Discontinous usage, Backing up the NAS and beginner question

[JoeJoe]

Hi there,

im not a IT-person. I wanted to have a NAS for a long time, and wanted to build it on my own since i hated propitary systems. I already lost a lot of data and its time get prepared.

I set up a testmachine. I'm wondering if Hex OS is the right solution for me. Maybe u can answer my questions directly or give me hint where to look for answers.

1. Does the system has to run 24/7 or can i make a routine for automatically sync data during a certain period, e.g. 2 every Sunday? With no manual interaction?

2. Can i automatically backup the data from the nas system to an external drive? Think its called cold backup.

3. May be im dumb but how to add the storage or folders on a normal machine. I tried to find its via IP etc. but i can't find anything to connect to, besides the deck. Is it too simple or am im missing background. Im very confused, since the "usual" methods of adding network storage doesnt work for me, im sure it is me.

4. Since its a testmachine, how to migrate to a new system with new hard drives?

[Todd Miller]

8 hours ago, JoeJoe said:

Hi there,

im not a IT-person. I wanted to have a NAS for a long time, and wanted to build it on my own since i hated propitary systems. I already lost a lot of data and its time get prepared.

I set up a testmachine. I'm wondering if Hex OS is the right solution for me. Maybe u can answer my questions directly or give me hint where to look for answers.

1. Does the system has to run 24/7 or can i make a routine for automatically sync data during a certain period, e.g. 2 every Sunday? With no manual interaction?

2. Can i automatically backup the data from the nas system to an external drive? Think its called cold backup.

3. May be im dumb but how to add the storage or folders on a normal machine. I tried to find its via IP etc. but i can't find anything to connect to, besides the deck. Is it too simple or am im missing background. Im very confused, since the "usual" methods of adding network storage doesnt work for me, im sure it is me.

4. Since its a testmachine, how to migrate to a new system with new hard drives?

Wow, there is a lot to unpack here.  I am a long time IT person but not a NAS or networking expert so let me hit the easier stuff and someone related to HexOS can hit the harder stuff.

1) The HexOS can be thought of as a large but active hard disc drive.  The raid choice you make will spread data among all the drives to give data recovery but don't think of the NAS as a backup unless you specifically and only set it up that way.  You can have a nice (finances permitting) desktop machine that you run all your apps and do all your work.  Once a week an app can write your data out to the NAS.  If that's what you want, get two external hard drives instead.  Those drives would be cheaper.  HexOS (built on TrueNAS) is so much more.

2) Yes you can but you will find out quickly there is a LOT of ways to do that.  I'm not sure HexOS has a baked in option but it may.  If it doesn't there are lots of app within TrueNAS.  And if you really want to go down a rabbit hole there are apps like Docker/Dockage that open up another whole world of thousands of apps.

3) If you talking adding or managing datasets/folders in HexOS you will be working in TrueNAS to do that.  That may have recently changed but I am at least one HexOS/TrueNAS update behind.

4) if you have created a HexOS NAS you can create SMB folders to import data.  That is just one basic options because there are apps that can help load your new NAS.

 

I'm not sure if I have answered your questions.  If I missed your points let me know.  There are a lot of folks here with different levels of expertise before you get to the development staff itself.  If your a first timer people are happy to help but really focused on the overall development and support of the core product.  What makes things more complicated is that a lot of work is still done in TrueNAS, not HexOS.  So a product developed to make interaction within TrueNAS less often is still pretty TrueNAS heavy.  This is probably also not the product you want if you really don't to use TrueNAS or develop a basic understanding of it.  Many solutions for adding an app will come from youtube and that is risky because they are running specifically on TrueNAS and there are new versions of the product every few months.  We have seen here that a "small" TrueNAS change can cause a lot of confusion and work for the HexOS devs.  Don't expect to be taught TrueNAS here but you will have to learn parts of it.

If you are considering HexOS  it looks like it has a lot of potential for folks who want to set something up without worry that they need to get an IT degree though you should do more research and get more opinions than just mine.  The only reason you need to look quickly is the cost of the lifetime license is currently $199 but is expected to go up to $299 when the application goes live.  There are discussions of a monthly subscription but right now most of the effort is focused on getting to the go live state.  There will be lots of news yet to come.