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How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

neil.computer

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Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#101

Post by CTDOCodebases »

ocd wrote: post #91

I'm sure people have reasons for taking these things as far as they do with ZFS, and everything else that goes into what is commonly considered a "NAS." But I've found great convenience in a tight NFSv3 config running from a single high capacity HDD with ext4 on a Linux machine (primary system that's always on anyway while I'm around/awake) making things available to my other devices for the electricity and overhead…

It's more the single drive storage layout that is an issue in your case. No resilience to a single disk failing and you are risking all your data if your hardware starts silently corrupting data. This is assuming all your backups are done using the data on the single hard drive.

If you want to keep your setup simple I would consider the following:

- Keep a list of file hashes and check your files against this list periodically.

- Use some type of backup program that supports snapshots. Restic is a good choice.

- Get a hard drive the same size as the one you have and use SnapRAID to manage file integrity or set up a two disk mirror using btrfs.

Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#102

Post by 6581 »

anon-3988 wrote: post #77

I really, do not want to have a big server rack lying around at my house. I have a couple of SSDs that are not being used and 3 USB HDD drives. I also have a PN50 that I am not using as well. I am thinking of buying a USB bay with 5 SSD slots in it and then 3 HDD drive. My use case is very, very cold. It is mostly just readonly data with some rclone sync every week. Does anyone have a suggestion? I am pretty much rel…

USB/SATA adapters are incredibly flaky. Some don't support TRIM, some have major firmware bugs, many overheat during long data transfers and disconnect from the host. I'd strongly advise against using them for any important data.

Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#103

Post by tancop »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #58
realityfactchex wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not a great time price-wise to be building a NAS That under-states the matter. It is a terrible time, price-wise, to build a NAS. I'd almost rather have no AI whatsoever and have storage 1/10 the price of pre-AI times. (If there were a magical choice between having AI and significantly more expensive storage, and having no AI and some program to dump that investment money into getting and somehow leveraging signifi…

I would kill (figuratively, anyway) to have no AI whatsoever. No slop machine threatening to replace my job, or turn my job into babysitting its stupidity, and hardware would be reasonably priced? That would be awesome. AI has brought me nothing but downside.

[flagged]

Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#104

Post by ocd »

dannyw wrote: post #95
ocd wrote: post #91

I'm sure people have reasons for taking these things as far as they do with ZFS, and everything else that goes into what is commonly considered a "NAS." But I've found great convenience in a tight NFSv3 config running from a single high capacity HDD with ext4 on a Linux machine (primary system that's always on anyway while I'm around/awake) making things available to my other devices for the electricity and overhead…

First: Do you have backups of your single high-capacity HDD? That's my biggest worry. What's your plan for when that HDD fails one day, as it will? The main reasons people go for ZFS and a "NAS" is checksums and data integrity protection, as well as maybe not wanting to keep their primary machine awake all the time (I personally don't). Then there are useful features like snapshots, which means I don't have to worry…

I have external parity for everything with rsync. I don't have any storage that isn't matched with external backups. Fortunately I've never seen any bitrot or had a drive fail on me since I tend to replace them before they do. And yeah, I could add in some extra HDDs for RAID, but this is more a personal choice because of how much I hate SATA.

Filesystems like ext4 are because I value boring and rock solid stability over semi-experimental status of modern filesystems with all the features.

Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#105

Post by actionfromafar »

socalgal2 wrote: post #82
sgt wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a genuine birthday greeting if you just let AI do the job?

Was it a genuine birthday greeting when you bought a card? Or used an online card? I don’t really see the difference. The point is you thought of them, not the actual words

With AI you don't have to think about them.

Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#106

Post by neilpanchal »

Confiks wrote: post #70
neilpanchal wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 4x the 14 TB WD Elements Desktop. I recommend staying away from SATA drives (huge consumer rush) and look for SAS drives on eBay, particularly HC520 Helium drives from HGST/WD. Need a SAS3008 PCIe adapter ($20) and a SFF-8643 splitter ($30). No backplane is required. Huge lots of decommissioned drives frequently appear. I bought Qty 10* of HC520 (12TB) SAS drives for $1000 about 3 weeks ago, avg age is about 2.5 ye…

> I bought Qty 10* of HC520 (12TB) SAS drives for $1000 about 3 weeks ago, avg age is about 2.5 years, still well within its rated lifetime. That's cheap indeed. Enough headroom for some failing disks too. How is the noise and power usage? I didn't look at SAS drives at all, because my impression was that they're very noisy. I can place my NAS in a closed off room, but it's not too far away and I was afraid SAS drive…

> How is the noise and power usage?

I think they're same as SATA drives, just different interface. AFAIK they have the same physical dimensions and same internals.

Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#107

Post by KaiserPro »

beagle3 wrote: post #80
denkmoon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is kind of exactly how zfs works though. The guide isn't complete, sure, but "rebuilding" the array is just replace the disk and run a single zfs command.

That’s comforting to know; that wasn’t true in the past for ext4 over lvm (is it true now?). But what is that command? And how do you know which disk has gone bad? I am sure I can get an answer from Google / Claude / ChatGPT, but a guide is incomplete without it - and the failure report should be active like a beep or flashing hardware light - I typically log into my NAS only a few times a year. A motd or other banne…

> in the past for ext4 over lvm

I used to look after storage arrays for VFX places.

everytime I saw lvm I inwardly sighed. The docs were terrible, almost as bad as MDADM. snapshots were for a long time unrecoverable. You'd then have to work out what pattern of LV you had, was it a suprise raid0? or a misaligned raid1?

zfs is a night and day compared to LVM/mdadm, two tools, rich help, the man pages are reasonably good, and once you understand zfs vs zpool, you're usually good to go.

Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#108

Post by devn0ll »

I made 2 Raspberry Pi5 NAS's. one with 4x 6TB and one with 4x 12TB.

Used mergerfs and snapraid, and a simple NFS share. Absolutely perfect for Proxmox backups, our pictures, media, etc, etc. No fuss, easy replacement of drives without needing to keep drives of the same size around.

I'm good with ZFS, have been for years now managing storage for $COMPANY. And I still freaking love using zfs send/receive with proxmox ;-)

But for most at home stuff: mergerfs and snapraid are just more logical.

Re: How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS (2024)

#109

Post by 6581 »

giov4 wrote: post #75

I killed 2x 4tb Nvme drives on Pciexpress with ZFS raid1 under proxmox, got them replaced, tried again on both pci-express and usb adapter kept getting io problems there too with zfs, drive gets disconnected during scrub or high load, tried already kernel or power management options for pciexpress and usb without sucess, managed to reproduce with high load. or proxmox ( especially community edition) is fucked or zfs…

> usb adapter kept getting io problems there too with zfs, drive gets disconnected during scrub or high load

That's usually caused by the adapter chipset overheating. Don't use USB adapters for important data.

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