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Forum Discussion
Which Modern NAS?
Well, given my recent loss of ReadyNAS functionality due to drive failures on two drives, loss of my RAID5, factory reset, followed up inability to install build-essential and Medusa... I am contemplating a more modern NAS replacement. I may or may not just continue to use my 524X in whatever limited capacity becuase for basic file sharing..it still works fine. It even still runs Plex. But not Medusa... Anyway just wondering what some of you think about current modern NAS that are available, in comparison to Readynas OS6
For reference, my 524x is intel with memory upgraded to 16GB (I don't remember if its ECC or if Readynas can even properly use ECC).
So I am thinking about TrueNAS, but first question is what you guys think about ZFS vs BRTFS?
I have been poking around and thinking about a Terramaster F4 with 6 bays, the max version is a pretty decent i5 processor in it that is capable of virtualization, especially if I upgrade the RAM, and basically it would do everything the Readynas does not, and a lot more...and able to upgrade to new versions of linux, both in whatever TrueNAS is using or virtualized VM. Can even run Win11 on a VM in that setup. or might use proxmox...haven't decided... or open to other ideas..
The Terramaster apparently does not support ECC memory, I'm not sure how critical that is. But its easily supports installing any OS I want, its basically just more of an open ended PC. Qnap i guess make pretty good hardware but I need to investigate more.
Anyway just wondering what some of your thoughts are. I might just keep using my Readynas for a few more years in this more limited capacity, it basically is working now, the only annoyance to me is that I have to run Medusa somewhere else. My hot rodded 524X handles all my plex needs just fine, I typically am not doing heavy transcoding anyway. But still I have to run an entirely separate old PC on the side just to host Medusa and some occasional utorrent, neither of which are realistic on the current readynas status quo. So getting a more modern NAS that can handle those two tasks and something more able to run modern linux or even win11 is probably what I will eventually do...even if I run the reasynas for a couple more years this way in limited capacity
but just wondering what hardware and/or software solutions some of you are considering for future NAS...and in particular it seems to come down to two main filesystems people are using for NAS either ZFS or BRTSFS.. What are the pros and cons between these two. Personally I am not interested in ever running RAID5,6 again. It has bitten me in the butt twice now, losing data. In the future I will use RAID1 mirroring only. But one thing about ZFS that seems interesting is you can put two RAID1 mirrors into a larger pool, and have one very large volume based on two mirrored arrays. But anyway I'm sure there are subtle differences with BTRFS and ZFS advocates on both sides, but just curious what some of you would say about BRTFS vs ZFS, and in general, what modern NAS are you keeping your eyes on now that Readynas is going extinct?
7 Replies
if Readynas can even properly use ECC
The 52x and 62x NAS both support ECC (and were sold with ECC RAM installed).
wo main filesystems people are using for NAS either ZFS or BRTSFS.. What are the pros and cons between these two.
No opinion here, as I've only used BTRFS.
what modern NAS are you keeping your eyes on now that Readynas is going extinct?
I'd avoid Synology for now, due to their new disk policy. If you aren't in a rush, you could wait and see if that gets relaxed.
There are quite a few options, including many NAS models that include several NVME slots. Several have warranties that include hardware when you install your own OS. Terramaster and Ugreen are some of those (but I think there are others). NasCompares has a lot of reviews on his YouTube channel.
I've only used ReadyNAS for storage for a long time now, and host applications on a PC with the data volume mapped to a drive letter. I plan to continue to do that for the foreseeable future. Running applications on a NAS does tend to lock you in to the NAS OS, as migrating both storage and applications to another platform is complicated.
In the future I will use RAID1 mirroring only.
Given the size of the disks on the market now, that is more practical than it was in the past.
You might consider whether you need a NAS at all. You could go with a PC with one or two disk bays, and a USB enclosure for backup.
As always thanks for your thoughts. So the Terramaster is very interesting because it runs other OS completely and easily, and has great hardware options. Unfortunately my understanding is that it does not even support ECC at all. I'm not sure how important that is, but I would prefer to have ECC. Otherwise it can run any variety of linux and windows11, has two NVMe slots in addition to HDD bays, a GPU, etc. its pretty nice piece of hardware, especially if I get one of their higher end ones.
Ugreen I'm nervous about for various reasons. I have heard hit or miss stories about it, especially when trying to run other OS. Synology is out for the reasons you mentioned, it's great hardware though, but I'm not sure it can easily run other OS either. Some limitations there. There are a couple other notable's, Qnap supposedly is easy to run other OS, so I will be looking into that one also. I want one that can run other OS as easily as building a PC from scratch, in other words, no limitations or special hacks needed other then perhaps booting from USBstick at the worst, but when they have built in NVMe, then can boot from that even better.
I do want a NAS with raid to store stuff that i rarely access but sometimes do and I want raided to protect against bit rot more than anything. it all gets backed up 321 style anyway, but bit rot is s real thing.
I prefer to run a few apps on the NAS only because I don't want to run them on another PC. Plex for example and a few others. A NAS will be on 24 7 and ideally using less power then my desktop PC's and my desktop PC's I don't want burned with also running those file services. Either I have to run a NAS plus another dedicated PC to host those services...or I need to put it all on a NAS, just one device..I prefer the latter. Readynas was handling it for me before no problem, it wasn't great at torrenting, but everything else was fine. Now I can't due to apt repos down...so...that ends that era..... Otherwise if I just needed simple file service, I would probably just keep using this 524x for the foreseeable future.
I also don't actually want to have a whole PC running all the time, I am mostly Macs here, but every once in a while it's handy to have a windows pc available. A NAS with win11 VM running can accommodate that occasional need. The readynas could not ever do that, but these newer NAS, some of them can handle that, on top of running Truenas or whatever...my various file services...and a virtualized win11 for the odd windows need that might come up. Then I don't even need to have an entire PC running there doing nothing most of the time.
Either I have to run a NAS plus another dedicated PC to host those services...or I need to put it all on a NAS
A dedicated small form factor PC with a USB-C or Thunderbolt enclosure might be a hardware option for you. That could of course run linux to get software RAID and BTRFS/ZFS. TrueNAS also if you decide to go that route. Power use would be similar to a NAS with the same class processor. One drawback would be the limited number of NVME slots.
I guess another alternative would be to get a mini pc and get some kind of external esata or usb4 enclosure or something, which would enable me to upgrade the CPU part of it at will, while just using the external bays for drives. it as clean and tidy as a single box...but would be able to adapt to changes rolling forward and use the mini pc in many other capacities rolling forward too....so yet another possibility.
I guess another alternative would be to get a mini pc and get some kind of external esata or usb4 enclosure or something, which would enable me to upgrade the CPU part of it at will, while just using the external bays for drives.
That is what I've thinking about for when the time comes to retire the ReadyNAS. But I'm not in any hurry...
You might look at the TerraMaster DAS product line, particularly the hybrids:
- https://www.terra-master.com/us/products/homesoho-das.html
yea so many options it is truly analysis paralysis at this point. NAS tech has come a very long way since the readynas days. These days you can get a few very powerful NAS devices with 4-6 bays...and they can run windows11, truenas, unraid or whatever you want, handle ECC, handle hypervisors, have 2-4 M.2 slots also for running the OS, cacheing or more storage, and sometimes even have PCI expansion slots...also with 10gbit ethernet and on and on. the best ones are getting up to $1500 I guess, which is kind of a lot, but that would be basically the same as a DIY build except they have sorted out form factor and usually include hot swapping and stuff like that. It turns out that most of the less expensive NAS these days do not support ECC. many opinions about ECC or not, but I am currently of the opinion that I want ECC. So that kind of rules out most lower priced NAS options anyway. The CPU and motherboard have to support ECC and generally that results in a $1k+ DIY build or one of the higher end NAS units will also be in that price range, I reckon the price difference is not that great between DIY and one of the higher end NAS as soon as you add ECC as a requirement. A DIY would have more PCI slots perhaps, or some other little advantage. Some of the best NAS candidates I have seen as of now that provide nearly the same flexibility as DIY but in a prebuilt form factor are:
Minisform N5Pro
Aoostar WTR Max
Synology does have some consumer priced NAS with ECC, but they are generally limited in other ways, running ARM and may or may not work for plex and definitely would not be enough if you want to somehow use the NAS as a homelab server, running windows VM's or whatever. I don't have a great need for some of that advanced stuff, but this time around I mainly want to make sure that I will not be stuck if the company decides to stop updating the OS for the unit or something like that, like what happened with the readynas. I don't trust synology, I think they will deprecate their units over time. The advantage of either DIY, or one of the NAS that can run any OS, is that in the future I will not be tied to the manufacturer, I should be able to update the OS to linux or truenas or windowsXX or any number of different things, unlike my experience with Readynas which has dead-ended. I feel my 524x is perfectly usable hardware even today, it's sad to me that its dead ended the way it is and not worth the trouble to try to keep it going.
So anyway for me it seems like I am torn in that I want ECC and its generally like twice the price get a NAS with ECC support, due to CPU and motherboard requirements; that also happens be in the 4-6 bay size range. $700 is a more acceptable amount to pay for what I need to do, but most of them today don't support ECC.
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