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Good NAS solution for dummies / apple users?

My parents are looking into getting their own NAS to replace iCloud. I don't really have much experience with that, and zero experience with apple stuff. They are also not very techy, but at least enthusiastic.

Can sombody recommend easy NAS products where you basically just buy a device, do some basic setup, and then it functions as your at-home cloud? I don't want to get roped into doing too much admin for them, but they do already have DDNS for some other smart home crap. Bonus if it's non-US tech.

Personally I run a nextcloud server on a VPS that I could expand, that's not quite selfhosted, I don't know if that integrates well with apple though, are they better off if I just onboard them onto that?

Cheers in advance

#selfhosted
in reply to PotatoesFall

fizzle
fizzle
• •

I've had a Synology NAS for 15 years or so, and I think it's ideal for this kind of use-case.

It has a point and click configuration UI that you access from a web browser.

There's a reasonably large ecosystem of packages you can install.

I'd have a super-serious talk with them about backing up their stuff.

in reply to fizzle

PotatoesFall
PotatoesFall
• •

Yeah they have thought about backups but I'm not sure they fully understood what the best way to do it is lol

thanks!

in reply to PotatoesFall

Captain Aggravated
Captain Aggravated
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I also have a Synology NAS. It's okay. I got a mid-range two-bay one. I could be happier with it. Also, I heard that they're going toward requiring their brand hard drives, so I'm not buying another one.
in reply to PotatoesFall

Xaphanos
Xaphanos
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I have an old surplus QNAP. I love it. Very capable, easy to setup, easy to use it and forget about it. Mine is set up for RAID5.

Be certain to get a reliable UPS for it. And have a spare drive on hand.

in reply to Xaphanos

RunningInRVA
RunningInRVA
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Please consider RAID6 or ensure your data is fully backed up. RAID5 falls flat if a drive fails during resilvering the array.
in reply to RunningInRVA

frongt
frongt
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And, because a resilver involves significant load on the remaining drives, it's more likely than you think. If you have drives from the same batch, they likely have the same MTTF.
in reply to RunningInRVA

Frank Heijkamp
Frank Heijkamp
• •

Please don't label RAID a backup because it is not. RAID 1, 5 or 6 will give you a robust drive pool that is able to recover from a failed drive.

Backups should be done on a different medium and ideally off-site.

@Xaphanos

@Xaphanos
in reply to Frank Heijkamp

RunningInRVA
RunningInRVA
• •
Well I wasn’t trying to, exactly. Just trying to convey that RAID5 is not considered reliable and that I was urging the commenter to ensure they have a backup if that’s what they are going to use. Regardless of how you configure your NAS, you can always lose data by mistake.
in reply to Frank Heijkamp

Captain Aggravated
Captain Aggravated
• •
It's not an extra life, it's another health point. Red mushroom, not green mushroom.
in reply to Xaphanos

funkajunk
funkajunk
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This. Everyone starts off thinking they'll buy a NAS and it will just exist for years to come. There is some maintenance and monitoring involved, and if you "set it and forget it", you can say goodbye to all that data.
in reply to PotatoesFall

Bassman1805
Bassman1805
• •
Synology, with QNAP as a close #2. There are other decent options, but they aren't quite as polished so they may require more "actual computer knowledge" to troubleshoot from time to time.
in reply to Bassman1805

123
123
• •
Whichever one you go with, don't expose it to the internet directly or use their offerings. They are a big target and just don't get enough security.
This entry was edited (13 hours ago)
in reply to PotatoesFall

piyuv
piyuv
• •

I haven’t used them but umbrel looks promising: umbrel.com/

I’m using a synology and as others have said, it’s pretty friendly to non-techies, with lots of point and click configurations


Umbrel - Personal home cloud and OS for self-hosting

Bring the cloud to your home with umbrelOS - a beautiful home server OS for self-hosting, and Umbrel Home - a plug-and-play home server. Install Nextcloud, Jellyfin, Bitcoin node, and hundreds of self-hosted apps in one click.
umbrel.com
in reply to piyuv

abeorch
abeorch
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I mean its running a proprietary os software and its terms of service say "the company is under no obligation to provide support or maintenance services." .. so I woukd say rather than being dependent on a random company that may disapear in a puff of smoke. Why not just use opensource software on commodity hardware and use something like #yunohost?
#yunohost

Selfhosted reshared this.

in reply to PotatoesFall

rouxdoo
rouxdoo
• •

This will be an unpopular suggestion here but why not just go all in on iCloud? It's reasonably inexpensive for not data-hoarding amounts of data, reasonably secure and E2E encrypted. Given the low cost, zero setup if they're already Apple people and lack of admin I think it is ideal for them.

I pay for iCloud storage because I want HomeKit Secure Video cloud storage (I also have a local copy on disk).

in reply to rouxdoo

123
123
• •

One reason I would give is that apple and google makes it incredibly hard to leave. I had to use some third party script (and give it my credentials or token..) Just to export pictures with the exif metadata from iOS. Even Google's obnoxious "select a few thousand pics at a time" was easier (Google takeout puts the metadata separately, so it was also not an option).

Another reason is that big tech companies are complacent with kidnappings and oppressors and don't want to give them money.

I could see apple breaking the tool or throwing their legal team around in the future if it keeps some people on their platform, why not leave while you can more easily.

in reply to 123

rouxdoo
rouxdoo
• •

Fair enough, I knew my take wouldn't be a popular one here. In all fairness if you are using Apple products the iCloud sync brings all of the metadata with the data on every device that accesses it.

While I don't have any illusions that Apple has my back they do have a lot invested in keeping people's trust in their ecosystem. The automated on-device CSAM scanning kerfuffle that they backed away from shows that they are sensitive to the threat of people leaving their walled garden.

Another fairly easy to implement local solution that wouldn't be an admin headache is to put a Mac mini with a bunch of attached storage on the network and use it as a file server. I do that for my PleX.

in reply to rouxdoo

123
123
• •

I only had an older iPhone (which I liked for the most part), but it was announced to not be getting security and related updates soon (what apple calls vintage at this point) so there wasn't much of an ecosystem once I got a different phone and exporting my pictures to my NAS, new phone, desktop and laptop made more sense.

I supposed I could lose everything if all of those burn in a house fire, but since I always have my phone on me, I'd imagine there would be more pressing matters like not burning to death myself.

Edit: I also have some stuff at my relatives, but their internet sucks, so I only sync family and more important pics there.

This entry was edited (53 minutes ago)
in reply to 123

Midnight Wolf
Midnight Wolf
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I was 110% a Google fan until about 9 years ago, when Project Fi was headed towards public release, and devices purchased from them (effectively through the Google Store with a different sticker on the box) kept mysteriously going missing in transit, and the customer got an empty box/a brick/whatever. This is annoying on its own, but G/Fi cs response to these instances were awful. As I was a Fi user (woo closed beta gang), and I bought my devices thru Fi, I became concerned that this might happen to me. That thought quickly snowballed, and I started migrating out of the G ecosystem because the realization that their cs is useless and if I ever have a dispute or situation, they can just delete my account without giving a single fuck.

To pay a company money and not receive some assurances that my data won't be wiped out of the blue while I am asleep, is - in my opinion - fucking stupid as hell. I don't know how the apple situation is, but until proven otherwise, fuck both of them for anything you care about.

This entry was edited (7 hours ago)
in reply to Midnight Wolf

123
123
• •
Forgot about that yes, heard of horror stories of people being locked out of gmail, google support being useless and losing so much time and money migrating accounts manually by having to visit banks and the like.
This entry was edited (1 hour ago)
in reply to rouxdoo

kingofras
kingofras
• •

Do a deep trace and you’ll see that all of Apples off shore data centres are Alphabet owned. There’s encryption but Apple is just renting from the least privacy focused company. Also Apples privacy is really not much more than marketing. All you need is a CEO change or hey how about the current one embracing nazism casually from his own wallet?

Low cost is the only argument here, but once you go NAS + VPN you never go back.

in reply to Jumuta

Frank Heijkamp
Frank Heijkamp
• •
It is most likely end-to-end encrypted. However do we know for sure that no one else is taking a copy of the key?
@rouxdoo
@rouxdoo
in reply to PotatoesFall

BitPirate
BitPirate
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i'm a bit shocked to read so many Synology recommendations. Are you all living under a rock or did you already forget the stunt they tried to pull off with their branded HDD vendor lock-in?

QNAP, UniFi or Ugreen would be my picks.

in reply to PotatoesFall

Frank Heijkamp
Frank Heijkamp
• •

Good to hear your parents are aware of the issues with 'cloud' services and choose to invest in a NAS. To be honest any off the shelf NAS will do. Important is to determine the storage capacity they will be needing for the next five years and add a good 50% to that number. For instance, you expect they need 2.5 TB then you should get 4 TB netto storage.

Depending on your backup strategy and how robust you want the NAS storage to be you can choose a single bay or a multi bay NAS.

in reply to Frank Heijkamp

PotatoesFall
PotatoesFall
• •

Yeah dad was already saying something like "let's just get like 10 tetabytes (sic) so it will be enough for a long time" lol

Thanks I really appreciate it, I might get back to you about the backups.

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