Unraid vs TrueNAS?

[aidancomi]

I want to convert an old PC to a storage server for a group I volunteer with. We can only afford 4 4TB drives at the time, but we need the ability to expand with more storage in the future. I would like the OS to be easy to use since the group will still need to use it after I leave with easy expansion in the future.

 

They don't know RAID or anything really IT related, so easier for them the better.

[Electronics Wizardy]

I'd go unraid if easy expansion is wanted.

 

Make sure you have a good backup plan in case something goes wrong here.

[manikyath]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd go unraid if easy expansion is wanted.

 

Make sure you have a good backup plan in case something goes wrong here.

a slight sidenote to this though, the process to swap out a failed drive on unraid is kind of.. "dense"..

 

i've no idea how it is on the truenas side though..

[aidancomi]

12 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd go unraid if easy expansion is wanted.

 

Make sure you have a good backup plan in case something goes wrong here.

That's what I was thinking, but don't know if I should do a larger parity drive to make expansion easier.

[Kilrah]

If you go with unraid at least do 2 larger drives instead of 4 small. The fewer the better, and larger drives are also cheaper / TB. Does mean you "lose" a larger percentage to parity until you add more, but...

[aidancomi]

8 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

If you go with unraid at least do 2 larger drives instead of 4 small. The fewer the better, and larger drives are also cheaper / TB. Does mean you "lose" a larger percentage to parity until you add more, but...

If I use less drives, don't I lose a lot of capacity? RAID 1 with 2 x 8TB is 8TBs of capacity vs RAID 5 with 4 x 4TB and 12TBs of storage

[Kilrah]

That's what I meant yes. But then with unraid any extra drive you add will be fully usable, so with 2x8TB you only get 8TB usable, but once you add a third you get 16TB, etc and as you add more drives the "loss" to parity gets less.