razy60 Publish time 2-12-2019 04:36:58

Thinking of changing from WHS to NAS software, but which one.

Hi, I currently have a hp microserver n40l running WHS 2011 but am considering moving to NAS software.
Which would be suitable freenas or xpenology or something else?
I have only just started looking so any help is appreciated.
The reason for this is that I don't use the server for much more than media streaming/storage to Plex or Kodi and occasionally Powerdvd so WHS is being wasted plus its a bit of a resource hog.

Cheers

bubblegum57 Publish time 2-12-2019 04:36:59

I looked at freenas, apart from the, in my mind complicated setup.The N40 might not meet the specs.

FreeNAS Home Server Build

I did by a fluke manage to get dsm 6.1 xpenology installed on an old nuc. But didn't see any benefits.

I think there is talk, that xpenology is coming to end of life. But who knows.

I also looked at Open media vault, there is a good guide on youtube.

I also briefly tried ubuntu, & ubuntu server, but gave up due to my lack of technical ability.

chazman88 Publish time 2-12-2019 04:37:00

Check out unRaid.

I’ve been using it for years and has always been superb. Loads of people running it with a N40l.

razy60 Publish time 2-12-2019 04:37:01

Do any of these like freenas, unraid, xpenology, etc run off Purely the USB like a Linux os can or do they need to install some software on any of the drives, as I don't want to overwrite the WHS just yet in case of problems and if I find I dislike how it runs I want to be able to revert to WHS.

bubblegum57 Publish time 2-12-2019 04:37:02

xpenology, is just the boot up device, which open up the dsm webpage, so it just runs off the usb.

I can't remember what happened about the other ones.

razy60 Publish time 2-12-2019 04:37:03

The reason I ask is a lot of the searches I have done seem to indicate that they write something to each drive or they suggest that they create some sort of raid array.

bubblegum57 Publish time 2-12-2019 04:37:04

As an experiment, I tried to install Omv on a nuc with a single drive

The YouTube guide talked about two drives in a raid

Look at some YouTube videos to see if any of them are suitable

ChuckMountain Publish time 2-12-2019 04:37:04

Is that a particular problem in its own right though?Presumably, it has served you well for the last x years, are there any particular symptoms causing you issues at the moment?The old adage if ain't broke don't fix it could apply data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7

I would potentially be more concerned about the age of the N40L and what happened if say one of the PSU, MB etc failed, what would I do in that scenario.Don't get me wrong I love the little boxes and had an N36L when they first came out but have retired it some time ago as I needed much more space and power.

Would you consider getting a new NAS box and migrating?

razy60 Publish time 2-12-2019 04:37:05

Not a particular problem more of an experiment, I was going to disconnect the WHS drive put a version of whatever on a USB and try that. But if it starts trying to create raid arrays or writing anything to the storage drives then that would cause issues.

ChuckMountain Publish time 2-12-2019 04:37:06

Fair enough data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7

If you do move to a different OS the likelihood is that to use the full features they may well want a different disk format so you would to move the data somewhere else.
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