I have a working installation of TrueNas Scale on an Asrock mini-ITX motherboard. Currently I have a 10gbe NIC installed and it all works great.
I am looking to delve into an all-NVME M.2 set up and I’ve been looking at a PEX switch based adapter (no bifurcation required on the motherboard) card which has room for 4 sticks.
Since I only have one PCIE X16 slot (where my 10gbe NIC is now) I want to use the Thunderbolt 3 port that I have now and use a Sonnet, ATTO or other TB3 to 10gbe adapter as my NIC.
I know it’s best to use a PCI card for my NIC, but I’m trying to leverage my existing hardware and squeeze the last bit of life out of it I can.
Is this a good or bad idea? Has anyone tried this?
Thanks!
Thunderbolt is not officially supported by TrueNAS. You may be lucky and find that it currently works, but it could break at any time with any upgrade.
I’d suggest to consider a motherboard upgrade. It may no be more expensive than a Thunderbolt enclosure…
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You really didn’t provide much for your system description, which is fine if all you wanted what the question alone answered, but if provided more information then someone might have an idea how to make it all work for you.
For example, do you have a spare PCIe x4 or x8 slot and could your 10GbE card go there? Using an entire x16 slot for a 10GbE card sounds wasteful if you have other slots available. But maybe you do not have any other slots.
The Thunderbolt question is a good one and I’m glad you asked it. I am learning more about Thunderbolt as I am seriously considering buying a new laptop, not for TrueNAS, and I “want” one to more Thunderbolt 4 connections.
Good luck
I agree that using a full X16 slot for only a NIC is wasteful. But with micro-ATX boards, they typically only provide ONE PCIe slot. Such is my predicament!
This is basically what I have now:
- Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITXac mobo
- Intel I7-9700K Processor
- 64 GB DDR4 Memory
- Two on-board NVME M.2 slots, each populated with 2TB Samsung 990 Pros. One is used for the boot device, the other one is used for L2 ARC.
- 4 Toshiba N3000 NAS 8TB 3.5" drives
- 2 Mirrors, Each mirror is two drives. Both mirrors are striped.
- 10GTek 10G NIC with SFP+ port (Intel chipset)
- Connection to/from NAS/Router 10G over fiber.
- 1X Thunderbolt 3 port.
- Jonsbo N2 Micro-ITX case
- Idle Power Consumption ~52W, under load** ~70W
** Load typically consists of video streaming, metadata management, management tasks (scrubbing, replication etc, some video editing) and acting as a home file server to a few clients.
I’ll update my profile with my latest configuration as soon as the dust settles.
“mini-ITX” implies one slot.
The Jonsbo N2 case further means that the single PCIe card has to be low profile.
Unless the iGPU is of any use, OP might well be better replacing his motherboard by a Supermicro X10SDV with on-board 10G: 6 SATA ports for the 5 bays, 4 M.2 in a passive carrier card (x4x4x4x4) and a fifth on-board. And taping a small SATA SSD somewhere (or a SATADOM) to boot…
The issue is finding a suitable X10SDV-xx-TLNxF. But it may end up cheaper than a Thuderbolt enclosure and a low-profile PEX8747 card.
2 TB for boot is wasted, and I doubt that the L2ARC is doing much with a comfortable 64 GB to serve a rather small pool.
I have an answer for you, possibly even a good one if you are disciplined enough.
The only solution I think might work is to use ESXi 8 (free again), but you may not be able to pass the HBA controller through. And don’t use RDM, it can hurt you if you are not on top of watching it. RDM works, I’ve used it for about 2 years, but you are better off passing the controller through, if you can. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
@etorix has a good point, it may be cheaper to use a different system than trying to implement Thunderbolt.
You can think of it this way… Your current system as configured could become your backup NAS and you get to build your NVMe NAS to your liking. Win - Win!
Thunderbolt support (specifically tunneling) has been previously requested and IIRC it worked in an earlier edition of SCALE, stopped working, and may be working again. I’d use the search function to see what was written.
As @etorix and @joeschmuck have said, tunneling support is not a given. It may work, it may not. I wouldn’t take the risk. That said, if you want to go down that path, I have both the sonnet T3 → SFP+ adapter as well as the same thing from QNAP here.
For my Mac’s, I would always choose the qnap if I had the choice. It runs cooler and crucially has a proper T3 port which means you can use any length thunderbolt cable, from the inexpensive, short passively-terminated stuff to the more expensive longer active ones.
By contrast, the sonnet has a fixed, short dongle connector. So if it’s the wrong length or gets damaged, etc. you either get to do some surgery or your sonnet brick just became another electronic paperweight.
Thanks for that info. I’ve been looking at all of those brand’s offerings and I was getting ready to settle on the QNAP version. Your practical info on the cable configs between the models is good to know. That would annoying for have an adapter with such a short run of cable. I didn’t realize the QNAP was so flexible in that regard. Good to know!
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Hmm. I am getting tempted to do build a new rig. I would be especially compelled if I could get some good deals during Prime Day (or one of Amazon’s competitors). Although NVMEs have been coming down quite a bit lately. I hope that trend continues. Thanks for your feedback!
Prices are getting better, and not just at Amazon. Newegg is doing a great job as well. When shopping I try to recognize “who” is actually fulfilling the order. Some places are company “jkgjkgjkg” or “YX Electronic Components” or “TZT Choice Store” for example. the last two are actual on AliExpress, I have no idea if they are reputable but buyer be warned. Often a company changes its name after bad practices.
If you are going to build an NVMe system, put your design on paper (electronic form these days). Include all your no kidding requirements. And know your use case.