I need some info for my future server - Nas

  • Hello to all, i'm new but are months that i read the forum.


    I need some advices for my next NAS.
    Now i have a Synology DS918 but start to be small for my needs. Now I have 4x12Tb (Raid 5) Hdd almost full with 2 VM, a VPN and a server plex.


    My plans are to use this HW for the new NAS:


    i5 8600
    Asrock Z370
    16/32Gb ram
    2 x Sata Pci expasion (4xSata per PCI Card)
    10Gbe Lan
    Nvidia P2000
    Case - Node 840


    The P2000 will be added in the near future. For now it is inside the PC of my brother.


    I have choose the i5 8600 for its 6 cores and for its integrated video card (hd630) that will be used until i will can change it with the p2000 (3 to 6 months)


    With my new nas i will change my Raid 5 to a Raid 6. The problem is that windows does not support Raid 6, for this i want use OMV. A hardware raid solution its not possible due to the few PCI slots.


    Now my questions...


    It's possible to use the potential of the video card with OMV or i need Windows for this (With Plex)?


    If i use the docker for install Plex there is a solution for the GPU card?


    If i need Windows (for Plex transcoding via P2000) what can i do? I need install Windows inside a VM and then make the PCI passthrough?


    Stupid question ... I can install OMV on two USB sticks (in Raid 1) create RAID 6 with my HDDs, transfer all the files and then install Windows and Plex on an SSD and make Plex take the data from the Raid6 ? :D:whistling::whistling: If its possible, i tink its a waste of resource, right?


    for now its all... I think :D


    :thumbup: Thanks you very much for your patience and sorry for my bad english. :thumbup:<3

  • i5 8600
    Asrock Z370
    16/32Gb ram

    I'd rather suggest to save money and go with a Ryzen 5 2600 instead, that alone should save you 100 bucks. Also 16GB RAM should be plenty, if you don't plan using on ZFS...

    2 x Sata Pci expasion (4xSata per PCI Card)

    Some boards have plenty of SATA Connectors (8+, some even 10): https://geizhals.de/?cat=mbam4&xf=2962_8

    10Gbe Lan

    From those listed above, only one has 5Gbe and another has 10Gbe. The first one around 180 €, the other at 250 €.

    I have choose the i5 8600 for its 6 cores and for its integrated video card (hd630) that will be used until i will can change it with the p2000 (3 to 6 months)

    Whats the reason behind the P2000? Seems like overkill to add a dedicated GPU into the NAS.


    It's possible to use the potential of the video card with OMV or i need Windows for this (With Plex)?

    You mean for transcoding? Even the CPU should do just fine there: https://www.anandtech.com/show…700-ryzen-5-2600x-2600/12


    With my new nas i will change my Raid 5 to a Raid 6. The problem is that windows does not support Raid 6, for this i want use OMV. A hardware raid solution its not possible due to the few PCI slots.

    You got two PCI-E x16 Slots on most boards. ;)

    Stupid question ... I can install OMV on two USB sticks (in Raid 1)

    A. Don't install OMV on a USB Stick, only if you really have to, but then use the fs2ram Plugin to lessen the writes to the USB Stick... B. You can only do RAID on the OS Disk if you install Debian first and install OMV afterwards to it.

    create RAID 6 with my HDDs, transfer all the files and then install Windows and Plex on an SSD and make Plex take the data from the Raid6 ? If its possible, i tink its a waste of resource, right?

    You mean installing it in a VM? Then yes, you could expose the Files to a Windows VM (over the network). Installing it as Dualboot? No, not possible as Windows will be unable to access the Linux Raid Array.


    Greetings
    David

    "Well... lately this forum has become support for everything except omv" [...] "And is like someone is banning Google from their browsers"


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  • What are you planning on doing?

    Based on 1st post: efficient video transcoding (which the HD630 is already fine for thanks to Intel's QuickSync -- but no idea about software support requirements on Linux. Plex on Windows can transcode multiple high-resolution streams at the same time with an HD630 and without wasting CPU resources).


    Don't install OMV on a USB Stick

    That's perfectly fine as long as the stick is tested to not being counterfeit flash (that's the real reason so many people fear flash storage: they bought counterfeit flash storage that fakes a larger capacity and stops working 1000 times earlier than genuine flash storage). But yes, enabling the flashmemory plugin is a good idea in such a case.


    16GB RAM should be plenty, if you don't plan using on ZFS...

    There is no 'ZFS needs loads of RAM' requirement, this is more or less an urban myth (or a misunderstanding since on Linux the ZFS ARC cache isn't listed as filesystem buffers/caches as with traditional Linux filesystems). For the aforementioned use cases 4GB should already be fine (depends mostly on how much virtualization/containerization is needed).

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Based on 1st post: efficient video transcoding (which the HD630 is already fine for thanks to Intel's QuickSync -- but no idea about software support requirements on Linux. Plex on Windows can transcode multiple high-resolution streams at the same time with an HD630 and without wasting CPU resources).

    I guess that is possible... admittedly I'm no transcoding expert, but I always thought it was more CPU hungry than GPU hungry... I guess it's entirely possible with a proper video card those duties would get handed off to the GPU. I'm assuming his brother won't be letting that GPU go for free, and that just seems like an insane amount of money for a video card that will be on a headless system.

  • I'd rather suggest to save money and go with a Ryzen 5 2600 instead, that alone should save you 100 bucks. Also 16GB RAM should be plenty, if you don't plan using on ZFS...

    The 16Gb of ram are for the 2 (for now) VMs . However the hardware is not yet in the decision phase. In fact i'm still looking for advices



    Some boards have plenty of SATA Connectors (8+, some even 10): geizhals.de/?cat=mbam4&xf=2962_8

    Thanks for the suggestion, but the AMD CPU does not have the Quick Sync technology and can't use the Plex Hardware Transcoding, as far as i know.


    From those listed above, only one has 5Gbe and another has 10Gbe. The first one around 180 €, the other at 250 €.

    I will go with this: https://www.asus.com/it/Networking/XG-C100C/ . More or less 90€


    Whats the reason behind the P2000? Seems like overkill to add a dedicated GPU into the NAS.


    Because i will have it for free and because its very powerful for Plex transcoding.



    You mean for transcoding? Even the CPU should do just fine there: anandtech.com/show/12625/amd-s…700-ryzen-5-2600x-2600/12


    unfortunately I don't think it has the power to do multiple transcodings at the same time.
    I have several films and TV series on plex, and other than this I also use plex to share videos, made by me, with friends and colleagues.
    Since the videos that I create are very often are in 4k, transcoding is necessary.
    unfortunately I don't have the possibility to understand if an AMD processor can do for me.



    You got two PCI-E x16 Slots on most boards.


    This is true with the AMD motherboards. The Intel motherboards with z390/z370 chip have very limited pci lines.
    In all honesty I prefer to use AMD CPU but the transcoding capability is very limited.



    A. Don't install OMV on a USB Stick, only if you really have to, but then use the fs2ram Plugin to lessen the writes to the USB Stick... B. You can only do RAID on the OS Disk if you install Debian first and install OMV afterwards to it.


    A: Thanks for the answer, i completely forgot that plugin :)
    B: thank you, I was completely unaware of this :)


    You mean installing it in a VM? Then yes, you could expose the Files to a Windows VM (over the network). Installing it as Dualboot? No, not possible as Windows will be unable to access the Linux Raid Array.

    Yeah in a VM :)




    That GPU is WAY overkill or a NAS (which are typically headless)... What are you planning on doing?

    Yeah it's overkill for a NAS but i want use it for transcoding capability with Plex, and only with Plex.


    My intent is to create a small server that can handle different flows with Plex, manage 2 virtual machines (3 or 4 in the future), manage a VPN and work on some files directly on the NAS. :D

  • I guess it's entirely possible with a proper video card those duties would get handed off to the GPU

    Sure, that's the reason why all those ARM SoCs with their dog slow CPU cores are able to do encoding/transcoding/decoding without a sweat at minimal consumption since it's the VPU's job (on ARM we differentiate between GPU for 2D/3D acceleration, the VPU for accelerating video and the general display engine unlike on x86 where 'GPU' is the term for all 3 items).


    I don't do transcoding since my media players all support HW accelerated decoding so all I could contribute here is to mention that it's a driver's thing. Just like on ARM where this VPU stuff works with Android out of the box but with Linux it can be PITA it's the same with x86. Sentences like this The only problem with Nvidia cards under Linux is the lack of hw-decoding support in Plex. are an indicator of the issue ;)

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    It seems that you have pre-determined that you will only have one pretty powerful NAS. Why is that? Why not more than one, and smaller? Perhaps even many more?


    Also you say nothing about the backup method you intend to use, but quite a lot about RAID. I would argue that the backup system should take priority over what, if any, RAID you intend to use. A good backup system, with extremely high combined bandwidth, can be built using more than one separate NAS. And if RAID is used (as I suspect it often is) instead of a good backup system, rethinking this might make RAID unnecessary and could even improve the final system. Cost, performance, stability, data integrity and redundancy.


    Using separate units you can have some that are specially designed for data storage and some that are specially designed for processing and/or streaming. And even some that are specially designed for backup data storage. And you could even run distributed workloads, other than backups.


    Using several smaller units it is easy to expand. You simply add more units as needed. If you have several identical units you can also get nice hardware redundancy. I use Odroid HC2s with 12 TB Ironwolf HDDs.


    Also transcoding on-the-fly may be nice, but is really only needed for live content. You could easily share more than one version of the video, in different formats/bandwidths. And re-encode it in advance with much higher quality and compression than on-the-fly transcoding is capable of. You might even run several instances of plex/emby for different versions of the media for clients with different bandwidth capabilities.

  • thanks for the tips....
    I had not thought about the possibility of creating more small systems and I will certainly study the possibility.
    surely at the moment I have two problems in mind this this option
    first, the cost is certainly greater, second, my space available is not very much, indicatively 60x60x60cm.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I prefer to re-encode in advance instead of on-the-fly. It makes much better image quality possible. I have a few crazy high bitrate 4K HEVC videos. That is the only media I can't play over wifi directly to my clients.


    I had Emby on one of my HC2s re-encode it to 1080p x264 8Mbps with H.264 CRF 20, H.264 preset slower. I just left clicked on the video and selected convert. Not sure how long it took, but it was done a few days later when I was ready to watch it. Impossible to see any difference from the original media at normal viewing distance on a 1080p screen.


    I have Emby (official armhf docker) set to use ffmpeg with v4l2 when transcoding and re-encoding on my HC2s. Not sure if that helps.


    About cost. The expensive thing is the drives. In comparison the NAS is cheap. At least if you go for big NAS drives. By using several smaller units it is easier to dimension right and expand as needed. With the monolith approach you need to overprovision. Either you have empty drive bays or you have half empty hdds.


    Also 10 GbE may help with bandwidth for backups and restores. But it is expensive and using several 1 GbE units connected to a switch you can easily achieve much higher simultaneous combined bandwidth than 10 Gb/s.


    About size. I have 6 HC2s on a bookshelf. Takes up half the shelf.


    https://forum.openmediavault.o…ent/10908-c5-running-jpg/


    About backups. You most likely need at least one extra unit for backups, with similar storage capacity. Perhaps more. Perhaps at different locations. Then you already have a multi node system. How do you handle backups now? If you expand the data storage you most likely have to expand the backup storage as well?


  • at the moment i have a backUp on 3x8Tb external Driver and a secure backup on amazon aws, but on Amazon i store only the most important things.


    About re-encoding at the moment its not possible due the few free Tb on my NAs

  • Hi
    Was gonna put a response to this earlier, but I'm a newb and wanted to see the debate first... always wanting to learn from the power users! :]


    My motherboard selection journey took me through a few basics... the one thing I learned is that a server is a different beast to a workstation, or PC (esp gaming)... the main issue being ECC (error correcting) RAM and the number of SATA ports (etc)


    Balancing this with power consumption and aquisition cost! [the NAS rated drives are pretty much a constant anyways] - CPU power and RAM are not so critical (from what I learned here)


    > bottom line; I skipped the PC/x86 route and went to the Helios4 (now on preorder, waiting for production run!) see here... because, reasons! (ARM is the future y'all!)


    > while I'm waiting for the Helios to arrive, I'm using an old notebook PC (10 yrs old, works fine with OMV) and USB connected external drives... although I could do a swap-out for the optical drive inside the notebook if I really could be bothered! (which would use the SATA connection)


    > the notebook can have any old 2.5" HDD or a small capacity SSD to boot off -or- get into the BIOS to boot off a USB stick (not too hard)... then all the media management (eg PLEX, Emby...) *plugins* are available via Docker (see the videos + the getting started threads) ...here... and you manage OMV from whatever you use as your 'daily driver' (or any WiFi device that can run a web browser)



    Good Luck! Sharing is caring! :D

    Helios4 [ARM SBC] with OMV6... seemples! :) >> AXZEZ carrier + CM4 RPi [ARM 'SBC' ] with OMV6 (in dev't) 8)

  • Thanks for your tips :)


    If i will make 2 different system, one for storage and one for Plex, when plex make a transcoding, the lan can make problems? I mean bandwidth problems

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    It won't affect streaming or transcoding. Not unless GbE speeds are slower than the decoding and encoding speed, and I doubt that. But it might increase latency when indexing and browsing media. It is slower over GbE than over SATA III.


    If you stream from a x86 box then you can install FS-cache. That should reduce the latency a bit. It only caches reads over the network, but that is exactly what is needed.


    I tried to use FS-cache on my Odroid HC2 running Armbian, but I never got it to work. But I have it working fine on my x86 laptop over Wi-Fi. It caches the NFS shares from my Odroid HC2 OMV servers. I have 12 GB of the SATA SSD on my laptop dedicated for FS-cache. Works fine.


    I would like to try it with a big NVME SSD one day...

  • Hi. I have a quick question.


    Would not it be better to mount the Emby server on another PC and create the libraries from the OMV SMB/CIFS share?


    Or, in the case of a PC with an Intel i6700k and 16 RAM as a OMV server... is a GPU like Nvidia necessary?


    Thanks in advance

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Would not it be better to mount the Emby server on another PC and create the libraries from the OMV SMB/CIFS share?

    I run Emby on my OMV server an N54L, a Raspberry Pi runs Kodi with an Emby plugin which syncs to the server, that way I don't have to configure Kodi to use the SMB shares.

  • I run Emby on my OMV server an N54L, a Raspberry Pi runs Kodi with an Emby plugin which syncs to the server, that way I don't have to configure Kodi to use the SMB shares.

    Okay., I see, then any other device has no problem to play at home?
    I mean, in my actual Linux Computer (where is gonna be the OMV NAS) I use SMB for shared resources and only my Nvidia Shield can use Kodi as a client and it works well in my SMB from my current Linux. However there is no Kodi client for Roku, Samsung or LG then i need to use the Emby Client APP on those another devices.


    I assume then that for your other devices you use the Emby Server that is in your OMV?



    I understood well?



    Sorry, but sometimes I'm a bit slow to understand.



    I appreciate your response very much.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Okay., I see, then any other device has no problem to play at home?

    No, but there are 2 ways to look at this, iPads and iPhones use VLC this locates the Emby server running in Docker, but VLC can also use the SMB shares. I have one smart TV this has it's own Media Browser/Player this will only connect to the SMB shares on the server, we also have a Playstation this locates the running Emby server but like VLC it only 'lists' the movies with a relevant poster image.


    Ok, this is gonna be good :) you can sideload Kodi onto a Roku, for Samsung and LG if you're referring to TV's you can do the same on a Fire stick :)


    Your only other option is to pay for Emby Premier this will give access to Emby's apps for the above, but for TV's your need to set up a profile, which I think is an xml file.


    I assume then that for your other devices you use the Emby Server that is in your OMV?

    Yes, but don't forget you actually don't need Emby (just makes things easier to manage) you can just use your SMB shares.


    I also scrape my movies with MCM prior to adding them to the shares on OMV, TV Shows as well, that way I tell Emby to use the .nfo created file.

  • No, but there are 2 ways to look at this, iPads and iPhones use VLC this locates the Emby server running in Docker, but VLC can also use the SMB shares. I have one smart TV this has it's own Media Browser/Player this will only connect to the SMB shares on the server, we also have a Playstation this locates the running Emby server but like VLC it only 'lists' the movies with a relevant poster image.
    Ok, this is gonna be good :) you can sideload Kodi onto a Roku, for Samsung and LG if you're referring to TV's you can do the same on a Fire stick :)


    Your only other option is to pay for Emby Premier this will give access to Emby's apps for the above, but for TV's your need to set up a profile, which I think is an xml file.


    Yes, but don't forget you actually don't need Emby (just makes things easier to manage) you can just use your SMB shares.
    I also scrape my movies with MCM prior to adding them to the shares on OMV, TV Shows as well, that way I tell Emby to use the .nfo created file.

    Excellente tip with Kodi, thank you very much for that :D


    -------------------------------------


    I have Emby Premier for life, and I'm in the beta program, so that's no problem :)
    Plex also has it that way, but lately Plex has become quite "tied and heavy". I used Plex before Emby, I installed it twice in 6 months and every time it is more feels more "tied" so I did not use it again
    My movies are already scrapped with the arts and the .nfo inside each folder (one folder x movie) that's a good thing, for Emby, Plex or Kodi if you need to recreate an instalation :)


    Thank you very much for your help, going to start installing OMV without the Nvidia card on the i7 6700k PC/Server.


    Really appreciated.


    Have a nice day!

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