Truenas CORE - Plex server won't move locations without operating issues

TrueNAS General
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Hi all,

Well lets try this again:
I currently have
Intel(R) Core™ i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz quad core
32GB ram,1 HDD Ironwolf 12TB, 2 HDD Seagate 4TB ea., and 1 SSD Crucial 150 GB (OS is on), 1 HDD 1TB.

  • How do I arrange the pools if I’m limited to 4 drives ? During setup I see different functions for the pools and I don’t know about vdev function or anything else on the drop down menus/ or how to even design it.

How many are needed at a minimum to function good for a Video/file server?
I have a mix amount of drives with different sizes and i understand different RAIDS but where do I go to understand more on the setup within TRUEnas? IE: folder structures from apps added like Plex, are all apps stored under one location automatically?
I currently see all the Plex data under one location:
mypoolname\iocage\jails\plexserver

I can’t setup the file server side of it either.
what functions would i need to work that setup a network folder?

Any help will be a Godsend and I appreciate anytime you have for this in advance.

Thanks,
twpx911

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Welcome! Introduction to ZFS | TrueNAS Community and ZFS Storage Pool Layout | TrueNAS Community are a great way to start!

Be mindful to avoid SMR drives (ie WD Red); read Multiply your problems with SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers | TrueNAS Community and What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller? | TrueNAS Community in order to avoid common pitfalls.

You might get the question Is my Realtek ethernet really that bad? | TrueNAS Community and the answer is yes.

There is also the Hardware Recommendations Guide | TrueNAS Community, and the Terminology and Abbreviations Primer | TrueNAS Community might be of great help to reduce misunderstandings.

The bare minimum drives you need are a small SSD for the boot pool and two other drives (CMR if you are going to use HDDs) that will be mirrored (similar to RAID1).

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First of all, this is definitely not a how-to, so please don’t apply that tag frivolously.

Second, I’m confused as to the relation between your title and the body of your post. The title suggests you’re having a specific problem with Plex, but then your post suggests that you’ve barely started, so it would be helpful to understand exactly what your situation is.

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Thanks for the info.
I didn’t mean to make anyone think its a how to. If anything it’s an I don’t know how to with TruNAS Core anything post. Thanks for updating it correctly.

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With the drives that you have, and assuming you have no more bays, you’d want to replace your 1TB with another 12TB

Then you can have a mirror of 12 TB drives and another mirror of 2 4TB drives.

Each of those is a vdev which you then add to the same pool (striping) for a total of 16TB of redundant storage.

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In short, a pool consists of 1 or more vdevs. A vdev consists of 1 or more discs.

Truenas is not like UnRaid, where you can take a bunch of different discs and create one big pool, that is redundant.

What @Stux wrote is the most simple solution for your system.

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Assessing the Potential for Data Loss should also be an interesting read.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I guess i need to go over all the YT vids for more functions. It seems to have so many and in a different way as other NAS systems. I do have a large tower but not sure how i can add more SATA ports over the 4 on the motherboard. Would any new equipment pick up through the Truenas software and automatically work like a normal Win OS, after drivers update?

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An LSI HBA 9300-8i will add 8 extra internal sas/sata ports in a very reliable fashion via a 4x slot

And with a 36 port expander could easily handle an additional 28 drives.

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I know anything is better than a 1 drive data warehouse. It’s been a long ride from external usb drives to current NAS systems for sure but prices are coming down for sure on drives and storage capacity is insane. I would like to run a RAID 10 if possible but the drive requirements are substantial with 4 base drives. Also the limiting factors of space and building out specific server rack server for this purpose is all new to me. My biggest goal is storage space for video/files and read/write speeds to seamlessly take the work load asked of it.

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Generally we discourage considering those learning material, though there are exceptions; nevertheless, I would say that reading the linked resources would allow you to get a more complete understanding of ZFS and TN, likely beyond what a (good) video can teach you.

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Is there a Best source for that or is a 3" book needed to deep dive ?

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This post is helpful, and there is also the Resources List including Detailed Hardware and System Build Notes (plus new user advice / help) | TrueNAS Community.

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I have to say the videos from “SpaceRex” on YT were helpfull for me in the beginning. For stuff like setting up SMB shares and ACL for example.

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I really cannot fathom why a video would be better than the instructions in the manual.

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something like 50% of the human race have much better ability to absorb information audibly then through written text. And if you think about it it makes sense as we where a pure verbal species for most of our history

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I mean, there is a reason civilization developed with writing… but that’s going off topic.

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Written text improves storage and distribution, not the information itself

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Written text with pictures and doing helps me.

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You are a true Brute here my man. The more you know the more you can teach.