I have a couple of home server, both with Proxmox as hypervisor, one VM with Ubuntu 22.04 that does just Docker containers, one with Open Media Vault, one with Home Assistant (HA OS) and a couple of Windows VM to do some tests.
Since I wanted to move from OMV, right now I see 2 options:
I've been using unraid for a few years. Super happy with it. Recently migrated from using their normal array to zfs since I got a hold of some enterprise SAS drives.
Been using unraid for a couple of years now also, and really enjoying it.
Previously I was using ESXi and OMV, but I like how complete Unraid feels as a solution in itself.
I like how Unraid has integrated support for spinning up VMs and docker containers, with UI integration for those things.
I also like how Unraid's fuse filesystem lets me build an array from disks of mismatched capacities, and arbitrarily expand it. I'm running two servers so I can mirror data for backup, and it was much more cost effective that I could keep some of the disks I already had rather than buy all-new.
I use proxmox with truenas scale. It's a great option, but you just have to make sure to pass the hdd controller PCI device through to the VM. This can either be the SATA controller on the motherboard if you can make that work, or a separate PCIe HBA.
What's the advantage to using proxmox and virtualizing TrueNAS in your use case?
I'm looking to setup a TrueNAS box mostly as a file server (I have a bunch of spare drives sitting around, so I can duplicate locally and then backup to a cloud provider), but also as a docker host.
(I'm also researching some setups for friends businesses with the VMware debacle - they have a year to migrate).
I have a lot of services. I use Ansible to manage many of them, so they're all in one VM. I use Home Assistant, which works best when installed as a whole VM or on bare metal. For the remaining services that I have yet to set up with Ansible, I keep the services that need the GPU on one VM, and everything else on another. Finally, I have an LXC container that is my SSH entrypoint and Ansible management system.
I could technically use TrueNAS Scale as a hypervisor for all this, but Proxmox has a lot of quality-of-life features that make it a better hypervisor. I could use Proxmox for ZFS and shares, but TrueNAS has has a lot of quality-of-life features that make it a much better NAS, so I virtualize it.
Running a Debian Bookworm hypervisor using KVM/QEMU with virt-manager for vms + Incus for lxc containers gives you a lot of freedom with how you use it.
edit: It also means you build your own hypervisor from parts - kinda like installing postfix/dovecot/mariadb/spamassassin instead of a packaged solution like mail-in-a-box. It takes more time and effort but I find I understand the underlying technologies better afterwards.
That's something I like, just plain Debian with KVM.
How is virt-manager compared to the Proxmox UI? Does it needs to be installed on a separate PC (Windows?)?
I recently switched from Proxmox to Debian Bookworm with Incus(LXD fork) as my primary setup, it's been a pleasant experience. I also like the idea of using something like Cockpit to manage VMs though haven't come to a need yet for a VM over a container. I'll also point out that Incus can handle VMs as well.
Stéphane Graber, Project leader of Linux Containers is also on the fediverse and responds to questions often.
For the hypervisor I recommend either Proxmox or XCP-ng. XCP-ng is technically a better hypervisor, but I personally use Proxmox because I like the UI.
For the NAS OS, I use and recommend TrueNAS Scale. You can run Docker containers on it. All this being said, I've never used Unsaid so I don't know how they compare.
Out of curiosity, why move from OMV? I was thinking about trying it out for a second NAS.
Out of curiosity, why move from OMV? I was thinking about trying it out for a second NAS.
It's probably a problem of not dedicating enough time to learn how it works, but I've installed a couple of time in the past years, but...I don't like it much. It seems complicated to me (still, I probably don't dedicate it enough time).
For the NAS OS, I use and recommend TrueNAS Scale. You can run Docker containers on it
Your reason to move from OMV is the same as mine for XCP-ng. It is supposed to be a better hypervisor, but I just did not like the UI at all. It doesn't help that you have to host a small VM just to have a webGUI.
While you can do a lot of the stuff that PM does via Unraid and other tools, it's all there in one spot. I love taking snapshots before upgrades, migrating machines between nodes live while I upgrade the nodes, having HA for my OPNsense and other important boxes, and the PBS backup system. I know you could do all this with other tools, but it's damn convenient in PM and "just works".
You can install a NAS vm in PM, just give it raw access to the disks you're looking to use for data, and back them up independently. Don't try to do something like overlay ZFS on ZFS.
I recently tried out Cockpit on top of plain old Debian and it was really nice. You can manage VMs and whatnot, but it's quite a bit more lightweight than Proxmox IMO.
I've never used it, but for what I've read, ai wonna try it.
I think that I'll buy a SATA/SAS controller and pass it to TrueNas/Proxmox.
I thinking about installing TrueNas as a VM in Proxmox, what do you think about it?
Oh yeah True NAS Scale is all fun and games until you find out that the Wireguard container is permanently broken because Debian changed the default interface names years ago and they're stuck with eth0 and other small but unfixable annoyances like that. To make things worse their container store depends on the charts repository that depends on another thing and 300 more repositories and fixing anything takes years.