Upgrade from Synology NAS

[Morphix]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been using a Synology NAS for the past 5 years. I'm very happy with it and the features that it offers, but the geek in me would like to be able to use it as an actual server and fiddle with the system rather than having "just a NAS".

For instance, I really love Synology Cloud Station for syncing files accross multiple computers, and File Station/Photo Station for how easy it is to share files with anyone.

On the other hand, I'm sad that I can't easily run a Minecraft server, or a hypervisor, fiddle with ansible, docker...  Really anything a bit geeky, that would enable me to actually use Linux for a good reason and learn more about how to properly use it.

 

For that reason, I would like to find a solution offering similar features, while not being limited to simply the features offered by the dev.

I looked at Freenas but I'm not sure it fits what I want exactly (i.e. is it limited in any way?), so really, in other words, the super ideal thing would be a Linux server with software that can offer similar functionalities to what Synology does.

 

So here are my needs:

 

What i can't do without:

• Plex (but from what I've gather it's available for even my toaster)
• File sync with multiple clients (Cloud station alternative?)
• Network drives (Windows and macOS)

What I would really like to have :

• The ability to have a standard Linux server experience
• The easy file sharing (at the very least a good Photo Station alternative)
• A software RAID(5)
• The ability to run virtual machines (and Docker)

Bonus round:

• Any kind of server (mail, web, VPN...)
• An admin web interface to manage files/ACL?

 

I have a pretty good base knowledge of Linux in general but I want to improve on that, hence why I'd like to leave Synology.

Hope it all makes sense, thank you to anyone who'll help me!

[WereCatf]

7 minutes ago, Morphix said:

I have a pretty good base knowledge of Linux in general but I want to improve on that, hence why I'd like to leave Synology.

Hope it all makes sense, thank you to anyone who'll help me!

Or you could have both: get yourself one of the higher-end Synology NASes and run virtual-machines on it.

[Morphix]

21 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Or you could have both: get yourself one of the higher-end Synology NASes and run virtual-machines on it.

Do you have any particular models in mind?

The higher end models seem pretty expensive compared to a custom machine, in terms of available disk slots...

[WereCatf]

1 hour ago, Morphix said:

Do you have any particular models in mind?

The higher end models seem pretty expensive compared to a custom machine, in terms of available disk slots...

No, I don't. I've never used any Synology-stuff myself.

 

And yes, a custom PC is cheaper in several ways, but managing everything is....quite a lot of work, to be honest. I've got a server of my own that I use to share files with other PCs on my network, run all sorts of software, virtual machines and whatnot, but I'm not aware of any good GUI -- browser-based or not -- for any of it; pretty much everything has to be done by hand from CLI.

[Morphix]

39 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

No, I don't. I've never used any Synology-stuff myself.

 

And yes, a custom PC is cheaper in several ways, but managing everything is....quite a lot of work, to be honest. I've got a server of my own that I use to share files with other PCs on my network, run all sorts of software, virtual machines and whatnot, but I'm not aware of any good GUI -- browser-based or not -- for any of it; pretty much everything has to be done by hand from CLI.

The issue is that Synology, in my experience, doesn't let you do much outside of the web interface. I managed to do a few cool things, like running vm with virtualbox, but it very much felt like it wasn't meant to be done; and the experience was quite suboptimal. 

So I guess freenas would be the only way to get a GUI for stuff I already do, I'd just like to know if outside of that it'd behaves like a normal server or if it's limited in any way when using the cli...

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, Morphix said:

So I guess freenas would be the only way to get a GUI for stuff I already do, I'd just like to know if outside of that it'd behaves like a normal server or if it's limited in any way when using the cli...

Well, for one, it's based on FreeBSD and not Linux, so that's already a certain kind of a limitation. Also, it's not meant to be treated as a regular server-OS, so there definitely could be all sorts of hassles to work through. Basically, you'd still be better off either running your Linux server-stuff in a VM, or strap yourself in for a rough ride in learning how to do everything manually.