NAS Software choice

[0xDiddi]

Over the past few weeks I have looked at the hardware side of building a personal nas system, but so far I have graciously ignored the software side of things.

Thus far, I have the impression that building a small server myself is quite a lot cheaper than buying a prebuilt nas system.

 

This makes my question twofold:

 

A) Given that I can vpn into my home network, what software exists for a diy solution (apart from ssh+scp) ?

 

B) Is the software on prebuilt nas systems any good (i.e. does the software justify the higher price) ? Because most of what manufacturers advertise sounds like stuff I'll never use.

[BobVonBob]

There are a few Linux distros that focus on being used in NAS systems that might be a good option, e.g. OpenMediaVault. Alternatively you could use software like Samba or create an FTP server on the NAS.

 

Prebuilt NAS solutions work in basically the same way, they just tend to be a bit more user friendly with their own UI, cases built for hot-swap, etc.

[0xDiddi]

Another question: does someone have experience with the nas software of different brands and how they compare to each other in terms of features and/or usability?

[beyonddc]

The first step is to identify your need then you can compare what you need with what each NAS solution offer.

 

If you need the ability to access file then any NAS solution would work.

 

As suggested by @BobVonBob, OpenMediaVault is one option, other options might be FreeNAS, Unraid or Xpenology

[D1nsm00r]

My dad uses OpenMediavault and he loves it. Its got plugins that work incredibly well and a web-gui that is pretty great as well. My favorite part is being able to remotely print memes to his printer from across the country. It even works as a Plex media server!

[Sp1r1tus]

Hi @0xDiddi,

 

You are right about building your own hardware vs using a pre-built NAS like a Synology, Asustor, or QNAP.  You generally get more bang for your buck building your own.  I built my own back in 2011 and it is still my primary server now.

 

I originally ran Freenas on it but switched it up to Unraid back in 2016 and haven't looked back since.  I run Plex on top of Unraid and have a very good experience.

 

Best of luck in finding your NAS solution!

[Salacious B Crum]

X2 on the unRAID go over and download it for free set it up and play with it for up to 60 days and see if its what you want then pay for the one that meets your needs it will be the cheapest part of your build but I can say that I too run Plex and several VM's it has great forum support lots of apps and docker available

 

[0xDiddi]

On 1/17/2019 at 7:11 PM, beyonddc said:

The first step is to identify your need

Yeah, my main need (for now at least) is being able to access my files.

 

However I'd like it to work as seamless as possible. I've made the experience that (at least on windows) mounting a ftp server doesn't allow you to edit files in place, but requires you to edit them elsewhere and upload it afterwards.

 

My main machine is windows, so there's my priority, but I also use a macbook for university and work, so if there's something that allows such seamlessness on both platforms, that'd be great.