I’m having trouble deciding which software platform fits my hardware. This is not a standard “what’s the best” type of post, as ultimately they will all run containers so it’s more “I have this stuff, what would you do in my situation?”.
Not my first rodeo, familiar with linux and docker, I got tired of running commands to keep a plex service running and switched to Windows 11 which just worked. My new goal is to find a balance where I can run most containers but not have to fiddle with every config file in cli constantly. I almost bought a QNAP NAS but thought why spend another $500 when I have a nice box working fine now.
Hardware:
- Mini PC with Xeon E-2144G 3.6ghz, 16GB RAM, 2x 1TB SSD
- QNAP TR-004 dumb USB DAS with 32TB in a hardware R5. Not ideal but it’s what I have at the moment. About 6 TB currently in use.
- Want to run local smtp for notifications, tautulli, plex (just me as user) and a few others apps like immich, wireguard and become more self-sufficient with cloud storage/passwords.
I’m testing Open media vault right now and OMV seems fine I guess. Probably a good fit balancing convenience with capabilities. I’m trying to keep it simple.
Unraid is enticing but I have a DAS with RAID capabilities already and matched drives, and also no reason to use a USB stick for an OS drive when I have perfectly good SSD’s, right?
Truenas is bsd which i’m not familiar with, I just don’t see the advantage for me but maybe I’m just not seeing why this is would fit my needs better.
Am I missing others? Something I didn’t think of? Maybe it’s easy, I pick OMV and move forward.
Thanks for any advice or input.
I don’t have a ton of experience with NASes but I’ve just recently set up my first unRAID server and had similar requirements.
Totally agree with the USB annoyance. It technically serves as the boot drive but the OS itself runs on the RAM once started. I have a 500gb ssd which I use as a cache drive, then an array of 2x4tb HDD plus another 4tb parity drive, with plans to expand; ultimately that’s why I chose unRAID over TrueNAS because I read that it was much easier to add drives to your array in the former.
As far as docker, I run 9 containers 24/7. Most of them are *arr media acquisition software and Jellyfin. I don’t think I’ve ever had to do CLI with those with the exception of installing a cloud flare tunnel. The native docker support works well. Some people prefer spinning up a Linux VM then using docker on that but I’ve never found a reason to try that (plus I can’t get VMs working correctly. Not sure why).
As a comparison, I’ve also got an orangepi5 which I run home assistant and associated containers via docker compose, and the unraid system is definitely a lot easier.
A piece that I don’t have the knowledge to address is which platform would be the easiest to import your data into. From my limited experience, I had to add drives to my array, format them to the desired file system, add my data over the local network, then physically add the remaining drive. With as much data as you have, that strat could be problematic.
The data import will be a challenge all on it’s own. I’ll end up probably splitting the data onto a drobo nas and some 4tb hdd’s I have laying around to give myself some redundancy. Bring the DAS online, format it with the new file format whatever that may be, and reimport the data. PITA but doable.
It’s part of the reason I’m asking because as my data grows, this import process is going to be the most difficult part so I’d like to lock something in for a while.
I am interested in home assistant too so your experience is valuable. Thanks!