Useful features
What makes them special?
Hosting your own NAS requires more than mere installation of the underlying distribution and tweaking a few settings. You also have to consider other factors such as the update policy for the distribution. This is especially important because NAS distributions don’t feature a graphical desktop environment.
With EasyNAS, you can easily schedule automated backups of added volumes. Unfortunately, it lacks some of the more advanced features and can’t hook up with a directory server, for instance. And while the distribution supports many different protocols and services, you’re unable to configure any of them. However, users are able to run a simple web server, making it possible to look at and download files from a web browser.
The oldest and most beloved of the NAS distributions, FreeNAS can be easily extended with plugins. With little effort, you can quickly tweak it to run media streaming or cloud backup services. You can use its built-in Update Manager to apply system patches and new features. One of FreeNAS’s unique features is its autotune script, which automatically optimises the system depending on the installed hardware. For example, if a ZFS volume exists on a system with limited RAM, the autotune script automatically adjusts some ZFS sysctl values in an attempt to minimise ZFS memory issues. When the autotune script adjusts any settings, the changed values appear under System > Tunables. You can also schedule routine tasks with cron jobs. As an added safety feature, FreeNAS also supports rsync over SSH connections.
With OpenMediaVault, you can assign disk quotas for individual users, limiting the amount of space users can claim for themselves. You can also define per-user access permissions for every shared folder. As with FreeNAS, regular system maintenance tasks such as installing updates can be done from the web interface. OpenMediaVault provides almost all the functionality of FreeNAS and more, but through plugins.
Owing to its Btrfs filesystem, you can create Snapshots with Rockstor and even schedule the same as cron jobs. This ensures the safety of your data, and the distro enables you to identify the specific shares of which you wish to create a snapshot Because snapshots are incremental, you should have a well-designed policy on managing them or you’ll quickly run out of space.