I see, than good luck with finding good deals on the hardware!

Well, than, you should bge fine with VMUG subscription to get licenses. The options you have mentioned, should be able to run it.

You may get additional server and run 2 node cluster with Starwinds vsan. It is hardware agnostic, so, basically, hardware won’t be an issue, also it doesn’t require witness node which might save you from getting 3rd computer. I believe it is the most decent option for 2-3 node setups.

Hmm, obviously not…

Well, it depends from the worload, but I would really change them to new hardware already.

That is what I am talking about, they are still good for running them especially for SMB, if they can get refurb servers with hardware support.

As far as I remeber, it was possible to prolongue dell support for them, so, yeah, they are still good.

For the shared storage, you may try to go with the Starwinds vsan, the system requirements are pretty low and you would be able to use the internal storage as shared one, so no need of the additional box. Also, it has guide with the steps, so shouldn’t be an issue: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-san-vsan-free-configuration-guide-for-proxmox-virtual-environment-ve-kvm-vsan-deployed-as-a-controller-virtual-machine-cvm/

r740s are still fine to be used for production, even with new 15 and 16 gens available.

As alternative to TrueNAS since the network storage is the only requirement, you may use Starwinds CVM without HA option. It is not over-provisioned with features like TrueNAS and no need to flash RAID controller into IT mode. Just miss the steps regarding HA and replication. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-san-vsan-free-configuration-guide-for-proxmox-virtual-environment-ve-kvm-vsan-deployed-as-a-controller-virtual-machine-cvm/