I’ve recently started using TrueNasScale for the past half a year but used prior iterations like FreeNas, before. I’ve only ever used it at home as a dedicated file server with pretty good success. Recently, a friend started a small business 3-6 people and was looking for a small, budget friendly server with strong security primarily to back up company data. I obviously recommended a TrueNas-Scale build.
He thought the mini was too expensive and was looking to spend less on the hardware. I realized I was comfortable with a home build but the small business situation seemed more serious and real-world. Therefore, I was wondering if the community could recommend components - particularly motherboard and RAM (ecc) and power source for a small business situation. I think around 8tb of storage will be great to start, so input on zfs array type would be appreciated. We will likely back up to off-site cloud storage as well.
I know this has been covered-probably countless times, but it felt endless looking through everyone else’s recommendations for folks asking mostly about home server situations.
Thanks in advance for any input or guidance to other relevant posts.
While I understand from a home user perspective, this is a lot of money, from a business perspective it should be a drop in the bucket. Company and Customer data should be properly valued. To me it makes the most sense to ask “If the make-shift server created lost all the data, what would that be worth in dollars to recover?” It is a lot of money.
If that server broke, and you had a “cloud” backup, what would be the cost of the repair, time to restore all the data, and your employee time? You need to think like this. Well I guess you don’t but, just my opinion.
Of course you could build a good sound system yourself, however are you planning to become the “Technical Support Hotline” ? If you build it, you will be the one they call, even 3 years down the road when a drive fails.
Do not forget to use an UPS. A high quality UPS. If the cost of the server seemed like a lot, the UPS will blow his socks off. Of course I have no idea what kind of protection his business needs, but this is also a very important part of the system.
If he only wants a simple backup of his data, remote or otherwise, a small system would be fine. I’d make sure it is server quality components, not gamer grade.
Plus, the “I think around 8TB of storage” could be as simple as a pair of 10TB disks. That is to account for the 20% free rule, and disk manufacturers use of base 10 for disk sizes.
Thank you for the thoughtful response. I didn’t really think about down time. I do think it’s more of an archive system, so they can go back and find older files and images that they don’t use regularly. I will likely be there to trouble shoot if I can, but if things really go side ways, I’m not going to be the on call IT guy. So more like a low-key consultant who knows when he’s in over his head.
I guess I was just looking for more direct suggestions on whether home server parts would actually be up to the task of a real work environment. And I think the answer is no, if they are serious about data integrity.
I thought maybe given the robustness of TrueNas and zfs that you could easily get buy with less costly parts. But down time is obviously a part of the equation I need to consider more carefully.
I wade through the recommendations and then maybe revisit the TrueNas mini.
My go-to recommendation for a small server for the last several years has been the HPE MicroServers–but that may not save much (or anything) compared to the Mini series. But you’d likely have a somewhat more performant system.
Server parts should be used. I don’t think there is a difference, well in my mind that a home server and company server are different. I use the same hardware a corporation would use if they bought a server. My server however may not be a screaming cage mounted server. So if you purchase “server grade” hardware, you should be fine.
If you are also going to be Tech Support, you better get IPMI, something server boards come with.
Thank you. I guess after watching YouTube, where everyone is using their old left over hardware for a TrueNas server, you loose sight of the fact that in a business environment, that probably won’t fly.
