I agree, the acronym NAS does indeed mean that.

But would you call a Hypervisor a NAS?

When I say NAS, I mean NAS. Bulk storage remotely accessible on the network.

When someone starts talking about all their VMs/Containers, I understand that to mean something else… I’d prefer to use a generic term like “server” instead.

Look, there’s 2 things here:

• NAS - meaning storage

and

• NAS - meaning a virtualisation / container server that’s doing lots of fairly random disk access

Which are you wanting?

For the first, just consider capacity (you’ll fill it) and noise (spinning away all night)

For the 2nd, really really consider SSDs as they’re silent and fast.

RAID1 is just a convenience factor, so whatever you do, don’t get too caught up in the drive mechanics as you’ll have a full backup (right?) and can restore your data at a moment’s notice.

Honestly, honestly, just go for something large & quiet and you’ll be fine.

And yes, SSD for the OS

+10 for keeping notes.

Yep, even that temporary thing, write it down. Usernames & passwords go in KeePass - with descriptive notes in there too

You should check out Ansible

I run multiple Arch systems at home; laptops, NAS, media, etc. but I’d recommend a Debian based OS for a new starter… unless they’re really, really keen to learn how everything works.

For inspiration, take a look at the Nextcloud Devices - just for the hardware ideas.

I’m still running a Nextcloud Box (with the original Western Digital drive) and it’s fine for my needs.

Yep, numbering’s the key.

When you create NAS01, you know there’s going to be a NAS02 one day

Yep, seen a similar thing with servers…

A few years ago I built up a system with ~ 20 servers. Powered them all up and did all the RAID initialisation (RAID5 across 6-8 disks per server IIRC)

One server basically needed all it’s disks replacing and some of the others needed a disk or 2 replaced - within a month!

Since replacing those disks and building all those arrays I’m happy to build a NAS / server, let it bed-in for a while and if nothing fails I’ll just keep powering up & down my NAS as needed and I’ll run the drives until they die…

Be brave enough to test my backups

I can recommend pfSense.

It uses a single config file and upgrades are painless.

If you need to restore the system (I had a drive failure once), just boot up the installer, supply your config file (ie on the same stick) and it will re-install everything just as it was.

Checkout openmediavault they develop on some sbcs so the forum should be helpful

IMHO, separate duties… have a NAS for storage and a separate device for “stuff”

And again, IMHO, don’t buy proprietary.

I built my own (Arch linux based) NAS based on an ASRockRack mobo so it has IPMI for remote management and I can power it on /off from Home Assistant.

I’ve setup my NAS to power up in the morning and off later in the day if it’s not in use (based on CPU, I/O, network, etc). It has multiple syncthing daemons running for each person to sync their files from phones and laptops and also has SMB (v3) shares. All on btrfs.

I have a completely separate, low power passively cooled device for Home Assistant, UptimeKuma, Smokeping, Ansible, etc - currently as Proxmox VMs, but I’m considering moving away from that.

+1 for logseq & syncthing. I use it across Windows, Linux and Android to my NAS.

synthing has versioning so I don’t lose edits - kinda like OneNote

Good Parent 👍🏻

That looks like a better choice if you have multiple clients because of the Wave2 and 4x4, so, yes, should be good… Something I might look at in the future. Enjoy.

I’m using R600 - these are now EOL, so their price should be more reasonable (ie <60 £/$/€) - up to you if you want / need to pay a little more for someone to have flashed Unleashed onto it.

But definitely check there’s a download of Ruckus Unleashed for the model you want.

Wasn’t aware of it, had a brief look at their site - can this share the archive with others, or is it on a roadmap to do so?

I feel like there’s a missed opportunity there…?

syncthing’s development is alive & well.

I’m presuming you’re referring to the Android wrapper that had it’s last update 2 weeks ago?

The Syncthing-Fork project is also still alive & (presumably) continuing on

That’s a great idea, I hadn’t thought of that

Whatever you choose, consider a donation to the devs, that’s what helps prevent these apps from dying