Family Nas Server

[BradR]

Hello Everyone, 

 

    I need some helps with configing and setting up a Nas server my whole family can use on different locations and networks.. 

What operating system to use? 

Does TrueNas allow uploading and accessing data from different networks? 

 

Needs: 

Access to Storage server from different location.

Easy to use.  Easy to upload and access photos like google photos. 

Budget friendly.

Fast speeds accessing and uploading data.

 

Wants: 

Would like to be around $300- $400  without the hard drives 

would like a motherboard with 2.5 gb lan or more 

CPU / system that can handle Running a NAS server, Home assistant server. and blue iris.

 

Thank you!!

[LIGISTX]

10 hours ago, BradR said:

Hello Everyone, 

 

    I need some helps with configing and setting up a Nas server my whole family can use on different locations and networks.. 

What operating system to use? 

Does TrueNas allow uploading and accessing data from different networks? 

 

Needs: 

Access to Storage server from different location.

Easy to use.  Easy to upload and access photos like google photos. 

Budget friendly.

Fast speeds accessing and uploading data.

 

Wants: 

Would like to be around $300- $400  without the hard drives 

would like a motherboard with 2.5 gb lan or more 

CPU / system that can handle Running a NAS server, Home assistant server. and blue iris.

 

Thank you!!

For different locations, you will want to set up a VPN so you can VPN in and use the SMB shares as if you were on the local network. It will be slow… but it’s going at internet speed, but it works and is the secure way to do it. Do not port forward an SMB share.

 

Possibly look into using nextcloud or owncloud as well. 
 

A potato can run a NAS and home assistant, the only thing that will need any power is blue iris, and that will depend on settings, camera count, and resolution. 

[Bdavis]

That's a tall order budget wise. I would start with an off lease workstation on ebay preferably with ecc ram, then add a nic. Any fairly modern cpu from the last 10 years will do.

 

You need a VPN or cloud plugin for file sharing. Upload and download speeds will most likely be determined by your isp.

 

TrueNAS Scale would do what you need. Blue Iris will need to run on a VM though

[Needfuldoer]

5 hours ago, Bdavis said:

Any fairly modern cpu from the last 10 years will do.

To build on this: if you're going to run Blue Iris, you'll want an Intel CPU with integrated graphics that have Quick Sync support for transcoding. Otherwise you'll have to burn a PCIe slot on a GPU to do that, or limit yourself to low resolution / low frame rate video so CPU encoding can keep up.

 

Don't buy older than Sandy Bridge. Haswell/Broadwell is a good middle ground for price / performance / life left in it.