Free NAS vs. unRAID

[Lightning]

Which one should I use for someone who is making a NAS box for storage for the first time and has no experience?

[Oshino Shinobu]

I'd go with FreeNAS as it's free. If you want, you could try the 30 day trial of unRAID and try FreeNAS to see if you think unRAID is worth buying. 

[ARikozuM]

Try both and see which works better for you. I've used both and prefer UnRAID's method of doing things, but FreeNAS is just as easy though it mostly supports Intel NICs and not many else.

[ProjectBox153]

What do you mean by "server"? File server? If so, FreeNAS is easier to configure for a first time user. 

[Lightning]

1 minute ago, Jamiec1130 said:

What do you mean by "server"? File server? If so, FreeNAS is easier to configure for a first time user. 

Just a NAS box for storage of videos.

[ProjectBox153]

1 hour ago, Lightning said:

Just a NAS box for storage of videos.

If it's something that simple, just go with FreeNAS. It's really easy to get up and running. 

[Windows7ge]

I run FreeNAS on my own file server. The WebUI is relatively friendly though when I first started using it I had no idea what to click on there were so many options. To set up a file share (network drive) is again relatively speaking, easy but there's some steps involved especially if you want to set up remote access or if you want to restrict user access so only you can access your share on your home network.

 

Once you figure it out though it's not all that complicated. From my experience it has great scaling ability too. Works well on small servers and larger ones so you won't have to worry too much about minimum system requirements. ZFS has a thing for RAM but if you're on 1Gbit networking and if you don't plan on moving large files (like in the 100's of MB or 1's or 10's of GB) then you won't really see a benefit in installing as much as you can.

 

You do have to be a bit wary about what setting you change. If you don't know what a button does don't press it. It's not like windows where you'll get an error message and it stops you from doing something you shouldn't. As root (which you are by default) you have the power to ruin the OS if you run certain tasks or shell commands so...yeah...

[TapfererToaster]

The "problem" with FreeNas is, that it is not possible to slowly grow your storage. You have to plan how to set up your config in advance.

 

For example, you can't just start with a 3x4TB HDD RaidZ1 and then later just add a disk when it becomes too small. You either have to save the data, delete the pool and remake it in the new size or you buy another 3 disks and expand the existing volume to. 

 

I do not use unRaid, but i think adding single HDDs is possible.

[Mikensan]

If you're just storing files and do not mind spending the money, I'd suggest unRaid. It's probably the prettiest and easiest to use. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with Windows + FlexRAID which a lot of people on here do as well (ultimately achieving what unRaid but has a little more overhead because of Windows). I also think unRaid has better VM/Docker management GUI wise than FreeNAS. (However I have dedicate hosts for VMs so I can't directly speak to this, just what I've observed).

 

Personally I use FreeNAS and if you have the time and energy I'd suggest doing. However there are some minor hardware requirements/limitations to understand (briefly talked about above).