NAS OS?

Kidge

Kidge

Kidge

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Joined
13 Sep 2012
Posts
869
Hi Guys,

Looking for a new NAS OS for my N54. Currently using Server2016 Essentials but it’s pretty clunky and fancy a change.

Looking in to Unraid and FreeNAS. Would want it to stream movies to Kodi clients, backup couple machines, backup to external hdd, allow me to spin up a couple VM’s and encrypt the drives installed.

Worth changing or just staying with Windows?

My N54 has a SSD for boot and 16GB ram if that helps.
 
FreeNAS is pretty damn good to be honest, and it's a good platform to dip your toes into the BSD world too which is very similar to Linux from a command-line perspective. I haven't used UnRAID but it's definitely all the rage at the moment or so it feels like.
 
Also look at XigmaNAS (previously known as Nas4FREE) which is a fork from the earlier FreeNAS people before it went commercial.
I found the interface slightly easier to understand than the FreeNAS at the time.
 
Moved from Freenas to Unraid. Works better for my use case as a home user - less powerful but easier to do things like expand arrays, a good amount of community Docker containers etc.
 
I've been using FreeNAS for 5+ years on an N40L. It's purely serving files from a ZFS Pool, I've got another machine that does the backups and runs the Plex server etc with the NAS storage.
 
You could always use xpenology to give you a synology NAS on custom hardware, I'm currently on DSM 6.2 have been using Xpenology bootloaders for 3 or 4 years now!
 
Unraid user here. Terrific UI, easy to use, excellent community and great app/container ecosystem. As well as the array, I run docker containers for all my automated downloading, Plex, eBook server, backups, PiHole, UniFi controller software, Nextcloud and lots more. It’s been super stable for the year I’ve been running it.

The only other NAS OS I’ve tried is OMV so don’t have too much to compare it to but I couldn’t be happier. Best $60 I’ve spent in a long time.
 
Unraid, it’s docker/VM features along with the ability to expand the pool and increase redundancy as/when set it sport from other options.
 
Using Unraid here, its very good and flexible for what I need. Dont use any of the docker/vm features as I have a Hyper-v server for that, but for raw disk storage coupled with a SSD cache drive it performs nicely.
 
Loving Unraid - I think it's a bit more user friendly than FreeNAS with more features but has a cost. There are also a few things lacking (like ZFS if I remember correctly) but ZFS also has a large RAM overhead so.... swings & roundabouts.

Unraid does a free trail - use them both for a month, and see which you prefer.
 
Thanks guys, was going to give FreeNAS a try first but can't see whether it would support VM's?

Will probably go for the months free trial of Unraid then to see if it's less clunky then Server2016 but can't see that it supports drive encryption?

Guessing I will have to make compromises if I choose either :(
 
I use NAS4Free, have done since I 1st setup my NAS 7/8 years ago (Back when it was known as FreeNAS)
its stable and uses ZFS.

My hardware has been upgraded over the years but OS remained the same (after trying the new FreeNas and windows server)
I am not sure about VM support as it isn't something I need form within the OS itself but I am sure I have seen VMs referenced in the GUI when poking around it.
 
Thanks, decided I'm going to give FreeNAS a try first to see how I get on as a bit of further investigation shows you can create vm's or docker containers.

Turns out Unraid does also support full drive encryption in case anyone was wondering but I think it is currently only possible when initiating the drives.
 
Turns out Unraid does also support full drive encryption in case anyone was wondering but I think it is currently only possible when initiating the drives.
Click to expand...

Provided in your array you have enough spare capacity to match the largest single drive in your array then you can use the unbalance plugin to move data about to empty a drive in the array, encrypt it and move it back. Rinse and repeat and you’ve effectively encrypted an array with existing data on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPPnY3jbRKg
 
www.xpenology.com is the actual site and I'm running DSM 6.2-23739 Update 2 as the newest main update (can consider it to be 6.2.1) isn't supported by the loader as Synology introduced some changes at the kernel regarding PCI devices so they appear to be trying to lock out Xpenology and perhaps other loaders. I'm using the latest 6.2 loader with the DS3615xs image.
 
Cheers, i started looking at the 6.2.1 update but when i started seeing the need to edit files using notepad i decided to sack it off :p
 
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