I’ve got a desktop and 3 Optiplex 7040 micros, all running Debian 13, as well as a GL-iNet router running OpenWRT. Finances are tight, so purchasing anything else is not really an option.
Presently I don’t have anything backed up, but I’d like to start. I’d like a network share server which will allow me to synchronize folders to it (via a Linux app), and then that in turn is backed up offsite to a cloud storage provider like Backblaze or Wasabi.
I have 1 free 7040, other 2 are running Proxmox. Ideally I’d put ZFS on it, TrueNAS, and set TrueNAS up to back up to Backblaze. I’m open to other configurations if a better one exists.
Would TrueNAS work well for a setup like this, or would another tool work better?
The Micro computers, usually, are not a good choice for TrueNAS. You are looking at a boot drive and a data drive to set up a TrueNAS server. USB storage is highly discouraged. You want directly attached drives. If that computer takes two NVMe, it might work out.
Details on the actual computer or a link to that specific model may help with advice.
You can take a look at the online docs, Hardware Guide for some info too.
I would also check what the onboard NIC is. Intel 219 series may not work. Low effort would be to do an install onto the boot drive and make sure the networking is up. Search the forum for the NIC model and see if there were reported issues. I’m not sure if that model didn’t work at or or the 218/219 weren’t that stable.
It does have an I219, I see those issues via search, but disregarding that, in general I’d still like to know if TrueNAS is a good option for my use case, or if something else would work better.
With a single data drive, you might be better picking a different OS. You lose out on some of the advantages of ZFS if you don’t have a Mirror pair or a Raid-Z(1,2,3) setup. You didn’t mention how much RAM you had but min is 8GB and 16GB is a good starting point. ZFS uses some of the RAM for a ‘read cache’ referred to as ARC.
I don’t use Backblaze so I don’t know how easy it is to work with nor what OS clients work well. Maybe try searching for that on the forum?
Thanks - I have 32 GB, but ultimately I’d want the most redundance and fault tolerance I could get on a single drive until I can afford something better, and I think for that ZFS would be the best choice even if I don’t get the benefits of checksumming and self healing.
I’d heard from someone else that Backblaze support (either by default or by plugin) was implemented into TrueNAS and it required minimal setup, that’s what spurred me to take a look at TrueNAS, if it takes more effort to set up I may look elsewhere.
