An extended family member is looking for a NAS solution. I run a completely DIY solution since I’m a knowledgeable Linux user. They’re not. I’m trying to figure out what’s available and what to recommend. Here’s what I have so far:
- TrueNAS SCALE (Debian based, UI)
- OpenMediaVault (Debian based, UI)
- Synology (??, UI)
- QNAP (??, UI)
I think that the proprietary solutions like Synology and QNAP are less desirable due to unknown longevity of the companies and their willingness to support their products with software updates. Am I wrong?
I have no idea what’s better between TrueNAS and OMV. I know Debian so I’m confident I can force either to listen via terminal if I have to.
What do you use? Which one of the list do you prefer? Any other Linux-based additions to the list?
I think a Synology is best if they lack technical skills. The GUI is nice and integrations are easy enough to manage. Longevity-wise, I’ve have the 918+ since 2018 and it’s still going strong. Plus there are packages for things like Tailscale (easy to use VPN) you could setup for a them. That way you reduce their attack surface of exposing services externally.
I’ve had a 218+ since 2017. The only reason I might upgrade is to have space for more drives. Im way more of a data hoarder than I used to be
Synology rules
Even as someone with tech experience using it for the last couple years as I learned what I even wanted to do with my NAS, it was awesome
Even my less tech literate wife was able to do stuff with it, just s little bit of “here’s how to access the server” and boom, the GUI is that intuitive
Using docker on it is also really easy if you do eventually want to step up your game.
I’m pretty technical… but I love my Synology.
It just works. Obvious choice for those that aren’t techy.
I bought a used Synology before knowing more about NAS alternatives. I hated every minute with it… Because it was a bit older, security updates could stop anytime. And using the proprietary OS felt even more unsave. Who knows what backdoors are build in there? I sold it after I found out that there is no way to install a custom OS or any alternative to the proprietary version.
Edit: found a picture of it:
I think that the proprietary solutions like Synology and QNAP are less desirable due to unknown longevity of the companies and their willingness to support their products with software updates. Am I wrong?
You’re not wrong, it just for the wrong reasons haha.
The software is profit-motivated and companies in general are becoming more and more hostile to their own customers and slowly cashing in any goodwill they’ve developed over the years.
Collecting data, injecting ads, paywalling features, it’s just the inevitable future of these companies now. Even if not today, anytime in the future, and they’d have you over a barrel because you’ve dedicated time and invested in this ecosystem.
Not to mention the company could disappear at any time and you’d be left with no software or network support. Things would eventually break with no recourse. Ideally they would open the source code since it costs them nothing at that point but they never do.
Open sourcing code definitely doesn’t cost nothing. Assuming your code is 100% in house and wholly owned by you then at best you just dump it onto github. But it rarely ever is. Qnap and synlology probably have a lot of proprietary code directly from Intel that they can’t share. Now they have to comb through every line of code that could be using Intel’s code, and then do something about it. Either delete it and release really broken code, or try to make something work which now 100% costs someone’s valuable time
I use FreeNAS/TrueNAS core, and I’ve been using it for almost a decade now.
The UI definitely has a sharp learning curve (it’s not at ALL noobie friendly) but once you figure it out it’s a lovely system. It’s FreeBSD based and not Linux based, but to me that’s largely an upside since I’ve liked it a lot more.
Anything other than QNAP.
Honestly if they are not that technical, I’d with the nearly fool proof solutions of QNAP and Synology and alike. It is very easy to maintain. I think e.g. Synology still provides updates for their 2012-2013 generation devices, hardware limitations apply whatsoever.
Surely you get less Hardware/Dollar but the software is near fool proof. I recommended such devices to two of my half technical friends and granted mutual space for encrypted off-site Backups and it just works flawlessly. If they would have me setup any self made raspberry pi like solution and anything goes wrong with their data I’d rather not stand in their line of sight.
Thanks for all the suggestions and experiences!
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters NAS Network-Attached Storage Plex Brand of media server package VPN Virtual Private Network
3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 8 acronyms.
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I would suggest TrueNAS, but use Core not Scale if the hardware supports it.
I thought the difference was bsd/cages vs Debian/containers?
When does the hardware not support core but does support scale?
I don’t know what hardware they end up running. I’m not trying to imply BSD has poor hardware support, you should check these things when you plan a build or buy.
