Awesome comment!

About the dashboards, I have been using CasaOS for a while now, it is not a OS, but it decently handles containers and allows you to install a bunch of services in a very user friendly way. Nowadays (as I found out a few days ago) the project seems to be moving in the direction of a fully purposed OS with NAS capabilities plus the containers stuff. Unfortunately the project (under the name ZimaOS) has gone into proprietary software and (for now) a one payment level to unlock full options with a free limited version.

I don’t think I can recommend anymore to go with casaOS due to that (although for now casaOS remains free OSS kinda separate). I have been also looking for alternatives to set up a NAS and so far I am heavily leaning on OMV as it is a full OS with the idea of handling a NAS with all ready, plus it is based in Debian which is a plus for me too. Alternatively I am looking into YunoHost also, but I think it is not exactly what I want, although it looks promising.

Edit: forgot to mention FreedomBox as another option that can work as a NAS OS of sorts that helps with self hosting services too.

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll definitely check it up as I try to build a NAS to deal with the extra storage needs.

I have been using casaos and sincerely it is great as a simple solution to avoid some hassles. On the other hand if you are already handling those things yourself and are fine with it, it might have less value.

I am considering some changes and now I am finding out that maybe having a backup of the configuration to set it up again later is not something I can get in casaos.

Is ZimaOS even worth considering if is not Open Source?

For me personally this is a key aspect. I would avoid any proprietary solution, or you will be left in a position where you have no control of your data. I definitely won’t be checking zimaOS.

Instead I want to check and maybe try yunohost or freedombox.

I just want to bring to attention something I was just finding out thanks to this post.

I started self hosting some stuff by installing raw in arch and well… It was a pain, but worth it. Then later I found out about CasaOS, which is recommended by OP, and I agree, it was great to have it to install some more services and a lot easier. But just like OP I just found out about ZimaOS, which is announced even in casaOS project as a better system and an upgrade. So I went to check and the whole project is changing from open source in casaOs to proprietary in ZimaOs. Not content with that, in the latest release of ZimaOs they have added a one time payment to eliminate some limitations of the free version. It is still affordable and a “lifetime” license but if they have added a payment for full access once they might do it again, despite their current promises that they won’t ever make a subscription style payment.

So, careful with that project, I would recommend to avoid any solution that is proprietary or otherwise it won’t be yours in the first place. I had in mind to change from CasaOs in Debian to OpenMediaVault to handle a DAS and install casaOS on top of that. But now I have to reconsider, so far I have already seen a few worth recommendations in this post that seem nice: FreedomBox and YunoHost to mention a couple that are FOSS.

The whole soundtrack is another piece of art at the level of the anime. And indeed, Sore Feet Song is wonderful!

1. Mushishi
2. Samurai Champloo
3. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu
4. FLCL
5. Madoka Magica

Oh wow… I’m going to set this up right away, I’ve always loved this feature on google maps, but as I’ve been removing google from my life I was afraid of losing this but I definitely don’t want to give any more of my data. This is perfect! Thank you so much!

Edit: torilla tavataan i guess :)

I don’t think that is fully the case, 300 hundred devs don’t provide in a day what a dev provides in 300 days. Basically the coordination needed between those 300 devs require so much effort that they won’t get done as much. I like the comparison with a pregnancy, with 9 women, you can’t get one baby in a month. After 9 months you can end with 9 babies or so, but it still takes 9 months.

Having 300 devs is incredibly inefficient, with so many, many of those are just doing menial work. And surely there will be plenty doing less than they would do in a smaller team. The reason for such big teams I feel is double, one, high rotation of employees, like OP, the best ones see the shit show and leave. The worse ones that won’t find another job easily remain, unhappy and even less efficient, so the company keeps hiring more. The other reason is, the more employees, the easier it is to get shitty unethical stuff done. Each dev provides a little bit of crap, so little that they might not see the impact or so that they won’t feel like fighting it, but combined with everyone, it creates that shitshow.

Well hello all again. I come with an update, after a few days of looking around and searching for options after all your valuable feedback and input.

For all those saying “backups” and “3-2-1”, yes, very important indeed and has given me extra to think about, but it is also not really what I was looking for. That doesn’t mean your input was bad, wrong or unused, it made me think deeper about that topic too and plan towards it, but it was not answering my original question, needing a better, safer, data storage solution hopefully using OSS.

As I already have a couple old laptops I would rather avoid getting extra hardware in that sense, and the idea of the DAS, which was new for me, seemed exactly what will provide what I need. Expandable storage solution to stack some HDDs, I can connect that to one of my existing laptops where I can install OMV (openmediavault) to deal with the drives and storage and use it for the storage of data. I’m getting a centmate with 4 bays, I’ll put one drive for now of 14 or 16 TB and later add another mirrored with btrfs or raid 1. In the future I’ll increase the space as needed.

For the backup I’ll keep using my external drive connected to the other laptop where I’ll probably keep EndeavourOS for now. The most valuable data I will set syncthing or some other alternative but I already have backup of some of the most important stuff so I’m not in a hurry with it.

I think at the time I have the kind of plan I needed. So thank you all for giving some advice, experience, and knowledge. It has kicked me out of indecision hell.

OK, that’s actually a nice point to clarify, and to be sincere I kinda saw it as a backup. But thinking it more thoroughly, it is the kind of “backup” I am looking for. I worry mainly about the hard drive crapping out on me. Then after that yeah, I would have an external HD with the most important stuff backed up and then something out of the house.

To be perfectly clear, I agree entirely with your comment. What you say is extremely important, but the NAS is the actual aspect I need for the house at the moment :)

I said truenas as it was the first to come to mind but it is probably overtly complex for my needs and openmediavault might be better, as far as I can use an open source software on whatever hardware I end up with I’m happy.

Yeah I want an external drive out of the house, but I feel like that is independent of my decision on how to store data at home. Am I wrong? Should I take that into consideration for choosing a nas at home?

Indeed, RAID1 is what I’d probably choose to have a safety net in case of hard drive failure. Something simple to start with.

So after all you just have a normal PC using arch with a handful of disks? So is some of the disks holding copies of the others? I’ll check btrfs, to see what kinda use it can provide.

Hmmm this is the kind of thing I fear of using something like synology, maybe it works better for me, but even then I doubt I will ever be able to make it work for me and I will end up annoyed about lack of options or settings.

Maybe I didn’t say it clearly, but I am not against pre-made hardware, I just want to be able to use any is I want to.

Yeah it is just that, but I want to make sure I have the set up correct for the proper data transfer, and data copying/syncing.

But this is where I lack experience, is a mirrored drive any simpler to maintain than a Raid 1? Wouldn’t a raid 1 help with access speed of data?

Hmmm more options seems like the best way to keep my paralysis healthy :P

Thanks for showing me your set up! I’ll have to check what would be the price range for me to get this kinda thing. My desktop has plentybof space but I wouldn’t want to use it as the nas.

Yeah, this was my thinking process, 4 bays set up like 12 TB x2 drives in RAID 0 and in the future expand with RAID 10(or 01, whatever makes sense).

Yeah I don’t like what I’ve heard of synology. I’ll review some qnap or see if I can something else around that is affordable.

I am going to check what I can get in the second hand market, I wouldn’t mind that. And compare like, say, 4x 6TB drives in RAID 10 (or 01 whatever makes more sense) against 2x 12 or 14 TB with raid 1.

I would just rather avoid synology, I mostly want something where I have software that doesn’t own me and I own it instead.

Hmm… As long as I can throw my own OS of choice to it, I would consider it “my” hardware. Maybe I didn’t say it too clearly, I just don’t want to get “locked” into some ecosystem that doesn’t allow me to do whatever I want with it. I wouldn’t discard a ready made hardware.

Raid 1 is definitely enough for now if I go with one very large drive and the same as a copy, but then how tough would it be to expand? What if I want to keep using my external drive as ling as it lasts? Am I over thinking it? I’ll need to see what I can find on drives around and check the second hand market too to see if I can just go with whatever for now… Is qnap like asustor? Can I change the os?

Thanks for the note about noise, it is hard to remember that at times. In a way I would consider SSD drives only just for that reason, but have to check if all prices are prohibitively expensive.

So thoughtful of you, caring for my decision paralysis :D Actually that sounds like a great alternative, might make me choose for something like it and completely delete my paralysis :)

Hmm less drives with more capacity… Wouldn’t that reduce my ability to keep more copies? Unless with less drives you mean 3, instead of 6 and 3 for me us more than I have now xd On the other hand less drives mean less complex NAS, plenty of people have been talking of backup strategies, and I was just simply thinking of having a drive with a clone for important data and another drive for less important (media) data. Then maybe have the most important stuff in a cloud service as an extra safety.

Anyway, many thanks for adding to my paralisys giving a new extra option, it looks promising.

The reaction to the post was strangely aggressive :/ I feel like I understand why this exists, and it’s really nice to have another open source project for this kind of uses. It definitely looks interesting with a clear focus on creating a safe system to use external storage. For my case it is not the most adequate solution but I definitely see the value here. Keep the good job and don’t get discouraged by the comments!