Building a Server with a NAS inside a VM and I've realized, I have no idea what NAS OS would be best to go with for this project

[Captain Taz]

Hi, I've been working on a rather overambitious Server/NAS hybrid device, where the "server" is a windows 11 pro machine that can host things like minecraft servers, but it also will have a NAS OS running on Hyper-V dedicated to backup/storage of my data so I can finally follow the onsite/offsite backup scheme I should be using to protect my data. I say this, after having procrastinated on doing it for over 2 months. The machine has been sitting, build complete and OS installed, under my desk, just missing the most critical part of the operation that I neglected to invest a lot of time into; the actual OS for the NAS that will be running inside the VM... My previous "Server" running experience was just using an old Win10 Prebuild to run Minecraft/7 days servers for friends on just win10 home.

 

I already have 4 Ironwolf 4TB hard drives from Seagate in the system (off a PCIE-Sata card, not a raid controller) and am still debating whether I want to set them as raid 5 or just rely on the online backup to backblaze that I wanted to have it run. However I've come to the realization I've let the scope of what I want the NAS-sid to do get a little out of hand, without knowing what OS would be best to do it with. The main computer itself runs off a 1 or 1/2TB Nvme drive (Forgot since it's been so long since I built it) and has a 1TB Sata SSD as primary storage for the outside-of-NAS system (which the NAS can use some of if needed for running its OS). The reason Windows 11 pro was chosen as the host system OS was from a recommendation that since I'm most used to running servers off WIndows, it'd be easiest for me to run Windows as a host system where I can easily set up whatever servers I want to host, and have Hyper-V set up to run the NAS on the same machine so that it's got everything I want in one device. This also allows me to use it as an impromptu guest gaming machine on the rare occasion I have a friend over for gaming.

 

The extent of what I want the NAS side of the NAS/server to do is as follows:
-I want to be able to back the whole thing up to backblaze regularly, the system will be always on, with a wired network connection and powered by a UPS so connection and uptime shouldn't be a problem

-I want to be able to set designated spots on my main machine for it to pull Differential backups from, like screenshot and saves folders, and organize them in specified spots (EG a saves folder and a screenshots folder). I have Steam installed across multiple NVME drives on my main rig so it'd be nice to organize them into one spot on the storage side.

-I also want to use it for general storage, so I can offload my photos, videos, and 3DS game cartridge dumps from my main machine. This will allow me remove the aging 4TB storage hard drive from my main rig and not stress any more about it.

-I want to be able to expand this system and its storage space in the future when I have the means to, without losing the data and having to start over preferably. I've heard RAIDs can be tricky in this regard which is why I've considered just not doing a RAID and only using  backblaze for redundancy.

-A Nice-to-have would be to be able to enable temporary access to it across the internet when I'm away from home so I can access photos and things, but that's a nice-to-have and not a need for this system at this time, as I know this can open me up to attacks.

-If it's possible, I'd like to host a Thunderbird client through the NAS as well so that I can access my email from one central spot with unified filters (because unfortunately they don't sync across devices and I use a lot of them). But I'm not sure how well that would work so that's a would-be-nice at best.

 

I've heard a few names tossed around, Unraid, TrueNAS, Open Media Vault, but It's hard to tell what would really work best for me because the info I find online about each is all over the place and sometimes years out of date, as well as being unsure if the OSes can even run inside a NAS. I'm hoping to hear some fresh suggestions/opinions from the more technical space LTT has here on what would serve my needs easiest. I thank you guys so much for taking the time to read through and assist me with this, it means a lot!

 

 

Server/NAS specs (Almost all of this besides the storage is from my previous gaming system before the upgrade)

OS: Windows 11 Pro (Installed on either a 1/2TB or 1TB NVME SSD)

CPU: intel i7 9700K

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151

RAM: 32GB total, DDR4-3200, split between 16GB Corsair Vengence LPX (2x8) CL16, and 16GB G.Skill Flare X (2x8) CL14 - These sticks were bought before I knew not to mix and match, but they have been proven to work without issue together in my main rig while gaming, so they should be ok...

GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB GAMING -This is really only in here because I lost the box and had no other way to safely store it, it will do nicely if I let a guest game on the system however.

Storage: 1 or 1/2TB NVME OS drive, 1TB Sata SSD drive, 4 Ironwolf 4TB Hard drives connected to a PCIE to Sata card. - I have an open SATA port and I believe also an NVME port if extra space is recommended.

[LIGISTX]

12 minutes ago, Captain Taz said:

I want to be able to expand this system and its storage space in the future when I have the means to, without losing the data and having to start over preferably.

Unraid is your answer. You can run it virtually, or you can let it act as your hypervisor and run game servers either within ptderodactyl or just in docker containers under it.

 

I personally am a larger proponente of truenas due to ZFS being "the best file system ever created", but it is not flexible when it comes to adding storage later on - thus unraid is what you want.

 

13 minutes ago, Captain Taz said:

A Nice-to-have would be to be able to enable temporary access to it across the internet when I'm away from home so I can access photos and things, but that's a nice-to-have and not a need for this system at this time, as I know this can open me up to attacks.

Set up wireguard on the machine so you can VPN in. Once VPNed in, everything will work just like you were at home on the LAN... just slower cuz your going over the internet. 

[Captain Taz]

1 hour ago, LIGISTX said:

Unraid is your answer. You can run it virtually, or you can let it act as your hypervisor and run game servers either within ptderodactyl or just in docker containers under it.

 

I personally am a larger proponente of truenas due to ZFS being "the best file system ever created", but it is not flexible when it comes to adding storage later on - thus unraid is what you want.

Looking a bit into Unraid run virtually it looks like it's a bit of a pain to set up/has issues that may not be easily fixed or supported vs running it baremetal, and I'd like to run it virtually as I'm more used to functioning and setting servers up in windows. And totally not also for the sunk-cost of buying 11 pro at this point

 

I probably should have clarified that expanding on storage probably won't be for another couple years, 12-16 TB should hopefully be enough to last me a while. I don't see myself cultivating a movie library to take up tons of space rapidly, the biggest storage items would be my PC backups and game cartridge and disk dumps from my various nintento systems. Would whatever I'd need to do to expand space in Truenas be still that much of a pain?

 

[LIGISTX]

29 minutes ago, Captain Taz said:

Looking a bit into Unraid run virtually it looks like it's a bit of a pain to set up/has issues that may not be easily fixed or supported vs running it baremetal, and I'd like to run it virtually as I'm more used to functioning and setting servers up in windows. And totally not also for the sunk-cost of buying 11 pro at this point

 

I probably should have clarified that expanding on storage probably won't be for another couple years, 12-16 TB should hopefully be enough to last me a while. I don't see myself cultivating a movie library to take up tons of space rapidly, the biggest storage items would be my PC backups and game cartridge and disk dumps from my various nintento systems. Would whatever I'd need to do to expand space in Truenas be still that much of a pain?

 

If your going to virtualize things, why not run unraid bare metal and run windows as a VM under it? Unraid is not difficult to use, and there are SO many videos and resources on how to do it. 
 

ZFS doesn’t let you add drives to a vdev. You would neee to either build a new vdev (which will need its own redundancy), or replace drives one by one until all are a larger size and then you will gain the newly added space. 

[Captain Taz]

17 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

If your going to virtualize things, why not run unraid bare metal and run windows as a VM under it? Unraid is not difficult to use, and there are SO many videos and resources on how to do it. 
 

ZFS doesn’t let you add drives to a vdev. You would neee to either build a new vdev (which will need its own redundancy), or replace drives one by one until all are a larger size and then you will gain the newly added space. 

I'll be honest, I didn't even consider that fact I could flip the coin and virtualize the windows environment... I feel kinda silly now

 

That's good to know though about ZFS, I'll take a look into unraid and setting it up more, seeing as it'll looks like it'll save me pain from upgrading down the line.

 

Thanks a bunch for your input here, it's helping me formulate a good plan on what I'm going to be doing with this!