Help me plan the rebuild of my NAS 14+ TB

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Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 Tower Server System4
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859106529

I bought this back some time ago and have been using it as my home media PC and I love it. One of the reasons I bought it was for RAID 0/1/1+0/5 support, without ever really noticing there is only two drive bays. I believe I am going to be using a ZFS file system anyway, so I am no longer so concerned about this, but actually, lets talk about the best system here. I have another separate system with an i7 in it that I intend to run several Docker containers, the most important of which being Plex Media Server.

Requirements (Usable Storage):

• Host OS: 500GB (likely it's own drive).
• Plex Media Content: 8TB (minimum, may need to expand)
• Video Archive (editing work): 4TB
• Working Video Files: 500GB SSD - No Backup Needed
• Personal Backup: 1TB

Total usable storage minimum requirement: ~14TB

If I am correct I will need double this to ensure full data protection, meaning I need a total of 24TB. Does that sound right?

I currently already have

• 1x Western Digital 3TB
• 1x Western Digital 8TB

That 3TB is a weird one, no idea why I bought it. That might be used in the i7 machine and ignored for this build.
If I use ZFS I believe that means I will be forced to install that 32GB of RAM which is the MAX this system can take, leaving me with a maximum of 16TB total. Which really should be enough.

 

I will likely need to add some kind of SATA expansion card and a larger power supply. Ideally, I'd like to move this into some kind of home rack.

 

How difficult would it be to move this standard (ATX?) motherboard into some kind of rack mountable case? What recommendations do you have?

[Spotty]

It looks like it has 3x5.25" bays at the top. There's a few 5.25" to 3.5" bay converters around that will give you extra space to add some extra HDDs.
What OS are you planning on running? Stuff like FreeNAS can run off USB so you may not need a HDD for that and you can save the SATA port for something else.

 

2 hours ago, Ampix0 said:

If I am correct I will need double this to ensure full data protection, meaning I need a total of 24TB. Does that sound right?

Not quite. Half of 24TB = 12TB, which will likely be about 10.5TB of usable space once formatted. Since you said you wanted 14TB of storage this wouldn't be enough for you.

It also depends on what type of raid you're using. If you're using RAID-1 mirror then, yes,  you will need double the space and would need 4x8TB drives to have 16TB which will end up being just under 14TB usable. If you're using RAID-Z1 you will need the 2x8TB drives + 1x8TB parity which will also give you just under 14TB usable. There's also RAID-Z2 which has better redundancy than RAID-Z1 but will require an additional drive for parity.
You can use a calculator like this one to work out how much usable storage you will end up with from different RAID configurations. http://wintelguy.com/zfs-calc.pl

For your storage solution <i>with</i> redundancy, you will be looking at buying an additional 2 or 3 new 8TB HDDs, so make sure you have the cash for that set aside in your budget for the build. I would recommend either the Seagate Ironwolf 8TB or the Western Digital Red 8TB. Both suitable for NAS use and both around the $250 USD mark.

As things are you shouldn't need 32GB of RAM for it. Try going with 2x8GB sticks to start off with and if you find you need more add another 2x8GB sticks later.

Looking at the pictures on the newegg page you linked, it looks like it has a 12-pin ATX connector, so if you upgrade the PSU you may also have to buy a 24pin to 12pin adapter as well.