[advice sought] NAS for Proxmox HA

So I recently (a couple months ago) moved my fragmented docker-on-raspberry-pi architecture over to a Proxmox cluster. I’m running it on a pair of HP DL360 G6s, and I couldn’t be happier.

Except, well, I could be happier with just one more thing: high availability.

In particular, I want HA for my OPNsense firewall/router, but eventually for more of the workloads my family are depending on for life in general - Home Assistant, Plex, Overseerr, Immich, etc etc.

My current storage setup is a couple ratty old ARM-based NASes - an ancient Netgear ReadyNAS and an even more ancient Qnap TS-410. They’re both populated with 4 x 4TB (max raw size they can take) using RAID5, so I get about 22TB usable across the pair of them. They mostly store media for my Plex setup, but also support my 2N+C backup strategy for stuff like Immich, Paperless, and other important data.

My high-level plan is to grab another DL360, so I can have a quorum, then introduce a new storage system that:

  • provides an iSCSI target for my Proxmox cluster; and
  • can eventually grow to replace my old NASes.

The two solutions I’m pondering are:

  1. Build a TrueNAS setup from scratch - mini ITX case, board - the lot
  2. Pickup something tried, true and proven in the market, like a Synology

Up front cost is a consideration - I have a family to feed, so I can’t just run out and buy an 8-bay enclosure and fully populate it with 16TB disks.

Whatever I get, I’m likely to want to start with, say, 3 disks and grow it over time.

So, I guess this is a call out to the community to share any and all successes, war stories, and other advice. The more technical, the better. I want to make a sound, data-based decision here, and anecdotes from others who think like me are the best way to set my compass.

Cheers for anything you can offer!

tvcvt,

One more option to consider would be doing HA with shared ZFS storage. Basically, if you have a zpool on each system with the same name and add it as shared storage, you can set up replication and have HA run off that. It’s a pretty simple setup and you can get by with just a couple extra disks per node rather than a whole separate machine.

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

Ah, interesting. Each node has a couple HDD slots free. I could populate those without introducing them to the hardware RAID set, and use ZFS on them instead? That could definitely be a good place for me to start. Thanks!

yamdwich, (edited )

High availability storage is what the Ceph integration is for.

Edit: though it's kind of a pain to set up and probably way overkill. A separate TrueNAS or similar appliance with a 10 gig uplink will be easier and probably just as reliable for your use.

DeltaTangoLima, (edited )
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

I did look at Ceph as well, but balked at the 10gig requirement. I only have a couple of SFP slots free on my switch, which otherwise only provides 1Gbps sockets. Could be a future upgrade path, though, if I want to get to play with full HCI.

knaak,

One advantage of a separate TrueNas is that I run Proxmox Backup as a VM on the NAS. It’s entirely separate and obviously has access to my storage.

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

As do I. Not sure if it’s the right approach, but I run PBS in a CT on each node, backing up the other node’s guests.

But, with shared storage, I could get away with just the one PBS, correct?

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