Beginner's Questions

Good Morning. My name is Sandro and I need some tips about the OMV. I have an Asustor AS1002T NAS and, because it is weak in terms of hardware and limited in terms of software, I intend to migrate to a custom server. I bought a motherboard with a Celeron J4105 processor and an 8 GB, 2400 MHz DDR4 memory module. I chose this processor because it consumes little, is quad-core and was the least worst option I found. In addition, it is much stronger than my Asustor (which has a Marvell Armada-385 processor, dual-core 1 GHz with 512 MB of RAM).

As the motherboard only has two SATA ports, I will need a PCI-E adapter with more SATA ports. I'm thinking of using something like this (https://www.aliexpress.com/ite…ffXG&gatewayAdapt=glo2bra) with two or four ports. Is this ASM1064 controller compatible with the system? Would I have any performance issues? The motherboard's PCI-E slot is x1 2.0. I'm going to use 5400 RPM SATA HDDs, model ST4000DM004, which I already have here. I believe the bus speed would serve up to four disks. Another option, more peculiar, would be this (https://pt.aliexpress.com/item…ffXG&gatewayAdapt=glo2bra). As you can see this adapter uses the ASM1166 controller. The motherboard's M.2 connector follows the PCI-E X2 standard and probably in 2.0 as well, at the very least (I couldn't find that information). Theoretically, the bus would have enough speed to supply the aforementioned disks. What do you think of these adapters? Would the OMV be compatible with them? Would it be safe to use them?

My server will be for media consumption only, I don't need a lot of data security, just some level of reliability. Another question I have is about RAID. This motherboard and the above adapters do not have RAID and I don't mind managing disk space individually. However, I want to know if there is any possibility to combine these disks into a single volume. In Asustor there's something called JBOD which I've never used because supposedly (I never had a clear answer) it causes data to be written randomly to disks. So in case of failure of one of the disks, I could lose all the files because there is no guarantee that they would be whole on a single disk. Is there something for the OMV that allows me to create a single volume but write the files without splitting them between disks? Another thing, even without RAID support, would it be possible to create a parity system to ensure data security in case of a disk failure? And finally, is caching on a SATA SSD a possible and logical option or is it irrelevant to my use?

I think I'll buy this m.2 to SATA adapter and test. Having possibilities to expand the storage would be interesting. However I have some doubts. I've researched a few things but there are still some questions left.

For example, I use the following native applications on my NAS: Docker, Emby, ShellinaBox, Python, Java and the download manager (and torrent, which I don't use) of the system itself. Via Docker I use: Sonarr, Jackett and Deluge. I used Bazarr but it stopped working. Via Python I use: mnamer, podfox and subliminal. And I use the headless version of JDownloader.

The system tools I use are the basic settings for managing users and shared folders, firewall with auto block list, DDNS with No-IP, file browser and music/video playback through the web interface, auto mounting and sharing of USB devices connected to the system and creating shares temporary files that can be accessed over the internet. Like, I can choose a folder from my server and share it for a predetermined time. The user with the link can directly access the folder through the browser over the internet, and after time, access and sharing are revoked.

Researching I realized that, using the OMV, I will have Docker and all the applications I already use (natively or even via Docker), user control and local shares, I will be able to access and modify the files through File Browser Enhanced or Webtop. But I still had doubts about Java, download managers (JDownloader included), Python programs and music and video players through the browser. I could use all this via Webtop but I wanted to avoid overloading the system. Webtop would be my last option. And also USB device shares and temporary shares via the internet. I need something that is intuitive and doesn't involve command lines. Can these functions be replaced by something from the OMV?

Good afternoon. I decided to install OMV (version 5 and 6) and test the functions that I intend to use to replace my NAS. So far I managed to do almost everything I do on my NAS: I installed and used Sonarr, Bazarr, Deluge, Emby, JDownloader. I installed Filebrowser and was able to both preview audio and video and share folders with a time limit. I was able to combine the disks and use SnapRAID. It still remains to test the Python applications or find replacements for them and configure remote access.

However, I had a doubt. I found OMV 5's interface and usability better than OMV 6. It's like OMV 6 is incomplete. Even the settings for plugins like MergerFS, SnapRAID, Docker and Portainer seem incomplete to me. And I found it easier to manage OMV 5. My questions are: could choosing OMV 5 become a problem in the future? Is there any way to have the same interface or functionality as OMV 5 in version 6?

Well, the features are all there because I was able to do the same things in OMV 5 in OMV 6. But I felt that in version 6 they are more difficult. For example, I went to install the plugins and had to do it one by one. The checkbox that allowed selecting multiple in version 6 does not exist. Or did something go wrong with my installation? Incidentally, the lack of checkboxes also complicated the configuration of some plugins.