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
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fizzle
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •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.
PotatoesFall
in reply to fizzle • • •Yeah they have thought about backups but I'm not sure they fully understood what the best way to do it is lol
thanks!
Xaphanos
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •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.
RunningInRVA
in reply to Xaphanos • • •frongt
in reply to RunningInRVA • • •Frank Heijkamp
in reply to RunningInRVA • • •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
funkajunk
in reply to Xaphanos • • •PotatoesFall
in reply to Xaphanos • • •cRazi_man
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •youmaynotknow
in reply to cRazi_man • • •PotatoesFall
in reply to youmaynotknow • • •PotatoesFall
in reply to cRazi_man • • •Bassman1805
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •123
in reply to Bassman1805 • • •piyuv
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •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
umbrel.comabeorch
in reply to piyuv • •like this
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abeorch
in reply to abeorch • •Selfhosted reshared this.
rouxdoo
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •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).
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123
in reply to rouxdoo • • •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.
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rouxdoo
in reply to 123 • • •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.
Midnight Wolf
in reply to 123 • • •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.
kingofras
in reply to rouxdoo • • •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.
Jumuta
in reply to rouxdoo • • •Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Jumuta • • •@rouxdoo
perishthethought
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •PotatoesFall
in reply to perishthethought • • •BitPirate
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •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.
PotatoesFall
in reply to BitPirate • • •Frank Heijkamp
in reply to PotatoesFall • • •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.
PotatoesFall
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •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.