Storage configuration (4 X 4 TB HDD)

[drRodneyMcKay]

I would like to extend my 'nas' (computer running manjaro + SMB).

For now, it is a single 3 TB HDD (ext 4) with some samba shares. However that is too little storage for my shares and Plex folders.

I will buy 4 4 TB ironwolf drives. How should I configure it? Which file system should I use? What is the minimum amount RAM, I need for the file system?

My objective is: tons of space with adequate redudancy for drive failure.

Would a small sdd (cache) benefit me on a gigabit network? (Probably not)

How could I setup a different (also manjaro) pc to make snapshots from important files in the new array? (Would like to save those to my existig 3 TB HDD).

 

 

 

[Hewie]

I'd recommend an SSD cache as it can make the system feel a lot snappier. 500GB should be plenty and dont bother with NVME as you wont be able to saturate SATA's 6GBit/s Limit.
My limited knowledge of raid would suggest a raid Z5, it uses the ZFS file system and from what I can tell looks like a great option. 

You probably wont need tones of ram as this is a relatively small NAS but id say 16GB should be the minimum. 

I'm still pretty new to this myself but hope that helps!

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id go zfs with raid z1 here. 

 

You won't need much ram for a basic nas, 4gb will be fine.

 

For gigabit a ssd cache won't help.

 

WIth zfs you can easy use a script like zfs auto snapshot to make snapshots