2.0 NAS: Seeking guidance PCIe vs HBA IT mode expansion (novice)

TrueNAS General
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TL;DR: Start “START_HERE”
Is HBA IT mode the right way to go??

Hi all,

This is my first NAS but I don’t think I made it future proof enough so I need a 2.0 now while everything is still fresh.
This is a dumb NAS, no Docker, no VM running from it, the only processes that should have read/write live access to the NAS:

  • Few important Proxmox LXC: local “backups”, offsite backup later
  • Config files, databases backup only: Ansible/backup unattended deployment - IaaC
  • NextCloud/Immich - more read than write
  • Jellyfin LXC - read only
  • qBittorrent LXC download to local SSD for speed, rsync to the NAS, delete

NON-ECC SETUP:

  • VDEV1: 2x WD NAS CMR 4TB mirrored
  • VDEV2: 2x WD NAS CMR 4TB mirrored
  • BOOT: 2x 120GB mirrored

With many mirrored VDEVs, I can split the load across them instead of one big and busy VDEV.

A Patriot SSD failed on me within minutes of the system being up, I do have spare SSD and it was pretty straightforward for a novice to replace it so I wanna keep things mirrored at the cost of less storage.

START_HERE:

My 2U rack-mount chassis with 6x has to go, it is a tuna can right now.
Replacing it with a 4U 11x slots and here comes my problem.

The motherboard only has 6x SATA which it is all full, reading posts and what not, I am getting mixed opinion about what is best:

  1. HBA IT mode: This seems to be the standard but also hit and miss, like folks having connection issues or controller issues, etc etc
  2. PCIe to SATA: This should be plug and play but some say this is a no go zone

I am getting more 4x 4TB WD40EFRX (CMR) before the price goes even higher and a few local SSD (mirrored) to replaced my laptop “shared” folder where I dump things from my phone without carrying about sorting things out, a later problem.

I see that there are many HBA models on Amazon AU like LSI 9201-8i which gives me an extra 8x SATA connection.

Is HAB IT mode the right way to go or should I expect issues here and there???

Thanks very much

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Defitively a HBA. What’s your 4U chassis and its backplane?
If it is a passive backplane you may even want to go for a 9305-16i or 9400-16i. (9201 are fine, but getting long in the tooth.)

Are these LXC running on another server, or is it a virtualised TrueNAS?

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I’m managing several TrueNAS servers - all Supermicro machines. The bigger ones (2U and 4) have backplanes with SAS extenders. There is a 8-channel LSI HBA, but through the backplanes the 4 U machines can use 36 hard disks on these 8 channels. Since the hard disks are relatively slow the 8 channels won’t become a noticable bottleneck.

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I saw a 4U on Amazon but I am hopping to find those with backplate before I pull the trigger.

I have 3 Proxmox that are basically empty coz I don’t have a local NAS to store configs, databases exports, etc. 1x Dell SFF that I’m moving to a 2U chassis, and 2 miniPC/thin client running my 1st/2nd DNS, they are also running a single cluster k8s for work/testing so I don’t have to wait a month for approvals.

TrueNAS is baremetal, I’ve no intention to run it as VM. Same as my OPNSense running from a second hand Sophos baremetal with SFP+

I’m as end-user as it can get haha

The new WD NAS HDD I’m getting are all 5400RPM so low power consumption. My 12U open rack sits in my living room so I cannot afford disks going brrrrrrrrrrr haha

I managed to copy 600GB over within 2h, upgrading my network to 10G is a work in progress but I do not expect miracles.

That is why I wanna a VDEV with local SSD so I can copy things over like I do today on my laptop “shared” folder if I’m rushing.

The HDD heavy writing will be scripts from the Proxmox servers happening at night so I’m happy with those 5400RPM disks .