Operating system reference
Operating system reference
I suggest using Freenas for your NAS setup. It’s easier to find information about it compared to other options, which is helpful for someone like you who values research. Since you’re not very tech-savvy in networking, this choice should simplify things. You can start testing it at home with your media files and then scale it up for work.
I'm mainly familiar with FreeNAS, but UnRAID could be a good alternative. It offers advanced drive management capabilities that FreeNAS lacks, along with additional features. While its WebUI might feel overwhelming at first, it becomes manageable once you get comfortable. It provides extensive functionality, including virtual machine support, data logging, and uses ZFS—a powerful software RAID solution. Essentially, it's designed for ease of use by both professionals and users. Redhat Linux is another option worth exploring if you're interested in enterprise-grade solutions. These platforms are among the most popular choices.
Varies based on your requirements. For straightforward network shares, Windows works well on Ubuntu or other desktop setups, while FreeNAS suits most scenarios. Windows can be challenging for a reliable, restart-free OS—though solutions exist. I recommend going with FreeNAS for speed and lower overhead. These are my findings from limited testing, outcomes may differ due to varying hardware and needs. I appreciate FreeNAS’s flexibility; it’s easy to use once you’re comfortable with the web interface, though advanced users can leverage the CLI for enhanced features and add-ons. Personally, I prefer the webGUI and find it still valuable for many tasks.
It varies based on your NAS requirements. For most users, the top three operating systems are: FreeNAS – ideal with ZFS or a BSD-based OS; OpenMediaVault – suited for GNU/Linux setups; Windows – for software exclusive to Windows. A quick tip: FreeNAS typically doesn’t support adding extra drives beyond what’s already installed, which can be a constraint for home users. You can still expand by creating a VDEV and attaching it, but this increases complexity and cost. This isn’t an issue with OMV or Windows. FreeNAS is developing better support, though timing remains uncertain. Please let me know if you have any questions about ZFS functionality.
I'll use this for long-term storage and media backup. I currently have 18TB across two machines and need at least 32TB. Speed is crucial—waiting days to copy 18TB isn't practical, so I prioritize reliability and capacity. I plan to store 4K HDR videos either online or locally, which means I'm considering a NAS setup. I'm curious about using ZFS for redundancy and efficiency, though it's challenging to purchase the required 18TB right now. I might need to buy additional drives monthly. My current PC specs are an i7-3770K, 16GB RAM, GTX 970, and a 512GB SSD. I'm thinking about converting it into a NAS, as ZFS seems promising but I'm unsure if FreeBSD supports it. The idea is to expand storage gradually as needed.
For your needs I’d consider unRAID thoroughly. It lets you expand the array as required and since you mainly use it for archiving, you’ll get excellent value per terabyte. Speed improves significantly with 10GBE drives—just add an SSD cache or two for faster performance. You can set up one or two parity drives while the rest holds all your data. It supports running VMs if that interests you, and it’s perfect for media servers like Plex. The setup is affordable, support is strong, and you can install it for free with a 30-day trial, plus an extra 30 days if you request it. The learning curve is short, making it a practical choice.
thanks , ye i will try it. now 1 more advice. am thinking to build HTPC to run 4k gaming ( but light games such as dmc , gauntlet , trine etc.. ) so am thinking to put 1080 in this rig and buy nas from qnap etc.. or something else or use the rig as nas and buy completely new gaming htpc wt do u recommend am confused about it for long time. important question: once i put raid 5 ( lets say 10 drives ) I can add additional drive normal? without the need to format them? and can add parity drives also not just storage one's so it will go to 20 drives for example ?
I was informed about this constraint of ZFS as well, but one solution is to replace each disk individually from the array when upgrading, repeating the process for the remaining ones until all new drives are integrated. However, if you design the array thoughtfully, you shouldn't have to insert disks before fully replacing the entire setup. Modern hard drives are both compact and affordable.
Well I'm no gamer so really can't help there but the beauty of unRAID is that it's not a RAID so taking your 10 drive scenario you could make the largest drive the parity and then the 9 remaining become data drives there is no division of storage size based on typical RAID implementations so 10 10TB drive becomes 1 10TB parity and 9 10TB drives become 90TB of data storage, now my unRAID sever is currently 17TB with a 4TB parity and 2 240GB SSD's for a cache pool this is good as you can achieve better performance with the cache drives then at night while you sleep the system can be set to "move" the data from the cache to the array. To answer your question about adding its quite simple the latest version of unRAID is practically plug and play you assign the drive to the array and follow a few simple steps currently I believe that the maximum is 2 parity drives and 28 data/cache drives