democratic-csi VS Hardware

The interface software regarding is not a worry of mine, as democratic-csi does the storage management for me, thus the compatibility it is not limited to the application using the storage per se, as this is handled by Kubernete's CSI drivers, being application-agnostic when utilizing the storage provided.My main worry is not latency, but rather RAM

Check out https://github.com/democratic-csi/democratic-csi

in k3s, i'm using https://github.com/democratic-csi/democratic-csi (was using iSCSI before, now everything is NFS)

Have you checked this out? GitHub democratic-csi I have yet to test this in my @home K8s cluster. It supports iSCSI volume management for FreeNAS, Synology and other CSI backends.

If you ever migrate from docker up to kubernetes, then take a look into democratic-csi. For a modest homelab, it is a valid option (said from somebody who manages a small homelab and plays around with kubernetes).

For persistent storage have you looked into using TrueNAS with a CSI provider with your container orchestrator? I'm assuming your orchestrator is Nomad or Kubernetes.

Yes, Rancher does support FreeNAS, TrueNAS. and Scale using the storage class provider https://github.com/democratic-csi/democratic-csi It's important to remember Rancher is the server. And in this case, you need to ask the question does the k8s cluster that Rancher is managing support this storage class provider? If you are using RKE the answer is Yes.

I use https://github.com/democratic-csi/democratic-csi to mount nfs/iscsi shares (and manage the shares) from my SAN (truenas box).

iSCSI with democratic-csi (https://github.com/democratic-csi/democratic-csi) works great for me on truenas. I use iSCSI for any PVs that don't need to be shared and NFS for anything I'd like to share between different pods (like movies, music).

Storage - democratic-csi looked the most promising, it has worked well so far. I am using zfs-generic-iscsi against an Ubuntu 20.04 storage server. I also tried zfs-generic-nfs and it worked successfully with the caveat of having to deal with NFS file permissions.

I've read this guide which has been helpful. I'm familiar with building a pc, but still want to make sure I build something reasonable if that would be more cost effective in the long run for my use.

Assuming North American style wood frame drywall construction and internal air conditioning ducting, totally! Guide.

Nope, that's what I do (albeit for a different reason).

Can confirm that APC warranty replacement is very quick. 6 days from RMA filing to installing replacement.

Wrote a guide for this. Basically start at how much storage you need and work backwards.

At that size you should get your home wired for Ethernet.

Get your home wired for Ethernet. Wi-Fi won't be able to cover that well.

Guide. If you're looking for lifetime expandability get a case/chassis with the highest HDD slot count that can fit in your available footprint.

GitHub repo. Has releases, issues, a wiki, projects, a forum, etc.

Thanks, I've created an issue for it.