As per this thread I'm building a storage server and I'm trying to finalize the last few bits, including what OS to use. I had a freenas box up and running previously, which worked fine but I'm uncertain if it's the best way to go. I'm contemplating a full linux distro so I could then potentially utilize it for more, such has ditching my media PC and hooking this straight up to my TV, but not sure if this is sensible. Anyway, usual options are freenas, nas4free, OMV, unRAID or full linux distro (CentOS or Ubuntu). Any other options that I'm missed? Any opinions on the above?
That's based on Synology DSM, right? Part of me is wondering if I should just buy a 4/5 bay NAS and save the hassle.
Yeah, but their machines' processing power is pretty weedy, especially considering the price. If I was buying off the shelf, I'd be looking at QNAP.
I ended up buying an 8 bay synology. Having said that I have had xpenology running in various machines for quite a while. Generally it worked fine, but for me there was always a slight sense of uncertainty. Couldn't be happier with my 8 bay, well would have liked it to be cheaper! I got past the DSM 6 broken 3rd party apps by using docker instead, works like a charm
IF you value your data integrity, freeNas/nas4free/nexentastor is the way to go, unless you are willing to use Debian or do a bit of hacking to enable ZFS on other distros. And before somebody mentions btrfs - its still not production ready, especially RAID5/6 support. As for full distro and use as media PC - imo, its a bad idea. Media/Full distro will inevitably brake down and you will need to reboot/reinstall/etc, thus also taking down your NAS. Such distro will also take longer to get back to working order after such event, not to mention the hassle of doing config backups. So unless you don't care about downtimes - its not worth it.
I've been using OMV 2.x for years in a homebrew backup NAS and IIRC I have never had to reboot after updating. It is simply great, it just works. My main NAS is a Synology DS211J which has been running 24/7 since I got it (apart from one HD capacity upgrade), the DSM O/S is awesome (best there is) but it does need restarting for most updates - takes only a few minutes though. Given the age of mine I am looking at replacing it with a 4 bay and I will definately go Synology again, simply because it is set it and forget it (apart from updates). I rsync the data from the Synology to the OMV NAS to backup, when I get my new shed built the OMV NAS will go out there. For quietness, low power consumption and peace of mind, I cannot recommend the Synolgy NAS range enough. The only thing I would say about them has already been mentioned - if you want to use CPU intensive tasks or plugins (e.g. Plex), their CPU offerings are under-powered unless you buy the more expensive models. My DS211J simply ground to a halt when running Plex so I don't - it shares documents, photos and movies around the house and has never missed a beat. It is DNLA compliant so all TV's, laptops, PC's, tablets, game consoles and phones in the house can access it easily and without fuss. TLDR: If you are going to be doing CPU intensive tasks on your NAS then go homebrew (OMV IMHO) using standrd PC components - bang for buck, save your money for the hard drives. If you are not going to be doing CPU intensive tasks and want something you can forget about in between obvious updates, then Synology is the one to go for.
I used OMV for about 6 months, but eventually ditched it because it kept "losing" the printer. Bloody frustrating it was too. Aside from that OMV worked OK.
Been running Freenas for about a year now I think, as much as it was a total pain in the rear to setup the shares, it's been up doing its job with out fault. Current up time 71 days since I last switched it off to move it. All I wish from it now is to get ABCDE installed, as the plex plug in works without issue, but my CD collection keeps growing....wtf! The plan this year was to convert to OMV as I feel much happier in a Debian based system. Once data goes into a ZFS pool, beats me how you get it out again...
Bit of a thread revival here. I went with FreeNAS and I'm glad I did now that I have seen the new features in FreeNAS 11. New interface and support for VM's and docker. It's almost made my other two boxes irrelevant. Everything I want running can be done on a powerful FreeNAS machine.
OpenMediaVault has been my main choice for the past 5 years, it hasn't missed a beat, though I have messed it up a few times. The community is OK, could be better but at least its better than most pre-built NAS options as you choice what you want it to run on.
