NAS Box OS

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Got my hands on a spare HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini Desktop.
Thought about using it for a NAS box for storage, in order to retire my old NAS box.
I think the HP uses less power with just 2 NVME’s as opposed to the 4 3,5" HDD’s in the old NASBox. And makes less noise too :slight_smile:

I will get 2 Western Digital Red SA500 WDS200T1R0B 2TB NVME’s set them up in Raid 1 (BIOS has RAID 0 & Raid 1 support).
I am installing an NGFF A+E-Key Male To NVME M-key Female Extension PCI-E 4.0 Adapter, and put in an 2230 NVME drive in the socket instead of WiFi card for the Operating system.
RAM wise it has 32GB, so that is more than enough :slight_smile:

The role is storage, and to have a file share where we can access files, etc.
Question is which NAS OS would you recommend?

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Any that you are comfortable managing. Even a Ubuntu server fits the bill.
You already had a NAS, what were you using up to now? Were you happy with your OS of choice? If not, what are your pain points? Do you want native ZFS support?

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My personal choice is freebsd, but I wouldn’t expect people who aren’t used to the CLI to use it. The only GUI one I’d recommend is OpenMediaVault. You can combine that with freedombox or yunohost (I think), maybe even with portainer.

If you want zfs, you need to install openmediavault-zfs plugin. Should be able to do what you need.

Don’t use that sh*t. Even mdraid is better than integrated crap like that (obviously I recommend zfs). When your motherboard eventually kicks the bucket, you won’t be able to transfer your files out of it anymore (you should make separate backups to at least a single hdd every now and then at least, anyway, even if you’re using zfs or md, but with an integrated solution like that, this is really necessary, if you care about the data you put in there).

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https://www.openmediavault.org/

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I use xigmanas myself. It has a decent webgui.
It’s based on freebsd13 ( updated version is freebsd 14 but it’s in beta right now) .

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This is absolutely correct and bears repeating.

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I would also recommend FreeBSD with ZFS as @ThatGuyB mentioned

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I am using a Zyxel 540 NASBox.
I don’t know anything about ZFS (yet :wink: )
I think I will check out the openmediavault as TimHolus suggested. Or XigmaNAS as @wr250 mentioned :slight_smile:

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I will look into it, there will be external backups made at regular intervals. But perhaps software RAID would be the better choice. I actually have 2 of the HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini Desktop’s so if the running one craps out I can just transfer the NVME’s over to the spare PC and be up and running fairly quickly :slight_smile:

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Good, cause those options should be fairly easy to install and configure. They also provide a WebUI and you are already familiar with this kind of workflow from the Zyxel appliance.

One last thing to consider would be TrueNAS, but I didn’t like the interface and it might be too much for your needs.

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I think you’re TrueNAS might be overkill :slight_smile:

I just need a fairly simple setup to store files. And where I can automate external backup.

What would be the best file system in regards to security, stability and least prone to corrupt files?

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Thanks for all the input :heart:,
I went with OpenMediaVault, there were some issues with DHCP during installation, setting it up with a static IP solved the issue.
Now I just need 2 2TB NVME’s for a raid 1 setup, but those prices right now :thinking: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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