Truenas Scale build, replacing HP Microserver Gen8 home nas

TrueNAS General
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1

Hello there,

So, I have been running freenas, freenas Coral, freenas 11 and then truenas 12 and then Truenas Scale, since 2017 on a HP Microserver Gen 8 up until now.

I could not have been happier, given the cost and features of this little server, but 7 years later and almost 10 years since the initial release of this little monster, its time to say goodbye.

I have another post where I am trying to figure out my server’s issue. Most probably PSU failling, so it’s time to start thinking for a replacement server.

My requirements are very minimal:

  • 4 or 5 hdds (For holding movies/series/music/photos)
  • 1 or 2 nvmes(Truenas boot and/or running 5-6 apps)
  • 1 or 2 ssds(Truenas boot and/or running 5-6 apps)
    apps:
  • radar/sonarr/prowlarr/transmission/minio

I did a quick research and I have found the following parts:
Mobo: ASRock - C3558D4I-4L | smicro.eu
Chassis: Supermicro CSE-721TQ-350B2 | smicro.eu
Ram: 32gb ECC UDIMM will be ok for now

Do you think I need to opt for the bigger 3758 8core?

I am confident of the build, based on the fact, that Truenas Mini Series are also based on this SoC.

Thank you all!
George.

2

4-core should be great unless you think you might want some heavy apps or VMs later.

But then again, the marginal cost is probably small to get an 8-core and over the lifetime of the new server it will be negligable.

3

A “quick” search and you end up with the AsRock Rack equivalent of NAS-favourite Supermicro A2SDi? You sure know the good parts and where to find them… (though the board is currently “not at stock” at Anafra). Go ahead with the plan.

With the number of ports[1] you can use in a CSE-721, no, unless you need the extra cores for your apps and/or want (or may want in the future) 10 GbE—then go for an A2SDi-H.

  1. and even taking into account the complex interplay between PCIe and SATA lanes in the AsRock Rack board. ↩︎

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4

Just to be sure, are you saying I should favour the supermicro over the AsRock?
They are both not in stock ofcourse and the price difference is just 100 euros.
I am thinking about it.

5

No, I see no obvious reason to favour a Supermicro board over an AsRockRack board with the same specs. If you want onboard 10GbE in mini-ITX, then Supermicro is the only option.

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Thank you very much. I already have a 2x sfp+ card so I do not need onboard sfp+ or 10Gbe. So I guess Asrock is fine.

7

That solves any issue with the onboard Marvell NIC… Just carefully check the board manual about possible combinations of I/O lanes into PCIe and SATA: I remember that AsRock Rack got very “creative” to work around the limitations of the C3558.

Edit, after reading the manual.
Case in point:

Capture d’écran 2024-09-28 à 16.13.15
Capture d’écran 2024-09-28 à 16.13.151284×556 61.8 KB

The C3558D4I has 13 possible SATA ports and a x8 slot but can only expose either

  • PCIe x8 with a single SATA,
  • 9 SATA without PCIe, or
  • PCIe x4 with 4-5 SATA.

You’d want the last option, and booting from USB to save the 5th port for an app pool on SATA SSD. A2SDi-4C-HLN4F can provide PCIe x4 with 4 SATA and M.2 x2 for app pool—still needs USB to boot, or move up to C3758 for 4 more SATA ports.

On a good note, it seems that the Marvell 88E1543(4L) is a PHY on SGMII interface (whatever that is) from the SoC rather than a genuine NIC.

And on a totally weird note, the AsRock Rack manual features… :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Capture d’écran 2024-09-28 à 16.25.25
Capture d’écran 2024-09-28 à 16.25.251296×322 44.8 KB

I found no mention of Thunderbolt support by Atom C3000 in ARK. And what would THAT be intended for???

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8

Maybe just get a Mini X+?

Iirc it uses an m.2 for boot, and you could use a second via the x4 PCIe slot.

For more PCIe you need to look at the x10sdv, or look at micro atx boards

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9

TrueNAS hardware is hard to get locally in Europe.

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