Build Advice I need some help with building my first Home Server

[NoviceSearchingForWisdom]

Hi there stranger . I want to build myself a Homer Server and would require some help, sorry if it is a long post, but I included everything I thought could be needed below.

Information:

1. Budget (including currency): around 2.200€ (2.270 USD)
2. Aim:
   • It should be as power efficient as possible
   • The system should function as a NAS for myself and close family
   • Movie and Audio streaming
   • Development Server
   • Home Lab
   • VMs
   • Docker Services
3. Software:
   • OS: TrueNAS Scale
   • Family connectivity:
     • DuckDNS to connect to my router with dynamic IP
     • Reverse Proxy to connect to the services which shall be exposed over the internet through DuckDNS
     • OpenVPN for connection to development services
     • Nextcloud for account separated access to data like photos and documents
   • Streaming: Plex for movies and series, for audio has not been decided yet
4. Other Info:
   • TrueNAS with ZFS file system
   • 2 VDEVs á 4 * 8 TB drives
   • RAIDZ2

I am currently in the midst of configuring a home server for myself and my family and could need some advise from the pros. The use cases I have already laid out above, but it is the first time for me to create such a system. In the future I actually want to have 2 different systems, so one can just be the NAS and media streaming server and the other the development server / home lab. For now I will do everything in one single machine, out of simplicity and budgetary reasons, but of course if you see some better hardware I could use to have an easier upgrade path to a 2 system situation, please do not hesitate to point that out. I have made an initial plan on what software to use to accomplish my needs, but that of course may change in the future, I added it nonetheless because that may help some of you to have a better understanding of what I need. I have a few questions left before I want to go into buying all the parts. So I am going to lay out the planed build for you and then list the questions I have in hopes of some help from you guys, which would be greatly appreciated.



My planed build:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
• CPU Cooler: Stock ?
• Motherboard: ASRock X570M Pro4
• Memory: Crucial Pro CP2K16G4DFRA32A DDR4 RAM Kit (2x16GB) 3200MHz
• Boot & Cache Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD
• Data Storage drives: 4x Seagate IronWolf 8 TB NAS HDD
• Power Supply: Seasonic Vertex PX-750 ATX3.0 750W Vertex PX-750
• Case: SilverStone Technology SST-CS381 v 1.2

My questions are:

1. Is there anything you would change about this build? Knowing what it will be used for, is there anything in particular you would change? I hope I didn't mismatch any parts, but this is not my primary forte so any head ups are gladly received.
2. What would you recommend for fan configuration? I am either going to use the Stock cooler or one from Noctua. Which one would you recommend? Other than that, I am not quite sure how many case fans I would need and in which push or pull configuration. That's why I haven't listed them above. I want to make sure that nothing gets too hot even under load, but I have no experience with it.
3. What RAID configuration would you recommend? I have looked into this a bit and I think I want to use the ZFS file system with TrueNAS. For now I would buy four 8 TB drives which will become my first VDEV. I thought I would use the RAIDZ2 which would give me 16 TB of usable space and quite a high fault tolerance, but would that be needed? If I need more space I would add another VDEV of four drives in the same configuration. I like the data to be as save from corruption as feasible, but should I rather use RAIDZ1 or another RAID altogether. What do you think?
4. Do I need any additionals? Like cables or something like that, which I might forget.
5. What about GPU? I am thinking about adding a GPU for hardware transcoding for PLEX for example at some point. Is that even needed and if that is something which you would recommend, what is a good card for my configuration?
6. OPTIONAL: Backup strategy? This is a optional question, but because family will also store data on this machine I am thinking about what I will do for backups. For me I wouldn't care too much, but with them in the mix. Are there any cloud backup services you could recommend? If not I may be just going with some good old hard drives stored with a friend.

That would be all the info I could think of right now and all the questions I still have. I am more the software kinda guy, so hardware is not my real strong suit. I hope someone here can help me out a bit, so I do not make any dumb decisions and go into this as prepared as possible. Thank you all for reading and anyone helping I thank in advance also. Have a nice day stranger

 

[USAFRet]

#3 - Besides the RAID, what is your actual backup scenario?

 

[NoviceSearchingForWisdom]

#3 - Besides the RAID, what is your actual backup scenario?

Good question . That's something I thought a lot about too actually and I haven't really come up with a satisfying answer to be completely honest.

My current plan is to have a cold copy on some hard drives I will store with a friend for one, which I will update occasionally. Then I will have an onsite backup on another machine of mine where I have the space for it and then I actually would want some cloud service I can backup to, but I haven't found anything I liked yet, maybe you have something. So for now I probably will rent some cloud storage like dropbox or so and backup my files there, encrypt and compress them as much as I can. So in a way a 3-2-1 strategy.

That's okay for now, but not only me is gonna use the server but also my family to save their files, so the storage might fill up quick and then this approach probably will fall apart, which is the reason I am not quite sure yet

 

[Misgar]

Other Info:

• TrueNAS with ZFS file system
• 2 VDEVs á 4 * 8 TB drives
• RAIDZ2

Assigning only 4 drives to RAID-Z2 is not ideal in terms of "wasted" space.

There's an unwritten rule you should use 5, 7 or 11 drives for RAID-Z2 if space and money permit.
https://www.truenas.com/community/t...of-drives-for-each-raidz-configuration.97202/

So saying, I ignored this advice and installed 6 drives in one server and 8 drives each in three other servers, all running TrueNAS Core RAID-Z2. So far, I've had only one drive go bad since 2018.

Memory: Crucial Pro CP2K16G4DFRA32A DDR4 RAM Kit (2x16GB) 3200MHz

TrueNAS "loves" RAM. The more the merrier. Any spare RAM will be used by the TrueNAS cache. In my two HP servers I have 60GB and 64GB ECC RAM. In my desktop servers, I think they're both running the minimum recommended 16GB (non-ECC). I can get away with only 16GB because they're basic servers. I don't run PLEX or anything fancy.

For added integrity, ECC RAM is recommended for TrueNAS. Some people swear by ECC, others don't worry, preferring cheaper non-ECC. I use both.
https://forums.truenas.com/t/ecc-vs-non-ecc-ram-for-truenas-truenas-tech-talk-t3-e007/27441

Something else to consider is bit rot. Of course it might never happen, but keep plenty of backups.
https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/data-rot-and-filesystems.40778/

Boot & Cache Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD

TrueNAS has (had?) very modest boot requirements. For several years, I was booting my two HP servers from fast 16GB USB flash drives (Kingston Ultra Fit). The servers are now running TrueNAS Core from 32GB mSATA drives in USB converters. In your situation, you may well benefit from a faster, bigger drive, but you might find most of the 500GB remains unused.

Do I need any additionals? Like cables or something like that, which I might forget.

If you plan to add more hard disks, you'll run out of SATA ports on your mobo. I use ex-server LSI SAS 9211-8i Gen 2 PCI Host Bus Adapters flashed with IT (Initiator Target) firmware. Consider the faster PCI Gen3 9207-8i too. Do not buy a 9207-8e or 9211-8e versions. IR (RAID) firmware cards are not ideal for TrueNAS, but can often be reflashed to IT.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/lsi-9207-8i-successor-to-9211.668/

These cards come with 4, 8, 12, 16 or 20 drive capability. You'll need one 4-way SFF8087 to SATA Forward Breakout cable for each set of 4 drives.
https://www.amazon.com/OIKWAN-Controller-Backplane-Compatible-SFF-8087/dp/B088GL3NS2