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Keep in touch. I'm hoping to have ~5TB allocated for buddy backup once the feature is released.

I truly relate to this. It's when the magic happens. It looks like you've been having a really good time creating unique builds and finding ways to leverage the devices and at a relatively low cost as well! This is great stuff!

Not a bad little device, especially for the "new to the DIY/NAS" community. I think we're seeing a definite move towards compact devices. The N1xx series from Intel has been a big hit for low to mid range devices which is perfect for the demographic I mentioned. Geopolitics aside, I hope to see an increase in performance over time. Thanks for sharing!

I am also blind and very interested in using a NAS with a screen reader. This is an area that does not receive enough consideration from most software vendors. Apple has been one of the most popular systems with the blind community because it is accessible right out of the box.

@ulfn, I have another question for you. What is your experience with the cooling of your newly build SFF NAS? And how about the noise?

@Dylan, another SFF NAS device: https://www.bee-link.com/products/beelink-me-mini-n150

The waiting game is not my favorite. I backed this Kickstarter project in March. Today my new Lincstation N2 finally arrived. I am really happy with it. 🙂 This will be my main HexOs server running as a VM on Proxmox.

FYI!

Creativity is like food for the "happiness center" of our brain. My natural creativity area is language, I like writing. But this computer related stuff is not far behind.

I like it anyway 😀. For someone like you, a 3d printer could be a nice adition to your toolsset. When I read your SFF journey I see a lot of experimenting and out of the box thinking.

So i had some issue recently and decided to just disconnect my server from Hex and re-add it. When reconnecting i have this page, and while I'm pretty sure that it won't wipe my drives, i just wanted to get firm confirmation that the existing pool that the drives are in will not be erased and that the drives will remain as they are. Really don't want to risk an accidental wipe. The way that the checkbox warning and other things on the page are worded it feels as though it's going to wipe them when i connect. This is likely not the case, but I am very paranoid about losing all the stuff I currently have. Thanks for your help

Wish I could but no, I don't have those capabilities machine wise, or knowledge😉 Just happy it's out there to buy...

Did you 3D print the bottom of the case yourself?

I would like to show some pictures of the older case also, since they are both very stylish. This case has a bottom part where you put the Pi, then you put the top part above 😉 That’s why it looks a bit so-so in the pictures - the top part is not properly set. If I hadn’t found a wood case for the Pi I would(!) have chosen this Akasa aluminium case: https://akasa.co.uk/update.php?tpl=product/product.detail.tpl&type=CHASSIS%20POWER&type_sub=FANLESS%20CASES&model=A-RA13-M2B Thiis isn’t about HexOS, I know, but either of my use cases could work like partners to my HexOS PocketNAS.

In the topic ”What new gear are you interested in” by @Dylan I mentioned I had a little project on the side. So I got me a Raspberry Pi 5 with 16GB RAM, with two possible use cases. First alternative is to place it in my sister’s apartment for an off site backup, together with a 5TB Lacie Rugged USB drive for storage. Second alternative and maybe more exciting is to use it for a Nextcloud setup. There is a specific Pi OS for this - Nextcloud Pi. I even found a video describing a setup like this: https://www.xda-developers.com/i-built-a-personal-cloud-using-my-raspberry-pi-and-heres-how-you-can-too/ Many years ago I bought a wooden case for an earlier version of the Pi I had also got. That never came to any use, but at least I got to know there are nicer cases out there. So with this new Raspberry Pi 5 I ordered, from Germany, a case specific for the Pi 5: https://barebaric.com/en/shop/barebaric-raspberry-pi-5-case-made-from-real-oak-or-walnut-wood-1#attr=14,2,3

Right, we're not filtering out the messages from TrueNAS yet, so those update notifications are coming from that, not us. Safe to ignore for now. We will have OS updates in the near future with the new Activity card we are adding in the Q2 update.

Currently I believe you can ignore all notifications like that. I seem to recall that the system is sending erroneous notifications

I have received notification a few times that my server needs an update, and to go to system settings to start it. Though when I go to settings I can’t find anything to do with an update. Help.

This appears to still be the behavior, but my company did pay for HexOS for easy management and now are needing to change our ISP and router... is there any way of updating the deck that you are aware of?

I just want a NAS with my old parts so they don't go to a junkyard. And I don't want to learn how to be a sys admin to do it. Also Plex. And storage. And all sorts of self hosting if I learn how. Remote backup with another HexOS user would be neato IMO.

I don't see anything wrong 😉

And also another new player in the NAS market. The Orico Cyberdata Vault NAS – Price and Release Date The ORICO CyberData Vault NAS series is expected to launch via Kickstarter in late May to early June, marking the company’s formal entry into the high-performance private cloud storage sector. While final pricing has not yet been confirmed, ORICO aims to offer a competitive tiered structure across the six models, reflecting differences in storage configurations, processing power, and expansion options. Positioned as a direct response to a wave of emerging Chinese NAS alternatives, the CyberData Vault lineup is expected to compete with recent and upcoming releases such as the UGREEN NASync DXP series, the Minisforum N5 Pro, and the Aoostar WTR Max. All of these systems target prosumer and professional users seeking hybrid storage, high-speed connectivity, and non-subscription-based private cloud infrastructure—an increasingly active space that ORICO appears intent on disrupting with its multi-model launch strategy. See full article: https://nascompares.com/2025/05/19/orico-cyberdata-vault-nas-revealed/

Also interesting: Jonsbo N10 and NV10 NAS ITX Case Revealed ‪@COMPUTEXTAIPEIshow. This are mini ITX NAS cases and you can use them for full SSD DIY NAS solutions.

After doing some reading, it seems TrueNAS does not support LUKS at all. So with encrypted datasets the data is protected when a single drive gets stolen out of a server, or returned/sold/decomissioned, but when the whole server gets stolen, it boots right up and unlocks any encrypted drives with the on board encryption keys. You can argue how big that issue practically is when the server is locked up in a datacenter, but in the world at large, that's definitely not acceptable. I hope HexOS can improve on this situation, as many home servers will be small boxes that are portable enough. It walking off is one of the more likely threats, after hardware failure and misconfiguration perhaps.

I want to add that I realize that there's a difference between encrypting your dataset, and full disk/system encryption. Encrypting your datasets prevents people from stealing your data and is arguably the most vital. Full disk encryption/system encryption prevents access to any and all (meta)data that might be on the system drive, and helps with boot disk warranty returns and decomissioning. The threat model is slightly different, but also partially overlaps, and I'd consider both valuable additions. If dataset encryption could be inherited from the system encryption in the same way a dataset can inherit encryption from a parent in TrueNAS, things would be pretty straightforward and easy to wrap your head around. Manually setting up full disk LUKS encryption is incredibly flexible, but once you start working with multiple drives and cascading unlocks overlooking or misconfiguring something becomes more likely. Having a simple GUI option for that would be great for peace of mind.