Goal:

  • 16TB mirrored on 2 drives (raid 1)
  • Hardware raid?
  • Immich, Jellyfin and Nextcloud. (All docker)
  • N100, 8+ GB RAM
  • 500gb boot drive ssd
  • 4 HDD bays, start with using 2

Questions:

  • Which os?
    • My though was to use hardware raid, and just set that up for the 2 hdds, then boot off an ssd with Debian (very familiar, and use it for current server which has 30+ docker containers. Basically I like and am good at docker so would like to stick to Debian+docker. But if hardware raid isn’t the best option for HDDs now a days, I’ll learn the better thing)
  • Which drives? Renewed or refurb are half the cost, so should I buy extra used ones, and just be ready to swap when the fail?
  • Which motherboard?
  • Which case?
  • monkeyman512@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    4 months ago

    You don’t want hardware raid. Some options you can research:

    • Mdadm - Linux software raid
    • ZFS - Combo raid and filesystem
    • Btrfs - A filesystem that can also do raid things

    Some OS options to consider:

    • Debian - good if you want to learn to do everything yourself
    • Truenas Scale - Comercial NAS OS. I bit of work to get started, but very stable once going.
    • Unraid - Enthusiast focused NAS OS. Not as stable as Truenas, but easier to get started and a lot of community support.

    There are probably other software/OS’s to consider, but those are the ones I have any experience with. I personally use ZFS on Truenas with a lot of help from this YouTube channel. https://youtube.com/@lawrencesystems?si=O1Z4BuEjogjdsslF

    • tburkhol@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      4 months ago

      Ditto on hardware raid. Adding a hardware controller just inserts a potentially catastrophic point of failure. With software raid and raid-likes, you can probably recover/rebuild, and it’s not like the overhead is the big burden it was back in the 90s.

    • unrushed233@lemmings.worldEnglish
      7·
      4 months ago

      Just want to mention that TrueNAS is FOSS and unRAID is not. And I wouldn’t necessarily say that unRAID is much easier.

    • ShortN0te@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      4 months ago
      • Truenas Scale - Comercial NAS OS. I bit of work to get started, but very stable once going.
      • Unraid - Enthusiast focused NAS OS. Not as stable as Truenas, but easier to get started and a lot of community support.

      Since OP wants to use Docker i would not recommend either. Trunas scale does not support it usefully and the implementation in Unraid is also weird. Also the main benefit of unraid is the mixing of drives, OP wants to raid.

      • Krill@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        TrueNAS Scale will have Docker in the next release in August, along with the ability to expand Vdevs.

        • ShortN0te@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          4 months ago

          I am aware of vdev expansion since i am following it closely but not heard about docker support, thanks for that new, i will read into it. Would be actually a game changer for a project i am planning.