I’m wondering what the best (cheap) option is to have as much storage as possible. I have two DL380 g7 servers with one running lemmy, npm, wireguard and busy getting nextcloud and jellyfin installed. The other one is to run a Proxmox cluster. Just for fun tbh. Amd if needed spare parts. I only have a few tb of storage. Problem is that these have a 2.5 inch harddrive. So expensive drives. Is it a good idea to just buy more drives which will cost me more in the long run i guess… Or should i go for a dedicated storage server with 3.5 drives…
Usually, the larger the drive, the less $ per GB. 16 and 18 TB drives for example would be where you would want to aim for if you’re starting out fresh.
If you want to mix and match what you already have, unRaid is an option that does that well.
If you want storage I would go for 3.5“ drives. Cheaper than 2.5“ and you‘ll find bigger capacities, so even with just a few slots it‘s easy to get plenty of Terrabytes.
Gen7s are pretty old. You might run the numbers on the cost of equipment versus power and find that it’s more cost-effective, or at least similar, to upgrade to something newer that also has 3.5" drives.
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could try finding a cheap jbod
Ceph is excellent as a distributed storage solution - but should really have 4 machines with 2 or more drives each to reach a good level of redundancy - which is a bit much for most people on this sub.
One nice feature is it deals with heterogeneous drives well, like if you need to buy a bunch of used ones on eBay for cheap.
Probably not a good solution for your case because of the footprint - but good to be aware of it.
