TrueNAS or unRAID

I build a TrueNAS Scale server a couple of weeks ago, mainly to be used for Plex.

I have set it up mostly working to rip my Blu-ray disks and automatically download new “Linux ISOs”, but with no experience with Linux, I have been struggling setting up permissions and other things via command line. Most videos on YT are from previous versions of Scale, which they are hard to follow.

I currently maxed out my 8TB array, (2 HP OEM 7.2k and 1 WD Blue 5.4k) one is in parity, but I just found out that it’s not as simple to add drives to a pool in ZFS.

I have 2 WD Red from an old MyCloud system I had laying around, which are the ones I want to add to the array. All of the drives I have are 4TB

I honestly do not mind starting all over if unRAID is the way to go, but not sure if that’s the smart way to go about it. I also have a 256 nvme that I would like to use as a cache drive if that means by file system would benefit from it. I just want to set it up and have it running.

Should I stick with TrueNAS or move over to unRAID? Would I see any benefits?

My set up is an i5 7600, 32GB of RAM

Any help would be appreciated

5 comments

unRAID is simpler and easier to manage than TrueNAS but requires a license:

Basic (6 disks) = 53,10$

Plus (12 disks) = 80,10$

Pro (unlimited disks) = 116,10$
- unraid also lets you add drives of varying sizes to the array (as long as it's as big, or smaller, than the parity drive(s)). ZFS stuff doesn't really let you do that.
I have no experience with TrueNAS, but I have been running unRAID for more than a decade and I really like it. During that time I've upgraded my hardware twice and unRAID required zero reconfiguration.

It "just works", and there are a million and one docker applications available on the "app store" that are extremely simple to install and use.
I use Unraid because everything I want is built in. I also save a lot of power and hard drive wear. Due to the array architecture, all of the HDDs are spun down most of the time. Out of the box Wireguard and automatic remote flash backup are a blessing. Had a major headache from all the NAS OS I've tested over the years and have never regretted purchasing a license. Besides minor problems with macvlan I had zero issues with Unraid within 3 years of usage.

Your HDD will be fine for Unraid just keep in mind that your biggest disk should also be your parrity drive. I also started with an 256GB NVME cache and it helps a lot since no HDD must be running during idle. My Jdownloader download cache, Docker images and appdate remain permanently on the cache drive and I have a plugin to back up its content to the array.
FWIW, I'd just stick to TrueNAS. I don't think you'll find an advantage by moving over from their Scale product.