27 Jan 2024

I Need a New NAS

Context and Problem Statement

My current NAS, a QNAP TS-251+ with 4TB of usable space. I use about 2.5TB of the storage, so there is still some space left. When I set it up 6 years ago, I started with 500GB of used space. This is a monthly growth of about 30GB. Our current usage profile is

Automatically sync photos from our smartphones and use them as an archive
Search the photo library from both the PC and the smartphones
Sync services such as Nextcloud
Data storage for locally hosted services (Prometheus, Firefly III)
Central place to create and send offsite backups

There is still plenty of free space, but the NAS is becoming increasingly unusable. The CPU is too slow for the modern QTS operating system. The web interface is so laggy that routine operations such as updating the OS take around 20 minutes, with 18 minutes of waiting. Also, searching the photo archive on the smartphone via the QNAP apps takes ages. The QuMagic server is unusable on the TS-251+ because it clogs up the CPU.

What is more, I currently miss some fast scratch space for bigger data sets. As the CPU is so slow, any access via the network is bound by the CPU speed and not the disk speed.

The quality of the internal docker support is also rather bad. I currently have some applications still running, but the docker compose description used to configure the applications is not accessible in the Container Station UI anymore. So I can’t change them anymore.

Last but not least, I suspect that the hardware has some issues, as I observe random hard reboots of the NAS. This results in the RAID resyncing. This resync is also very slow and takes two days to complete for this 2 disk RAID.

Decision Drivers

It must be able to run Linux docker container to host small applications
It should consume very few watts of idle power
It should support hot swap disks
It should have 8TB of usable disk space
It should be in the price range of 400-600€

Considered Options

Build NAS myself and use General Purpose Linux OS
Build NAS myself and use specialized NAS Distributions
Rent a server/storage box
Buy a NAS

Decision Outcome

Chosen option: “Build NAS myself and use General Purpose Linux OS”, because I use a small set of services, and have the best flexibility

Consequences

Good, because the NAS has enough computing power to run also as small home server, or some compute intensive ad-hoc tasks.
Good, because I can use my Linux knowledge and the CLI to configure the system
Bad, because I have to spend time to set it up initially and keep it up to date

Pros and Cons of the Options

Build NAS myself and use General Purpose Linux OS

There are several guides around in the internet to build NAS with below 10 Watt idle power consumption. Asuming 10 Watt idle power, this is roughly 7,5 kWh per month, and 90 kWh per year. Assuming 35 cent/kWh, this translates to 31,50€ per year or 2,63€ per month in energy costs.

Good, because the NAS has enough computing power to run also as small home server, or some compute intensive ad-hoc tasks.
Good, because I can use my Linux knowledge and the CLI to configure the system
Bad, because I have to spend time to set it up initially and keep it up to date

Build NAS myself and use specialized NAS Distributions

Use homemade NAS hardware as above, but use a NAS distribution.

Good, because the NAS has enough processing power to run as a small home server or for some computationally intensive ad-hoc tasks.
Good, because I don’t have to spend as much time setting it up and keeping it up to date.
Bad, because they often don’t support Docker out of the box.

Rent a server/storage box

Renting a server or storage box has a higher monthly cost. In addition, we currently only have 30mbit/s upload and 100mbit/s download in our house. This makes any interactive work on large amounts of data very uncomfortable.

Good, because I don’t have to run the NAS in my basement.
Bad because the monthly cost is higher
Bad because my current internet connection is not fast enough to support fast viewing of our image library.

Buy a NAS

Buy a newer NAS from either QNAP or Synology and use their software.

Good, because I can buy a pre-built and pre-configured system.
Bad because these NAS are notoriously underpowered in terms of CPU.