I see, okay, I understand now. Thank you very much for explaining that in detail!

Okay, I have one of the pools that is pretty empty and has non-critical data, and I think I’ll try migrating that first, and see if it’s imported correctly by Proxmox.

About Containers, I think I’ll have to do some more research because I think I haven’t fully understood yet how they compare to VMs. Or like, when I should use the one over the other. I guess I could have a Container with a bind mount to a dataset that I want to be able to share over NFS or SMB, and handle that from whatever OS I put in the Container, right? But, I could also have a VM do that, and though it wouldn’t be able to share the data with other VMs, it can do it over NFS, can’t it? What are the advantages of doing one thing over the other?

Well, in any case, thank you for your patience, for going over each detail and taking the time to correct me where I’m wrong. I’m learning a lot, so thank you!

Edit: fixing grammar

Yeah, but I don’t have two separate machines, that’s why I’m using Proxmox. And I used TrueNAS previously, with TrueCharts, and I wasn’t happy. It was pretty unstable and finnicky for me, and hard to go back to, after running docker in a clean Debian VM, which has been rocksolid so far. Still, thanks for your suggestion

Yeah, you’re totally right. Okay thanks, will do

Wow, that’s awesome. I think that’s actually the approach I’m going to go for. This way I don’t need to buy hardware, and I don’t need to work with TrueNAS anymore.

Where you talk about “walking the backups”, do you mean that you can actually see the entire file structure of the container? I mean, I don’t know how virtual disks are stored on the dataset. Like, as far as I know, a VM virtualized disk is just a file, right? So you’d have a ZFS dataset with a single file, for example? Could you then try and navigate the files inside this VM disk file, without the VM? Or did I misunderstand, and you’re mounting the dataset, somehow, directly inside the VM? Is that like a passthrough for datasets?

In any case, thank you for sharing so much information and for offering help. I may take you up on that, as it seems that this is the approach that I feel most comfortable with.

Okay, thank you, that’s good to know. However, I don’t have two separate devices that I can use to separate the NAS functionality from the Docker functionality, that’s why I was using Proxmox in the first place. And, I’m not sure how well Docker can run in OMV. But I’ll still keep it in mind as an option, thank you!

Thanks, I’ll keep it in mind

Yeah, it won’t happen again. I think I’ll migrate to managing ZFS directly from Proxmox, and then handle SMB in a VM or something, because I’m worried about compatibility, with the PCIe SATA card, as the system’s pretty dated.

Okay, good to know, thanks!

Okay, no VM, understood, but I do want to use a GUI for ZFS, because I’m basically a noob.

Okay, if Proxmox can handle all that, I’ll be glad to ditch TrueNAS. However, I’m afraid that I won’t know how to migrate. I’ve found this reddit thread about someone who tried to do the same thing (I think) and accidentally corrupted their pools. About skipping NFS shares, that would be a big improvement for me, but I’m very unfamiliar with bind mounts. If I understand correctly, you can specify directories that live on the Proxmox Host, and they appear inside the VM, right? How does this compare to using virtual storage? Also, how can I replicate the ZFS pools to an external machine? In any case, thank you for that info!

I’m already running TrueNAS Scale, but I’m unsure about the docker support. I did use TrueCharts and such, but it was very unstable, so I moved away from that.

Thank you very much for the detailed information. I’ll look into eBay again, maybe I can find a good offer that works. I’m unsure how to choose the number of lanes. Does that relate to the number of drives it supports? Also, in terms of cooling, would any PC case fan be enough, if strapped onto the HBA?

Thank you very much for the info. In the case of Raid Cards that can be flashed, is there something I need to look out for, besides the speed? Only HDDs will be used, so speed isn’t a priority.

I tried OMV in the past, but I found TrueNAS to be more intuitive… but that’s just personal preference I guess, and I’m not opposed to using OMV. Are you suggesting, then, that I run OMV on bare metal, and use it for everything? Or should it be inside a VM? If it’s the former, how easy is it to setup docker, because I’m not that familiar with OMV (it’s been a long time since I last checked it out). Is it like installing it in Debian directly? How does it handle the storage?

Wait, so if I understood correctly, you’re managing the ZFS pools directly in Proxmox, and then you have a VM that’s running docker, and using the storage that is managed by Proxmox, right? Hmm, sounds like a good solution. Is there any documentation or article that you could recommend, so that I can take a closer look? Also, how could I handle SMB shares?

The problem is that I’ve never worked with Kubernetes, and it wouldn’t allow me to port over my current docker instances, afaik. And I’m not ready to pay for Unraid, I’m sorry, I need to set up the server as frugally as possible. Still, thank you for the info, I’ll keep it in mind, while I decide how to move forward.

Yes, that’s why I’ve posted this question, and I immediately powered the entire NAS off, as to avoid any damage. It’s currently still powered off, until I find the best way to move forward. What I’m afraid of is that if I try to import the pools that were managed by the TrueNAS VM into a bare metal TrueNAS install, or Proxmox, that it won’t work correctly, or that I could lose data.

Correct, they’re two separate pools, and the stripe one doesn’t contain any valuable data.

Thank you, I might raise the issue there, if I struggle to fix the issue. I didn’t know the podcasters, but now I’ll try and listen to a few episodes, and maybe I can continue learning. Thank you for the suggestion