How to set up TrueNas as a Media and back up server and VM

TrueNAS General
1

Hi

I am not sure if this is the correct issue

I am wondering as planning on setting up an Intel 10500 system as a server and backup server (that I can access anywhere like Cloud storage) and have others do remote back ups as well as a Plex Media serve and a VM with possibly Windows XP or later for older games that wont run on Windows 11.

I have been recommended TrueNas to do this I am new to non Windows set ups and not sure how to do this.

I have an intel 10500 cpu would the igp be good enough for this

Thank you for any advice

2

You’re going to want to look into something like Tailscale to get your own vpn going for remote access for backups. For a media server Plex just increased lifetime subscription prices to something crazy like $750 USD - might want to look into jellyfin.

iGPU should be alright for transcoding, but I enjoy having a dedicated GPU for tone mapping.

You got 6 cores, so should be enough to toss 1 or two at a VM.

General advice? If you run low on sata ports, use an HBA. Don’t use sata port multipliers, USB adapters, or expansion cards. A used HBA flashed to IT mode will likely be cheaper & will 100% save you headache when something goes wrong (slap a fan on it; like directly ontop of it).

Uhh what else?.. Run memtests, stress tests on the cpu, find the guide to burn in your HDDs before you put any data on them (this’ll take a WHILE, ~7 days for 8TB drives), only after you confirm your hardware is working should you make a pool & start putting data on it.

Start slow, figure out permissions & then how to get Plex working, then figure out how to make a VM & a network bridge (I’m assuming you want your VM to be able to access files on the NAS - if not skip the bridge), then slowly start deploying Tailscale, carefully test, slowly start setting up access for your friends to do their remote backups etc.

There is a lot of good content in the “Resources” tab - expect to spend the first week reading & running stress tests on the system.

A UPS is a nice to have.

Ignore any kind of of “cache” for your pools - unless you understand what L2ARC, Special vdev, or SLOG are, when you need them, if you need them, and how to manage risks. It isn’t a simple “throw hardware to increase HDD performance”. Without relevant use case, at best they’ll do nothing, realistically they can degraded performance, at worst they put your data at risk unless you’ve planned your configuration appropriately.

No need to make mirror boot pools unless you want to for fun; backing up your config file periodically will be more than enough to quickly restore your server if your boot drive ever dies. It is much more painless than you’d expect.

3

Thank you so much

I paid for lifetime Plex when it was $100Aud something

4

Plus I will want to run media via Apple TV box and other devices

5

TN’s VMs are not powerful, the options easily exposed are less than something like Proxmox. In TN is may be easier to load the games with Lutris/WINE/Proton in the Steam Headless app than creating from scratch in a VM.

6

I’ll offer a slightly different angle: for this particular use case, I would at least consider plain Linux rather than starting with TrueNAS.

TrueNAS is excellent when the primary goal is “NAS first”: ZFS storage, shares, snapshots, replication, and appliance-style management. But once the goal becomes NAS + Plex + remote backup access + VPN + gaming VM / Wine / Proton / Steam-style workloads, a normal Linux server can be simpler long term.

On Ubuntu or Debian, you can still use ZFS, Samba/NFS, Docker/Compose, Tailscale, Plex/Jellyfin, Restic/Borg/Kopia for backups, and KVM/QEMU/libvirt for VMs. The difference is that you are working with the native Linux ecosystem directly instead of fitting everything into the TrueNAS appliance model.

For an i5-10500, the Intel iGPU should be useful for Plex hardware transcoding, especially if the media clients are Apple TVs or other decent playback devices that can direct play most files. I would not add a discrete GPU unless there is a specific need.

My suggested path would be:

  1. Install Ubuntu Server or Debian.
  2. Use ZFS for the storage pool.
  3. Use Samba/NFS for shares.
  4. Use Docker Compose for Plex/Jellyfin and related services.
  5. Use Tailscale for remote access rather than exposing services directly.
  6. Use KVM/libvirt or virt-manager for Windows/Linux VMs.
  7. Only consider TrueNAS if you specifically want the NAS appliance UI and are comfortable with its way of handling apps, permissions, and virtualization.

TrueNAS is not a bad recommendation, but I would not automatically pick it for someone who also wants media apps, remote access, backups for other users, and game/legacy Windows VM experimentation. At that point vanilla Linux may be more flexible and less frustrating.