Storage Solutions Suggestions for NAS

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salman8506

salman8506

Herald
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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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.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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salman8506 said:
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
Click to expand...
So it didn't last a few days...i went ahead and bought asustor as1104t...now hopefully i have a stable nas with no worries of crashing and hanging hardware.
 
Just putting it out there just in case, if you want to build a DIY NAS (to save cost) for serious use please go with an HBA card (not a raid card, however some raid cards can be flashed in IT mode but that's a story for another day). All the nuances you face using a PC as a NAS are basically gone. These HBAs are used in storage servers so you can rest assured on reliability and functinality. LSI 9211-8i, H310 etc don't cost much to start with and being PCIe you can repurpose your existing setup.

I have always had issues with those x2, x4 pci sata expansion cards with their wonky no-name onboard controllers. With HBA cards it's basically setup and forget.

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 think it's a curse. Deep down we don't want a final setup, we will still be tweaking things when we retire :laughing:

So it didn't last a few days...i went ahead and bought asustor as1104t...now hopefully i have a stable nas with no worries of crashing and hanging hardware.
Click to expand...
These NAS boxes (not just acustor) will serve you for a long time. The only thing that irks me is their arm CPUs and meagre onboard memory (which mind you is more than enough for a personal NAS) but that's what makes them so compact and power efficient. Also do check if there is an option for SSD caching, you can add a 512 GB in one of the slot and use that as a cache device, last I used a NAS box I saw an option to add one but do check on your perticular model.
 
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dvader said:
Just putting it out there just in case, if you want to build a DIY NAS (to save cost) for serious use please go with an HBA card (not a raid card, however some raid cards can be flashed in IT mode but that's a story for another day). All the nuances you face using a PC as a NAS are basically gone. These HBAs are used in storage servers so you can rest assured on reliability and functinality. LSI 9211-8i, H310 etc don't cost much to start with and being PCIe you can repurpose your existing setup.

I have always had issues with those x2, x4 pci sata expansion cards with their wonky no-name onboard controllers. With HBA cards it's basically setup and forget.
Click to expand...
I have experimented a lot in past 3 years and i don't think i will have time to build and maintain anything custom...plus based on my research this nas would use 30-32w max at full load which custom nas would find it hard to come close to...i have a number of boards and chips to confirm this. My two main reason is to save time and electricity...
 
salman8506 said:
I have experimented a lot in past 3 years and i don't think i will have time to build and maintain anything custom...plus based on my research this nas would use 30-32w max at full load which custom nas would find it hard to come close to...i have a number of boards and chips to confirm this. My two main reason is to save time and electricity...
Click to expand...
Yup no arguments there, these dedicated NAS box are built for your perticular use case. As I said this will serve you for a very long time and save thousands in electricity bill (over time). Just sharing options for my tinkerer bros. However do check if you can setup ssd caching in this perticular NAS.
 
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dvader said:
Yup no arguments there, these dedicated NAS box are built for your perticular use case. As I said this will serve you for a very long time and save thousands in electricity bill (over time). Just sharing options for my tinkerer bros. However do check if you can setup ssd caching in this perticular NAS.
Click to expand...
So there is no option to add a nvme for SSD cache, the 4 sata ports i will need as i am down 2 disc from the truenas i am running at the moment...i will also be using this on a gigabit link and even if I get gb saturation it should be enough for my usage...i have used SSD cache array earlier...it does help with multi access and random reads/writes but it's very seldom i have such kind of workloads...i will use this for a year or two and will still hold my old hardware in case i need to mix it up....i have a h97 dual nic board with 6 onboard sata and a g3250 which should be ample to manage the workload if need be...but again at the cost of power consumption.
 
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salman8506 said:
So there is no option to add a nvme for SSD cache, the 4 sata ports i will need as i am down 2 disc from the truenas i am running at the moment...i will also be using this on a gigabit link and even if I get gb saturation it should be enough for my usage...i have used SSD cache array earlier...it does help with multi access and random reads/writes but it's very seldom i have such kind of workloads...i will use this for a year or two and will still hold my old hardware in case i need to mix it up....i have a h97 dual nic board with 6 onboard sata and a g3250 which should be ample to manage the workload if need be...but again at the cost of power consumption.
Click to expand...
Yeah you are set hardware wise, I don't think you will need anything else (except for HDDs ofc) for anytime soon. Best of luck with storage also a reminder to take care of backups for your important data. Keep storin'......
 
dvader said:
Just putting it out there just in case, if you want to build a DIY NAS (to save cost) for serious use please go with an HBA card (not a raid card, however some raid cards can be flashed in IT mode but that's a story for another day). All the nuances you face using a PC as a NAS are basically gone. These HBAs are used in storage servers so you can rest assured on reliability and functinality. LSI 9211-8i, H310 etc don't cost much to start with and being PCIe you can repurpose your existing setup.

I have always had issues with those x2, x4 pci sata expansion cards with their wonky no-name onboard controllers. With HBA cards it's basically setup and forget.
Click to expand...
Any guidance on pricing for the HBA cards in India? The markets seems very unorganised and pricing is all over the place.
 
I don't know where you are from, but contact the local refurbisher market you will get all sorts of things cheaper than online. in Mumbai, Lamington Road has some refurbishers there is also another market at 90 ft road in Andheri
 
from what i have seen a LSI 9211-8i goes anywhere from 4k-12k on average i have seen them going for 8-10k with different refurbished dealers but you might get lucky. Remember though they have to be actively cooled to perform well if you dont its a chance of them bricking or giving worst performance.
 
kwaralala said:
Any guidance on pricing for the HBA cards in India? The markets seems very unorganised and pricing is all over the place.
Click to expand...
Delhi's local refurbished marked is quite good and competetive but I have since moved on to saner pastures away from any metropolis. I got a quote from serverbasket for around 7k which is a little inflated but they give 90 days replacement warranty (don't know how good it is though). In local market you should be able to get a 9211-8i and equivalent cards for 3-6k depending on dealer/condition etc. But again unless you have specific needs and requirements 6 sata port mobos are more than enough and often times they have inbuilt raid too.

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