Question Looking to setup first NAS, need input

[Vicarious1]

I'm currently looking to setup my first NAS in order to reduce my dependency on large companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, etc. My intention is to use it as a personal cloud server for photo backups that can be accessed by mobile device off-site, similar to how something like Google photos works.

I don't need anything super powerful, as I won't be doing any heavy read/write work like video editing, and it's only going to be used by myself and maybe my partner. I have a good amount of technical computer knowledge, so I'm confident that I could build something from scratch, but I have a very limited amount of space, since I live in a small apartment, so I'm looking for something small and more pre-built.

So far in my research, I think something like an Asustor Drivestor lite with 2 8TB drives in RAID 1 (or the larger model with 4 4TB drives in RAID 5) with Nextcloud running on it would be ideal for me, but I would love some input before I commit to buying all the hardware.

Thanks!

 

[kanewolf]

I'm currently looking to setup my first NAS in order to reduce my dependency on large companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, etc. My intention is to use it as a personal cloud server for photo backups that can be accessed by mobile device off-site, similar to how something like Google photos works.

I don't need anything super powerful, as I won't be doing any heavy read/write work like video editing, and it's only going to be used by myself and maybe my partner. I have a good amount of technical computer knowledge, so I'm confident that I could build something from scratch, but I have a very limited amount of space, since I live in a small apartment, so I'm looking for something small and more pre-built.

So far in my research, I think something like an Asustor Drivestor lite with 2 8TB drives in RAID 1 (or the larger model with 4 4TB drives in RAID 5) with Nextcloud running on it would be ideal for me, but I would love some input before I commit to buying all the hardware.

Thanks!

I would recommend you look at Synology or QNAP. They are the leading home NAS manufacturers. They are BYOD devices, where they are sold separate from disks.
The thing to remember is that your home internet connection is very different from Google drive. Your home internet may not even have a public IP address. Your home internet requires additional configuration to allow secure connections from a remote device.
Can it be done? Yes. Is it trivial for a novice? No.

 

[cruisetung]

I would recommend you look at Synology or QNAP. They are the leading home NAS manufacturers. They are BYOD devices, where they are sold separate from disks.
The thing to remember is that your home internet connection is very different from Google drive. Your home internet may not even have a public IP address. Your home internet requires additional configuration to allow secure connections from a remote device.
Can it be done? Yes. Is it trivial for a novice? No.

Access from internet can be achieved by using VPN like ZeroTier, Netbird or Tailscale if you don't trust the built-in internet access tools.

Go to their website and see if the NAS models are supported . Tons of tutorials on Youtube for these VPN.

 

[USAFRet]

My intention is to use it as a personal cloud server for photo backups that can be accessed by mobile device off-site

Be very very careful with this.

When I first set up my QNAP NAS, I had it semi-open for outside use.
Had removed the default username/password, just because.

But it got access attempts every day, from all over the planet. Russia, China, Ohio, Portugal, etc, etc, etc.
All failed, but the hole through the router firewall was there, and attempts were made.

Not long after, I closed that hole. Anything I want to share...OneDrive/Google/Amazon

One slight misconfig, and all would have been compromised.

 

[kanewolf]

Access from internet can be achieved by using VPN like ZeroTier, Netbird or Tailscale if you don't trust the built-in internet access tools.

Go to their website and see if the NAS models are supported . Tons of tutorials on Youtube for these VPN.

I believe this is the "non-trivial" part. Definitely doable, but not obvious to a novice.

 

[cruisetung]

I believe this is the "non-trivial" part. Definitely doable, but not obvious to a novice.

It's never trivial for access from internet, especially when there are so many nas vendor security holes in the past with their built-in internet access tools. That's why I suggest those open source VPN solutions, and there are many tutorials on youtube. Zerotier being the easiest in my opinion.

 

[Vicarious1]

So, looking into this further, I've noticed that both synology and qnap seem to have mobile apps that might be able to serve this function. "Synology photos" and "QuMagie" respectively. Would these apps be able to serve the function that I'm looking for?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Not necessarily a recommendation, but I will just state my NAS configuration for you to consider some points from, and the reasons you may want to consider something similar.

My NAS is just a custom box with whatever hardware inside I could get cheap/had on hand. It runs TrueNAS Core, which is a completely free dedicated NAS operating system. I have a Samba/SMB share setup that allows file access via the private IP and username/password, just is a z drive in Windows. If you wanted to, you could setup separate shares for you and your partner with separate usernames/passwords.

For remote access, I do NOT trust any built in solution as it requires the NAS manufacturer to care about security and give you security updates for as long as you own the device. Instead I use the built in hypervisor functions of TrueNAS to run a Linux VM with openVPN inside. The only port forwarded on my router goes straight to the VPN server and requires you to have the client profile and correct username/password to connect. OpenVPN supports 2 simultaneous connections for the free version, which would be good for you and a partner. Only real consideration here is that my ISP doesn't support a static WAN address, but as long as my router doesn't go offline for a very long period of time the DHCP lease won't expire and the address it has now should remain indefinitely.

My main gripe with off the shelf NAS devices is performance related. Most off the shelf stuff runs 2 or maybe 4 drives and a very basic CPU/RAM config. Fine for average file retrieval, especially if you don't have wired Ethernet. I wanted my NAS to be quick so large transfers or full device backups don't take forever, so I use ZFS which is a combination of RAID and a ram cache. I run raidz2, which is a bit like raid6 (dual parity) but yuu can use raidz which is like raid5 (single parity) with ram cache. ZFS file system will use as much ram as you put in the system to cache reads/writes so transfers are are incredibly fast before it fills and dumps to disk.

Custom pros:
Customization ability
Upgradability/repairability
Potentially performance
Potentially feature set available
Potentially more secure

Custom cons:
Much less user friendly
More time consuming to configure, especially remote access.
Potentially less secure if you don't configure it perfectly.
Potentially

 

[USAFRet]

So, looking into this further, I've noticed that both synology and qnap seem to have mobile apps that might be able to serve this function. "Synology photos" and "QuMagie" respectively. Would these apps be able to serve the function that I'm looking for?

With QNAP, there is also myQNAPcloud

myQNAPcloud service

myQNAPcloud is a cloud service provided by QNAP for you to remotely connect to your QNAP devices and to share your files securely. You can have your own Internet hostname for your QNAP devices and also access your data remotely without the need to manually configure your router.

www.myqnapcloud.com

"myQNAPcloud Link is an innovative technology provided by QNAP for remote access to your QNAP device over the internet without changing your router settings. "
https://support.myqnapcloud.com/features?lang=en

 

[Misgar]

A word of caution. Certain Synology devices have moved to requiring "certified" drives, which reduces your choice of hard disks.
https://www.techarp.com/computer/2025-synology-nas-drive-compatibility-policy/

I followed the route taken by @NightHawkRMX and built my own TrueNAS Core RAID-Z2 systems (two in old HP servers, two in ordinary desktop PCs).

Synology and QNAP systems provide a small neat solution, but I re-use old computers for a fraction of the price.

My slowest TrueNAS Core system comprises an ancient AMD FM2 mobo picked up on eBay complete with CPU for $8. An old Lian Li case and 16GB DDR3 RAM completed the build. Obviously hard disks are extra.

A four drive QNAP or Synology box will set you back hundreds of dollars/euros/pounds.

TrueNAS is probably not as easy to set up as a Synology/QNAP box, but there are plenty of video tutorials if you get stuck.

My intention is to use it as a personal cloud server for photo backups

Don't rely on a RAID enclosure to safeguard your precious photos. Make sure you've got at least two more copies on other devices.

A catastrophic hardware failure or ransomware attack could destroy all your RAID files.

 

[kanewolf]

A four drive QNAP or Synology box will set you back hundreds of dollars/euros/pounds.

Yes it will. And it will JUST WORK as soon as you plug it in and add disks. It will support Windows, Linux, Mac without any research. It will stream DLNA. No muss, no fuss. If you TIME/EFFORT is worth something, then you need to add that into the "cost".

 

[NightHawkRMX]

With a decent guide you could install and completely configure TrueNAS in under an hour. Remote access/VPN would be more work, but OpenVPN that I use specifically is quite straightforward and quick to setup as well, the main time and effort would come from setting up port forwarding if you're not familiar with that.

I paid very little for my NAS outside of the drive array, and despite it being a decade old i7 and old ddr3 ram it will outperform a brand new shiny off the shelf nas, in fact it'll run circles around it.

But if you aren't that tech savvy and do not need high performance, it's definitely not the right option. An off the shelf buffalo/qnap/Synology etc will all work beautifully for years until the mfg EOLs it or the drives die.

 

[kanewolf]

But if you aren't that tech savvy and do not need high performance, it's definitely not the right option. An off the shelf buffalo/qnap/Synology etc will all work beautifully for years until the mfg EOLs it or the drives die.

You can have performance. Both my Synology units have RAID1 NVMe drives for cache. They both have upgraded RAM and Intel CPUs (J4125). I am limited by the network more than the NAS. Most people have gigabit ethernet. I believe any commercial unit sold today will fill a gigabit pipe.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a QNAP TS-453a. Running 24/7 since Jan 2017.
I agree with the above for performance.

Example simultaneous use...
Playing a movie out to the TV.
Music out to a PC.
Receiving a full drive backup via Macrium Reflect.
Capturing 24/7 video from the 3x house Reolink security cameras.

All simultaneous, nary a burp.

 

[Vicarious1]

Thanks for the input everyone. After reading what you all wrote, and doing some more research, I think I've decided to abandon the off-site access part of this project. It seems like it might be a little bit above my ability to setup and manage properly. So I think I'm just going to use the NAS for internal access and backup only.

Don't rely on a RAID enclosure to safeguard your precious photos. Make sure you've got at least two more copies on other devices.

I am well aware of this, I already have 2 copies of my files on various devices. The NAS would make 3, and hopefully will make transferring files around the devices easier.

I think most likely I'll end up getting something from QNAP, probably one of the 2 bay models.