How a homelab TrueNAS setup grew organically into a two-server, split-OS rack

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A self-hosted storage enthusiast ended up running two TrueNAS servers in the same rack — one on CORE, one on SCALE — not by design but through a series of incremental workload decisions made over years. The CORE server, a Dell R630, was originally built to store Chia (XCH) plot files at scale, with its pool layout shaped by the drive-count ceiling of an older SAS HBA that is no longer a constraint. When Storj, a distributed storage network requiring active read/write operations, became the next workload, it drove the addition of a SCALE server because Storj offered a native TrueNAS SCALE app but no equivalent for CORE. The result is a rack whose architecture reflects accumulated constraints and workload pivots rather than any deliberate upfront plan. The author notes the deployment raises an unresolved consolidation question and highlights how homelab realities often diverge from the clean, linear narratives common in public technical writeups.

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