Nextcloud on Ubuntu Server vs FreeNAS vs UnRaid

[David98087]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here so I'm not sure if this question has been answered yet. 

 

I've been looking into creating my own server at home to back up any pictures from my phone and just to store my pictures and videos. 

 

My initial test was using an old laptop to test run everything and work out the bugs, but I have finally purchased my hardware for my home server. 

 

My hardware is: 

CPU: Intel Xeon E-2174G 3.8 GHz, 4 cores, 8 threads

RAM/Memory: 16GB DDR4 ECC 2400Mhz (may buy an additional 16GB, but I'm not sure if I need more) 

Storage: 2 x 4TB IronWolf Pro & 1 TB Barracuda hard drive (thinking of buying more and using ZFS with 1 parity)

(OS will run on Samsung 970 EVO 500GB m.2 nvme)

Motherboard: ASUS WS C246M Pro w/ gigabit ethernet

Internet speeds: 500 mbps up and 500 mbps down

 

 

My initial test: 

OS: Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS

Software: Nextcloud with Mariadb, Apache2, and PHP

 

With time I will want to get my computer connected to the server through 10 gigabit ethernet/SPF+. I would also love to map the drive through Windows 10 on my main computer (I haven't found if it's possible through Nextcloud as it uses a client app on Windows.)

 

Would the nextcloud be the best option or should I test something else before I settle with nextcloud?

 

I'm thinking of also setting up an additional mirror to back up the files in any case, but none of the data will be worth using offsite cloud back up for.

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by David98087
Updated topic name

[WereCatf]

5 minutes ago, David98087 said:

I would also love to map the drive through Windows 10 on my main computer (I haven't found if it's possible through Nextcloud as it uses a client app on Windows.)

4 minutes ago, David98087 said:

Nextcloud vs FreeNAS vs UnRaid

You're not quite grasping what Nextcloud is for. It's not the same thing as the other two: Nextcloud is for syncing files between the Nextcloud-server and whatever other devices you have and keeping them in sync automatically. UnRaid, FreeNAS etc. are OSes, they handle the actual physical hardware. You install Nextcloud on top of an OS, it's not an OS itself.

[David98087]

2 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

You're not quite grasping what Nextcloud is for. It's not the same thing as the other two: Nextcloud is for syncing files between the Nextcloud-server and whatever other devices you have and keeping them in sync automatically. UnRaid, FreeNAS etc. are OSes, they handle the actual physical hardware. You install Nextcloud on top of an OS, it's not an OS itself.

WereCatf thanks for the correction. 

 

I worded it wrong. I know that nextcloud is the software for automatic sync and remote accessing the files when it's set up. 

 

I have only tried to use it with linux Ubuntu Server OS because my original test was on a 8 year old laptop with limited resources so Ubuntu Server was a low resource way to test run it. 

 

I guess my question is: should I use linux Ubuntu Server OS, FreeNAS, or UnRaid for the OS? I have read that any of those OS would work with Nextcloud. Theoretically I could also run a VM through the Windows Server OS for linux OS with Nextcloud, but I'm not planning to utilize the server for any other workload unless if something else comes up. I could also use Ubuntu desktop OS as well. 

 

The other question is I know that I can harden Ubuntu Server OS for more security and I'm not sure how easy it is to harden the other OS like FreeNAS etc.

[WereCatf]

14 minutes ago, David98087 said:

I guess my question is: should I use linux Ubuntu Server OS, FreeNAS, or UnRaid for the OS?

The question is mostly about how convenient do you like things and which filesystem do you wanna use: with Ubuntu, you'll have to set up more-or-less all server-stuff from the CLI, you'll have to manage your storage from CLI if you plan to go with some sort of RAID-setup and so on, whereas FreeNAS and Unraid offer browser-interfaces for all of that.

 

I, personally, use Btrfs in a RAID6-setup and, since neither FreeNAS or Unraid use Btrfs, I have to use make do with CLI on Ubuntu. It's quite a hassle, to be honest, to set up SMART-monitoring, schedule various kinds of maintenance-tasks, add and/or replace disks in the RAID-pool and so on. If I was willing to skip using Btrfs and move to ZFS or Unraid instead, I'd get the browser-based interface, which makes all those things much easier, including sharing the storage over the network and so on. Alas, again, FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD and while it can run virtual-machines, I hear that its VM-engine isn't as good as the one under Linux, so there's a trade-off again. I know pretty much nothing about Unraid, but it seems Linus is happily using its VM-capabilities.

[Kilrah]

If you use Ubuntu installing nextcloud is basically one command line to load the snap and you're done (after setting up your storage obviously). Got several instances of that combo running on small $3/month Scaleway VMs.

[David98087]

7 hours ago, WereCatf said:

The question is mostly about how convenient do you like things and which filesystem do you wanna use: with Ubuntu, you'll have to set up more-or-less all server-stuff from the CLI, you'll have to manage your storage from CLI if you plan to go with some sort of RAID-setup and so on, whereas FreeNAS and Unraid offer browser-interfaces for all of that.

 

I, personally, use Btrfs in a RAID6-setup and, since neither FreeNAS or Unraid use Btrfs, I have to use make do with CLI on Ubuntu. It's quite a hassle, to be honest, to set up SMART-monitoring, schedule various kinds of maintenance-tasks, add and/or replace disks in the RAID-pool and so on. If I was willing to skip using Btrfs and move to ZFS or Unraid instead, I'd get the browser-based interface, which makes all those things much easier, including sharing the storage over the network and so on. Alas, again, FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD and while it can run virtual-machines, I hear that its VM-engine isn't as good as the one under Linux, so there's a trade-off again. I know pretty much nothing about Unraid, but it seems Linus is happily using its VM-capabilities.

What's the biggest difference between btrfs and zfs? Is worth for me to look into btrfs?

 

Also if the zfs is easier to manage in a browser based interface, would ubuntu desktop be better then ubuntu server OS? 

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, David98087 said:

What's the biggest difference between btrfs and zfs? Is worth for me to look into btrfs?

I can't really say if it's worth it for you or not. Me, I have an extremely low budget and have to make do with whatever random hardware I can occasionally get my hands on, including storage, so Btrfs works better for my needs; btrfs allows one to use differently-sized drives, to convert between RAID-profiles on-the-fly and so on, ie. it's pretty flexible. ZFS, on the other hand, doesn't allow for conversion of RAID-profiles on-the-fly and I'm not sure if it likes differently-sized drives in the array, either.

 

4 minutes ago, David98087 said:

Also if the zfs is easier to manage in a browser based interface, would ubuntu desktop be better then ubuntu server OS?

Um, you don't get a browser-based interface to manage such things on Ubuntu. FreeNAS, yes, Ubuntu, no.

[David98087]

6 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I can't really say if it's worth it for you or not. Me, I have an extremely low budget and have to make do with whatever random hardware I can occasionally get my hands on, including storage, so Btrfs works better for my needs; btrfs allows one to use differently-sized drives, to convert between RAID-profiles on-the-fly and so on, ie. it's pretty flexible. ZFS, on the other hand, doesn't allow for conversion of RAID-profiles on-the-fly and I'm not sure if it likes differently-sized drives in the array, either.

 

Um, you don't get a browser-based interface to manage such things on Ubuntu. FreeNAS, yes, Ubuntu, no.

I should probably look into btrfs then. I don't have a big budget, I picked up my hardware used. The computer was $480 including the two 4TB hard drives. And the m.2 I got from Amazon used for $80. 

 

Does UnRaid work well with btrfs or zfs? Any issues with nextcloud? 

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, David98087 said:

Does UnRaid work well with btrfs or zfs? Any issues with nextcloud? 

Unraid uses its own thing. As for Nextcloud.. I have never used Unraid, I dunno.

 

I think you should simply try all three before deciding which one to go with.

[tikker]

2 hours ago, David98087 said:

Does UnRaid work well with btrfs or zfs? Any issues with nextcloud? 

 

2 hours ago, WereCatf said:

Unraid uses its own thing. As for Nextcloud.. I have never used Unraid, I dunno.

 

I think you should simply try all three before deciding which one to go with.

Unraid defaults to XFS, but from reading it also supports BTRFS. I don't use nextcloud, so I can't help there, but I've recently switched from having samba shares on Ubuntu to Unraid, and so far I love it. I mainly went with Unraid for the ability to mix drive sizes. Setup has been straighforward, it's running nicely and I really like the dashboard.

 

[Edit] looks like there's Docker you could try with Unraid: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/48383-support-linuxserverio-nextcloud/

[David98087]

1 hour ago, tikker said:

 

Unraid defaults to XFS, but from reading it also supports BTRFS. I don't use nextcloud, so I can't help there, but I've recently switched from having samba shares on Ubuntu to Unraid, and so far I love it. I mainly went with Unraid for the ability to mix drive sizes. Setup has been straighforward, it's running nicely and I really like the dashboard.

 

[Edit] looks like there's Docker you could try with Unraid: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/48383-support-linuxserverio-nextcloud/

Awesome this is very helpful. I mostly just wanted to know if anyone has tried the different OS systems and what works best. 

 

I've only played with linux for a little and wanted to see what others have tried and what has worked the best for others. I've heard a lot about UnRaid, but wasn't sure if there be any security vulnerabilities with nextcloud having access to the web.