Need help with NAS

praveenkumarkm

praveenkumarkm

Beginner
Hi All, I am new to home server, and I would like to move from Google Photos to Immich.

Can someone please let me know which is best in the long run: an OEM NAS, such as Synology, or DIY NAS storage?

I would like to have my baby's photos available and don't want to miss them, as one of my Seagate external HDDs got corrupted in the past, and I was unable to recover many of my photos.
 
Whatever solution you end up with, make sure that you backup the photos to a cloud source as well.
OEM NAS = Expensive but more convenient
DIY NAS = Cheaper to setup but you'll end up spending time setting it up
 
Option 1, Get any somewhat modern cpu based 2 bay nas and enable mirror raid. And backup to any cloud service in encrypted way.

Option 2, Get any sff case and use truenas scale.

Option 3, get mini pc with 2 nvme slots and use unraid os.
 
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The way synology is going about - its better to go for DIY approach. Makes no sense to pay for the hardware and then be locked down to their disks.

Ensure you are taking a backup on cloud - use something like Backblaze B2 or Wasabi.

Additionally - check the storage needed. If you can manage with 200GB yearly using storage saver - Google Photos is a way better option. many people store the photos at full res, not needed if you are going to consume them without much zooming in.

You could also look at https://ente.io/ as an alternative to Immich
 
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If you want more storage and option to expand drives in future then DIY.
If you want no nonsense setup then go for any NAS in the market. In the end its a ease of use vs expansion use case considering ₹₹₹. Synology has made some bold moves t antagonize users so make of what you will.
For DIY, truenas, unraid and OMV are great software OS.
 
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ibose said:
Agree. And you can install the same UI usong Xpenology as long as you make your H/w selection a little carefully.
Click to expand...

I would not advocate xpenology - its in a gray area.

Instead use something which is truly open, there is no shortage of options.
chetansha said:
get a used Raspberry Pi with 2 or 4gb ram, build a NAS using Open Media Vault, attach external HDD ( better to have it in ext4 format) to the NAS. Thats what i have done now.
Click to expand...

Yes. Had been using this for ages, with the boot drive separate and HDD 3TB seperate. Now moved to a mini PC.
 
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Thanks, everyone for your inputs.

I thought to set up by myself and was thinking to buy a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 GB RAM last week. When I was reading a few articles and a few posts on Reddit, it was mentioned that Raspberry Pi is not recommended for use as a NAS for the price, performance and power it uses. So I was having a confusion to go with a Synology or DIY approach. Given the above feedback, I will proceed with the DIY.

I have exceeded the Google Photos 100GB limit in less than a year. So I was thinking of moving towards some open source DIY approach.
k_m_Arya said:
Is it just setup and forget or do you update periodically?
Click to expand...
i can do periodic updates and manage the node.
 
I am using immich on unraid (permanent lisence with updates. None of the subscription stuff) on a r5 3600 and its been great. I would say buy any cheap second hand cpu, mobo and RAM. Anything from the 7000 series on Intel is good enough. You'll want nvme support on the mobo and atleast two pcie x16 slots even if the second one is wired up for x4 or through the chipset. That's fine. One for a graphics card to do video encoding and transcoding, think netflix alternative like jellyfin. Second pcie slot for adding a riser card that can extend to 8 or 16 sata ports when you run out of what's on your motherboard (usually 4 to 6)
Need a big ssd cache or loading takes a while.
You'll also need decent speed internet at home and tailscale or some other VPN to be able to access your images when outside the home network.
As far as setup software side, it's got a steep learning curve at first but you can just follow SpaceInvaderOne 's video guides on YouTube and get there.
Edit: spellings
 

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karanwk said:
I am using immich on unraid (permanent lisence with updates. None of the subscription stuff) on a r5 3600 and its been great. I would say buy any cheap second hand cpu, mobo and RAM. Anything from the 7000 series on Intel is good enough. You'll want nvme support on the mobo and atleast two pcie x16 slots even if the second one is wired up for x4 or through the chipset. That's fine. One for a graphics card to do video encoding and transcoding, think netflix alternative like jellyfin. Second pcie slot for assing a riser card that can extend to 8 or 16 sata ports when you run out of what's on your mobile (usually 4 to 6)
Need a big ssd cache or loading takes a while.
You'll also need decent speed internet at home and tailscale or some other VPN to be able to access your images when outside the home network.
As far as setup software side, it's got a steep learning curve at first but you can just follow SpaceInvaderOne 's video guides on YouTube and get there.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for the detailed info
 
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As others said, the solution depends a lot not just on the system's capabilities but also on how comfortable you are with tech (mostly point and click for something like Synology) or something a bit more involved (ex: self-managed Linux NAS). Software like OpenMediaVault (OMV) make the whole thing relatively easier and there are a lot of options for hardware depending on budget, power requirements, drive capacity, etc... Most importantly, keep a complete backup either in the cloud or on a separate storage.
 
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