in the basement collecting dust, so I figured I could try to reuse it.
I saw a bunch of older posts indicating that it wasn't recommended (too old), but have difficulty understanding how something that is still fairly powerful with a significant amount of ram would be poorly performant.
My goal is to use this as a home NAS primarily as a file server, servicing:
1 - file server for office-style documents
2 - file server for Emby Media (Emby is running on a different server)
3 - backup client to B2 storage
4 - backup server for local devices (ie: backing up macos laptop to the unit)
I would be installing TrueNAS as a bare-metal install. No plans to install ESX or XCP on this machine.
So the questions I find myself asking are:
1) will this hardware setup be functional, or do I absolutely need a separate HDD controller?
2) given the limitation of 4bays on this machine, is 2x RAID1 more effective / efficient than a RAIDZ2? Both would give me the same failure tolerance. Is there a beneficial reason to select Z2?
3) if I want to grow in time and get myself an 8-10bay machine, will I be able to simply pull the drives and move them to a new server? If so, do I simply need to reinstall the TrueNAS OS onto the new server? Are all the configs be stored in the data drives?
What would be the best/most efficient approach to leveraging this machine?
Thanks for any insights and/or advice.
Eric
I have an old HP DL160 Gen6 sitting around that I would like to repurpose for a TrueNAS server. It is a basic setup;
- 1U
- dual-Xeon CPUs (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5650 @2.67GHz)
- 72G RAM
- dual bay (but would ordering a 4bay backplane for it for ~30$)
- onboard Intel 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SATA controlled (no external HDD controller)
I realize that the hardware is quite old, but it is sitting in the basement collecting dust, so I figured I could try to reuse it.
I saw a bunch of older posts indicating that it wasn't recommended (too old), but have difficulty understanding how something that is still fairly powerful with a significant amount of ram would be poorly performant.
My goal is to use this as a home NAS primarily as a file server, servicing:
1 - file server for office-style documents
2 - file server for Emby Media (Emby is running on a different server)
3 - backup client to B2 storage
4 - backup server for local devices (ie: backing up macos laptop to the unit)
I would be installing TrueNAS as a bare-metal install. No plans to install ESX or XCP on this machine.
So the questions I find myself asking are:
1) will this hardware setup be functional, or do I absolutely need a separate HDD controller?
2) given the limitation of 4bays on this machine, is 2x RAID1 more effective / efficient than a RAIDZ2? Both would give me the same failure tolerance. Is there a beneficial reason to select Z2?
3) if I want to grow in time and get myself an 8-10bay machine, will I be able to simply pull the drives and move them to a new server? If so, do I simply need to reinstall the TrueNAS OS onto the new server? Are all the configs be stored in the data drives?
What would be the best/most efficient approach to leveraging this machine?
Thanks for any insights and/or advice.
Eric
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