Hello there, i’ve got a QNAP TS-x73 (TS-873) and want to use TrueNAS, but i’ve got a few questions before. Maybe some of them may sound stupid, but I’ve searched a lot and sometimes there are different informations. Also some posts from around 2010 told me different answers like newer one’s, specially about informations Hardware RAID vs. ZFS. And yes, I am old (born in 1983), so “back in my times we make it different”, but I am still able to learn new and (hopefully) better solutions. Also english is not my native language, so I hope you understand what I’ll think to say.
I start with my (planned) setup; the TrueNAS OS should be installed on the NVME drive (There are 2 slots on the QNAP, I only use one). Then i want to create a new, (AES) encrypted RAID6 with 7 hard-drives (8TB each, S-ATA CMR) and one additional for hot-swap. I’ve chosen 2 different Vendors: 4xSeagate IronWolf, 4x Toshiba N300. Currently I am NOT sure about the filesystem, because it looks like a hardware RAID so ZFS is not useful, so maybe ext4 or anyway a zfs?
The RAID6 Partition got a few directory’s, the most important are:
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Multimedia (for movies, series and music for my kodi- Pi’s (actually 3, maybe more)
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Backup (from all the PC’s, like personal data: Mails, documents or family pictures)
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Images (for Linux DVD’s and Raspberry Pi images – Internet is sloooow here – but not an PXE)
I want to shutdown the device each day after midnight (maybe with a cronjob) and reactivate it trough WoL.
After TrueNAS is installed and configured on the QNAP device i want to remove the graphic card and keyboard: All shares are SMB and NFS, configuration with ssh or https.
I don’t use the NAS for other things like Cloud or Crypto-mining. I’ve got a gaming / NextCloud / SQL Server on my 24/7 Orange Pi 5.
Also I don’t want to share my files from this hardware with the internet, so this Hardware should be LAN only.
Now my questions:
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Has the QNAP a Hardware-RAID-Controller or is ZFS in anyway the better option? I’ll mean I don’t need “snapshots” for the most Directory’s, but the “Backup” directory should be save. But do I really need snapshots for the backup dir if I also copy this directory to a USB NVME Drive?
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Does TrueNAS support the QNAP Hardware (Motherboard unknown with a AMD RX-421-ND)? The most Reddit Posts show me, that there is no known problem with TrueNAS Core, except the LED from HDD 7 or the fan speed, but anyone got experience?
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I want to use encryption with a key-file on a USB Flash Drive. Is it possible to auto-mount the USB Stick and use the keyfile for the RAID on the boot process? And what happens if the USB will be removed, will it just stop boot?
(Yes, I make a second USB Stick with the same keyfile, because I know what happens if I loose this USB Drive / keyfile!)
I’ve search for that, but I don’t find some useful informations, only something like this:
h**ps://forums.lawrencesystems.com/t/truenas-scale-encryption-keys-on-usb-stick/20297/7
But he has created a zfs-pool on a USB Flash Drive, so maybe there is a better solution?
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Is everything I want to do / have possible with TrueNAS Core or should I use TrueNAS Scale? Has someone make experience between those two on the QNAP Hardware?
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Optional: QNAP plays a Sound trough the speaker if the OS has been started. Is something like that possible with TrueNAS, too?
Again, I’ve searched a lot and found different states and informations. I am not lazy, so if you want to help me with links to trustful informations, also youtube tutorials I am pleased, too! But I’ll think you all agree, better ask to do the right thing before I crash the system and loose a lot of (personal) datas. And one I also want to say, I am not a computer engineer or something, just a simple craftsman, so have mercy.