Storage server/TrueNas Core Vs Unraid

[UmarKamani]

Hello Everyone, So my father needs a storage server for his business, mainly Documents(excel, word, pdf), pictures and video. So after watching off of the LTT Nas/storage server videos. I have taken upon myself to get it to him. Budget is around 1000 $ and since I live in Mauritius and I need to get the server shipped internationally to me since locally new servers are way overpriced and used server simply don't exist here.

 

I found an HP DL380e with Dual 8-Core XEON E5-2450L and 24TB of SAS HDD for decent price with shipping to Mauritius. First Order of business would be to do some maintenance on it and thought of changing the CPU's to 10 Cores each with more cache but I don't know if it would be necessary but what would be necessary would be to change out all the HDD's since I need this sever to be 10000% reliable since its going to store some sensitive data, am thinking of 12 x 4TB drives from either WD or Seagate I have linked both below. Please give me your opinion since i don't really know which one would be more suitable.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-IronWolf-7200RPM-128MB-3-5-Inch/dp/B07H2FPFW5/ref=sr_1_16?crid=2YEMR94H12X3P&keywords=4tb+nas+hard+drive&qid=1648281687&s=electronics&sprefix=4TB+%2Celectronics%2C364&sr=1-16

 

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Plus-Internal-Drive/dp/B08VH8C3WZ/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=4tb+nas+hard+drive&qid=1648284492&s=electronics&sr=1-4

 

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-IronWolf-5900RPM-Internal-3-5-Inch/dp/B07H289S79/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=4tb+nas+hard+drive&qid=1648284515&s=electronics&sr=1-3

 

If any of you know of a better option I would like to hear about it.

 

Next would be software, I have decided to narrow it down to TrueNas and Unraid.

 

I don't mind paying for the Unraid but I want to know what would be a better option.

 

I want something powerful and user friendly.

 

I would also like the option of adding additional drives in the future but I think that's only available on Unraid.

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, UmarKamani said:

First Order of business would be to do some maintenance on it and thought of changing the CPU's to 10 Cores each with more cache but I don't know if it would be necessar

Id keep those cpus, there more than plenty for a file server. I have those in my main server now, and it can fill a 10gb line just fine and run about 15vms at the same time

 

5 minutes ago, UmarKamani said:

but what would be necessary would be to change out all the HDD's since I need this sever to be 10000% reliable since its going to store some sensitive data, am thinking of 12 x 4TB drives from either WD or Seagate I have linked both below.

How much storage space do you need? id probably start with 6x8tb drives, so then you can expand easier later one.

 

Both of those drives are good options, Id get the cheaper of the two.

 

6 minutes ago, UmarKamani said:

Next would be software, I have decided to narrow it down to TrueNas and Unraid.

 

I don't mind paying for the Unraid but I want to know what would be a better option.

 

I want something powerful and user friendly.

 

I would also like the option of adding additional drives in the future but I think that's only available on Unraid.

 

Both can add drives, and if you go with the 6x8tb , you could easily add a 6x8tb to the true nas array.

 

Both oses would work fine as a basic file server, so Id go unraid if you want to easily expand. If you already filled you 12 bays there isn't a easy way to expand to

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, UmarKamani said:

would be to change out all the HDD's since I need this sever to be 10000% reliable since its going to store some sensitive data,

If you need to have 10000% reliability, make sure to have an offsite backup solution. Something in the server could break and fry all the HDDs at once, the server could just go down and you need to access the data any way possible, etc. As the old IT adage goes "two is one and one is none", and try to practice 3-2-1 backups (3 total copies, 2 different media formats and one offsite)

 

7 minutes ago, UmarKamani said:

thought of changing the CPU's to 10 Cores each with more cache but I don't know if it would be necessary

For a storage server like this one, single threaded power is what actually matters, so unless you're gonna be running a bunch of services on the same box 10 core chips would make no difference in performance.

 

8 minutes ago, UmarKamani said:

Next would be software, I have decided to narrow it down to TrueNas and Unraid.

The biggest strength with UnRAID is its plugin support and its JBOD filesystem. Both of which are really good for consumers, but for a small business, not quite as necessary. TrueNAS's biggest strength is ZFS, basically the most bulletproof filesystem. If you want as reliable as you can get with a ton of drives, you really should be using ZFS. Less than 12 drives, either one will be fine. TrueNAS is pretty user friendly, and their new "Scale" variant is great. It's personal preference which on people end up preferring. You can add ZFS to UnRAID as well, it's just that there currently isn't a GUI for it, so you'd have to setup and manage the array through the CLI. 

 

12 minutes ago, UmarKamani said:

I would also like the option of adding additional drives in the future but I think that's only available on Unraid.

ZFS does support drive expansion, it just doesn't support single drive expansion. With ZFS, you have to add drives in chunks called vDevs. There are a bunch of different rules regarding adding vDevs to an array, but for the best results you want to add the same drives, the same number of drives, setup in the same redundancy structure. Every vDev is responsible for its own redundancy, so you might have 3 drives dedicated to parity in an array of 12 drives consisting of 3 vDevs each in RAID-Z1 (1 drive of redundancy), but if you lose two drives from the same vDev you lost all your data. This method does have a lot of advantages, but that is one of the downsides. It's just a lot more reliable for actually expanding the array than single drive additions with a RAID card, which is why it's done this way.

[Blue4130]

22 minutes ago, UmarKamani said:

Hello Everyone, So my father needs a storage server for his business, mainly Documents(excel, word, pdf), pictures and video. So after watching off of the LTT Nas/storage server videos. I have taken upon myself to get it to him. Budget is around 1000 $ and since I live in Mauritius and I need to get the server shipped internationally to me since locally new servers are way overpriced and used server simply don't exist here.

 

I found an HP DL380e with Dual 8-Core XEON E5-2450L and 24TB of SAS HDD for decent price with shipping to Mauritius. First Order of business would be to do some maintenance on it and thought of changing the CPU's to 10 Cores each with more cache but I don't know if it would be necessary but what would be necessary would be to change out all the HDD's since I need this sever to be 10000% reliable since its going to store some sensitive data, am thinking of 12 x 4TB drives from either WD or Seagate I have linked both below. Please give me your opinion since i don't really know which one would be more suitable.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-IronWolf-7200RPM-128MB-3-5-Inch/dp/B07H2FPFW5/ref=sr_1_16?crid=2YEMR94H12X3P&keywords=4tb+nas+hard+drive&qid=1648281687&s=electronics&sprefix=4TB+%2Celectronics%2C364&sr=1-16

 

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Plus-Internal-Drive/dp/B08VH8C3WZ/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=4tb+nas+hard+drive&qid=1648284492&s=electronics&sr=1-4

 

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-IronWolf-5900RPM-Internal-3-5-Inch/dp/B07H289S79/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=4tb+nas+hard+drive&qid=1648284515&s=electronics&sr=1-3

 

If any of you know of a better option I would like to hear about it.

 

Next would be software, I have decided to narrow it down to TrueNas and Unraid.

 

I don't mind paying for the Unraid but I want to know what would be a better option.

 

I want something powerful and user friendly.

 

I would also like the option of adding additional drives in the future but I think that's only available on Unraid.

 

 

This is so overpowered for what you need. 

[Jarsky]

If its only file storage like documents, pictures, and videos for a small business; then just go with like a 4-bay NAS unit like a QNAP or Synology. 

 

Good warranty, good customer support, easy configuration, easy to setup notifications, webui for 3rd party support (e.g you) app stores that make it easy to install light apps he could want to use or to setup a sync to say a Google Drive or similar for offsite backup. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS418-Diskless/dp/B075N17DM6

https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-451D2-2G-Hardware-transcoding-Celeron/dp/B08JQZS1MZ

 

[UmarKamani]

 

11 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

If you need to have 10000% reliability, make sure to have an offsite backup solution. Something in the server could break and fry all the HDDs at once, the server could just go down and you need to access the data any way possible, etc. As the old IT adage goes "two is one and one is none", and try to practice 3-2-1 backups (3 total copies, 2 different media formats and one offsite)

 

For a storage server like this one, single threaded power is what actually matters, so unless you're gonna be running a bunch of services on the same box 10 core chips would make no difference in performance.

 

The biggest strength with UnRAID is its plugin support and its JBOD filesystem. Both of which are really good for consumers, but for a small business, not quite as necessary. TrueNAS's biggest strength is ZFS, basically the most bulletproof filesystem. If you want as reliable as you can get with a ton of drives, you really should be using ZFS. Less than 12 drives, either one will be fine. TrueNAS is pretty user friendly, and their new "Scale" variant is great. It's personal preference which on people end up preferring. You can add ZFS to UnRAID as well, it's just that there currently isn't a GUI for it, so you'd have to setup and manage the array through the CLI. 

 

ZFS does support drive expansion, it just doesn't support single drive expansion. With ZFS, you have to add drives in chunks called vDevs. There are a bunch of different rules regarding adding vDevs to an array, but for the best results you want to add the same drives, the same number of drives, setup in the same redundancy structure. Every vDev is responsible for its own redundancy, so you might have 3 drives dedicated to parity in an array of 12 drives consisting of 3 vDevs each in RAID-Z1 (1 drive of redundancy), but if you lose two drives from the same vDev you lost all your data. This method does have a lot of advantages, but that is one of the downsides. It's just a lot more reliable for actually expanding the array than single drive additions with a RAID card, which is why it's done this way.

 

Yeah okay, the 3-2-1 backup idea seems a good idea, thanks for all, I think ill just have to experiment by myself to fully understand the TrueNas properly. I don't want to do cloud and since the server is going to be in a datacenter. Ill have to think how am going to do the offsite backup

[UmarKamani]

1 hour ago, Jarsky said:

If its only file storage like documents, pictures, and videos for a small business; then just go with like a 4-bay NAS unit like a QNAP or Synology. 

 

Good warranty, good customer support, easy configuration, easy to setup notifications, webui for 3rd party support (e.g you) app stores that make it easy to install light apps he could want to use or to setup a sync to say a Google Drive or similar for offsite backup. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS418-Diskless/dp/B075N17DM6

https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TS-451D2-2G-Hardware-transcoding-Celeron/dp/B08JQZS1MZ

 

I though about it but then upgradability would be an issue and they are way too damn expensive for what they offer even from the local resellers with discounts just doesn't make sense if am getting a whole server in which I could run some VM's on the side. Also it will be a nice little project to learn something new

[UmarKamani]

11 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id keep those cpus, there more than plenty for a file server. I have those in my main server now, and it can fill a 10gb line just fine and run about 15vms at the same time

 

How much storage space do you need? id probably start with 6x8tb drives, so then you can expand easier later one.

 

Both of those drives are good options, Id get the cheaper of the two.

 

Both can add drives, and if you go with the 6x8tb , you could easily add a 6x8tb to the true nas array.

 

Both oses would work fine as a basic file server, so Id go unraid if you want to easily expand. If you already filled you 12 bays there isn't a easy way to expand to

That's probably gonna be how am going to configure the drives. Thanks

[Blue4130]

5 hours ago, UmarKamani said:

I though about it but then upgradability would be an issue and they are way too damn expensive for what they offer even from the local resellers with discounts just doesn't make sense if am getting a whole server in which I could run some VM's on the side. Also it will be a nice little project to learn something new

What you are paying for is convinience (and ten year newer hardware) Sure, servers and computers last a pretty long time, but you are trusting business data to a ten year old used server with no known history... For home, go and have fun with it, for business, I'd think twice.

[Needfuldoer]

I agree. If the business is going to rely on this as a mission-critical server, you really want something with a warranty (or better yet a support contract), not "a nice little project to learn something new". Never mix development and production if you can help it.