Do I need 2 drives?

[sdavisnz]

Will I need 2 identical drives. Or can I setup with a single large storage drive?

 

I don’t have the invite yet. So just prepping.

[Dylan]

You need at least 2 drives to install. However, three is recommended to you can potentially expand your storage in the future. See THIS POST for a list of hardware and storage requirements.

[brwainer]

The installer seems to expect an OS drive plus two drives for data which it will set up as a mirror (RAID1), so while TrueNAS/ZFS may work with a single data disk, HexOS might not let you complete the setup.

[Sparkrdom]

1 hour ago, brwainer said:

The installer seems to expect an OS drive plus two drives for data which it will set up as a mirror (RAID1), so while TrueNAS/ZFS may work with a single data disk, HexOS might not let you complete the setup.

I was able to finish the install, but I can't create storage pools without 2 spare disks.

[Sorenb86]

I get the same error. The Learn more leads to a dead link:

https://www.hexos.com/selecting-drives

[Snrrlax]

Getting the same thing.  

 

[agame7]

On 11/30/2024 at 6:18 PM, Sparkrdom said:

I was able to finish the install, but I can't create storage pools without 2 spare disks.

 

On 12/1/2024 at 11:14 AM, Sorenb86 said:

I get the same error. The Learn more leads to a dead link:

https://www.hexos.com/selecting-drives

 

2 minutes ago, Snrrlax said:

Getting the same thing.  

 

to make it work you can go through the install than go into the TrueNAS webUI you are able to create a storage pool as well as install apps into that storage pool though HexOS does not recognize this storage pool.

[I.R.MaNu]

Okay so am i getting this right: HexOS only works with 2 or more Storage devices?! 

[UncleMikey]

1 hour ago, I.R.MaNu said:

Okay so am i getting this right: HexOS only works with 2 or more Storage devices?! 

Essentially yes... primarily because I assume hexOS is NAS software and it's claim to fame is "Sensible Defaults" that make it easy and i guess one of those assumptions is that you have more than one disk so you dont lose all your data when (not if) it dies. I'm honestly a little confused as to why you'd try to do this with HexOS? not really the intended use case

 

p.s.. the libertarian in me says you can do what you want but the rational adult in me says don't be stupid... -\_(--)_/-

Edited December 5, 2024 by UncleMikey

[I.R.MaNu]

3 hours ago, UncleMikey said:

Essentially yes... primarily because I assume hexOS is NAS software and it's claim to fame is "Sensible Defaults" that make it easy and i guess one of those assumptions is that you have more than one disk so you dont lose all your data when (not if) it dies. I'm honestly a little confused as to why you'd try to do this with HexOS? not really the intended use case

 

p.s.. the libertarian in me says you can do what you want but the rational adult in me says don't be stupid... -\_(--)_/-

Honestly thats sad, its useless for me then, i cant afford to buy a second hard drive...

[UncleMikey]

17 minutes ago, I.R.MaNu said:

Honestly thats sad, its useless for me then, i cant afford to buy a second hard drive...

What size is your current one?

To be clear, it sounds like you could theoretically set it up with just one drive, it's just kinda pointless...

Edited December 5, 2024 by UncleMikey

[UncleMikey]

20 minutes ago, I.R.MaNu said:

Honestly thats sad, its useless for me then, i cant afford to buy a second hard drive...

https://serverpartdeals.com/collections/all/products/dell-08jjhf-4tb-5-9k-rpm-sata-6gb-s-512e-3-5-hdd

something like this?


https://www.amazon.com/MDD-MAXDIGITALDATA-MDD4000GSA6472-Internal-Surveillence/dp/B0DC28SGQ7/ref=sr_1_13?crid=7CNM7TIHD5QD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.npiBaVvNTAnkXKvDwJy2-Y-hbLFt7n6rT1Oyl6hd7GYMGP9mK4S8nnkurq_ySKjfxhn9uMNfmwARj2GUMiXy8qOAU89FQ8CXB1W0a3A24iooJLoSr3W289TXpuUB8JlvoaVVDnME_J3EXgSvcAmL7_UvZxzH9hCYnwnA80WNjsRSTHC0GBiQHPcq6Vy5PyUHP0X-EwjZBg-O8nlEIJvkSau4rcTu5rPQNRGW-bqxt0w.uuAQh5MwGyWNU-dcO8CBbwmP1gUkIx4EgOJ6iNzVGxc&dib_tag=se&keywords=4tb+sata+hdd&qid=1733437785&sprefix=4tb+sata+hdd%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-13

or this?


You could also check FB marketplace... or just set it up with one drive for now and hope and pray until you can afford to buy another one

[Dylan]

1 hour ago, I.R.MaNu said:

Honestly thats sad, its useless for me then, i cant afford to buy a second hard drive...

If your NAS can accommodate m.2, could you swing $30?

And like the dude above said, I bet if you reach out to locals or FB market place, you'd find some old IT guy (like me) to try and help you out with older drives. Heck, maybe even ask around on this forum. I only have a single spare otherwise I'd get a disk to you. Ain't no shame asking if anyone has some extra/old or unused HW to spare.

Hang in there!

[UncleMikey]

40 minutes ago, Dylan said:

If your NAS can accommodate m.2, could you swing $30?

And like the dude above said, I bet if you reach out to locals or FB market place, you'd find some old IT guy (like me) to try and help you out with older drives. Heck, maybe even ask around on this forum. I only have a single spare otherwise I'd get a disk to you. Ain't no shame asking if anyone has some extra/old or unused HW to spare.

Hang in there!

People want to help, there's not nearly enough young people getting into tech and home lab is where passion starts ❤️

[Dylan]

Agreed. Hopefully HexOS continues to grab the target audience and those of us in the forums continue to help where we can.

Good stuff.

[I.R.MaNu]

5 hours ago, UncleMikey said:

What size is your current one?

To be clear, it sounds like you could theoretically set it up with just one drive, it's just kinda pointless...

I bought a 4 tb one from seagate, it was on sale

[I.R.MaNu]

Okay another question: if you have 2 drive the have to be roughly the same size, but with 3 or more drives that doesn't really matter? I might be able to patch some drives together if it doesnt matter the sizes

Edited December 6, 2024 by I.R.MaNu

[agame7]

8 minutes ago, I.R.MaNu said:

Okay another question: if you have 2 drive the have to be roughly the same size, but with 3 or more drives that doesn't really matter? I might be able to patch some drives together if it doesnt matter the sizes

It doesn't matter the size it would just go off of the lowest-sized disk sacrificing the other 2s space for it

[UncleMikey]

10 hours ago, agame7 said:

It doesn't matter the size it would just go off of the lowest-sized disk sacrificing the other 2s space for it

Will hexos work with that by default?

[agame7]

1 hour ago, UncleMikey said:

Will hexos work with that by default?

from what i seen yes.

[UncleMikey]

26 minutes ago, agame7 said:

from what i seen yes.

Sweet, yeah @I.R.MaNu building a cobbled together 'millenium falcon' of a nas is sick. a lot of my stuff runs like that long term.

[Ad-Man-Gamer]

On 12/5/2024 at 7:07 PM, UncleMikey said:

Essentially yes... primarily because I assume hexOS is NAS software and it's claim to fame is "Sensible Defaults" that make it easy and i guess one of those assumptions is that you have more than one disk so you dont lose all your data when (not if) it dies. I'm honestly a little confused as to why you'd try to do this with HexOS? not really the intended use case

 

p.s.. the libertarian in me says you can do what you want but the rational adult in me says don't be stupid... -\_(--)_/-

There is one reason you would do this. If you are running something like proxmox, and the hypervisor is already handling data and redundancy on the back end, (ZFS/CETH). You there for do not need that to be handled by the NAS os, You just want the NAS to handle things like SMB/CIFS, NFS, FTP, Permissions, apps, services etc.

I know there is a way to have TrueNAS Virtualized, pass the storage over with pass through to handle all The storage system, Then pass them storage shares back to the hypervisor for use in other VMs. However, you then start getting into spaghetti configurations. You're better having that storage handled closer to the metal, and have the virtual machine take the datasets/Zvol's/VHD's it has been given To handle everything else it does well. From what I understand, TrueNAS is ZVol/Dataset aware, Especially With QEMU Additions. So there's no reason that Its storage systems could not get out of the way when it recognizes its handed a virtual disc. It can then just give a warning stating the NAS OS May not be aware of Potential SMART Reports, Cannot check the integrity of the back end, And to only do this if you're sure the back end is handling everything correctly...

Basically, Here be dragons, continue with caution.

[UncleMikey]

On 12/8/2024 at 8:13 AM, Ad-Man-Gamer said:

There is one reason you would do this. If you are running something like proxmox, and the hypervisor is already handling data and redundancy on the back end, (ZFS/CETH). You there for do not need that to be handled by the NAS os, You just want the NAS to handle things like SMB/CIFS, NFS, FTP, Permissions, apps, services etc.

I know there is a way to have TrueNAS Virtualized, pass the storage over with pass through to handle all The storage system, Then pass them storage shares back to the hypervisor for use in other VMs. However, you then start getting into spaghetti configurations. You're better having that storage handled closer to the metal, and have the virtual machine take the datasets/Zvol's/VHD's it has been given To handle everything else it does well. From what I understand, TrueNAS is ZVol/Dataset aware, Especially With QEMU Additions. So there's no reason that Its storage systems could not get out of the way when it recognizes its handed a virtual disc. It can then just give a warning stating the NAS OS May not be aware of Potential SMART Reports, Cannot check the integrity of the back end, And to only do this if you're sure the back end is handling everything correctly...

Basically, Here be dragons, continue with caution.

Yes, unfortunately I don't have a Master's in NAS/Filesystems and neither does the individual in question I'm guessing so we'll just bow respectfully to you and continue on our way 😉

[Ad-Man-Gamer]

1 hour ago, UncleMikey said:

Yes, unfortunately I don't have a Master's in NAS/Filesystems and neither does the individual in question I'm guessing so we'll just bow respectfully to you and continue on our way 😉

🤣 Sorry, I tend to run off explaining things in detail... I'm no master either, just a Tinkerer who knows just enough to be dangerous. I just know Proxmox handles virtualization and hardware very well, and makes handling them easy with a good GUI, and Hex/TrueNAS is doing the same for NAS/Home server stuff. If you can get them both to play nicely without convoluted Loopback configurations, you've got chocolate and peanut butter.

I'm mainly supporting hex because I like the idea of paying for a simple appliance OS where you bring your own hardware, And don't need to worry about the appliance vendor dropping support. Got burned By that when I bought my Thicus NAS years ago. I also know I know just enough to be dangerous, so, letting the responsible adult handle what's important seems best. 😜

[goaharis]

Damn it, I also did not read the requirement for 2x drives before purchasing the hexos license. My pocket NAS only accept M.2 and with one spare 2tb installed meaning I now need another M.2 with 2TB capacity which are not cheap. I will only be using this as low power always on plex server and so I don't care about redundancy etc. I can rip the movies back on if the drive fails.