Newbie to NAS

[daryth64]

First off I just want to say I realize this is a TrueNAS forum and I expect the interests to be with said products and open source mentality, I only ask for your honest opinions for my questioning, and I figured I would find less bias on an open source community than one for other NAS groups.

Like a lot of people starting NAS I'm looking for something that suits my needs best and/or if my options are even logical at this point or if keeping things on a cloud service is best. As such my needs are really as simple as can be, I'd like to create a NAS that isn't too complex to first setup as myself and father are moderately competent with software and networking but the majority of our needs will be mobile based backup and family data backup with a possibility of streaming video but that is lowest in priority.

As such I'd like to keep things as simple as possible for members of the family like my mom, sister, little brother and all of their family members and as such ideally I'd get a NAS with software that is just an APP for them to download and sync as easy as google drive. In my reading I've obviously found Synology and QNAS having their own decent GUI and station based software but, for one reason or another, reviews disappointingly make both unreliable as of right now for mobile configurations. Someone even mentioned Synology only updates their app once a year which just sounds nuts to me. Also as half my family uses android and the other half use ios for mobile the functionality gets hazy.

After that I started to turn to what was available in the open source side with systems like TrueNAS, the cost is high but it also looks as though i could install FreeNas/NextCloud on a synology system if needed but these options seem to all require some extra steps to setup that maybe above the heads of family members who live in other states. So I ask anyone and everyone their opinions of the current NAS system and software ecosystem what is likely to be ideal for me and my family? Again, most of my family's concern is with just backing up mobile files (I should also mention a nice UI for previewing images and not just file names would be a concern) and a few important private documents, but with an emphasis on easy use and setup on mobile devices, or should I stick with paying google whom I have an increasing concern for data fondling.

Thanks guys,
Kyle.

 

[danb35]

The cost for Free/TrueNAS (they're the same software since release 12.0) need not be high. The software itself is, of course, free, but suitable hardware to run it isn't. But again, it need not be particularly expensive. Probably the best budget hardware would be a HPE Microserver Gen8, which is pretty compact and quiet, and gives you decent server hardware and features including remote management. Here's one with a Xeon for just over US$400 with free shipping from eBay. The Gen10+ is considerably more compact, but also considerably more expensive. Another option that would be more compact, but miss some of the server bells and whistles, would be an Intel-based QNAP device. I'm not aware of any Synology hardware that would be suitable, but I know some folks around here are running TrueNAS on a QNAP.

But you may want to try it out in a virtualized environment to make sure it does what you want, how you want it. Storing files is easy. Mobile device backup is going to take some additional software, and that's an area I just haven't dealt with. Streaming video likely wants a media server; Plex seems to be the most popular here (it's what I use); other options include Emby and Jellyfin.

But I'm a little concerned about your tying "backing up mobile files" with "a nice UI for previewing images," because those seem like different things. Perhaps Nextcloud would be a good fit to handle both of them.

 

[daryth64]

The cost for Free/TrueNAS (they're the same software since release 12.0) need not be high. The software itself is, of course, free, but suitable hardware to run it isn't. But again, it need not be particularly expensive. Probably the best budget hardware would be a HPE Microserver Gen8, which is pretty compact and quiet, and gives you decent server hardware and features including remote management. Here's one with a Xeon for just over US$400 with free shipping from eBay. The Gen10+ is considerably more compact, but also considerably more expensive. Another option that would be more compact, but miss some of the server bells and whistles, would be an Intel-based QNAP device. I'm not aware of any Synology hardware that would be suitable, but I know some folks around here are running TrueNAS on a QNAP.

But you may want to try it out in a virtualized environment to make sure it does what you want, how you want it. Storing files is easy. Mobile device backup is going to take some additional software, and that's an area I just haven't dealt with. Streaming video likely wants a media server; Plex seems to be the most popular here (it's what I use); other options include Emby and Jellyfin.

But I'm a little concerned about your tying "backing up mobile files" with "a nice UI for previewing images," because those seem like different things. Perhaps Nextcloud would be a good fit to handle both of them.

Thank you very much, this is all very helpful. I wasn't aware a lot of this can be previewed with virtualized environments I will do that.

 

[Redcoat]

can be previewed with virtualized environments

See "Virtual Machine" at https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/gettingstarted/install/ for detailed guidance to get you going.

 

[ChrisRJ]

@daryth64 , I guess it mostly comes down to how much you want a turn-key solution. Nextcloud may indeed be interesting and for testing you will find plenty of ISPs that support hosting it. Whether you want to run this later on you own hardware or stay with an ISP, is a separate decision. (On your own system, you will need to deal with securing outside access.)

TrueNAS provides a wonderful storage system, and the software as such is free. But you need to be willing to spend time and learn about it; or pay someone to do things for you. If that is not something you are looking forward to/enjoy, a hosted solution may more be your cup of tea.

 

[daryth64]

TrueNAS provides a wonderful storage system, and the software as such is free. But you need to be willing to spend time and learn about it; or pay someone to do things for you. If that is not something you are looking forward to/enjoy, a hosted solution may more be your cup of tea.

I have no aversion to learning and setting up the NAS myself, I enjoy the setup for things like this but the main concern I have is the family utility and if the software is user friendly enough and the UI is modern enough that members using the mobile and gui apps wont feel it's outdated or too complex. Mostly just need a stable system for backing up files.

If I were to go the route of TrueNAS software and hardware, I'm looking for something as adaptive as the Snyology DS1522+ with expandable memory, 10GbE addon port, etc and in terms of DSM first and foremost I'm looking for something stable, reliable and easy to use for family file backup with heavy emphasis on mobile capability.

*Updated original post with some reasoning.

 

[daryth64]

** Update for original post**

I can see how my coming here and just asking for everyone's input can seem lazy to enthusiasts of this kind of setup, during my own research I was just getting by the amount of information out there today and a LOT of people are still recommending building a personal server in an old PC, which I'm not averse to but I also read about how that isn't really a reliable and dependable solution long term where as lot of these NAS are built with components that seem old but are used for their decades of optimization, low power consumption and reliability. So my asking everyone here Is more to do with what people think are good companies, what good machines they had their eye on and if they had any suggestions or tips about DSM.

I'm looking for something similar to the Synology DS1522+, with room for expansion in terms of RAM, 10GbE, etc.
In terms of DSM I'm looking for something secure, reliable and easy to use for family file backup with heavy emphasis on mobile capability.

Is there any Media DSM that isn't so.... netflix-y, sure I like the look and simplicity of PLEX, Emby and Jellyfin but really I mostly want a file storage system, not a dvr media home, I mean, I imagine they ARE capable of storing files but i can just imagine the UI for those files being very crude unless they have separate views for file storage and media storage that I am just not seeing. TLDR I guess what I'm asking is; IS there a media server software that has both a netflix-home-view for video streaming AND an alternative filing system view that looks like normal detailed-view windows?

 

[daryth64]

*getting overwhelmed by the amount

 

[ChrisRJ]

TrueNAS itself is a high-end enterprise storage appliance. So its core does not deliver anything for mobile or special media handling. Think of it as a special web UI over a Unix-like OS. That is of course a simplification, but for me it is a reasonable description how it feels like to somehow who is coming from DSM.

There are multiple ways to add various kinds of functionality, incl. Plex or Nextcloud, but considerable technical knowledge (or willingness to learn it) is required.

As was suggested, I would also recommend that you set up a small system in a VM to get hands-on experience. My personal feeling is that TrueNAS and DSM have different target "audiences". I am interested how you feel about it.

 

[danb35]

IS there a media server software that has both a netflix-home-view for video streaming AND an alternative filing system view that looks like normal detailed-view windows?

Ordinarily, the media for the media server is going to be in a shared folder, and that's where you'd manipulate it--map it to your Windows or Mac PC as you would any other shared storage, and copy/move/rename files at will that way. Plex (etc.) will pick up on those changes in due course.