#Current Situation
A couple of years back I built a NAS mainly to store my partner files.
I didn’t do any documentation but in short, I mixed some parts from an old HP Omen computer with some new piece of hardware.
To stay on budget for the operating system I went with TrueNas Scale with ZFS RAID Z1 configuration.
Current hardware:
– CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600G (new)
– MB Asus m-atx B550 (new)
– RAM 2x 8GB HP branded DDR4 non ECC (old)
– PSU HP branded non modular 500w (old)
– System Storage 256GB NVMe SSD (old)
– Pool Storage 4x 4TB HDD WD Red Plus (new)
– Case HP Omen (old)
#My Goals
The system is running “fine” and storage space isn’t a problem yet, but:
– I wanted a more reliable NAS,by moving on ECC memory
– I wanted the RAID Z2 configuration: meaning 2 redundant drives
– I’m looking to learn IT and Linux (network and cybersecurity to be more specific) so I need my own Personal computer to experiment with
NOTE: One of the drive ad an error and I had to replace it too.
Thankfully was just a Sata cable issue and I was able to keep all 4 drives for the new project.
#Hardware Selection
To the four HDD’s I add another two 4TB, this time I went with Seagate Ironwolf HDD simply because they were cheaper than others at the time.
For the centre piece I opt for the AsRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T/BCM m-Atx motherboard with an AM4 socket. This would take care of the ECC memory support.
But not only that, it has tow 1Gb plus another two 10Gb Ethernet port, I don’t need that speed right now but since it’s quite expensive I hope will last a while…
It also has more PCIE lanes and more space to add-in card than what I had.
Oh, and it also has an integrated GPU and 8 sata connection which is always nice for a NAS!
Memory, I went for two Micron DDR4 16GB 3200Mhz UDIMM ECC, exactly double of what I had before. Unfortunately is not a register ECC but was the only kind of ECC that my motherboard supports.
Regarding the CPU, I choose the cheapest I could find: the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 6 cores / 12 thread. It supports ECC memory and it ships with it’s own CPU air-cooler.
It’s worth noting also that soon I can have access to an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (16cores/32thread).
I did also upgrade the non modular PSU with a Corsair fully modular 750w that can power more than six sata drives.
This is not a new components but it comes straight from the workstation, where now I install a new Seasonic Focus GX1000 atx 3.0, 80 plus Gold that can support more powerful GPUs.
Because I needed the M.2 for another project, I moved the operating system on a new Kingstone NMVe M.2 500gb PCIE4.
And lastly, as the old case only had space for four hard drives, I bought a Fractal design Node 804 that can old more hard drives; all in a good dimension packet.
To Summarize:
– CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5500
– MB AsRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T/BCM m-atx
– RAM 2x 16GB Micron DDR4 UDIMM ECC
– PSU Corsair Fully Modular 750w 80plus Gold.
– System Storage Kingstone NMVe M.2 PCIE4 500GB
– Pool Storage 6x 4TB HDD (4 WD Red Plus + 2 Seagate Ironwolf)
– Case Fractal Design Node 804
#Assembling
I started by fitting the CPU inside the AM4 socket of the motherboard, then I moved on the with the memory, where following the diagram I use the second and forth bay available.
So far no issue, I took the CPU air-cooler and noticed that it had already a thermal pad on it. I prepared the motherboard by replacing the two existing CPU cooler brackets with the one supplied by AMD and installed the cooler.
Lastly fit the new 500Gb M.2 and the motherboard was ready to be fitted inside the case.
I dismantle as much as I could the Node to have more space, and after installing the back metal panel of the board I screwed down the board.
I then start working on the power supply and when that was fitted I connected the cables, first the one for the MB, then the CPU followed by all the ones coming from the front panels and the three fan included with the case.
And finally I was left with installing and connecting the six 4Tb HDD.
Power the system on and… was working!!!
#Problems
Installation great but… I had a black screen!
After checking the HDMI cable and monitor, I went online to understand the problem.
Apparently I wans’t the only one, the HDMI port from the motherboard don’t always work for some reason.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any other cable to connect to my monitor as it can only work with HDMI or USB-C.
But wait, I remembered this motherboard could be accessed remotely by the dedicated IPMI Ethernet port. Did it work? Yes and no.
The first time, I managed to access the bios from the workstation using the port ip address; with that accomplish and because was late, I power off the system with the idea to go back the next day and install truenas.
As always: the following day I did the exact same but that time I wasn’t able to enter the bios, No idea why but I suspect was a network problem as we experience some issue with it (I will be share the firewall/network story too…).
Anyway, because I needed to build my own pc with the remaining parts of the old NAS, I waited till it was up and running. And after powering it off I removed one of the M.2, and replaced it with the 500GB Kingstone, power the system on and install Truenas Scale with the previously created flash drive.
After following the OS installation wizard on the Kingstone I then power the system off, replace the 500GB M.2 and put it back inside the NAS.
That eventually did the trick and I was able to reach the Truenas web access page.
I will eventually have to go back and check that IPMI port once the network is fixed but as I needed the NAS operational as soon as possible I decide to work it around the issue that way.
#Conclusion
It was a fun project, I enjoy building the system and try to fix the video issue.
At the end, the NAS is up and running with ZFF RAID Z2 but I wish I had more time to spent fixing the issue properly.
I understand that having only one back up method isn’t the best but at the moment, the important file are stored also in flash drive as well as in HDD, and the ones solely stored in the NAS are important but not that important that another NAS or Cloud solution had to be deployed.