PVE-NAS Bring-Up Guide (TorresVault 2.0)

System: ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T + Ryzen 7 5700G + ECC + Dual LSI HBAs
Location: Fractal Design Define 7 XL case
Role: Dedicated NAS + Proxmox storage node for TorresVault 2.0

Before installing into the full Define 7 XL chassis, this process verifies:

• Motherboard + CPU + RAM stability
• ECC functionality
• IPMI operation
• BIOS settings
• Proxmox installation
• 10GbE network interfaces
• HBA passthrough compatibility
• Drive detection
• Temperatures and fan profiles
• General system reliability

This is the “early burn-in” phase to make sure all major parts work before the full production build.

For initial testing, use:

• ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T motherboard
• AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
• At least one stick of Micron ECC DDR4 (16 GB)
• Temporary PSU you already have
• USB 3.0 flash drive for the Proxmox OS
• Optional: small spare SSD for a real boot drive (not required)
• Monitor connected only through IPMI (no GPU needed)

Do not install the HBAs yet.
Do not mount inside the Define 7 XL yet.

Goal: verify the board bare first.

1. Plug in power
2. Connect Ethernet to the dedicated IPMI port
3. Let the board boot for 60 seconds
4. In a browser, go to the IP address the router gave it
5. Default credentials:
   • Username: admin
   • Password: admin

Confirm via IPMI dashboard:

• CPU detected
• ECC RAM detected
• Temps stable
• Fans spinning
• Remote console works

Inside IPMI → Remote Console → BIOS:

• AMD CBS → UMC → ECC → Enabled
  (Ensures ECC reporting works properly)

Set all PCIe slots used for HBAs to Gen 3 for stability.

Improves ZFS/NAS stability.

Use “Full Speed” or “Server Mode” for burn-in.
You can tune later for quiet operation.

• UEFI enabled
• USB first boot for installer

Use a USB flash drive created with the Proxmox ISO.

• Install Proxmox onto the temporary USB or spare SSD
• Filesystem: ext4 (simple for testing)
• Do not create ZFS yet (wait for HBAs + drives)
• Hostname: pve-nas.torresvault.com
• Static IP on your infrastructure VLAN
• Root password set for initial console use

When installation completes, open Proxmox at:

https://pve-nas.torresvault.com:8006

Run:

dmesg | grep -i ecc

Expect ECC initialization messages.

Run:

sensors

Confirm temps are normal (Ryzen 5700G typically idles 30–40°C with Dark Rock 5).

Run:

ip a
ethtool enp4s0
ethtool enp5s0

You should see:

• Both 10GbE ports
• Proper negotiated speed
• No driver errors

If you want to confirm LSI HBA + SAS drive detection early:

1. Shut down PVE-NAS
2. Install one LSI 9201-8i or 9211-8i
3. Connect 1–2 of your 6 TB SAS drives
4. Boot
5. Validate:

Drive detection:

lsblk

HBA seen:

lspci | grep LSI

SMART check:

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

This verifies that the X570 chipset + your HBAs are fully compatible.

You may add PVE-NAS to your existing cluster for early validation of:

• Corosync traffic
• UI integration
• Node statistics
• Remote console performance
• HA behavior

You do not need the ZFS pool created yet to join the cluster.

Run these tests before building inside the case:

Use:

apt install memtester
memtester 8G

Or run an overnight stress-ng:

stress-ng --cpu 8 --vm 2 --vm-bytes 8G --timeout 12h

stress --cpu 16 --timeout 30m

From another machine:

iperf3 -s

On PVE-NAS:

iperf3 -c <server-ip> -P 4

You should hit near 9.5 Gbit/sec.

Before even placing the board in the Define 7 XL, this process validates:

• Board is stable
• ECC works
• CPU thermals are good
• Proxmox runs cleanly
• NICs are fully functional
• At least one HBA works
• SAS drives detect reliably
• No BIOS or hardware issues
• IPMI is solid and responsive

If any issues show up, you fix them before ripping apart PVE1 and PVE2.

After early bring-up is confirmed:

• Move the system into the Define 7 XL
• Connect both HBAs
• Install all 16 SAS drives
• Add your NVMe / SATA SSDs for OS mirror
• Build the full ZFS pools
• Configure SMB/NFS/iSCSI as needed
• Set up replication from PVE1/PVE2
• Begin migration to the new NAS

This will be the heart of TorresVault 2.0, built clean, tested, and rock-solid.