Looking for Advice on First TrueNAS Build

TrueNAS General
1

Hey everyone,

I’m planning to build a new storage server and would love to get some feedback. I’ve been running SnapRAID for over 10 years now and it’s worked great, but I’ve been wanting to switch to ZFS for a while—mostly for the stability, real-time checks, and performance improvements. My current setup is a Dell R510 (single Xeon E5520, 8GB DDR3 ECC) that I got a little over 6 years ago. It connects directly to my R720, which handles my VMs (soon to be replaced with a cluster).

Here’s what I plan to use the new server for:

  • Backups
  • Plex media storage
  • General file storage (mostly NFS, with 1-2 SMB clients)

It’ll be strictly a storage box since I’ll run apps on separate servers. I was originally considering TrueNAS Core but I see a lot of people recommending Scale, and since I’m familiar with Debian, I’m leaning that way.

My current plan is to set up a Zpool with two RAIDZ2 VDEVs using 18TB drives. I already have 4x 18TB in my existing system. I was thinking of creating a new vdev with 6x 18TB drives, migrating all my data, and then building the second vdev. I’m not sure if this is a good idea or if there’s a better way to go about it—open to suggestions!

Some requirements I have:

  • IPMI: The server will be under the stairs in a closet, and I don’t have a spare monitor, so IPMI is a must.
  • ECC RAM: I’ve been running ECC on both my app and file servers for years, so I’d like to stick with it.
  • 12 HDD bays
  • NVMe for the OS
  • 10GB SFP+: I plan to connect it directly to my switch and prefer to avoid RJ-45.

I was initially leaning towards a Dell R730xd, as I’ve had a good experience with my R720 and R510. However, I’ve read that the R730xd consumes quite a bit of power. I pay around $0.13/kWh, and my R510 averages 155W, costing me about $175/year. I’d like to keep power consumption reasonable if possible.

Budget: $500-$750 for the server (not including HDDs). I’m hoping to get at least 6 years out of this system.

After doing some research on various forums and eBay, I’ve come up with the following build. My concern is whether it’s overkill or if it’ll end up costing me more in power than going with an older E3 or E5 system.

  • SuperMicro 2U SAS3 12 LFF chassis with 2 PWS-920P-SQ ($200)
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4114 2.2GHz 10-core CPU ($15)
  • Supermicro MotherBoard X11SPi-TF ($300)
  • LSI SAS 9305-16I HBA ($76)
  • Intel X520-DA2 10GB SFP+ NIC ($34)
  • 2x32GB DDR4-2400 PC4-19200T ($25 each)

This setup totals around $675. Based on the specs I’ve found, the estimated power draw is about 164W, though I’m not sure how accurate that is. I’d appreciate any input on whether this build makes sense or if there are more power-efficient options that would still meet my needs.

Questions:

  1. Is it feasible to create a new vdev with 6x 18TB drives, migrate data to it, and then build the second vdev later? Or is there a better approach?
  2. Would TrueNAS Core or Scale be better for my needs (mainly file storage, Plex, and backups)?
  3. Does my build seem overkill for my usage, or is it reasonable given my requirements?
  4. Could I end up spending more on power with this build than with an older E3 or E5 system?
  5. Are there more power-efficient alternatives that would still provide stability and last for 6 years?

Thanks for any advice!

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I see nothing wrong with your planned setup.
Although if you wanna do sync writes over NFS you should add a SLOG (e.g. an optane 900p, 905p).

You can always add vdevs, preferrably of the same kind. But without running a rebalancing script, old data will stay on the old drives, lessening overall performance.

For a couple of clients, xeon scalable is overkill. But im not the one to talk :smile: .

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3

Good research work. Power use is likely no worse than an E5; an E3/Core i3 may have lower idle. A very low-power alternative would be an X10SDV board, in Flex-ATX size with two x8 slots for the two cards—altough an X10SDV-nC-7TP4F / 7TP8F would have everything: SAS HBA and SFP+.

You may also spare by buying a complete refurbished server rather than picking individual parts.

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Thank you. I’ll look into adding a SLOG.

Yea I figured the intel scalable was overkill, but I was having trouble finding something that was newer than the SuperMicro X10 boards and wasn’t expensive.

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Thanks. This board looks like a good option. It already has 2 10G SPF+ ports so I wouldn’t need to purchase those. Goes up to 128 GB of RAM and has 2 PCI-E 3.0 x8 slots which would be prefect.

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Save you config (or not), reinstall on the right drive, then if you saved your config, upload it.

8

And, above all, make your own thread(s) and do NOT highjack a totally unrelated thread!

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