Which OS platform is the best as an ad hoc SMB and backup file server?

[hajime]

Hi, for those who use Windows, MacOS and Linux, which is the best platform to serve as an ad hoc SMB file server and NAS?

I considered a consumer NAS but Synology is behaving like Apple and the other three brands are infamous for ransomwares.
Planned to build a TrueNAS system but the cost to build one with ECC RAM are expensive. I already have a powerful desktop PC for work.

Tried the Mac Mini + external drive approach. I think this approach is good as I could use Time Machine to backup and take snapshot of files from other platforms. Moreover, file transfer is faster via 10GbE than via WiFi. SMB transfer worked fine but of the three Silicon M2/M2 Pro Mini I tried, they all have some sort of issues such as unstable Wifi and 10GbE connections. I returned all of them.

Since I have no luck with the Mac Mini, I am considering whether to try another Mac product or just give up on Apple.

I don't expect to use more than 5TB within the next few years. I prefer to use SSD rather than HDD.

 

[mi7chy]

Something like ARM Linux based Odroid HC4 as a baseline then scale up to something else as needed. As far as storage capacity, 8TB SATA3 SSD is about half the cost of NVMe but 4TB NVMe is starting to undercut SATA3.

https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-hc4/

 

[ChrisA]

Hi, for those who use Windows, MacOS and Linux, which is the best platform to serve as an ad hoc SMB file server and NAS?

I considered a consumer NAS but Synology is behaving like Apple and the other three brands are infamous for ransomwares.
Planned to build a TrueNAS system but the cost to build one with ECC RAM are expensive. I already have a powerful desktop PC for work.

Tried the Mac Mini + external drive approach. I think this approach is good as I could use Time Machine to backup and take snapshot of files from other platforms. Moreover, file transfer is faster via 10GbE than via WiFi. SMB transfer worked fine but of the three Silicon M2/M2 Pro Mini I tried, they all have some sort of issues such as unstable Wifi and 10GbE connections. I returned all of them.

Since I have no luck with the Mac Mini, I am considering whether to try another Mac product or just give up on Apple.

I don't expect to use more than 5TB within the next few years. I prefer to use SSD rather than HDD.

If you are considering 10Ge and SSD RAIDs then the suggestion to use a low-power ARM SBC is not even relevant. If you care about the data, then ECC RAM is mandatory.

Yes, Synology is like Apple. That is a Good Thing. In both cases, they build premium systems that are reliable and easy to use.

Why do you need SSD? A Synology DS923+ can completely saturate a 10Ge network cable. Do you need to go faster than that? If you worry about reliability then install an on-line "hot spare" disk drive.

The only comparable thing is True NAS.

On the other hand, maybe your data is just downloaded entertainment like movies and such that you could replace if lost, and you only need to stream them at normal speeds. It that case, "anything" will work. But if this is business critical data that you can not afford to lose, then you need to choose between TrueNAS or Synology, and also design a redundant and off-site versioned backup system.

Linux works fine for this, but you have to have a solid background in Linux to convert a generic distribution into a high performance and secure NAS. And after that you have a "Job For Life" keeping it up to date. You will need a second system for development and testing changes beore you go live. This could be a virtual machine but you WILL need to test every change. This is why so many people outsource this to TrueNAS or Synology.

 

[DJLC]

Not sure I have much advice relevant to your exact situation, but I will say I've been running TrueNAS SCALE on a 2014-ish Dell PowerEdge tower for a handful of months now. I was lucky to get my hands on the tower with 32GB ECC already installed. Works great for network Time Machine + everything else I've thrown at it. It backs up nightly to a DreamObjects bucket.

I will say that if you don't regard this as being mission-critical data, you could probably get away with non-ECC. I don't think I'd care too much if it was just doing Time Machine...

 

[hajime]

If you are considering 10Ge and SSD RAIDs then the suggestion to use a low-power ARM SBC is not even relevant. If you care about the data, then ECC RAM is mandatory.

Yes, Synology is like Apple. That is a Good Thing. In both cases, they build premium systems that are reliable and easy to use.

Why do you need SSD? A Synology DS923+ can completely saturate a 10Ge network cable. Do you need to go faster than that? If you worry about reliability then install an on-line "hot spare" disk drive.

The only comparable thing is True NAS.

On the other hand, maybe your data is just downloaded entertainment like movies and such that you could replace if lost, and you only need to stream them at normal speeds. It that case, "anything" will work. But if this is business critical data that you can not afford to lose, then you need to choose between TrueNAS or Synology, and also design a redundant and off-site versioned backup system.

Linux works fine for this, but you have to have a solid background in Linux to convert a generic distribution into a high performance and secure NAS. And after that you have a "Job For Life" keeping it up to date. You will need a second system for development and testing changes beore you go live. This could be a virtual machine but you WILL need to test every change. This is why so many people outsource this to TrueNAS or Synology.

I don’t plan to use RAID. Sorry I didn’t mention it at the beginning of this thread.

I am using an old DSL modern and router which is away from my computer room. Even if I buy a DS923+ with a Synology 10GbE adapter for it, transfer speed of lots of large files over Wifi may drive me crazy.

I tried some file transfer tests between PC to Mac via 10GbE ethernet connection. I am satisfied with that transfer speed.

One of the use cases is to backup work related files on my Windows PC. I would prefer something like Time Machine so I could retrieve any version of any file whenever I like. In the past, I tried Norton Ghost (about 20 years ago), True Image (about 3 years ago) and Windows’s own backup program (about 10 years ago) but when I got issue with my systems and tried to retrieve the backed up files, these programs failed to retrieve the files.

One concern is that I don’t know much about networking security. I could build a NAS but I don’t know how to make it secure. There are lots of guides on the internet but who knows if the information are correct. That is why I chose the Mac Mini option at the beginning. Too bad among all the M2/M2 Pro Mini I have tried, they all have some issues.

 

[ChrisA]

Something like ARM Linux based Odroid HC4 as a baseline then scale up to something else as needed. As far as storage capacity, 8TB SATA3 SSD is about half the cost of NVMe but 4TB NVMe is starting to undercut SATA3.

https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-hc4/

Why do you use SSD on a NAS? It does not matter how fast the storage is if the network is the bottleneck. A RAID made of spinning disks can completely fill-up a 210 Ge Ethernet.

Maybe you want greater long-term reliability? But a RAID with "hot Spare" is nearly bomb-proof already.

The SD does have a good use-case if you are running virtual machines on the NAS. or as a boot device

 

[hajime]

I don’t plan to use RAID nor virtual machine, docker, plex, etc.

I am only interested in backup and files sharing across different OS platforms.

Not sure what SD means.

 

[bobcomer]

Hi, for those who use Windows, MacOS and Linux, which is the best platform to serve as an ad hoc SMB file server and NAS?

I considered a consumer NAS but Synology is behaving like Apple and the other three brands are infamous for ransomwares.
Planned to build a TrueNAS system but the cost to build one with ECC RAM are expensive. I already have a powerful desktop PC for work.

Tried the Mac Mini + external drive approach. I think this approach is good as I could use Time Machine to backup and take snapshot of files from other platforms. Moreover, file transfer is faster via 10GbE than via WiFi. SMB transfer worked fine but of the three Silicon M2/M2 Pro Mini I tried, they all have some sort of issues such as unstable Wifi and 10GbE connections. I returned all of them.

Since I have no luck with the Mac Mini, I am considering whether to try another Mac product or just give up on Apple.

I don't expect to use more than 5TB within the next few years. I prefer to use SSD rather than HDD.

I use all 3 and more, but I don't particularly care which I use as an SMB server, I just use whatever is convenient. Now if you count data security, I'd probaby pick a synology NAS. I use a synology at work and I have 2 here at home, but they're low user usage, long term storage type things.

Right now Mac OS Ventura has a SMB bug that impacts some people, but it should be fixed with the next release, that's the only knock. Linux is harder to set up and administer out of the box, but the NAS software might be good, never tried it.

Windows, they try to disable older SMB protocols, but that's easy to fix.

 

[hajime]

After Apple killed Bootcamp and together with the pandemic, I just use a Windows PC at home for my work as programs I use are available under Windows. Tried to use M2 Mini + external ssd as ad hoc smb file server and nas. However, all three Mini I tried have issues including stability issue with wifi and external 10gbe adapter. Apple just suggested me to wait for a few months and try again later hoping that the issues would be fixed. Alternatively, they suggested trying another model such as the more expensive Macbook Pro 16".

Actually to backup the PC, is the "smb the files to Mac and then use TimeMachine to backup" approach or just "Buy a NAS" approach better? I can’t put my router, computer and nas in the same room. That is one of the reasons I didn’t buy it.

 

[ChrisA]

I don’t plan to use RAID nor virtual machine, docker, plex, etc.

I am only interested in backup and files sharing across different OS platforms.

Not sure what SD means.

typo. SD should be "SSD"

 

[Yael-S.]

Planned to build a TrueNAS system but the cost to build one with ECC RAM are expensive.

The idea that you need ECC RAM to properly use TrueNAS is wrong. It is better that you use it and for a NAS where data integrity is important, ECC is a great added value.

But I've been using FreeBSD for over 5 years on a computer that doesn't use ECC RAM and I've never encountered a corrupt file. So the chance that you will ever encounter a corrupt file on TrueNAS without ECC RAM is very small, especially in a non-professional context.

TrueNAS or FreeBSD is the best system for NAS because it has the best ZFS implementation of any operating system, and furthermore because it has the fastest networking stack and best stability of any operating system out there.

Other systems that are also suitable for use as NAS, ranked by reliability, performance and security:
1. DragonFly BSD
2. NetBSD
3. Devuan
4. OpenBSD
5. Void Linux
6. Mageia
7. OpenIndiana
8. NixOS
9. Clear Linux
10. Artix Linux

It is also easy to install Nextcloud on TrueNAS, which offers much more functionality than Samba and it is very user-friendly.

 

[hajime]

I just created a poll. Please feel free to vote.