I’m really looking into building a NAS for my Mac. I got the 256gb MacBook Air and currently back up the machine using a nvme drive over type c but having to plug it in to access video files and backup every couple days is not ideal. With how cheap physical storage is now, a NAS seems like a good solution. Does anyone have a NAS at home and can share the software and hardware needed to make it run smoothly?

  • SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I use a Synology DS920+ And have been very happy with it. I have time machine running for several MacBooks. I also use it as a Jellyfin server.

    The Synology setup is easy and it is smooth to add new drives. Just remember to add the smallest drives first. If you have two 4 tb drives setup, don’t buy a 2tb drive to add more space, but going up to an 8 is no problem.

    • tunetardis@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      We have a couple of Synology NAS at the office (I forget the models). One is geared towards data sharing on the LAN and the other is used by our off-site employees. We managed to get a git server running which is nice, but that’s an interesting idea to use them for Time Machine. As it stands, we just issue everyone a personal TM external drive and call it a day, but I might look into this.

      • SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It was pretty easy to set up. There was a time machine setting somewhere that makes it so the Mac will just see it as a viable backup location.

        Having everyone’s TM on the NAS would make it easy to set up some sort of offsite mirror as well.

        I just googled Synology Time Machine setup or something and there were a ton of guides.

  • korewafap@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I use unraid and used it for Time Machine back ups.

    I also use it for smb shares. For captureone libraries and apps, like renpy games

    Start with 2 8tb wd red they’re 122$ on Amazon right now. One parity and one data. You’ll have 8 tb to use.

    Then pick up and eBay pc 8th gen or more from dell or Lenovo or hp for about 200. 8th get i5 allows a good plex setup for media sharing

  • dont_even_bother_@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I had a home built NAS running first FreeNAS and then Ubuntu, but eventually switched to a Synology which I am very happy with. Saturates my 10gb network and is super easy to manage and set up stuff like network time machine volumes.

  • probably_dangling@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    The easy thing is to get a NAS like Synology or Terramaster. You can definitely build one from tutorials online, but I’m at a stage in life where I don’t have the time.

    I have set one up for Time Machine in the past, but have switched to CCC direct to the NAS.

  • BoomBoomLemon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Some good options here. I’m a fan of TrueNAS from iX Systems. Very easy to build your own but I’ll admit my last box I just bought their mini and put in my own disks.

    I’d avoid QNAP although they’ll do the job.

  • SomeRandomAnon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    My router has a USB port and supports time machine backups over Wi-Fi. I just connected an external hard drive and it works very well. It ended up being the easiest solution for me without needing to invest in a whole NAS.

    • Shad0w@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If you aren’t already, you may want to use a solid state external drive or be sure that your router it allows the hard drive the sleep. I killed 3 external drives by doing this before I realized what the issue was.

      • SomeRandomAnon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I did notice that it wasn’t sleeping properly, so I just SSH in and kill the offending process as needed. The issue only comes back following a restart, but otherwise the HDD works great. The disk is asleep unless I am actively backing up or using it.

        I also have an offline external SSD I use as a redundant backup to be safe.

  • Shad0w@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If you want something more turn-key, go for a Synology box. Go for something with at least 2 drives like a DS220j for less than $200 or the slightly better DS223 for about $250. Just pop whatever drives you want in there, I’d suggest server-grade, NAS drives or SSD for better reliability. Setting this up to work with Time Machine is very easy and there are tons of walkthroughs online for setting that up.

    For a more DIY approach, you can build a TrueNAS box (formerly FreeNAS). Tons of tutorials you can follow online that will tell you everything you need to go this route.

    One thing to note, a NAS will only be available on your home network without additional configuration. TailScale is my recommendation if this is something you want to do.