The hardware is 5 years old, time to start looking to replace it!

[All articles are a work in progress!]
[If you have questions, leave a comment or join the Discord server and post in #servers-and-networking]

It’s around 5 years ago that I built my current storage server and part of the Proxmox cluster!

Although it’s currently still running fine it’s time to update and modernize it to a new solution that will last me another 5 years at least!

Article index:

Since this is going to be an ongoing series with multiple blog posts each depicting a part of it, here is an index of all posts available so far:

1. The new Storage and VM cluster 2025 (this article)
2. Don’t run hardware until the end of time!
3. To Cluster or not to Cluster, that is the question
4. Fully designed hardware for the nodes
5. Explaining the selected hardware
6. Calculating Power Requirements (System and HDD)
7. Modern hardware vs older Enterprise hardware
8. Expansion slots and 10Gbit networking options (including WiFi slot!)
9. The Jonsbo N3 case with a twist
10. Fan choices and changes

Assembly articles

2. Power steps for the HDplex
3. HDD power, 2 options
4. CPU Cooler fan direction tests    (run stress app for 10 minutes, check temps)
5. 4x 92mm FANs wiring
6. Custom cabling for HDplex 250w

Information Articles:

1. Power usage of various configuration (SFX vs HDplex 250w)

Read more inside of the article what the goes of this new NAS and Cluster is!

The goal of this new NAS and Cluster setup!

This renewed setup has the following goals:

• Provide central NAS storage
  • The solution needs to provide multiple forms of storage:
    • Bulk and fast HDD storage in RAID (uses listed below)
    • NVMe storage in mirror
    • NVMe storage without mirror
  • I use this for various (business) tasks including my YouTube editing (which is done directly off the file stored on the server), backups of client PCs but also storage of all old footage, photos.
  • Other use entails using it to storage things like movies and series
  • Basically a general file storage but with some performance requirements for certain tasks

• Provide central Compute
  • The solution has to have the ability to run VMs and Containers (be it LXC or Docker for instance)
  • Allow for the option to have some VMs or Containers highly available
    • Mainly for running my Home Assistant and a few other services which break my home and studio when they are down

• Performance
  • I am someone who likes performance, things need to go fast! This varies from copying files but also compiling firmware inside of Home Assistant for ESPhome for instance.
  • Fast CPU compute for intensive tasks
    • Home Assistant with ESPhome compiling
    • Packing and unpacking files
  • Fast Storage
    • Fast copying of large files between workstations and NAS (30GB – 100GB)
  • Fast Networking
    • 10Gbit for all Cluster nodes and client workstations

Fun and flair

Although since my work has shifted from being an IT consultant (in the storage field) to being a hardware developer and Youtuber full-time, working with this kind of stuff is still rooted deeply inside of me and I enjoy it, that’s why it might be slightly more overkill then needed, during the series I will try to give tips and tricks where you can maybe adapt some stuff to save on budget or to make it better fit your needs, but hey, a bit of overkill is fun too!