Deploying and management
What do you mean the learning curve has a gradient of 90 degrees?!
While NAS is traditionally used for creating a central storage repository, our chosen NAS distributions can be tweaked to take on much greater responsibility. You can turn them into a media streaming system for instance, or add an anti-virus to test the integrity of the stored data. Because these distributions don’t feature a graphical desktop environment, your only choices are to either configure everything by hand from the shell, or use the web-based administrative interface.
As important as all the other features are, we also don’t want a distribution that’s impossible to work with because of its unintuitive interface. We also don’t want the interface to be so simplistic that it doesn’t make it possible for you to adjust any settings.
EasyNAS 4/10
Once installed, you’re dropped into a shell from where you can carry out common administration tasks such as changing the admin password or defining a custom IP address. You can access the web interface by going to http://<ip-address>:1443. Ignore the port number and just point the browser to the specified IP address and login with your admin password.
The search bar at the top of the sidebar can be used to look for strings under Filesystem, Volumes, Users and Groups. That is, you can’t use it to bring up the NFS settings by typing NFS in the search bar. The sidebar provides easy access to all configurable elements of EasyNAS, split into different headings such as System Storage and File Sharing. You can look up entry-specific help by clicking an entry in the sidebar, and pressing the blue question-mark button on the top-right.
FreeNAS 9/10
The BSD-based FreeNAS, like all the other distros on our list, requires no input from the users during installation. As with EasyNAS, you can use the console to configure network interfaces, DNS, and tweak a few other settings. You can access the different elements such as Sharing and Plugins using the buttons at the top of the interface, or the sidebar. Where possible, the sidebar expands to reveal sub-menus, such as Groups and Users under Accounts.
As a safety feature, the distribution enables you to input the public SSH key for all the users. When you install a new plugin, it’ll automatically be added to the sidebar under the Plugins heading. You can configure the different services by clicking Services button. The distribution makes it possible to start services with a single click, and even gives you a choice of which services you want to start on boot.
NAS4Free 9/10
The NAS4Free console enables you to configure some basic elements such as the network interfaces, but you must use the web interface for the bulk of the operations. But unlike the other web interfaces, NAS4Free doesn’t have a sidebar. Instead, it features tabs at the top, and hovering the mouse over these reveals the configurable elements within.
Unlike the other distros, NAS4Free provides information for many configuration options such as when tweaking the CIFS/SMB settings. You can click Diagnostics>Logs if you want to read a report on the everyday operation your NAS. The interface also features QuiXplorer, a complete file manager.
If you have a UPS for your NAS machine, you can configure that from under the Services tab. It also offers LDAP and active directory support out of the box.
OpenMediaVault 8/10
The Debian-based OpenMediaVault features a Curses-based installer and requires constant input from users, asking the timezone, domainname, hostname, keyboard and so on. Unlike the other distros, it doesn’t always inform you of the IP address at which you can access the web interface. You also don’t get any console configuration options like you do with the other distributions.
The interface features a sidebar from which you can access the different components such as Access Rights Management, Storage, Diagnostics and Services. You can enable and configure the different services such as NFS, FTP and rsync by clicking the relevant entry on the sidebar. Before anything else, however, you must first add storage disks and mount them. The interface prompts you to apply the settings every time you make changes.
Rockstor 9/10
The CentOS-based distribution ships with the Anaconda installer, which is a major overkill since all users can do is set a root password during installation. As with the other distributions, everything else such as using DHCP for configuring the network card, is done automatically by Rockstor.
The Rockstor web interface is similar to NAS4Free and features the different components on the top. The sidebar activates once you select a component, such as Storage.
Like OpenMediaVault, Rockstor supports a vast array of plug-ins that can be used to extend the distribution beyond its humble NAS offerings. Its use of Btrfs provides useful features like backups and snapshots, but its reliance on Docker for the plug-in system requires some getting used to. The distro also doesn’t require as many resources as FreeNAS.