From Synology DS216j and NUC to new home server

[SeaWee]

I want to consolidate the following

• 5 years old Synology DS216j that has 2xTB mirrored disks. Serves as NAS only
• 2 years old NUC running Ubuntu server with Plex, Home Assistant (docker), Unifi host

My Synology drives are (according to what i see seems to be recommendations) approaching end of life and the 216j is not very capable beyond the NAS part.

The NUC runs fine but is not straightfoward for enabling as NAS/more disks as well.

I have bought the following parts to replace the above:

• Supermicro X11SCL-F
• I3 8100 CPU
• 2x8gb Kingston HyperX FURY DDR4-2666 (can add 2 more later)
• Samsung 860 EVO M.2 2280 SSD - 250GB
• 2x Seagate IronWolf Harddisk - 3 TB
• Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0
• be quiet! System Power 9 400W

Here is how i plan my new setup:

• Install Promox on SSD
• ZFS mirror the 2 HDDs
• Install openmediavault VM for NAS
• Install Ubuntu VM for Plex and MQTT service
• Install Home Assistant QCOW2 VM
• Install Unifi Controller VM

I have all part and will go ahead tomorrow evening.

Do you have any tips or reminders that I should know of? I am new to Proxmox.
Thanks a lot!

 

[ph0x]

You'll definitely want more RAM when using zfs.
Get some PM981a or PM9A1 instead of the 860 evo.
You'll also want SSDs to put your vm images on. You could do this with your system disks as well and have another storage on the HDDs for the data graves, maybe hosted as disk images as well.

 

[SeaWee]

You'll definitely want more RAM when using zfs.
Get some PM981a or PM9A1 instead of the 860 evo.
You'll also want SSDs to put your vm images on. You could do this with your system disks as well and have another storage on the HDDs for the data graves, maybe hosted as disk images as well.

Thanks.

will the Evo not be good enough for the Proxmox? I have a spare SSD i can add for the VMs....i actually had planned to add both Proxmox and VMs on the same M2 drive...but that is not ideal? Seems a bit waste to add a little Proxmox to the M2 alone.

I have 2x8 Kingston ValueRAM SO DDR4-2400 SC from the NUC....I could add them as a starting point. I guess all ram Will then be 2400 but fine.

btw - 5 Year old disks from the Synology...each 3TB. I consider adding them in a 2nd mirror....for less important data.

Any thoughts?

 

[ph0x]

The 860 evo is not in fact an enterprise grade SSD, so Proxmox in general and specifically VM images will probably eat up the wear leveling quite fast. It will work for quite some time, though. But keep an eye on the s.m.a.r.t. data.
Having the system and VM images on the same drives doesn't do any harm. It's up to you how you setup your pools. Having a choice with an nvme, an ssd and an hdd pool is not bad at all.
16 GB RAM is a bit little for zfs and VMs. It will work but you will be very limited in the number of VMs that you can run.

 

[SeaWee]

Thanks again. The 2x8 Kingston ValueRAM SO DDR4-2400 SC from the NUC....I could add them as a starting point to have 32 GB ram. I guess all ram Will then be 2400 but fine.

 

[ph0x]

Okay, 32 GB is surely a good starting point even on 2400.

 

[SeaWee]

The 5 Year old disks from the Synology...each 3TB. I consider adding them in a 2nd mirror....for less important data. Would you throw them out?

 

[ph0x]

If you have room for them, why not? You could use them as storage for disk images where speed does not matter so much (I'm thinking of the bulk storage of an apt mirror, for example) or you could serve samba shares off of them directly from Proxmox. Adding a (mirrored) partition of the nvme disks as special device would give them a performance boost.

 

[SeaWee]

If you have room for them, why not? You could use them as storage for disk images where speed does not matter so much (I'm thinking of the bulk storage of an apt mirror, for example) or you could serve samba shares off of them directly from Proxmox. Adding a (mirrored) partition of the nvme disks as special device would give them a performance boost.

Yes...good ideas..Steam libraries+ + +...

but need to be sensible to the watts as well...only Purchase 400W....

Now this “Nvme as special device”...what do you mean?

 

[ph0x]

You can add a so-called special device to a zpool, it holds metadata and stuff and boosts hdd zpools by a lot. Just look it up in the pve wiki.
400 W are more than enough for a board, with 2 nvme, 2 ssd and 2 hdd as long as you don't add a high end graphics card. When in doubt consult your favorite psu calculator.

 

[SeaWee]

You can add a so-called special device to a zpool, it holds metadata and stuff and boosts hdd zpools by a lot. Just look it up in the pve wiki.
400 W are more than enough for a board, with 2 nvme, 2 ssd and 2 hdd as long as you don't add a high end graphics card. When in doubt consult your favorite psu calculator.

Yeah...got it on the PSU...

I only use Plex for some historic dvd rips...(WWII stuff )...so no heavy graphics expected.

I will read up on the “special” but ...hey...this to be my trusty NAS....+ some VMs....and some playing around. Unifi and Home Assistant are very important

 

[SeaWee]

BTW - should I use the Supermicro BIOS to make the mirrored RAID or use Proxmox?

 

[ph0x]

If you intend to use zfs, then definitely zfs mirror by Proxmox installer