Seeking Advice for Upgrading Home Server

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ServeTheHomie

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Jan 7, 2021
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Hi,

I recently got a new rackmount chassis and now I finally have some room to add drives to my home NAS. I currently have one RAIDZ2 array of 2TB drives (6 disks + 1 hotspare, single vdev). That filled up about a year ago, and I couldn't afford a larger chassis quite yet so I invested in some "temporary storage" with two 10TB drives in a mirror.

Please go easy - I know enough to get myself in trouble but I'm definitely not an expert.

I am thinking about trying to replace the RAIDZ2 array with a new array of 10TB drives, and re-using the two 10TB drives I already have. The drives will probably be a different model if not a different brand from the existing 10TB drives (does that matter?) I don't have a cache disk or anything, and other than music and image backup, the system will be used for Plex. Here are some questions:

- Is it a good idea to re-use those drives, or should I just build a new array and not try to re-use the old disks?
- if it is, what's the best way to do the migration?
- last but not least, would you recommend adding a cache disk or anything like that?

Here are the system specs:
Running TrueNas on 60GB Raid 1 SSDs
LSI 92x0-8i with flashed firmware
Supermicro X9SCM-F
16GB ECC memory
 
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pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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What chassis did you acquire for the upgrade? You might need to do some fenangling to initially get your data moved around if you don't have enough slots to hold all the disks. It wouldn't be the first time I have had to go down the "spread it out on the kitchen table" route :)

What CPU are you using?

Does your power supply meet or exceed your needs?

You are likely looking at a build for capacity, rather than outright performance, so I would find another 6 of those 10TB disks, same model number, and build a new array with all 8 of them in RaidZ2. I would also add another 16GB of RAM to the mix. CPU dependant, you might find that you are well under utilizing the available grunt, if so, the extra RAM and disk space opens up playtime opportunities ;)
 
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ServeTheHomie

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Jan 7, 2021
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Sorry, should've included more info up front!

Here's the new chassis: Supermicro CSE-846BE16-R1K28B 4U Server Chassis with 2x1280W (I keep one unplugged) & 24-Bay BPN-SAS2-846EL1

And here's the info for the processor:
hw.model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3220 CPU @ 3.30GHz (3300.10-MHz K8-class CPU)
hw.machine: amd64
hw.ncpu: 4

My budget is roughly 1500 (US), so I was looking at about 5 EXOS drives, and matching them up with the existing 2 drives that are there. But maybe I should buy another 16GB stick for memory... I also have an unused nvme drive from an old computer, could that help witht he memory somehow (i'd have to add a PCI card to convert it)
 
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pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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You'll be wanting to change out that CPU for a server class device, something like a wee E3-1245V2 or better. I believe your i3 doesn't support ECC memory, or AES. Perfectly fine chip for streaming a plex server/ running non critical/ desktop applications etc, but for ZFS, you really want end to end ECC support, the whole idea behind a storage server is that your data is kept as safe as possible. AES will also help you further down the road if you plan on running any kind of software based firewall/ VPN etc ;):)
 
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ServeTheHomie

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Jan 7, 2021
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o_O Welp, today I learned that my ECC memory for the past 7 years or so hasn't been doing S***.

Definitely want a new CPU too then...

Okay, so far I have ~500 for the CPU and about $60 for another 16GB of DDR3 ECC (current memory is Hynix DDR3-1600 8GB ECC Hynix Chip CL11 Server Memory)

So that leaves me with roughly $1k to figure out how to upgrade the storage.

Oh, one other point, I don't know f I can use it but I have a 1TB nvme drive that I pulled out of my gaming PC about a year ago. I think I remember reading about "scratch" or (probably not) "swap" disks... not sure if it would be helpful if I added a PCI card for that, but I thought i'd mention it...
 
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BlueFox

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Oct 26, 2015
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Ignore Newegg for this sort of stuff as it's a ripoff (that CPU was only ~$250 new...over 9 years ago). For used server gear, it's generally eBay or bust. Xeon E3 v2s are ancient and costs next to nothing there. You can get a E3-1225 v2 for ~$25 shipped. I would not pay extra for a higher end model.
 
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pricklypunter

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nthu9280 said:
I believe the i3 support ecc unbuffered also.
Click to expand...
A point debated adnauseam on a bazillion other forums :)

If I were to add my best guess to that throng, it would be that Intel decided that it either wasn't working properly, or reliably on that chip, for whatever reason, and chose not to officially support it, then later re-working their datasheet and stating as much. All that I can say for sure, is that they do fully support ECC on their E3 parts, clearly stating that on their datasheets. For the meagre cost of moving to a secondhand server class E3, you are guaranteed that it will work properly and help protect your data :)

The NVME disk might be handy for placing your Plex database on if it's large, to help keep things snappy on the client side. It might also be decent if you decided to store some VM's on it etc :)
 
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ServeTheHomie

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Jan 7, 2021
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Awesome - looks like eBay it is! I'll get one of the E3-1225 v2s.

pricklypunter said:
The NVME disk might be handy for placing your Plex database on if it's large, to help keep things snappy on the client side. It might also be decent if you decided to store some VM's on it etc :)
Click to expand...
That's a great call! And maybe I can look at some ways to separate directories to be able to back up the Plex DB while keeping other VMs separate... i'm really liking that idea. Ok, so I'll have to dig around for a PCI-NVMe card.

So then after the PCI card, CPU, and memory, then I probably have roughly 1400-1500 to play with for data!

I'm currently thinking I'll get 5-6 10GB drives and pull a disk from the existing 10GB mirror while I build the array in a new vdev in a new pool. Then once that data is migrated over, i'll use that other drive as a hotspare. I'm going to wait a bit and see if I can get a good deal on some EXOS or IronWolfs (EXOS will probably be the only ones in my price range)

From there, I might keep the old pool as a secondary backup for anything from the NVMe drive and the important directories on the new pool.

Let me know if i'm missing anything!

Thanks again
 
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ServeTheHomie

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Jan 7, 2021
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One other thought I had is should I get a beefier CPU if I want to do more VMs, including maybe OwnCloud or something like that?

I have also thought about adding a new server onto the rack that would be a dedicated proxmox thing with more cores, a graphics card, etc. Does it make sense to have OwnCloud and Plex running on the NAS box if I eventually plan to have a dedicated proxmox server?
 
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pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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Good catch @UhClem

Yup, whatever you do, make sure it's 8GB ECC UDIMM's you buy. Might be worth double checking the RAM you already have as well. Also, although it is possible to mix ranking (1Rx8, 2Rx4 etc), ideally you shouldn't, so check that you are buying memory that is ranked the same way as the stuff you already have. It's one less thing that a picky mainboard can toss the rattle out the pram for :)
 
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ServeTheHomie

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Jan 7, 2021
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Phew - yes thanks for the heads-up @UhClem and @pricklypunter - I ended up finding the same Hyinx ECC on ebay and bought that instead :) Had to jog my memory on registered vs unregistered and buffered vs unbuffered!

So far the new (to me) sticks from china seem to be working, and I'm installing the new CPU today!

I also just got 6 12GB Toshiba enterprise drives... once the new CPU is installed, here comes a new RAIDZ2... woohoo!!
 
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ServeTheHomie

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Jan 7, 2021
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Okay, got a new RAIDZ2 Pool up and running!

  • I noticed that I could add a cache disk to the pool. Anyone think that a 1TB nvme drive would have any more real-world benefits used as a cache disk vs. using it for Plex DB storage?
  • Also, what's the best way to migrate data from other vdevs/pools?
  • Finally, I read that the total pool encryption isn't "native" and some folks recommended encrypting each data set individuallly... but the article I was reading was old. What's the current thinking on encryption?
Thanks again for all the help, and sorry for all the noob questions!

[edit - added a question & reformatted]
 
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