First time TrueNas scale build quesrions

1

Hello all,

I have a couple questions that i dont see answered in any videos from anyone regarding truenas scale and nextcloud. Hope you can answer them or send me links to videos.

For ref this is what i plan to use for my build:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3mGNbL

My objective is to have a plex server and a way to backup my wife’s iphone photos and videos (NextCloud since Syncthing isnt supported by Apple) (or would Resilio Pro be better)

My TrueNas Scale questions are as follows:

  1. do i need to get a second nvme to have the OS hosted, getting conflicting info as to yes or no.

1b) if you have a better choice of HD to store the OS, feel free to share

  1. 64 gb of ram overkill for my needs?

  2. i assume i need to make the NAS a static IP on the network so if i restart, there is no issue?

3b) how often should i power down/restart the nas?

As for NextCloud, they are as follows:

  1. the way i interpret the videos is that NextCloud will only backup when you are on the same network. If not, how do i make it that way

  2. NextCloud looks to be 1 way client —> server backup out of the box correct? So my wife can delete her photos once she backs them up?

  3. do you have a video on how to get nextcloud to rescan the nas hdd for new files not loaded thru their client? I will be moving all her external HD photos to NextCloud

General n00b questions

  1. when i setup a SMB share so that my windows client can see the drives, i can still use the HD space for the Plex and NextCloud right? I mean it would defeat the purpose if you couldnt.

  2. Plex will be the only app i need to access the internet for pulking the metadata and for me and family to watch when out of the house. What security features do i need or it safe as is

  3. i need an idiots guide to TrueNas Scale best practice internet security videos

  4. would you recomend that i create a drive/pool all to itself for the wife’s photos for the photo backup?

Thanks for your help

2

1. do i need to get a second nvme to have the OS hosted nope, a small SSD is fine.

2. 64 gb of ram overkill for my needs? better to have more than not enough

3. i assume i need to make the NAS a static IP on the network yes, that would be best practice

3b) how often should i power down/restart the nas? I only restart mine when there are new updates

Nextcloud Questions I don’t use Nextcloud anymore as I don’t really need it.

1. when i setup a SMB share so that my windows client can see the drives, i can still use the HD space for the Plex and NextCloud right? I mean it would defeat the purpose if you couldnt. You setup the pool and build datasets on the pool for their purposes

2. Plex will be the only app i need to access the internet for pulking the metadata and for me and family to watch when out of the house. What security features do i need or it safe as is Plex is reaching out, but don’t open any ports in yor firewall and you should be fine

3. i need an idiots guide to TrueNas Scale best practice internet security videos I need to make a 2024 edition https://youtu.be/psVNn-JVT9Q?si=owE3Kz_EAG5m1GPR

4. would you recommend that i create a drive/pool all to itself for the wife’s photos for the photo backup? no, just a dataset.

3

I would probably use smaller storage drives and get more of them, at least get 4 drives.

Also I looked at the data sheet for these Seagate IronWolf Pro 14 TB and didn’t see any mention of being SMR or CMR/PMR… You need the CMR/PMR style unless Truenas fixed something that I’m not aware of.

You can buy a second NVME drive of the same size and put the Truenas OS on a mirrored volume for safety. You can go with 120gb drives if the cost works out better this way. You could also go to SATA m.2 if the board supports it, which would be like $30 each for the 256gb.