Can someone recommend a setup with this hardware?

[sbiskupski]

Hey there guys - So im relatively new to Proxmox, and was wondering if someone can recommend a configuration for my server.

What I'd like to accomplish is:
- openmediavault with portainer, using it as my media server VM with shares going to truenas
- truenas VM to potentially to manage my 4x 8tbs in ZFS with shares going for my openmediavault TV, Movies folders
- hoping to have a cache drive for my 4x 8tbs
- hoping to have somekind of backup going for one of my m2s that will have all my proxmox and VM installs
- dont need much redundancy on the 4x 8tbs - wouldn't want a mirror setup
- windows server 2022 for my webserver, an easy one because doesn't require any integration

Unsure which route to go. My system has an onboard raid controller for the 4x 8tbs but it's not being used.

The hardware I have is:

DELL 5820
64gb RAM
Intel Xeon W-2123
2x NVME m2s @ 256gb on a PCIe card
4x 8TB 3.5 inch drives

Things I have that I probably won't use in the build:
1x 1tb 2.5 drive
1x 256gb SSD
Dell Boss card with 2x 128 SATA m2s

Someone to point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Dunuin]

- openmediavault with portainer, using it as my media server VM with shares going to truenas
- truenas VM to potentially to manage my 4x 8tbs in ZFS with shares going for my openmediavault TV, Movies folders

Where is the point running two NAS OSs for the same disks?

 

[sbiskupski]

I wanted to have emby running on openmediavault and Plex running on truenas. In the process it would teach me something's about both of them.
At this point unsure which I like better.

But I see what you're saying. There may not be much of one.

 

[Dunuin]

Still don't see the point. Why not running emby or plex as a VM or LXC? Why to use a hypervisor like PVE at all when running your services as containers in a NAS? You neither need OMV nor TrueNAS to run emby/plex.

 

[sbiskupski]

I suppose im not too familar with proxmox. Will need to look into trying to setup docker/portainer on PVE as a LXC

but the question would still remain the same, in how to set up my hardware. Whether to use my onboard raid controller, and what sort of file system to use for my drives.

 

[Dunuin]

I guess those "2x NVME m2s @ 256gb on a PCIe card" aren't enterprise grade? Then I wouldn't let Proxmox handle the software raid, as PVE only supports ZFS, and because of the heavy overhead of ZFS they might die quite fast. I would only use those two SSDs in a raid1 to store your PVE system as well as all guests.

The 4 HDDs I would passthrough (best would be PCI passthrough in case you got a spare HBA and free PCIe slot, otherwise disk passthrough) into the NAS VM and bring them into other guests or the host by using NFS/SMB/iSCSI.

 

[sbiskupski]

They aren't enterprise grade, so I appreciate the insight there.
I will set them up in a software raid. I think that's a good idea.

Not sure how I would PCI passthrough my 4 HDDs when the HBA I have is only for 2x m2 SATA drives, and my 4 HDDs are 3.5 inch drives.

Also, it's not recommended that I do anything with the hardware raid?

 

[Dunuin]

TrueNAS uses ZFS only and ZFS shouldn't be used on top of hardware raid. See here: https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/Performance and Tuning/Hardware.html#hardware-raid-controllers

So best would be to bring the individual HDDs into the TrueNAS VM (which requires passthrough of some kind) and then let TrueNAS create a software raid using ZFS.

 

[sbiskupski]

Thanks Dunuin.
But I thought you recommended earlier not to use TrueNAS as a VM, and to create a LXC instead to handle my docker/portainer
for plex/emby. I still need to do some research in how to get that done though. I haven't explored LXCs at all.

 

[Dunuin]

Thanks Dunuin.
But I thought you recommended earlier not to use TrueNAS as a VM, and to create a LXC instead to handle my docker/portainer
for plex/emby. I still need to do some research in how to get that done though. I haven't explored LXCs at all.

I didn't told you not to use a TrueNAS VM. I personally just use TrueNAS as a simple NAS, just managing the disks and acting as a SMB/NFS/FTP/Rsync server. I wouldn't want to run any VMs/containers/plugins on it. My Emby then runs in a dedicated VM. So TrueNAS VM + Emby VM/LXC + Plex VM/LXC.
You can then decide what media server you prefer and destroy the other media server VM/LXC later.
And if you want portainer, I would add another VM for that too (it will also work in a LXC but not really recommended). Also got such a Portainer VM running for stuff that requires docker, like my Paperless-ngx.

 

[sbiskupski]

ohhhh. Yes, I'd like to emulate that setup.

what is emby running on though ? an ubuntu iso ?

 

[Dunuin]

ohhhh. Yes, I'd like to emulate that setup.

what is emby running on though ? an ubuntu iso ?

I used a Debian 11, as I prefer that. But Ubuntu will work too.
Emby is super easy to install. See here: https://emby.media/linux-server.html

It's basically just 2 commands:
1.) download the emby package (you can download it directly from within the headless VM by using wget which you might need to install first)
2.) install the emby package

So something like this one-liner for Debian:
apt update && sudo apt install wget && cd /tmp && wget https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases/releases/download/4.7.10.0/emby-server-deb_4.7.10.0_amd64.deb && dpkg -i emby-server-deb_4.7.10.0_amd64.deb && rm emby-server-deb_4.7.10.0_amd64.deb

 

[sbiskupski]

You dont use all the Arr containers on top? radarr, sonarr etc ?

 

[Dunuin]

No, but you will find enough tutorials on how to do that.