I'm trying to get into the world of home file servers (or an NAS, I'm not really sure what the difference is) and there's a lot of information on how to start. There are a few things that I would like to see, get a feel for, and hear other peoples' opinions on.
What are some of the best applications for this type of activity??
I hear a lot about Samba, but one of the things that I'm hoping to eventually find is something that actually is not compatible with Windows. Security is a need, and since I own no Windows computers, I do not need someone else "stumbling in". My line of thinking may not be entirely correct or warranted because this is not a topic that I'm familiar with whatsoever, so please try and bear with me.
Another big thing for me is something that can handle a relatively large amount of data. Since the smallest HDD I have that's being used is 1 terabyte and I have over 700GB of data, being able to move large amounts of data is pretty important to me.
Another thing that is important is obviously the ability to access this data from a non local network. So if I have a file server at home, but need to access certain files from a separate computer in a different city, that this is possible but remains secure, in a manner that only the person/people that I deem fit can have access to this.
Any information or general thoughts and ideas regarding anything on starting a home file server would be appreciated, including past experiences and do's and don'ts.
I would use bsd or solaris derivative operating system with ZFS such as freenas or likes.
As for network part, exposing stuff to internet comes with inherent risk.
You can minimize it by patching and other good security practices.
REST api should be available for https access on most such solutions.
This way you can expose one port to internet and have a user with limited access.
In my opinion, for home user, ZFS provides enterprise level features at zero cost, cannot be matched with anything else.
As for speed, it all depends what do you buy hardware wise and configuration.
What do you need in what time
With ZFS filesystems (for read operations) it's all about the amount of memory for arc, followed by L2ARC on low latency ssd and mostly slow rust behind for capacity.
I'll be checking this out. I really wanna look at all my options before I set on learning something in great detail, which was the whole point of this thread. I know that there isn't just a whole lot of people who have and use home servers, but there's enough people that do that there should be a decent amount of insight on what all my options are. I really appreciate your time and insight, it gives me something to consider, and I'll be looking into it immediately.
Home servers are a huge market now, you are correct that a NAS is a kind of home server. You might not have realized wireless routers, etc are also servers, not just hardware, with important software elements like DNS and DHCP daemons. Some wireless routers can even do NAS via a USB port.
As for what a home server does, that depends entirely on what you need it to do. It can do anything any other computer can do. It can host files, game servers, network daemons, terminals real and virtual, and more. Describing all your options would be to enumerate the universe.
As for which, and how you implement it, that is to some degree a matter of taste.
