TrueNAS Scale Remote Backup Server Build

TrueNAS General
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1

Recently I build a new Remote Backup Server based on the AMD Ryzen 7000 Platform. The specs of the build are:

  1. CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 7900
  2. Motherboard - Supermicro H13SAE-MF
  3. Memory - Kingston ECC UDIMM 96GB 5600MT/s
  4. BootPool - 2x PNY CS900 120GB (Mirror)
  5. StoragePool-1 - 2x Seagate Exos x20 10TB (Mirror)
  6. StoragePool-2 - 6x Seagate Exos x20 20TB (Yet to decide the best layout, still testing various arrays)

For the PCIe Add-On Cards I have 3 Options, 2x Gen-5 x8 Cards and 1x Gen-4 x4 Card. For the HBA I went with LSI 9300-8i for connecting all the 8x Hard Disks.

For the x8 and x4 Slots I have 2 Cards lying around QNAP QXG-10G2T-X710 (QXG-10G2T-X710 | Two 10GbE Ports with SR-IOV and iSCSI, Block-based, Supports Multiple Virtual Disk Modes | QNAP) and QNAP QM2-4P-384 (QM2-4P-384 | Flexible and versatile, boosts performance and functionality | QNAP) both work fine with Windows 11 and Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS (Tested). Wondering if it would work with TrueNAS Scale 24.04?

My Goal is to add 2x 10Gbe Ports and at least 2x Additional M.2 NVMe.
H13SAE-MF with the above parts mentioned leaves me

  1. 1x Gen-5 x8 Slot
  2. 1x Gen-4 x4 Slot
  3. 2x Gen-5 x4 M.2 NVMe Slots
2

That’s a lot of computing power for a “backup” server. I find it stange that you put any stress on Gen5 and Gen4 slots when all of your devices, especially the QM2-4P-384 card, are Gen3…
As for the pool layout, 6-wide raidz2 or raidz3 are the only safe and realistic options; three 2-way mirrors is not safe and two 3-way mirrors is a waste of space on a backup. The purpose of the separate mirror pool is unclear.

What is your question?

3

I want to add at least 2x more NVMe M.2 Drives and 2x 10Gbe Ports for quick restore in an emergency, with the cards available QNAP QXG-10G2T-X710 & QNAP QM2-4P-384 can I achieve this or I need anything else?

4

Assuming you won’t be re-designating the backup as a primary in an emergency, and thus maybe running bock storage, the only thing that really makes sense is to use raidz. Pick 1,2 or 3 based on your level of paranoia.

6-way RaidZ2 seems like a good compromise

The pair of 10tBs almost seem a waste, but I guess you could even backup extra critical data twice.

5

10TB Mirror is primarily for docker backups, next cloud backup and a few databases.
While 20TB array will be for Media Backup and VM Backup Images.