Linux nas for home reddit. I've been running that for years.
Linux nas for home reddit A lot of the NAS OS (and many self-hosters) emerged before Docker and provided curated or completely specialized application installation. This is all my personal opiniom though. I was setting up my SMB I only recently have considered looking into recycling old pcs into servers for Streaming Media and maybe hosting Video Games. Next steps in backup "3-2-1" is finding someplace offsite, be it AWS, or a friend's/parent's house. Hey all, Looking for a new backup NAS solution for home for storing / streaming video (would be nice to edit videos directly from the NAS) and just other generic files / photos. 6. I read people’s stories here for a couple of years and got curious. If a desktop environment is useful for you then use it. Linux, with its open-source nature, flexibility, and robustness, offers several excellent distribution options for NAS systems. I think I know the exact post you’re talking about because I myself just went through this. I'm probably only going to use 2 or 3 disks so there need to be room for that, but I also want to try and get something that won't eat a bunch of electricity since I'll be leaving it on all the time The idea behind a SAN is that you decouple the storage from the machine. The use case would be PLEX which can run off any home server so should be fine and data backup. They both also support SMB for file sharing with Windows and Macintosh PCs. If you need a NAS, you need a NAS, but most people don't. Hello SH, I just gathered all the parts for a media server/nas and I'm having a tough time deciding which OS to use. Noob to Linux and running servers here. Hi I want to build a minimal NAS that supports RAID 5 with 4-8 drive bays. Easy to use at home or in the office, OpenMediaVault is a superb NAS OS, especially if you’re new to creating your own NAS. at times, the server is off but file services keep running 24/7. 45Drives also maintains a ZFS manager plugin. In a homelab, this doesn't have a lot of use. There's no possible set of software choices that can make my 20W home NAS burn more electricity than my 3kW work NAS. I can’t guarantee it will work for you however but I do know the Synology OS is definitely hard to beat when it comes to built in apps, docker and overall ease of use. I mean, I am not talking about the Microsoft products are made spyware disguised as OS or officer products. What parts and costs am I looking at? I'd imagine I have nothing already. My NAS is a minimal Debian 11 running Cockpit with web UI add-ons developed and maintained by 45Drives for file sharing and folder navigation. I use TrueNas running off a 16gb USB drive, plugged into an old PC (basically just used my the storage on the old PC for now). The Plex Media Server is smart software that makes playing Movies, TV Shows and other media on your computer simple. If I get an old PC could I use it to make a cheap NAS. I have installed that. 3 times stronger than the N100 NAS motherboards. For drive fail safe protection of data there are many paths to choose. Stating that it would be cheaper, easier, and make more sense to outsource it to a cloud service because they would have the facilities, redundancies, professionals on-site, etc. Found the Asustor 5202t and the My Cloud Expert Series EX4100 and looked up what other people in the Reddit were saying about them. NAS OS/linux distro recommendation and experiences with only 1GB internal storage available to install on? (iomega lenovo px4-300d NAS). /r/HomeServer: for all your home, small, and medium business server, software, and related discussions! We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Current setup is Win10 server 10. If you dont plan to upograde it is easier. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. So currently I have an old notebook running as my home server (Ubuntu server 22. Otherwise, installing a pre-built NAS solution like TrueNAS, OpenMediavault, and Starwinds SAN & NAS bare metal or in a VM to expose storage as network or iSCSI shares is a preferred way to build a home server. The easiest way is to install windows 10 and create a network shared drive on the host, but that's not what I'm planning to do (and its not that challenging). If you want a NAS running ZFS, it's best to use FreeNAS/TrueNAS, IMO. I was curious what was y'all's "offsite" backup solution, and how you choose it and why! The easiest way for someone not accustomed to server platforms would be a desktop-based OS like Windows Home/Pro or Debian Linux or Ubuntu Linux. HDDs are 2 TB WD Blue and 8 TB WD Red, both formatted in NTFS. A community for users, developers and people interested in Fedora Linux, and news and information about it. I used to have ubuntu on my home media server. I plan on using it as a NAS, a media server with jellyfin and nextcloud, a server for bitlocker, run other services like pihole, and I want to use it as a game server, probably for Minecraft but maybe other games in the future. Hi I'm looking to build myself a little home server running some docker containers, however I want it to function as a nas, what would be the best nas docker images ? I would need to access it from when I'm away from home . If you have a mixed Windows/Linux environment you will want to set up SAMBA for file sharing, to share files with Linux machines nfs is superior but only windows server can access nfs not the typical windows versions. However, I regularly see articles and forum posts which frown upon the use Windows for NAS/server purposes even for simple home-use needs, although I can't remember reading a good explanation of why. For external access you can set it up with a FTP server. I know how to build computers but I don't know where to start here. The boot disk is a usb drive drive or you can use a dedicated disk not meant for storage to boot from. Appreciate any feedback thanks! We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. I'm considering the following setup and would like to know if it's a good idea, especially since I have little experience with building I had a Synology and moved to a PC based NAS running Unraid and I love Unraid. Share Add a Comment Sort by: Best Open comment sort options Best Top New Controversial Old Q&A flaming_m0e • Definitely unraid my man. I obtained an additional two 6 Tb WD Reds to expand storage space, but i'm hesitant about what file So I guess what I'm asking is: is there a barebones network storage/home server setup that works for my spec? Local access only, shared storage for linux devices, redundancy, no need for smart devices or phones or app hosting, and doesn't require proprietary software that might be communicating with some startup? What hardware do I need to get? All three are very well praised in the community. My considerations for thinking of proceeding with an SSD-based NAS are power efficiency, less heat generation, noise, performance, and Apr 10, 2025 · It’s a reliable method of creating and managing a NAS, based on Debian Linux. So, I wondered, what are the specific things that I would check/do, without thinking about it, in an HDD-based NAS, that I would miss when building an SSD-based NAS. NAS is getting close to capacity. You could plug in a bunch of drives and share them with Samba/NFS/CIFS- boom, it's a home NAS. But, I also seed some (legal!) torrents with it via rtorrent, I run weechat on it (and use the relay plugin to connect other GUI clients to it), and I run a node. What would be a better solution for home server good old Linux or something like FreeNAS? I'm going to set up a home server that will function as an NAS (Network Area Storage) device and probably use Ubuntu or some other Linux platform. Hello everyone, I recently purchased a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB and 2 SSD of 128GB each. A Nas is for storage. "Fully debian compatible" is the primary reason people pick OpenMediaVault over the competition. Store both Windows and Linux files The key difference for a NAS between Linux and FreeBSD is that FreeBSD supports ZFS by default. So I started to get interested in making my own server directly at home, and combining everything with a NAS. Unraid has amazing docker/VM support (I run Plex, sonnar, tautulli, Jellyfin and game server docker containers), support for up to 30 drives, you can use mixed drive sizes, 2 parity drives, ssd cache drives, unlike unraid the files aren't striped so you can detach a drive and still read the data on it. Best budget solution for a home NAS: Saving up until you can afford a non-budget solution. I see so many suggestions to people to use a mini PC to build their own Nas, which makes a lot of sense to use containers and add server functionality, But my immediate thought is how limited you are for storage. Feb 7, 2024 · OpenMediaVault, TrueNAS (formerly FreeNAS), and EasyNAS are probably your best bets out of the 14 options considered. I'm planning to build a DIY NAS with an i3-n305 CPU motherboard and 32 GB non ECC RAM. OpenMediaVault 6. For storage, I only have a 128 gb SSD and 4 TB HDD (WD Red, and will likely add a second drive as a mirror, plus have an external 4 TB USB drive for baclups). As you note, you generally want a NAS in a home environment to give you file-level Hello, I came across a relatively cheap mini pc with an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U with a TDP of only 15W, 3. and to have the home server for plex & vms. It has a GUI for managing disks, pools, datasets, and shares. Jul 16, 2025 · Building a DIY NAS is the cheap option to get setup with a home server, here's how I did it and everything you need to know to get started. /r/HomeServer: for all your home, small, and medium business server, software, and related discussions! I'm trying to build a NAS, but my local Computer Tech keeps telling me it's a waste of money. Can someone point me to the right direction, instructions or video on which one to buy, and general setup because I really don't know where to start. Nginx is also on it to provide access to Nightscout and to a copy of Glowing Bear Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. What do you store? I have 2x2 mirror for three years and fill it almost for two thirds. I used OMV, Freedombox and CasaOS, but each of them has some kind of problem or missing feature. I really need both of these to justify building the Yes, the operating systems are more stable, however the apps that run on them, which are often ported for use as add-ons to NAS appliances may not be as stable, and may have a smaller subset of features than their Windows, Linux or OS X counter-parts. This way you dont have to waste resources on VMs. This page is community-driven and not run by or affiliated with Plex, Inc. If your experience is mostly Windows, you might not realize how different and difficult software installation was on Linux. Once I got unraid up and going via web GUI which took only minuets serious. This is the first time ever that I'm building a Nas or something similar. System drive is an old 120 GB drive from a second-hand laptop, in ext4. However, if you don't have time/don't want to tinker, just go with Synology from the start. SANs are block-level, meaning they transfer raw SCSI commands, whereas a NAS is file-level, transferring files. Wanted to see what Linux distros you may have used for this application that you may recommend. Or, if you do purchase a powerhouse pre-built NAS (mind you, still pretty weak performance wise), expect to pay even more. If I use those, can I also install other programs on that distro to handle things like a Minecraft server, Plex, eBooks, etc? As a Windows noob, after playing I have an old axiomtek EP830F with a core duo T2400 that i'd like to turn into a nas. So, I want to start this personal project to build a NAS server at home for storing photos and other media on my old pc. This blog will explore the fundamental concepts, usage methods, common practices, and best We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. EDIT: what I would do is to install Linux OS then add NAS, Media streaming software then create a few containers ( LXC ) and use some kind of management web GUI. With the basic setup done, I need to make a usable device out of it. May 29, 2025 · After testing six new network-attached storage (NAS) devices and comparing them against our previous picks, we found that the QNAP TS-264-8G is the best home NAS for most people. I also use the NAS as storage for all computers in the home, 4 Win10 and 2 Mac. I use it as storage for Plex and Xens. on the Standard Linux vs "NAS" OS'es I'm trying to educate myself a little more about the different options when it comes to building and maintaining my home server (relative newbie here) I have a NAS that started as my home server. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. my biggest roadblock though is finding an OS like OMV with 32-bit support. I would say start there as it's free, and then maybe upgrade to a Synology NAS if TrueNAS doesn't fit your needs. I've been running that for years. BSD virtualization is a tad bit limited compared to Linux virtualization so if you plan on using your nas as a hypervisor I would try out Truenas Scale. I'd like to use it as a home server / NAS. Right now I have a PVE instance that has a mirrored ZFS pool that's backed up to my Synology NAS which is also mirrored. Look at the DIY NAS reddit and forums and see what challenges people have and then you can decide if it's something you are willing to spend the We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. I'd be grateful for some explanations as to why Windows (desktop version) is a poor choice as an OS for a simple home NAS/server. Do you guys use it too? Is it as stable as debian/debian based OS's like OMV? Btw, how long does nand flashes last? Hey all, I am wanting to build a NAS for video editing that can handle 3 editors at once editing of it using Premiere on Macs. Don't throw your time and money away, save a bit longer and enjoy something reliable enough that you don't have to think about it. I had a windows home server very long time ago and only when I started moving my data to a Linux server (CentOS, now I am just using ready made open source NAS software) that lots of my data was corrupted. trueI have had a simple Buffalo NAS for about 10 years now and it's served me well, simple. About a week ago, I bought a Dell Optiplex with a 4th gen Intel i7 chip, 16gb of ram, and a dedicated amd gpu. I feel fairly comfortable using CLI but not a guru of course. I have no experience and would probably use TrueNas. Its a NAS platform that also has the ability to run apps via docker containers I believe. I plan on using smb (unless there's a better option), jellyfin, (and plex as a backup) for now (maybe adding other services when I need). Why Choosing the Right NAS OS Matters The operating system (OS) is the brain of your NAS. Hello, Since I have had the itch to build an SSD-based NAS for a while, I might go for it soon. I saw that you can get m. 04, with MD raid (raid 10) and XFS for the file system. About cpu: Your definition of nas is really a server. The response everywhere pretty much seems to be "Get QNAP or Synology, but I have We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. This page is powered by a knowledgeable community that helps you make an informed decision. That said, the more I advance in my project, the more I realize that the computing power of a NAS, or at least that type of NAS would surely be insufficient to self-host the number of applications or services that I would like to set up. You will have the ability to spin up virtual machines and use more common container technology like LXC and Docker. I myself have a few Synology NAS’s and have always recommended them. It’s available for free and can be kitted out with plugins to increase the NAS functionality. Any old computer can be turned into a NAS. I think I've narrowed it to linux/ubuntu server, truenas, unraid, and omv (plus I've heard good things about the zfs file system). With regards to your original post, virtualize the hardware to make maintenance much easier. It does: - some network storage via SMB - DHCP server - Plex Media Server - Home Assistant on a VM I wanted to upgrade it to a proper NAS (with some redundancy, currently has none), and do some more stuff like nextcloud and photo management (like photoprism). Of course if You want, You can use it as a home server, but there are plenty of better solutions designed especially for headless servers or NAS: Debian Stable, OpenMediaVault or Ubuntu Server. The main requirements for now are access from Linux, Windows, and Android for file sharing/storage, as well as configuring it for backups. I want to be able to access it outside my home network too. My XCP-ng installs are where I play with and learn Linux. I want to use the following: Linux distro (Ubuntu/SUSE/Fedora) on the host. js based service called Nightscout that keeps records of blood glucose data. I've recently set up my first home NAS running OpenMediaVault and moved 2 HDDs full of data from my Windows PC. Also, as a side I would like to connect the nas to my three windows pcs (to the file explorer) and to my iphone. This means you can add or remove processing power independent of the stored data. Take a look on synology NAS, they are all low power cpus. I have a homemade NAS, a repurposed PC running Ubuntu Server 22. While I am very Familiar with Ubuntu Linux I know little of Custom Made Nas rigs and wonder what the over all benefit is? Does it use less power then Ubuntu? Is it just easier to configure Plex etc on? And Does Does Raid function safeguard your files during a Power Using AlpineLinux as homeserver/NAS? I got this NAS, it's so versatile that it has 1GB NAND FLASH built in. (Source: OpenMediaVault) If you want to use a plain Linux server for your NAS, but also want a web UI for quick overviews and configurations, then look into Cockpit. Thanks for Mint is a desktop-centered distro. Furthermore, he states that the reasons that I want it are impractical. My point is, let a NAS be NAS. I’ve used Xpenology in the past with success too. Aug 10, 2024 · If you prefer building your own NAS from scratch, here are five operating systems you need to check out The software can make a difference within the power limits of the hardware -- the difference between running in a power saving mode, and at 100%. Hello. What will be the best OS for me? We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. But fear I won't be able to be flexible like Linux /r/HomeServer: for all your home, small, and medium business server, software, and related discussions! I'm not a "Linux guy" and all my enterprise server experience is with Windows, so when I'm fiddling around with Linux VMs in my homelab googlability is a top priority over any actual features or design philosophy. Available for free at home-assistant. 04). NAS that’s accessible for all windows systems in my home for general storage and backup Game server for my boy and his friends (Minecraft currently but I’m sure that will change more often than his underwear) Jul 18, 2025 · Whether you’ re looking for the best NAS OS, a NAS with Windows OS, or the most intuitive home NAS operating system, this in-depth guide covers the leading options in 2025 —including a closer look at LincOS, a rising star with cross-platform support. I have a big library of movies and shows that would like to store and stream remotely, and also to have a backup of all my data (currently its in 3 different external HD's). We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. I also want to run VMs and containeners like PLEX, Pi-hole, HA, game servers etc. I remember buying my nas, everyone tried to convince me to buy 4x14, because appetite appears with food Selfhost NAS system for home use Go for Synology, QNAP if you need more of a prebuild solution or build your own NAS server based on a small form factor computer like ThinkCentre, Supermicro, or Dell Optiplex. For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. Also I would like some advice on the best streaming/torrent services and some guide on how to set up if anyone has any links ? I'm new to Ubuntu and docker but I am getting Just really curious. I ran my home server bare metal Ubuntu for about 10 years then switched to Openmediavault and really like it, but I'm building a new NAS and will be going back to Linux bare metal. Back in 2004, I started with an old Pentium 200 MMX running FreeBSD 4. Looking into a NAS for my home and so far my options seem to fall in two categories: 1) Easy turn-key solution Products like Synology and QNAP. Debian can't go below 1GB, so people recommended Alpine. I'm also not really familliar with linux yet. What are my options? Should i try to find a 32-bit copy of openmediavault, or use XP? 36 votes, 68 comments. Why is Synology considered so much better? The interface? Reliability? Which NAS OS (for simple/low-spec DIY NAS)? Hi, I've repurposed a Dell 620 into a larger case to use as a basic NAS. 4 in an Intel Nuc (8th Gen i5) with content hosted on a QNAP TS431P NAS with 4 4TB drives. io. I'm thinking of doing it as a little project that will be useful. But then so many NAS operating systems include application plugins so presumably this means that you are trying to turn your NAS into a general purpose server by installing apps on it. So any old celeron can act as a NAS, but not really as a server (for docker and small linux vms maybe ok) For a few vms you will need cores or high speed, or both. I’m using an old pc with decent specs as my diy nas running unraid. The whole point of subreddit: disks are never enough. Plex media server runs on any platform- set it up and keep it running 24/7, boom, it's a Plex server. Did not use plex but set it up with Samba SMB shares to access files on different computers, phones and TVs. It's a Linux machine so you can do pretty much anything on it. 6, which was upgraded, swapped out, upgraded, swapped out, upgraded, swapped out, etc. Plex, BIND, GITLab, NextCloud, Minecraft server, random VMs for studying. Planning to tackle my first home server project! It’ll be a mix of use cases such as a NAS, possibly Plex, very light game servers here and there using Docker, and maybe other assortments. If you are going to have a headless /r/HomeServer: for all your home, small, and medium business server, software, and related discussions! Oct 1, 2020 · Linux is primarily used for server systems worldwide due to the high reliability associated with it. 2 read and write caching hoping this will speed it all up. The apps are all available in the repository and you just add the ones you want your system to run. Host an OpenVPN server to on the other hand, no home server can replace the stability & featureset of my synology (my family members can't handle nextcloud) My solution is running a synology for file storage, backups, moments, etc. Store both Windows and Linux files What's the most user-friendly OS or software to set up a NAS? I've been using Linux Mint and Pop OS over the last month but I am not a programmer and I'm hoping TrueNAS, UnRAID or something similar is easy to set up for a neophyte. For DIY you can do all the same stuff, but you have to find the software, possibly pay for it, install it, configure it, maintain it, etc. /r/HomeServer: for all your home, small, and medium business server, software, and related discussions! Fairly Unpopular opinion, but as someone who runs primarily windows machines /vms, I run a windows 11 machine with stablebit drive pool for my backup nas, and a tiered/mirrored storage spaces drive as my main "nas" (runs on my main hypervisor which is a windows server datacenter machine). I'll definitely need some sort of GUI for accessing files on it I'm about to buy a NAS and wondering if there are any good open source solutions? I did a search but couldn't find anything really conclusive so asking here to get more input and what options there are. Here are the best Linux NAS solution for your server needs. Host Proxmox/KVM as a hypervisor, run Pihole LXC, host Nextcloud as LXC, or under Docker for home storage. Depending on your combination of convenience and security you can either access the FTP directly by port forwarding and a dynamic dns or use a VPN. Building with used parts is fine for me. I plan to use this NAS for non-critical data as a home server, running Plex, Pi-hole, Home Assistant, VMs, etc. You have terabytes of space, many of you have multiple NASes filled with disks. It has an Intel i3 chip w/ 4 cores and 4 gigs ram. Uses: Home storage (pictures/documents/etc), windows/mac os backups, Pihole, plex/jellyfin (maybe), Remote linux desktop (maybe), Game server (maybe). It's either Linux bare metal or openmediavault for me. Hi there! I'm currently looking to buy and set up a NAS. Do most people use direct attached storage, external enclosures, etc? Or is your Nas limited to the storage you can get out of whatever the mini PC can hold (One Hello everyone There are a couple of posts about this topic on reddit, but since i don't have any experience with those OS, it's difficult for me to keep a good overview. Nov 14, 2025 · A Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device is a crucial component in modern home and business networks, providing centralized storage, data sharing, and backup capabilities. I'd really appreciate your advice to help me make the best decision. I need to: Transfer important documents, photos, videos and audio files to the Pi through a web app or a mobile app (exactly like NextCloud). You… Again, all within the cost of a NAS. Nov 8, 2024 · I'm planning to get a new NAS that will be running 24/7, but I'm unsure whether to build one myself or buy a pre-built system. I have a small home server that I use as a NAS (both via NFSv4 and Samba). tjerg knxhk pwfkg vlxawbw tycio jiswv ssym omaigjz byglzo alugms fmfajzvt iwshn sxxy zecliyu gmipltqit