From Curiosity to Confidence:
Jens Neubauer’s Home Lab Journey with TrueNAS
Jens Neubauer, Software Developer
Architecting Reliability at Home
Jens Neubauer is a seasoned IT architect and software developer by trade, someone deeply familiar with systems but not typically involved in day-to-day storage operations at work. When it came time to build a home storage setup, he approached it not just with technical curiosity, but with a demand for transparency, flexibility, and reliability.
His journey with TrueNAS began less than a year ago. In that time, he’s built a robust and thoughtfully segmented home lab system that supports media streaming, personal backups, document organization, and app hosting, all while emphasizing long-term sustainability and control.
The Challenge: Moving Beyond Basic Storage
Before discovering TrueNAS, Jens relied on a humble external hard drive connected to his router. It was functional but far from ideal. It lacked redundancy, was painfully slow, and provided no room for growth. Looking to upgrade, he backed the ZimaCube on Kickstarter for its sleek hardware, but the accompanying OS didn’t meet his expectations.
The Setup: Building a Balanced Home Lab
Jens installed TrueNAS on his ZimaCube and never looked back. His current setup includes:
- Boot Pool: Two mirrored drives for system reliability
- App Pool: Two 2 TB SSDs designated for running apps
- Main Storage: Four 16 TB spinning disks configured in RAIDZ2 for about 30 TB of redundant, resilient storage
On this foundation, Jens runs Jellyfin for media streaming and Paperless for document organization, systems that integrate seamlessly with his daily life. A separate dataset manages his backups, which are synced to the cloud for an extra layer of protection.
“It’s all working incredibly smoothly. The only real roadblock I hit was self-inflicted, I originally used RAIDZ1 and had a drive failure, so I rebuilt everything as RAIDZ2. That’s on me,” Jens chuckled.
Why TrueNAS? Transparency, Community, and Control
For Jens, TrueNAS isn’t just about features, it’s about trust. As an open source platform, TrueNAS offered him a clear view into the development roadmap, allowing him to prepare for the Kubernetes-to-Docker transition without surprises.
“I don’t like surprises, especially when it comes to my data. The openness of TrueNAS is what made it stand out to me from the beginning. I knew what was coming and I could plan for it.”
That transparency also extends to the TrueNAS forums, where Jens finds solutions, ideas, and updates from the broader community. He visits the forums weekly, sometimes to troubleshoot, other times just to learn something new.
The Final Word: A Nimble Company with a Clear Vision
Jens’ journey reflects what makes TrueNAS special, a platform that empowers users to build with confidence, customize freely, and stay informed. For users like him, it’s not just a system, it’s peace of mind.
Jens values how TrueNAS, despite being developed by a small team, moves with purpose.
Have A Story of Your Own?
We’d Love to Hear It. Click Below to Share Your Experience.