Homelab newbie advice

[Mattias]

Hey,

I'm planning to setup a server running proxmox, but before I do, I'd like some advice for how I should arrange my disks.

Today I'm running a Proliant Gen8 Microserver with 4x2TB, 1x128GB SSD drives using FreeNAS.
But since I've been having trouble with FreeNAS and FreeBSD I'm looking two switch things up a bit.

So now to my thoughts and questions:
Proxmox will be installed on the 128GB SSD.

I'm planning on installing Rockstor or OMV to act as my NAS. Is it possible to let these manage my drives/array and later use the volumes/storage in other VMs or Docker containers?

I'm thinking of adding two smaller (maybe 1TB) drives soon and set these up in RAID1 and let these act as my "protected" storage, to hold my sensitive data. And then use the 4x2TB in RAID0 because I mostly/only store media for Plex on these (media I'm okay with loosing) and would like to maximize storage. Is this stupid?

I appreciate any input and advice. And if you have a better idea of how I could structure my drives I'm all ears. As the title says, I'm a newbie.

 

[tschanness]

I'm planning on installing Rockstor or OMV to act as my NAS. Is it possible to let these manage my drives/array and later use the volumes/storage in other VMs or Docker containers?

You can (and a lot of people do) but I personally don't get it. I'd rather have PVE use the disks directrly. That beeing said, you can pass through the HBA and the disks. There even is (at least one) topic on how to do this with the gen8 microserver in this forum which would help you do this.

I'm thinking of adding two smaller (maybe 1TB) drives soon and set these up in RAID1 and let these act as my "protected" storage, to hold my sensitive data.

A raid is not a backup, a raid is not a backup and a raid is not a backup! IIRC the Microserver only has 5 Bays - how do you want to add two more drives?

And then use the 4x2TB in RAID0 because I mostly/only store media for Plex on these (media I'm okay with loosing) and would like to maximize storage. Is this stupid?

4x2TB as RAID0 is.... adventerous. I'd rather go with a RAID5/RAID-Z1, even if you are okay with loosing data. But this is entirely up to you.

I appreciate any input and advice. And if you have a better idea of how I could structure my drives I'm all ears. As the title says, I'm a newbie.

Installing PVE on the SSD is only a good idea if it's a enterprise SSD. You might want to use a HDD for the PVE installation if you don't have the money to spare for an enterprise SSD.

 

[Mattias]

Thanks for your response.

So what you're saying is that Proxmox should handle the raid and disk management and then give the NAS VM access to that storage? That's fine for me, my only issue is that I'm not that comfortable in terminal, especially not working with drives. Does Proxmox provide a good UI for handling this? Any good write-up on how this is done

I know that Raid is not a backup. I just wanted have redundancy for the data that I don't want to lose.
Regarding the amount of drives. There is a kinda popular community mod of the Gen8, a mounting bracket which can provide spots for more disks.

Yeah, RAID0 is a bit risky. I've been running Raid10 until now and was just toying with the idea of getting more storage without spending more money. But you're probably (absolutely) right.

Why is installing PVE on an non-enterprise SSD bad? The SSD I have is a Samsung SSD 850 EVO.

 

[tschanness]

Hi,

So what you're saying is that Proxmox should handle the raid and disk management and then give the NAS VM access to that storage? That's fine for me, my only issue is that I'm not that comfortable in terminal, especially not working with drives. Does Proxmox provide a good UI for handling this? Any good write-up on how this is done

No, I'm saying that this is my opinion. A lot of people do this how you wanted to do (and there is nothing wrong with that). PVE does not have an UI for that sadly.

Why is installing PVE on an non-enterprise SSD bad? The SSD I have is a Samsung SSD 850 EVO.

The SSD will wear out very fast, PVE does a lot of small writes wich will kill the SSD (belive me, I've tried...)

 

[Mattias]

Okey, thanks. I'll look into buying a HDD for proxmox instead.
You mentioned some topic discussing the Gen8 Microserver. You don't happen to have a link? If not I'll try find it.

Thanks for the input

 

[Mattias]

Hi,

No, I'm saying that this is my opinion. A lot of people do this how you wanted to do (and there is nothing wrong with that). PVE does not have an UI for that sadly.

The SSD will wear out very fast, PVE does a lot of small writes wich will kill the SSD (belive me, I've tried...)

If I were to do it your way, how would you do it, considering I want to run some NAS software and some other VMs or Docker containers. Could use some pointers
What I'm most confused about is if I setup a VM running for example Rockstor, how would a Plex container access the content stored "in the NAS"? Like I said, newbie...

Sorry for double posting...

 

[guletz]

But since I've been having trouble with FreeNAS and FreeBSD I'm looking two switch things up a bit.

So now to my thoughts and questions:
Proxmox will be installed on the 128GB SSD.

And you think that Proxmox will compensate your knowledge if you change the tool? You are wrong. For any tool that you want to use (freenas, proxmox, whatever) you need to have some basic knowledge (storage, networking, firewalls, nas services and so on). Without any basic understanding, soon or later, you will need to solve problems(as you say about freenas).
What I try to say (and I do not want to be upset to me), maybe it will be better to spend some time to improve your knowledge. Then you can decide if proxmox / freenas / whatever is best for you.