Finally....FINALLY had time to start moving everything over from my old Mac Mini-based NAS to my "new" NAS.

For reference: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/61180593

So far so good! Ultimately, I decided to start with a fresh install of the most recent OMV release (v8.5), and migrated my existing mdadm-managed RAID5 array to that. OMV picked it up immediately, which made that part very easy.

The tricky part I'm dealing with now is remapping the various shares to my Proxmox cluster and VMs. Because I started fresh, I changed things up a little bit and created a second "disk" for each of my four Proxmox-hosted Docker VMs, which will hold those containers' user data (not the container itself). The secondary VM disks are hosted inside Proxmox's own NFS mount from the NAS.

Maybe there's a better way to map the storage, but honestly I've learned an absolute shitton about how to properly set up Linux permissions and service users through this whole process. Plus, if the Mac mini was shut off from a power interruption or whatever, I would still have to manually power-on each disk in its USB-connected enclosure.

Unfortunately, during this migration process, one of my 4TB Reds refused to play nice, and checking the SMART stats showed multiple failing sectors. It has 69k (nice) hours, same as its twin. I had anticipated this, as I bought the first pair of EFRX Reds back in 2018, so about a year or two ago I added a newish 4TB Black as a hot spare (already had it, wasn't using it for anything else). By the time I found the dying Red, mdadm had already automatically removed the Red from the array, pulled in the spare Black, and rebuilt the array. Fucking awesome. Both legitimately and sarcastically...

Obligatory pics!

Fully assembled:

OS install:

And its original config from HP, right before I tore it apart. Check out that dust blanket:

Full specs:

dust blanket

Me: hmm, that's an odd way to describe a bit of dust

[looks closely at photo]

Me: oh dear gawd!

I also kept the original Pentium 4 sticker and the old inventory tag from Novell (long-defunct now):

When it's all closed up, the only hint that this might not be factory is the large grid of holes I drilled through the top of the case for the PSU fan.

It cleaned up quite nicely. Very satisfying.

Novell??

Holy cow that's something I haven't heard in forever.

Wow, yea, that's bad, haha

I've taken to taping up most of the vents on my boxes, then putting air conditioner filter media in front of the vents I leave open.

This controls the flow to only come through those vents, so they get filtered.

I clean the filters once a month - it's nice that you can see them to know they need cleaning.

I do change the fans to more powerful ones, usually compressor style (what people call squirrel cage) because they handle airflow restriction better. The trick is how to orient and duct them.

...I dare you to give it a taste test

For other folks reading, be mindful that not all PC fans can efficiently draw airflow through a filter. The key word is "static pressure", which refers to how much force can be exerted on a fully-blocked opening, which would then produce airflow through the parts that are less blocked. The simplest PC fans basically have zero static pressure, and so they'll just spin uselessly when covered by an HVAC filter.

As an aside, dust and lint in PCs can be reduced by limiting dust and lint in the environment: replacing your home HVAC filter, not wearing shoes indoors, electrostatic fans, and using mechanical ventilation rather than opening the window are effective ways to keep detritus away from your machine in the first place.

My dad was a Novell veteran, lasted a few decades up through both the Attachmate and Micro Focus acquisitions.

Smart. My gaming PC has filters, but this thing is straight through. I should probably consider filters...

wheezing tastes like furniture....

What kind of pet do you have?

LMAO

The server in its original config sat on the floor of my dad's utility room, untouched, for years. He hosted a mailing list on it back in the 2000s.