I need some advice, or at least pointers on where to go to learn more. I have been considering adding some type of backup to my network. Here is what I would like to be able to do:

  1. Primarily, back up my devices, whether that be desktops, laptops, or mobile, preferably automatically, regardless of OS. I have Windows, android, and Linux in the house and would like to have the devices automatically back themselves up each night.

  2. Possibly stream audio, video, and images (images to a photo frame would be cool).

  3. any cool other stuff I may imagine such as more server type stuff like home automation, password vault, and anything else applicable that I haven’t thought of yet. I currently have a RaspberryPi 4 running Pihole. I know I could easily add more services to this device if needed.

So I was thinking of getting a 4 bay NAS but a dedicated Synology box is going to cost me at least a grand. Would I get more flexibility AND save money by buying a N100 machine? Would this give me a machine that can be both a server AND a NAS? Can I duplicate the Synology software with FOSS? I don’t know much about NAS boxes but they seem expensive for what you get.

I have no plans to expose this to the internet so security is perhaps less important to me.

Thanks in advance and please add whatever you advice or comments you may have about the best way to set this up. Again, the system is designed primarily as backup but it would be nice for it to be able to other things as well. Backing up the mobile devices is of prime concern and I’m not sure how that would be accomplished regardless of what direction I take, so any info on that would be helpful.

Thanks

  • bane_killgrind@slrpnk.netEnglish
    14·
    6 days ago

    The thing that you will struggle with, doing a roll your own NAS is that rolling your own is only going to be as reliable as you are.

    I had a seadrive Linux server set up and I had a bunch of issues with accessibility and software upgrades because it stretched the bounds of what I was capable of. If I went back to that solution now, I would not struggle nearly as much and I would probably run two concurrent instances and transfer files between them instead of trying to upgrade the one live instance.

    But I need something consistent for my wife and friends, so I did pick up a Synology 4 bay and loaded it with 4x 8tb drives.

    With this thing, extra services beyond the Synology apps are much more simple to configure. Authentication is more consistent, even though I am not using the Synology sign in service.

    The server hardware that was hosting Seadrive still has containers and VMs for a web proxy, pihole, my security camera server, qbittorrent-nox. I have a mikrotik router that feeds traffic back and forth.

    If none of those things make sense to you even if you look them up, you should use a prebuilt. If you can make a guess how I’m using the things, you might be able to roll your own.

    • Bronzie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      10·
      6 days ago

      I agree.

      It’s easy to forget how much time and dedication running a custom setup can cost, and that quickly drains whatever wife-acceptance-factor you had left.

      Think of paying for a pre-built NAS less as just overpriced HW, but more as great software features that work out of the box and a dev team improving functionality for you every day.
      It can host a plethora of containers with ease on the side anyways, and if you need something specific that requires more juice: build that on the side and tinker with it.

      N100 mini-PC for instance can host anything but heavy game servers for <15W.