Help choosing a path forward - Looking for some advice on a NAS platform
I'm having trouble deciding which software platform fits my hardware. This is not a standard "what's the best" type of post, as ultimately they will all run containers so it's more "I have this stuff, what would you do in my situation?".
Not my first rodeo, familiar with linux and docker, I got tired of running commands to keep a plex service running and switched to Windows 11 which just worked. My new goal is to find a balance where I can run most containers but not have to fiddle with every config file in cli constantly. I almost bought a QNAP NAS but thought why spend another $500 when I have a nice box working fine now.
Hardware:
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Mini PC with Xeon E-2144G 3.6ghz, 16GB RAM, 2x 1TB SSD
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QNAP TR-004 dumb USB DAS with 32TB in a hardware R5. Not ideal but it's what I have at the moment. About 6 TB currently in use.
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Want to run local smtp for notifications, tautulli, plex (just me as user) and a few others apps like immich, wireguard and become more self-sufficient with cloud storage/passwords.
I'm testing Open media vault right now and OMV seems fine I guess. Probably a good fit balancing convenience with capabilities. I'm trying to keep it simple.
Unraid is enticing but I have a DAS with RAID capabilities already and matched drives, and also no reason to use a USB stick for an OS drive when I have perfectly good SSD's, right?
Truenas is bsd which i'm not familiar with, I just don't see the advantage for me but maybe I'm just not seeing why this is would fit my needs better.
Am I missing others? Something I didn't think of? Maybe it's easy, I pick OMV and move forward.
Thanks for any advice or input.
Id go with what ever you're comfortable with supporting, but a few comments.
Truenas core is bsd, Truenas Scale is Linux based. Truenas/ZFS needs direct access to the disks. you should not run it with hardware raid. Unraid loads the OS mostly to ram and the serial number on the usb stick is used for licensing.
I saw someone else summarise it as if you care about easy to use and setup apps use Unraid. If you care more about your data use Truenas.
Thanks for that! I am more limited by the USB DAS and it sounds like that eliminates TrueNAS for now. I care about my data but I have a drobo too I use for a second backup and also really important stuff is also in the cloud. I’ll finish testing with OMV and then use the trial for unraid. Even if it’s just the serial number, having a USB sticking out the back seems weird, this motherboard doesn’t have a way for me to add an internal USB port.
If you've got an empty header on the motherboard you can get adaptors to make it a normal USB A slot inside the case or a slim profile usb stick. There's a list of recommendations on their forum.
I ended up getting a Dell raid card that I flashed to a normal HBA/IT mode and connecting all my disks with that in a big case.
Happy experimentung. Hopefully you'll find something that fits your needs.
I did that with this giant server I have, but I hate running that thing. This computer I'm using now is honestly a pretty small, proprietary computer and it has no extra headers, it's pretty packed inside. I will be testing unraid after i'm done with OMV. Thanks for your help and suggestions.
Having a normal HBA would have made my choices a lot easier. Dealing with the DAS complicated it but everyone was pretty helpeful so I think I'm on the right track now.