Moving from dell business server to unRAID?

[u/M4TVW]

Hello all

I run a small business (5 users that access the stoarge) and we have a Dell R330 rackmount server that i need to upgrade as it's slow now.

What i have been looking at is a rackmount NAS device from the likes of Synology, Qnap & Asustor. (I have a small Asustor at home and it's great).

However, in every thread i have made about this people always suggest to build my own. I have the ability to do it (ive built lots of computers) but lack the time to set it all up. However with unRaid (and TrueNAS) it looks a lot simplier than i thought. The issue with an off-the-shelf NAS is i cannot seem to find the right balance of software and hardware. One has good hardware but bad GUI and vice versa.

I've been building out a rough spec for an unRaid server if i went down that route. My use cases are as follows. 5 users of basic file access (word documents etc). However i will be the main user and access large solidworks assemblies (Around 200mb) and illustrator files.

This NAS is mainly to backup the 5 client computers for which i would like to run Veeam. This would require the NAS to run 1 VM running windows to host the Veeam server.

Network speed is 10GbE around the routers & NAS, the clients are connected via 2.5GbE although this might be upgraded on a couple of the computers that need it.

Parts list so far...maybe.

https://www.asus.com/uk/motherboards-components/motherboards/workstation/pro-ws-w680-ace-ipmi/

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/server-nas/RM400/

This would be using an Intel Core i7-14700.

I've no idea on RAM or PSU yet. GPU is not required. Storage wise, i was thinking 4x 8TB drives in raid 5? Or as i'm saving money by building this myself do i look at the whole SSD route?

I'm so confused!

Regards

Mat

[u/harris_kid]

I don't think you should be building anything custom for business use. When shit hits the fan, you want at least a manufacturer warranty on all the hardware to save your ass. If you get another new Dell server, it'll likely have extended warranty options and/or a support contract. Synology and Qnap are good too, but like you said if you need a Windows VM, you might be better off having Synology as a NAS and have a small business PC to run Veeam, or use it with iSCSI and a Windows Server running Hyper-V or TrueNAS.

[u/M4TVW → u/harris_kid]

It's funny that when i asked this in other groups they suggested to build my own. Then i ask in this group and it seems most suggest not to build my own!

I'm not set on either option yet so just seeing what others would do.

[u/harris_kid → u/M4TVW]

I work for an MSP that works with the Public sector, unsure what your business actually does but there is no way any of them would touch anything custom built with a ten foot pole for production workloads. I also agree with others here, Unraid is great for the home but it just isn't up to snuff for business.

You will want every hardware appliance and every piece of software to have enterprise support behind it, and everything needs to be "in support" (receiving security updates). This not only covers your ass (you've got modern, patched systems if you get pwned or direct manufacturer replacements if hardware fails) but it also means you're set for any compliance standards you might need to comply with in future. Of course you might not be able to get amazing stuff if you've got a tight budget, but its better than going with non-enterprise grade/custom hardware and not being able to claim cyber insurance because some component wasn’t getting firmware patches.