Plex/Nas build

[Patriot]

So... my endgame is network file server and plex... with expansion for any VMs I want to run occasionally.
I have 4x 5tb toshiba spinners to pass through to something to make storage...

I did this with freenas previously but if I am just using plex... and can do network shares another way that would be just as fine.
Suggestions?

I have more cores and ram than I need for just Plex... so I didn't want to use freenas.

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

You can make a vitualized version of FreeNAS if you have the HDD's on an HBA.

I personally use ESXi, but I assume the process isn't that difficult on Proxmox. You can pass the HBA through to the FreeNAS VM and FreeNAS will have direct access to the drives and you can use that for your file server. Can even create a plex plugin right there on it.

This allows you to use your resources more effectively. You could get away with giving the FreeNAS VM 4 cores and 8GBs of RAM and use the rest for other VMs.

You can also use ZFS right in Proxmox. Though I'm unfamiliar with how the set up is and if you can create shares.

 

[T_Minus]

"I have 4x 5tb toshiba spinners to pass through to something to make storage..."

Why?

The beauty of ProxMox is you can do that in Proxmox and you don't need a dedicated HBA, pass-through, etc... especially not with that low # of drives saves power/heat, and less OS's to manage/upkeep.

Would be nice if there was an easier way to do shares in proxmox though, that's for sure. Once that's in there, we're golden

 

[Patriot]

"I have 4x 5tb toshiba spinners to pass through to something to make storage..."

Why?

The beauty of ProxMox is you can do that in Proxmox and you don't need a dedicated HBA, pass-through, etc... especially not with that low # of drives saves power/heat, and less OS's to manage/upkeep.

Would be nice if there was an easier way to do shares in proxmox though, that's for sure. Once that's in there, we're golden

I am happy to use proxmox to make ZFS, then I don't have to move the drives around or to a different HBA than the 800gb ssd for the VMs.
So long as I can make those 4x5tb drive network shares that a LXC plex container can use...

 

[Ninja1283]

Would be nice if there was an easier way to do shares in proxmox though, that's for sure.

If you just need quick Samba shares, the built-in Turnkey file server (lxc template) is fairly painless.

I am happy to use proxmox to make ZFS, then I don't have to move the drives around or to a different HBA than the 800gb ssd for the VMs.
So long as I can make those 4x5tb drive network shares that a LXC plex container can use...

That's exactly what I did: Setup Proxmox w/ a ZFS pool, a LXC container for Samba shares, and a second LXC container for Plex. You can access the network share from Plex, or directly pass the folder/dataset to the Plex container as a bind mount.
If you ever need to pass a folder and mount it in a container, just locate your container conf file under /etc/pve/lxc/<ID>.conf and add the following:

lxc.mount.entry: /<folder location from Proxmox> <mountpoint inside container> none bind,create=dir,optional 0 0

 

[Jeggs101]

Just zfs in proxmox

 

[Kybber]

Relevant thread (linking directly to my response instead of copy-pasting here):
Ideal Plex Setup with Proxmox/LXC/Docker/KVM?

 

[rubylaser]

I use Proxmox almost exactly the same way as @Kybber 's link mentioned. I use the built-in ZFS for all VM related storage, and SnapRAID + mergerfs for everything that is bulk media (movies, pictures, music, etc.). I use a full KVM Ubuntu 16.04 VM, but you could certainly use LXC as well. The SnapRAID and mergerfs combo is great for this as disks are only spun up as needed, you can easily add one disk at a time or every change levels of parity as your array grows (up to 6 parity disks).

But, you could certainly just use Proxmox's built-in ZFS support as well. I would definitely want to bind mount that storage into a LXC container to install Plex, or setup Docker on the host. But, I like to keep my Proxmox host clean, and do all of my installs, including Docker in VMs.

 

[T_Minus]

@rubylaser so is the only reasons you use SnapRaid+Mergerfs so that you can add 1 disk at a time and spin up/down?

Just curious what other reasons I may be missing THNX!