Storage Solutions Suggestions for NAS

salman8506

Adept
Hi Guys,

So i am using below hardware at the moment

5600g
a320m
1tb nvme for os and vm's
128gb ram downgraded to 64gb
Quad nic
Quad sata port card
6*8tb enterprise drives - Raidz1 ZFS.

I can do 2 seperate connections to nas and saturate 2 gigabit.

Running on proxmox hypervisor over which there were multiple services along with truenas for storage solution, This setup running 24x7 chews up some power.

So i managed to snag a e350m1-m board with apu, managed to setup Nas with quad nic + 4 sata port card + 16gb ram. This one does 70mb/s reads and 110mb/s writes on smb, Saturates full 118mb/s gigabit for block shares. this one should chew lesser power but still concerned with reliability.

Also deployed basic services i needed onto a zbox to serve with less power consumption.

I needed some suggestions on what to do here, I bought a 18tb + 8tb drive and mirrored all data from nas to it before i started experimenting. i am ok to probably run it not frequently and keep using the old amd board or get a full fledged out of the box nas as i might not have that much time to experiment on this.

I have moved plex which was a major workload to my gaming rig which has enough power to handle my 10tb library.

Any suggestions and experiences welcome.

Edit1:- update, i tested the amd e350 kit a bit and can confirm throughput's of 100mb's in reads and 110mb's in smb write's i might stivk with this for a while till it goes kaput. For keen folks this setup will chew about 15-25w(2 delta's cooling the hdd's) on idle and about 75-85w at max load which it would never reach as zfs doesnt ever stress all drives to full capacity. max i saw was 83mb/s on each drive which is less then half of what each of those drives do. I am betting its 60-62w on load.
 
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aasimenator

MCITP 2008
Adept
This is how I currently do it
I have an HP MicroServer Gen10 Plus running UnRaid and 4 x 6tb HDD's.
I have an HP z240 Workstation running UnRaid and 3 x 4tb HDD's.
I have an Intel NUC i5, running UnRaid with 1 x 2TB NVMe and 1 x 1Tb HDD.

My 24x7 PC is the NUC, which houses critical Docker containers and VMs, and also includes recordings for my main door Security Camera. only draws around 14Watts at idle and upto 30Watts on load
The z240 Workstation has all my media and other services that I don't need on a daily basis, so there is a schedule that powers them on over the weekends, as that is usually when I have time to watch something from my collection.
The MicroServer is just for backups, it turns on at night copies the backup taken by the NUC from the night, and then turns off, over the weekend does the same but stays on for longer as it syncs changes made to the z240 (addition/deletion of media, etc.) and then turns off.

With the energy costs here, I don't think we can afford to run systems 24x7, so scheduled power on & off is the best solution here. also, optimize the system based on usage. e.g., turning off USB headers, removing GPU not used or any other add-in cards, etc. that saved me a lot of power.
 

salman8506

Adept
Thanks for reply. So i setup below as final setup,

1x zbox running pfsense + pihole + plex(proxmox host seperating pfsense and another dietpi running rest workload) 24x7
1x wdmycloud 4tb with 1tb nvme attached for always available storage with important files. - 24x7
amd e350 kit with 16gb ddr3, 8tb*6 zfs on truenas with everything media + all data - Switching this one when needed, syncing with cloud device to keep data secured.
5600g + 64gb ram + 1tb nvme proxmox host for service or rnd requirements. - wake on lan based on need cron job to shutdown at 2am everyday in case i accidentally leave it powered on.
r5 4500 +32gb ram + 1tb nvme + 3060ti secondary rig for rnd needs if any. - wake on lan based on need cron job to shutdown at 2am everyday in case i accidentally leave it powered on.
Plex setup on main gaming rig for transcoding requirement if ever needed.

As of now this will be final setup unless things change.
 

aasimenator

MCITP 2008
Adept
salman8506 said:
As of now this will be final setup unless things change.
Click to expand...
There is something I’ve learned with home labs. There is no such thing as “final” setup. 3 years on since i created mine and i still tweak and break things all the time. Part of learning and building the lab, it is never complete.
 

salman8506

Adept
aasimenator said:
There is something I’ve learned with home labs. There is no such thing as “final” setup. 3 years on since i created mine and i still tweak and break things all the time. Part of learning and building the lab, it is never complete.
Click to expand...
I agree with you completely @tech.monk and i have been saying final and rebuilding stuff for past 2 years...let's see how long this final will last :D