NAS, Part 1: We need a bigger rocket

In my cluster series of posts, I've been talking about how I've built a Raspberry Pi-based cluster for running compute tasks (latest update: I've got Let's Encrypt working with the DNS-01 challenge, stay tuned for a post on that soon). Currently, this has been backed by a Raspberry Pi 3 with a 1TB WD PiDrive attached. This has a number of issues:

• The Raspberry Pi 3 has a 100mbps network port
• It's not redundant
• I'm running out of storage space

I see 2 ways of solving these issues:

1. Building a clustered file system, with 1 3.5 inch drive per Pi (or Odroid HC2 perhaps)
2. Building a more traditional monolithic NAS

Personally, my preference here is option #2, but unfortunately due to some architectural issues in my house (read: the wiring needs redoing by an electrician) I don't actually have access to the number of wall sockets I'd need to put together a clustered setup. If I get those issues sorted, I'll certainly take a look at upgrading - but for now I've decided that I'm going to put together a more traditional monolithic NAS (maybe it can become the backup device in future, who knows) as it will only require a single wall socket (the situation is complicated. Let's just move on).

To this end, I decided to start with a case and go from there. Noise is a big concern for me, so I chose the Fractal Design Node 804, as it has a number of key features:

• It has lots of space for disks
• It comes with some quiet fans
• The manufacturer appears to be quite popular and reputable

From here, I picked the basic components for the system using PC Part Picker. I haven't actually built an amd64 system from scratch before - I use laptops as my main device (see my recent review of the PC Specialist Proteus VIII), and Raspberry Pis (and an awesome little 2nd hand Netgear GS116v2 switch) currently form the backbone of my server setup.

These components included:

• An ASUS PRIME B450M-A motherboard: 6 x SATA ports, AM4 CPU socket
• An AMD Athlon 3000G: I don't need much compute horsepower in this build, since it's for storage (I would have got an Athlon 200GE instead as it's cheaper, but they were all out of stock)
• 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666MHz RAM: The highest frequency the CPU supports - I got a single stick here to start with. I'll add additional sticks as and when I need them.
• 120GB Gigabyte SSD: For the OS. Don't need a lot of storage here, since all the data is going to be on 3.5 inch HDDs instead
• 3 x 4TB WD Red Plus WD40EFRX (CMR): These are my main data storage drives. I'm starting with 3 4TB drives, and I'll add more as I need them. The Node 804 case (mentioned above) supports up to 10 disks, apparently - so I should have plenty of space.
• SeaSonic CORE GM 500 W 80+ Gold PSU: The most efficient PSU I could afford. I would have loved an 80+ titanium (apparently they are at least 94% efficient at 50% load), but at £250+ it's too much for my budget.
• LG GS40N DVD writer: Apparently the Node 804 case as a slimline DVD drive slot (i.e. like one you might find in a car). It wasn't too expensive and being able to ingest CD/DVDs is appealing.

For the storage there, in particular my (initial) plan is to use OpenZFS in RAIDZ mode, which has a minimum requirement of 3 drives. Using an online calculator suggests that with the above drives I'll have 8TB of usable capacity. Initial research does suggest though that expanding a ZFS storage pool may not be as easy as I thought it was (related, see also), so more research is definitely needed before I commit to a single filesystem / set of settings there.

I've heard of BTRFS too, but I've also heard of some stability and data loss issues too. That was several years ago though, so I'll be reviewing its suitability again before making a decision here.

In future posts, I'm going to talk about my experience assembling the build. I'm also going to look at how I eventually setup the filesystem (as of yet which filesystem I'll choose is still undecided). I'll also be running some tests on the setup to evaluate how well it performs and handles failure. Finally, I may make a bonus post in this series about the challenges I encounter migrating my existing (somewhat complicated) data storage setup to the new NAS I build.

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