I’m a retired tech and I have made the decision to move from a Windows based Plex Server to TrueNAS. I currently have the data saved across 3 drives (2 8tb and on 13tb) all data is backed up on offline drives, and I have already have restored one drive from backup after a failure. Here’s what I am thinking of doing:
A Ryzen 7 8 core CPU
32GB RAM
Motherboard TBD
Two NICS, at least one 2.5GBE
750w PSU
Drives:
Boot drives: Two 128GB SATA SSDs
One 24TB in a single drive pool (Plex data)
Two 8TB in single drive pools (Plex data)
Two 5TB in mirrored RAID for other data
Two 2TB in mirrored RAID for other data
(As you may have guessed, I have all the drives except the 24TB. I simply can’t afford to set up a RAID and a backup for my currently about 24TB of Plex data. After all "RAID is not a backup )
I’ll likely run some containers for other tasks (Pi Hole DNS for sure) and perhaps a Windows VM.
In terms of migrating the Plex data from Windows to TrueNAS, please carefully review Move an Install to Another System | Plex Support . Pay close attention to the part about “Disable Emptying of Trash” prior to migrating the data.
Thanks. I have reviewed that and saved a couple of youTube videos on that very subject. I have about 3500 movies, 500 TV shows, a lot of music and even a library of audiobooks. The last think I want to do is lose the metadata for all of that!
First make sure that all your drives are CMR. SMR drives are completly unsuitable for ZFS.
Dual boot drives are not needed for your use case. Just keep an up to date config file.
As for VMs. They really need to be run from SSDs, or the performance will be a throwback to the 90ies.
The 24TB new drive for your media will be without redundancy, hence if it brakes, all your stuff will be gone…
The rest of your drives you can combine in pairs of mirrors into one single large pool.
Also, with that many drives, I dont know what type of recent consumer motherboard has 8 sata ports. So you probably need an HBA (lsi 9300-8i in IT mode) or go for (used) server hardware.
That is exactly the kind of inside knowledge I was looking for. I’ll incorporate an SSD for VMs. I’ll also check all my drives to make sure none are SMR.
Well, both of my Seagate 8TB drives are indeed SMR… so basically unusable in TrueNAS, correct?
I’m good using single drives for most if not all, data on this server. Even the critical data is kept on two machines here at the house and backed up off site via backblaze. The entertainment videos are all duplicated as well, at time of recording.
Due to the layout of my current LAN, updating everything from 1Gbe to 2.5Gbe would be VERY expensive (lots of switches). However, if I set up 2 LANs - leaving the 1Gbe in place for internet access and most other tasks - and setting up a 2.5Gbe network between my office desktop, the server, and perhaps one other machine, I would only need the NICs, cabling, and maybe one small switch. This would cover ALL my large file transfers (mostly videos) and require only one new cable run. Yes, if I upgraded all my switches, I could avoid pulling any cable, but buying two 8 port 2.5GB switches and one 16 port would be much more expensive.
I gave up on Plex officially supporting Audiobooks a long time ago. There was a plug-in, but Plex did away with plug ins. Heck, there has been a feature request for Audiobooks since January 2013 with over 2,000 upvotes. JellyFin does support Audiobooks, but when I tried it last year, it had some issues including the mobile player crashing.
Compared to Plex and Jellyfin, Audio Bookshelf (ABS) has been a great experience considering that it is a bit of a passion project. Are there some shortcomings? Yes. While the Android app is available to download, the iOS app is still in a beta program, and you have to be lucky to score a slot, but it is also available as a Web app. If you want to access your ABS instance external of your network, then you have to set up DDNS updater to handle IP address changes and Nginx Reverse Proxy for HTTPS support and security. From my perspective, it was well worth the effort.
Addendum: I almost forgot… there is a casting option within the app and the web page to send the audiobook to a television.
My understanding of 2.5Gb ETH:
-CAT5e wiring is supported (and backward-compatible to 1Gbe and 100Mbps
-Uses standard RJ45 cable terminations
-Nearly all 2.5G switches will auto negotiate to best speed
-Most IP endpoints don’t need more than 100Mb/s
Look into adding an entry level ($100) 8-port 2.5Gb switch for your server core.
The issue is that on my current network there are three switches between my office desktop (where I handle most video related tasks) and my current “server”. (My office ended up being in the only room I didn’t pull cable to before I moved in - of course.)
It is therefore much easier to pull one cable run from my office to the server and set up a separate 2.5Gbe network. I might add one more machine, for a total of three, so I may need a single switch. I’ll leave the current 1Gbe network in place for all other tasks.
I’ll take a look at ABS once I have everything else settled. It might work and I don’t think there would be a problem with both Plex and ABS accessing the same files, so using boths should be possible.
Having both Plex and Audiobookshelf access to the files should be fine. I would advise that you have the audiobooks in a separate folder from your music files.
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