NAS Software Recommendations

[jmartell]

Context: I’ve been using google products to store photos, books, and other media. Getting tired of the capacity limitations and paying them every month so I want to get a NAS. I’m a software engineer and a PC Gamer so I can build my own computers and set up linux servers/containerized applications. Though I’m not familiar enough with the NAS space and their software offerings to know if they can meet my requirements.

 

Requirements:

1. Ease of use: currently my whole family backs their phones (mostly pictures/videos) to my google. Would like for them to be able to continue doing this on my NAS.

2. AI features: I love having AI organizing my pictures per person makes them easy to share/delete.

3. Mobile integration: my family’s main computer is their phone, they should be able to download/upload their pictures from their phones easily.

4. Privacy/Access Control: I don’t want to have access to everyone’s pictures (unless they decide to share them with me) so it’d be nice if each user could keep their accounts encrypted & to themselves.

6. Internet Access: this one is optional having access to my NAS when out and about would be nice but I understand there are security implications.

7. Backups: I want to be able to back my windows computers up to my NAS.

8. Long term storage/Redundancy: Being family memories i want long term storage. Would love if the NAS notified me if my drives were unhealthy for me to replace them before they die and of course I would expect it to survive a drive failure.

 

So… are my expectations/requirements way out of line or is there something out there for me?

[leadeater]

TrueNAS and NextCloud or OwnCloud is probably the sort of thing you want

[Bdavis]

TrueNAS and unRAID are the two best options. I prefer TrueNAS Scale. The functionality you seek will depend on the apps that are available. Both TrueNAS Scale and unRAID use Docker. Look into what apps are available to see if it will meet your needs. I know there are some specific apps for photos, but haven't used them myself so I can't speak to their functions.

[Klinkaroo]

I've been using unRAID for a month, so take my comment with a grain of salt. But from my research, TrueNAS and unRAID were my two best options. I went with unRAID simply because I can't afford all the drives I will eventually want and added capacity is easier with unRAID. Trying to expand TrueNAS, because of ZFS, is more work.

[m9x3mos]

8 hours ago, jmartell said:

Context: I’ve been using google products to store photos, books, and other media. Getting tired of the capacity limitations and paying them every month so I want to get a NAS. I’m a software engineer and a PC Gamer so I can build my own computers and set up linux servers/containerized applications. Though I’m not familiar enough with the NAS space and their software offerings to know if they can meet my requirements.

 

Requirements:

1. Ease of use: currently my whole family backs their phones (mostly pictures/videos) to my google. Would like for them to be able to continue doing this on my NAS.

2. AI features: I love having AI organizing my pictures per person makes them easy to share/delete.

3. Mobile integration: my family’s main computer is their phone, they should be able to download/upload their pictures from their phones easily.

4. Privacy/Access Control: I don’t want to have access to everyone’s pictures (unless they decide to share them with me) so it’d be nice if each user could keep their accounts encrypted & to themselves.

6. Internet Access: this one is optional having access to my NAS when out and about would be nice but I understand there are security implications.

7. Backups: I want to be able to back my windows computers up to my NAS.

8. Long term storage/Redundancy: Being family memories i want long term storage. Would love if the NAS notified me if my drives were unhealthy for me to replace them before they die and of course I would expect it to survive a drive failure.

 

So… are my expectations/requirements way out of line or is there something out there for me?

Like others, I would recommend truenas scale. I have been using it since beta and it is very good now. You can run nextcloud for online storage and there are apps for mobile device sync. There are also a large number of other apps available that you can install on it. They are run like dockers so it is easy to maintain as well. Plus there is a large number of tutorials as well for it and you can setup a reverse proxy with it for an added layer of security since it would need to be open to the internet. 

[LIGISTX]

19 hours ago, jmartell said:

1. Ease of use: currently my whole family backs their phones (mostly pictures/videos) to my google. Would like for them to be able to continue doing this on my NAS.

Just to set expectations here, getting a NAS will almost certainly not be as easy as cloud based services provided by trillion dollar companies (google, apple, Amazon, etc). While it isn’t very difficult for us techie folks here on LTT, if the requirement is ease of use for a family, depending on everyone’s level of tech literacy and willingness to learn new things, it may not be ease to use. 
 

Truenas and unraid can do everything you would want and more, but it won’t be a single plane of glass interface, you will use nextcloud or owncloud for phone access to pictures, which isn’t quite as well developed as Google’s software, you will have SMB shares on your PC’s to access files, and you will need to set up a VPN on laptops and such to remote in when your are not at home to be able to access said SMB shares. It’s all very do-able, and not that difficult to do, and it’s fun to dabble with, but when requirement 1 is ease of use for people beyond just yourself, google drive may be an easier solution. 
 

Just my two cents. It’s always good to have a full understanding and level set expectations   

[jmartell]

On 10/17/2022 at 8:23 AM, LIGISTX said:

Just to set expectations here, getting a NAS will almost certainly not be as easy as cloud based services provided by trillion dollar companies (google, apple, Amazon, etc). While it isn’t very difficult for us techie folks here on LTT, if the requirement is ease of use for a family, depending on everyone’s level of tech literacy and willingness to learn new things, it may not be ease to use. 
 

Truenas and unraid can do everything you would want and more, but it won’t be a single plane of glass interface, you will use nextcloud or owncloud for phone access to pictures, which isn’t quite as well developed as Google’s software, you will have SMB shares on your PC’s to access files, and you will need to set up a VPN on laptops and such to remote in when your are not at home to be able to access said SMB shares. It’s all very do-able, and not that difficult to do, and it’s fun to dabble with, but when requirement 1 is ease of use for people beyond just yourself, google drive may be an easier solution. 
 

Just my two cents. It’s always good to have a full understanding and level set expectations   

Hey, thanks for the feedback! what's your take on less DIY NAS solutions like Synology are those any better in terms of accessibility/ease of use?

[LIGISTX]

49 minutes ago, jmartell said:

Hey, thanks for the feedback! what's your take on less DIY NAS solutions like Synology are those any better in terms of accessibility/ease of use?

They are easier to use, but if the folks in your family are not great with tech, it will all be relatively difficult. 

[m9x3mos]

16 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

They are easier to use, but if the folks in your family are not great with tech, it will all be relatively difficult. 

They also tend to be a bit easier to setup and also, until you get to expensive ones (better processor), apps that are run on them are kinda slow if more than one person is using it at a time.