Fresh NAS build

1st Official Post

    Hi guys,

    decided to build a home NAS from my old pc. I'm new to this stuff so i came here for some suggestions. OMV 7.5.1-1 is already running. Here's my build:

    ASUS P7P55D-E

    Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 540 @ 3.07GHz

    Kingston HyperX blu 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3-1600 running in Dual Channel mode

    INTENSO SSD 128GB for System (USB Stick won't boot automatically - always have to use Boot Menu - so no)

    Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256GB

    Crucial CT500BX500SSD1 500GB

    Seagate Exos 7e10 4TB 512n (x2) currently in RAID1 with BTRFS for Data (Docs, Pics, Music, Videos,...)

    WD Caviar Black 1TB (about 14 yo, S.M.A.R.T gives warning but didn't want to throw it away, yet)


    I could probably spare another Seagate Exos 7e10 6TB 512e/4KN (for backup or similar maybe).


    I would really appreciate some suggestions how to make the best out of it. Data can still be moved to other comp to reconfigure the 2 4TB drives if necessary.


    Which FS to use? I'm leaning towards BTRFS or ZFS. Should I use Snapraid, MergerFS, LVM2? Should I leave the 2 disks in RAID1 and use the 6TB as backup? Some other configuration?

    I was thinking of using one of the SSD's (either 256GB or 500GB) for docker. I'd like to run some plugin to be able to use instead of icloud (Nextcloud?, something else?). Maybe also something to be able to use Data from NAS on the iphones (like Pics that are not directly synced, maybe play music from NAS on the iphone, work with Docs, etc.). Also thinking of using PhotoPrism.


    Thank you in advance for any advice or suggestion.


    Regards,

    Patricij

    Think about a backup and restore for your data. You have Build a RAID 1 for your NAS. RAIDs are for continuity in working with the data but RAID doesn’t replace a backup and a restore for your data.


    In the most cases home users don’t need a NAS for continuity in working. Your NAS System is not build redundancy. RAIDs can be a point that causes issues. So it make more sense for you NAS to use the HDD without a RAID System.


    For a backup and restore you can use software like: Duplicaty, Borg Backup, ….


    Here you can found another topic: My thoughts about... RAID

    my recomendation: use BTRFS

    xcicex I wouldn't trust a drive with S.M.A.R.T errors, particularly if the reallocated sector and/or current pending sector count is non-zero.


    Quote from xcicex

    Seagate Exos 7e10 4TB 512n (x2) currently in RAID1 with BTRFS for Data (Docs, Pics, Music, Videos,...)


    If that's a MD RAID mirror formatted with BTRFS, that's kind of pointless. You don't get BTRFS bit-rot protection, nor can you easily switch raid levels and hence grow the array.


    Using a BTRFS RAID1 profile with your two 4TB drives gives you all the features of BTRFS and 4TB of usable storage. There is the potential to add drives one at a time to expand the BTRFS RAID1, but storage efficiency is fixed at 50% and redundancy is still a single drive.


    Using ZFS would mean starting with pool consisting of a single mirror vdev. Storage efficiency 50% and redundancy is still a single drive.

    To expand the pool you would have to either (i) add disks in pairs as additional mirror vdevs, or (ii) replace both existing 4TB drives with bigger drives.


    Using mergerfs alone would create a 8TB pool from your two drives, but no redundancy. When used with SnapRAID, one drive has to be dedicated to parity, so you're back to 4TB of usable storage. It's not "real-time" raid and "sync" function is by a scheduled action, or on demand. It's popular for those with large mostly static collections of media files. Full details are here: https://wiki.omv-extras.org/do…mv7:omv7_plugins:mergerfs and https://wiki.omv-extras.org/do…mv7:omv7_plugins:snapraid


    LVM2, is just another way of creating a single large "pool" of data from multiple devices. But there's no redundancy by default which means a total restore of all data if you lost a single drive.


    One, or more, SSD formatted in EXT4 is a good choice to use with docker containers.


    Whatever you choose, backups are essential.

    Hello again,

    thanks for all the replies. I decided to stick with BTRFS RAID1 profile with the two 4TB drives and use its benefits along with snapshots.

    Both SSD drives have been formatted in EXT4 for the dockers (none yet running at the moment).

    I also added the Seagate Exos 7e10 6TB 512e/4KN formatted in EXT4 to use for backups. Still have to figure out though how to backup and which solution to use. Any suggestions? Thanks.

    • Official Post
    Quote from xcicex

    I also added the Seagate Exos 7e10 6TB 512e/4KN formatted in EXT4 to use for backups.

    If the above dive is in the same chassis, give rsync a look. The example ->here is easily adapted to using your BTRFS RAID1 array as a source. (Following is the mount point for a BTRFS RAID1 array on one of my backups.)




    Plug in your BTRFS mount point, as the source, then follow the doc. If your BTRFS array fails, won't mount, etc., the doc could walk you through cutting over network shares to your backup disk. The cut over process only takes a few minutes.
    ____________________________________________________________

    Using the command line from the doc:
    Disk-to-disk rsync copies will use the entire 6TB drive, if the --delete switch is in the command line.

    To make use of the extra space on the 6TB disk, you could specify a sub-directory on the destination 6TB drive.
    A better way, in opinion, would be to partition the 6TB drive to something like 4 and 2, so the extra 2TB partition could be mounted and used for something else.

    A last note:
    This kind of backup is not versioned or incremental. Accordingly, you might consider a backup interval of at least a week or longer. That would give you time to discover a data disaster and stop the next backup event before corrupted or lost files are replicated to the backup drive.
    _______________________________________________

    There are more sophisticated ways to setup backup that included versioned backups, but few to none are easier to set up and restore than an rsync disk-to-disk backup.


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