Hello all,
This is a long one, I’ve been crafting this post for some time! TL:DR is that I’m unsure about how to arrange ma’ data.
Following THIS THREAD, I’m having a few concerns about space and practical implementation.
How I do it now (you may cringe)
This is a mess. I have a ‘storage only’ Windows machine to store long term data (Backed up with BackBlaze Personal), though it has been specifically built for TrueNAS, eventually. I use Google Drive (1TB Paid) to store active and nearly archive data. Then Dropbox (20GB) to store live data. It gets moved slowly down to the storage machine.
I have 1 TrueNAS Server (Re-purposed old Workstation) that I’ve played with over the last 1-2 years that I use for test/learning storage and Plex, I’ve also dabbled with SyncThing and found it to be brilliantly reliable.
Why Bother?
This isn’t related to a data privacy concern, but data integrity. I’ve spent decades storing data on hard drives using Windows machines, a few times files have become corrupted. I’d quite like to pass on my data to the next generation if possible…and if they even care about it!
Thru L1Tech, Lawrence Systems and Craft Computing I learned of TrueNAS, it seemed to be the logical solution, even if it’s not as turnkey as the alternatives (Synology, etc.) and very disk consuming.
Also, Google Drive doesn’t seem to like files exceeding 5GB (throws up sync errors) and Dropbox seems to be less immediate, potentially because it’s a free account that I’ve been using for many years. I’m constantly teetering on the edge of using up that dropbox 20GB storage limit, it’s really annoying having to play musical data every week or so!
The data
I have around 12TB Non-Cloud (but covered with Backblaze) and around 800GB on cloud.
Broken down:
5TB is Plex films/media (increasing by 1TB every 3-6 months)
1TB of personal videos/photos (+1GB per week may be)
1TB programmes
3TB of other peoples disk images
1TB work related (+1-2GB per week)
1TB of general fluff
Why not just use BackBlaze?
Weeeeell, that was great for when I stored data on a ‘storage only’ Windows machine, but with TrueNAS comes hugely differently costs per year of £600/$800 to start with (not including future additional data). I figure that even if I’m buying hard drives, over 5 years I will be saving money…although there is the electric cost that I’ve not considered yet. Something to note about BackBlaze is that it doesn’t backup ALL file types (Personal Edition), which then involves zip’ing them and all that hassle.
The financial breakdown
I already have a primary server (of sorts, Xeon + ECC), I built a snapshot server (currently the windows storage machine) consisting of a SuperMicro board, low power CPU + ECC. The 3rd ‘off-site’ machine will be a reused older machine I have.
So the only cost with the exception of hardware failure/damage, is the hard drives.
At the moment I have 7 x 4TB Ironwolfs and a few older consumer drives that I plan to run into the ground. The primary server gets Ironwolfs, the snapshot server gets re-used drives and the off-site machine will have high capacity drives (like Exos), but only 2 mirrored.
When all drives are bought, it will likely exceed the cost of 2 years worth of Backblaze, however, the cost will be more fixed and unlikely to waver, and I like that.
I have most of the hardware needed to ensure there’s a 10G connection between all these machines (SFP+).
The Disk and backup arrangement (today)
My latest plan for the main server was:
9TB Useable RAIDZ2 Active Storage (5x4TB) and 9TB Useable RAIDZ1 Archive/rarely access (5x4TB)
I thought that the Archive could be set to spin down when not in use - sometimes it wouldn’t be accessed for weeks or even months.
How much Plex content do I really need?
This is something I’ve asked myself recently, especially when uncompressed a film is around 25-30GB. Do I really need this media conveniently accessible? Something I would like to do is arrange my photo collection for easier viewing on Plex. I’ve tested this already and it’s pretty good, I bought my parents an Nvidia Shield and my personal videos play well on it.
The paradox is:
- If I really like a film/series, I’m going to enjoy and watch once, then many years later if I’ve forgotten the story/plot, I might watch it again.
- But if it’s a film/series I’ve never watched and decided to buy, it could be rubbish and I might not want to watch it again and therefore won’t put it on Plex!
So as I mentioned, I’m going to have 3 ‘servers’.
Data I have right now is around 12TB, though some of this can be discarded (other peoples disc images, very bad films/tv series).
Primary Server (TN1)
Pool 1: Active (9TB RAIDZ2)
Pool 2: At rest (12TB RAIDZ1)
Snapshot (TN2)
Pool 1: for Active Snapshot
Pool 2: for less frequent snapshots (of data at rest)
Off-site...ish (TN3)
Just a reliable enough box that will hold 18TB noisy drives and be turned on weekly.
Some other notes and things
Why all this fuss and bother for just home use?
This is the rub, it’s not just for personal use - I work from home (now) and my intention is to use SyncThing to sync my work files, so there’s always at least 3 copies (even without the 3rd server on). My work files are a combination of architectural and photo/video records. A whole project file is around the 3GB range.
One handy thing is that I’m self-employed/sole trader, so virtually all money spent on IT is Tax deductible.
My first thoughts (not so good)
At first, I was going to build up slowly to having 9 x Ironwolfs in RAIDZ2 which would give me around 21TB of storage (including 20% buffer). My hope was that before I get close to filling it up, I would already be replacing 4TB drives for 8TB, expand the pool and happy days, I get lots of storage. Thing is, that’s 9 drives constantly spinning, while only 10% of the stored data was being accessed on more than a weekly basis. So as above, I thought it practical to split 10 drives in half, have one half always spinning and the other half spin down.
Am I a TrueNAS fan boy?
No, I just like the concept. I dabbled with UnRAID and found it so easy to do - but as always, there are sacrifices with the easy solution. I looked at Synology and really disliked that you MUST buy another Synology if it goes bang with working drives in it (citation welcome). I really like the idea that push comes to shove, I can load TrueNAS on virtually anything and recover data. I like the data scrubbing, the snapshot options, the GUI, the order of it all. I’m the same person that hand writes websites (for myself) because I disagreed with the lack of portability or hassle of updating a CMS website. I’m also the same person that has virtually all the power/hand tools (and experience) needed to fix almost anything that goes wrong in a house.
What do you think of TrueNAS Scale?
I’m far from qualified to answer this, but I will Its (future) capability is in excess of my abilities, but I have done a test install and played with it. If I get more involved in containerising my life, I’ll definitely give it another try. Big respect to IX Systems for taking this course of action For the moment though, I’m going to use that test box to practice my snapshot/restore experience…ready for that moment when it all goes tits up!
So, you’ve got to the end, my hat off to you! I hope this is fairly understandable, I was thinking of doing a youtube video of it as well, in case that was more easily digested. I very much welcome your thoughts and suggestions