It's A Digital Disease!

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Vegan_Salad69 on 2024-05-18 17:25:57.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been homelabbing for about three years now and I’m looking for some advice on optimizing my storage setup. Here’s a quick overview of my current configuration:

Server: Dell R750

• Front: Twelve 3.5" SATA/SAS bays
• Rear: Four 2.5" SATA/SAS bays
• RAID Card: PERC 350H (supports RAID 1, 0, 10) (don’t worry, I use it in passthrough mode and it works so far, even on ZFS. Yes, I know that’s also a problem, and I plan to buy an HBA or use the RAID card for its intended purpose)
• 4x 10Gig SFP+ Networking via DAC SFP+ Moduels (For more info on that i have a post of my entire homelab on my Profile)

Drives:

• Eight 4TB HDDs
• Two 3TB HDDs
• Two 2TB HDDs
• Two SAS 600GB HDDs
• Two 2TB SATA SSDs

Current Setup:

• Proxmox as the hypervisor
• TrueNAS Scale as a VM with passthrough for ZFS

I’m facing potential performance issues because TrueNAS Scale is virtualized. I’m considering a few options and would love your input:

1. Installing Proxmox on SSDs: Utilizing the SSDs for the OS to leverage their speed for the hypervisor.
2. Using SAS drives as cache: Taking advantage of the 12Gbps speed for caching to enhance overall performance.
3. Direct ZFS on Proxmox: Managing the drives directly in Proxmox with ZFS, but I’m concerned about losing functionalities like SMB sharing, permissions management, and user administration.

I also have an old Synology RS2818RP+ that I could use:

• Synology NAS with 16 bays and 10GbE connectivity.
• Equipped with the E10M20-T1 (a 10Gig Network card with 2x 2TB NVMe SSDs for network cache).
• Considering moving all large HDDs to the Synology and using it as the main storage, and only hosting the VMs' main system on the Dell's SSDs (so each VM gets 32GB; the main storage is on the Synology).
• Direct 10GbE connection to the Dell R750 for high-speed access. (Block Access)

Potential Solutions:

1. Bare Metal TrueNAS Scale: Install TrueNAS directly on the server for maximum performance, but lose the flexibility of Proxmox.
2. Proxmox with ZFS and Containers/VMs: Use Proxmox with ZFS for storage and handle additional services (SMB, permissions, Nextcloud) via LXC containers or VMs.
3. Hybrid Approach: Keep Proxmox with ZFS pools, and run a VM for TrueNAS Scale to manage SMB and NFS, with other services running in containers/VMs on Proxmox.
4. Leveraging Synology NAS:
   • Use the Synology as the main storage system with 10GbE connectivity to the Dell R750.
   • Utilize the NVMe SSD cache on the Synology for improved performance.
   • Keep the SSDs and SAS drives in the Dell R750 for caching and high-speed storage needs.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these approaches or any other suggestions you might have. What would be the best way to balance performance, flexibility, and power efficiency in this setup?

Thanks in advance for your help! I hope you all have a good weekend. Best wishes, keep hoarding.

• a VeganSalat