What to do with spare NAS computers?

Hi everyone,

Am hoping to get your thoughts on my current build/s as I've been contemplating on what to do.

Over the past few months, I've been fortunate to receive a few free PC's that I plan to build as NAS servers. After some fantastic help from this group, I managed to install OMV 6 and am now using this to store my own family photos. There are three more PC's with different specs and I'm unsure what they should be used for. The plan is to use one primary 24/7 NAS server and the other two when needed; as in I'll turn these on for specific use cases. Also to save money, I'd like to invest only NAS drives for my 24/7 server and use regular drives for the other two PC's.

This is what I'm thinking:

1. Custom build: i5 9th gen with 16gb RAM

• Will be on 24/7 and run everything from Home Assistant, Pihole, Virtualisation, File storage etc.
• NAS drives such as WD Red's will be used.

2. Dell Precision T3500: Intel Xeon W3530 with 6gb RAM - Also has Win 7 Pro license

• Because the Precision T3500 has a Win 7 Pro license, I'd like to make the most of it so that I can use Hyper-V once I upgrade to the Win 10 Pro license; this is so that I can install OMV on it and use it as a Jellyfin server with remote access.
• Will be turned on only when needed.
• Regular desktop drive will be used.
• Am very new to NAS building so in case I don't prepare remote access properly, I won't lose much if it's only movies.

3. Dell Vostro 460: i7 2nd gen with 8gb RAM

• No clue what to do; any ideas? Maybe a NAS server to backup my own personal PC with time machine???
• Will be turned on only when needed.
• Regular desktop drive will be used.

Alongside all this, I'm also unsure if I should use Truenas or OMV; yes I know this is an OMV forum so I'd like to get other people's experiences using Truenas or even Ubuntu Server. Truenas has ZFS which is a bonus and because my custom build and Dell Vostro 460 both fulfil the requirements for Truenas, I thought this might be good. OMV has been great so far so I'm torn on what to do!

Again I'm very new to NAS building and would love your thoughts on what I've suggested. Is this a good idea? Any I should change?

Hi ryecoaaron,

Thanks for your reply! Wow I didn't know OMV also had ZFS; that's really good to know.

There's been debates on which system has the best NAS operating system, hence why I asked. Am now leaning towards OMV again if it supports ZFS as well as having the ability to install the Ubuntu kernel.

Haven't tried any virtual machines other than Virtualbox on Win 10. Only thought of using Hyper-V because it's free with the license; am unsure how it performs overall compared to KVM.

Ok cool sounds like a backup OMV box might be a good one. Is it best to use something like Syncthing or Time Machine?

Actually the Jellyfin server with remote access is one that I'd still like to do since I can watch movies on the go. My only concern is trying to figure out how to create a proxy server so that it's as secure as can be.

Again appreciate your comment!

Hi Soma,

Thank you! Have heard of horror stories of PC's being hacked because of poor remote access setups and that put me off.

Never heard of SWAG; I might have to look into this. Care to share the post or a good tutorial for that? Hope it's easy enough to understand.

What else has everyone been using for their spare NAS server? Has anyone used this as a gaming server to stream games from Steam?

Hi ryecoaaron,

Thanks again! Ok will check out rsync.

Will probably ditch hyper v and check out KVM. 🙂