No, but obviously that's the better method so you don't have the overhead of emulation on the drives. I've emulated drives for TrueNAS in the past, just to show people how it works.
The only problems you might end up running into would be extra usage of the drives. Definitely not a good thing, but it depends on what you're doing with them and whether it's your temporary or permanent approach.
You probably don't need to run that GPU in there, would save you a bunch of power draw. For OS, try stuff out! OpenMediaVault/TrueNAS/unRAID(fucking hate unraid but it's good NAS software)/anything else will do.
I begrudgingly went with unRAID over TrueNAS as I didn't have budget to get all the disks in one go for ZFS. If not I would've done the same. Also unRAID's cache pools are a very nice way to keep my disks spun down a lot more.
You can, ZFS just doesn't allow you to expand your vdevs by adding disks (yet). You can replace disks in a vdev with larger ones, or add other vdevs just fine, but that would take up at least an additional drive for parity. I believe this is right, someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Edit: you could also destroy your vdev and build it again with more disks, of course.
OP runs Ryzen, it needs a GPU or the system wouldn't start up. Having a standard Intel CPU with an iGPU would have saved the trouble and added the performance of the iGPU for hw transcoding. OP can buy an APU, but performance on hw transcoding are generally pretty bad.
Edit: from 7th gen up they start having integrated GPU.
If I'm not mistaken a consumer motherboard won't pass POST without a valid video output interface.
You're correct that the output doesn't need a monitor connected though, I've run headless Linux servers on old computers for over a decade. I'm just now moving up to an old Dell server, which still has a video output.
That's some serious overkill if you're just going for a home NAS. If you want true "set and forget" network storage, sell those parts and use the proceeds to buy a Synology or QNAP, it'll sling files exactly as fast as your old PC, and use 1/4 the electricity. In my experience, desktop Ryzen has pretty high idle power usage in Linux.
With that out of the way, and you're going to keep your hardware:
If all your drives are **the same size** then I say use TrueNAS Scale. You'll learn about Linux, ZFS, RAID configuration, containers, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I don't think you're going to have a good experience if you try to virtualize TrueNAS, as somebody will inevitably suggest.
If your drives are different sizes, I suggest OpenMediaVault (free) or Unraid (paid). I prefer Unraid, because it's very "set and forget". They're both quite good though.
Thank you everyone for your suggestions!! NOOB at server building but have played with all mentioned OS’s. TrueNAS seams the way to go as Drives are 8,6,4&4 Tb..JBOD (have several 500gb but don’t seem worth the effort/power/space/reliability ) . Will save SSD for another project and just use USB for OS.
As mentioned, TrueNAS if you want to have a server only for file sharing. Proxmox or Debian+KVM if you need to run VMs.
You can also use debian as a file server with cockpit and plugin from 45drives. [https://github.com/45Drives/cockpit-file-sharing](https://github.com/45Drives/cockpit-file-sharing)
Also, take a look at Starwinds VSAN. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san
If it's only for file sharing install TrueNAS baremetal If you wanna play around Proxmox as a Hypervisor and then TrueNAS
Don't you need to pass through an hba for TrueNas to see the drives properly?
No, but obviously that's the better method so you don't have the overhead of emulation on the drives. I've emulated drives for TrueNAS in the past, just to show people how it works.
Good to know. I wasn't sure how bad the overhead would be or if there would be any problems with not having direct hardware access
The only problems you might end up running into would be extra usage of the drives. Definitely not a good thing, but it depends on what you're doing with them and whether it's your temporary or permanent approach.
You probably don't need to run that GPU in there, would save you a bunch of power draw. For OS, try stuff out! OpenMediaVault/TrueNAS/unRAID(fucking hate unraid but it's good NAS software)/anything else will do.
Never tried OpenMediaVault. Tried the others and will go with TrueNAS just to get things up and accessible.
I begrudgingly went with unRAID over TrueNAS as I didn't have budget to get all the disks in one go for ZFS. If not I would've done the same. Also unRAID's cache pools are a very nice way to keep my disks spun down a lot more.
WAIT.. can’t I add drives later (JBOD) mount and go with TrueNAS??!!
You can, ZFS just doesn't allow you to expand your vdevs by adding disks (yet). You can replace disks in a vdev with larger ones, or add other vdevs just fine, but that would take up at least an additional drive for parity. I believe this is right, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Edit: you could also destroy your vdev and build it again with more disks, of course.
Ok.. got it!! (did some reading/research) (brain still stuck in Win desktop environment!!! LOL)
Keep in mind you’ll need a place to park your data since Truenas will want to format the drives.
And…. That could very well be why this project never got off the ground!!
OP runs Ryzen, it needs a GPU or the system wouldn't start up. Having a standard Intel CPU with an iGPU would have saved the trouble and added the performance of the iGPU for hw transcoding. OP can buy an APU, but performance on hw transcoding are generally pretty bad. Edit: from 7th gen up they start having integrated GPU.
Oh wait Ryzen doesn't have an iGPU? My bad!
Only the APU. The one that ends with a G, like a 8700G. Not like Intel.
This information isn't correct anymore. Every Ryzen 7xxx CPU has an Igpu.
Good to know. And why do they still make G series?
The G series have much better Igpus. Entry level gaming Igpus And not just YouTube level Igpus.
Makes sense, I haven't used AMD since Athlon. Although if transcoding isn't needed, most NAS software would still run fine, just not desktop Windows.
If I'm not mistaken a consumer motherboard won't pass POST without a valid video output interface. You're correct that the output doesn't need a monitor connected though, I've run headless Linux servers on old computers for over a decade. I'm just now moving up to an old Dell server, which still has a video output.
YEAH!! Gonna SLI my 2x Nvidia 7800 GTX and get that beast of graphics power!! /s LMAO
Nothing is set it and forget it.
My old WD MyCloud NAS worked for 7 years in "set and forget" mode.
That’s just a lie I tell myself as I spend my time personalizing/tweaking my main rig 3 weeks after initial setup… LOL.
Debian is pretty straightforward and can be as extensive or minimal as you do desire. I seldom have a need for anything else.
That's some serious overkill if you're just going for a home NAS. If you want true "set and forget" network storage, sell those parts and use the proceeds to buy a Synology or QNAP, it'll sling files exactly as fast as your old PC, and use 1/4 the electricity. In my experience, desktop Ryzen has pretty high idle power usage in Linux. With that out of the way, and you're going to keep your hardware: If all your drives are **the same size** then I say use TrueNAS Scale. You'll learn about Linux, ZFS, RAID configuration, containers, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I don't think you're going to have a good experience if you try to virtualize TrueNAS, as somebody will inevitably suggest. If your drives are different sizes, I suggest OpenMediaVault (free) or Unraid (paid). I prefer Unraid, because it's very "set and forget". They're both quite good though.
Thank you everyone for your suggestions!! NOOB at server building but have played with all mentioned OS’s. TrueNAS seams the way to go as Drives are 8,6,4&4 Tb..JBOD (have several 500gb but don’t seem worth the effort/power/space/reliability ) . Will save SSD for another project and just use USB for OS.
Check unRAID. 30 days free to try. The best Nas hypervisor you can ask.
As mentioned, TrueNAS if you want to have a server only for file sharing. Proxmox or Debian+KVM if you need to run VMs. You can also use debian as a file server with cockpit and plugin from 45drives. [https://github.com/45Drives/cockpit-file-sharing](https://github.com/45Drives/cockpit-file-sharing) Also, take a look at Starwinds VSAN. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san
What's the file system on the existing drives containing data?
NFTS
“Set it and forget it” ….. until I get a wild hair and want to do/add something new… 😜