Best OS for a NAS - eviltoast

Hey again! I’ve progressed in my NAS project and I’ve chosen to go for a DIY NAS. I can’t wait for the parts to arrive!

Now I’m a bit struggling to choose an OS. I am starting with 2x10To HDD + 1To NVMe SSD. I plan to use 1 HDD for parity and to add more disks later.

I plan to use this server purely as a NAS because I will be getting a second more powerful server some time next year. But in the meantime, this NAS is a big upgrade over my rpi 4, so I will run some containers or VMs.

I don’t want to go with TrueNAS as I don’t want to use ZFS (my RAM is limited and I’m not sure I can add drives with different sizes). I’ve read btrfs is the second best for NAS, so I may use this.

Unraid seemed like the perfect fit. But the more I read about it, the more I wonder if I shouldn’t switch to Proxmox.

What I like about Unraid is the ability to add a disk without worrying about the size. I don’t care much about the applications Unraid provides and since docker-compose is not fully supported, I’m afraid I won’t be able to do things I could have done easily with a docker-compose.yml I also like that’s it’s easy to share a folder. What I don’t like about Unraid is the cache system and the mover. I understand why the system works this way but I’m not a fan.

I’ve asked myself if I needed instant parity for all my data and if I should put everything in the array.

The thing is that for some of my data I don’t care about parity. For instance, I’m good with only backing up my application data and to have parity for the backup. For my tv shows I don’t care about parity nor backup while I want both for my photos.

After some more research, I found mergerfs and snapraid. I feel that they are more flexible and fix the cache/mover issue from Unraid. Although I’m not sure if snapraid can run with only 2 disks.

If I go with Proxmox I think I would use OpenMediaVault to setup shares.

Is anyone using something like this? What are your recommendations?

Thanks!

  • VelociCatTurd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    63·
    9 months ago

    Look, I never said you were wrong man. Clearly you probably have a lot more experience than i do. Which is why I said what I said. Because I personally believe Proxmox is way easier for someone who is a casual like me. That’s all.

    Edit: Also, though it doesn’t really matter, I don’t use LXC.

      • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        9 months ago

        Think about it, if I was payed at least I was pushing for something that is actually useful and decent. :P

    • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
      28·
      9 months ago

      I personally believe Proxmox is way easier for someone who is a casual like me. That’s all.

      Maybe… maybe not. Proxmox has a ready to go ISO that will setup everything up and whatnot, that’s true, but there are also the hidden small costs here and there.

      I believe if you managed to install Proxmox, I’m sure you can install and use Cockpit without trouble. LXD/Incus might be another more complex weekend project but it still has an automated installer that asks you a few questions (and defaults work) to get things running.