In this age of rapid economic growth, data is arguably among the driving factor behind success. Storing information is of greater importance for several reasons, including backups and security. One of the best ways of storing data is using free NAS Software (Network Attached Storage) or Linux SAN (Storage Area Network) solutions.
These are free NAS Software platforms that allow the saving and retrieval of data in a structured way using network-based architectures. Linux is one of the top players when it comes to offering robust and open-source freeNAS Software. For storing data safely Linux Free NAS Software is one of the best way.
This guide will outline Advanced Linux/Ubuntu free NAS Software and SAN solutions that will make data management more accessible for both individuals and businesses. In this article we have listed down top 20 Best Linux Free NAS Software updated for 2021.
Advanced & Innovative Linux Free NAS Software
Linux free NAS Software come in all sorts of flavors, and finding the right one for your needs is the real challenge. Our editors have gone over a substantial number of choices and selected these picks based on many criteria, including popularity, development status, payback, and such. We advise you to go through each of them and determine the best free NAS Software or server for Ubuntu or any Linux NAS Software distros based on requirements.
1. Rockstar
If you’re looking for setting up a home freeNAS Software , settling with an open-source NAS software will be a good idea. It will enable you to understand how NAS servers work and allow unlimited tweaking opportunities. Rockstar is one of the top players in this regard. Their opensource solution offers powerful freeNAS features, including disk pooling, secure backups, file sharing, and robust freeNAS software integrations. Moreover, you can manage your NAS easily using Rockstar’s convenient admin dashboard.
2. Open Media Vault
Open Media Vault is a modern and robust free NAS Software built on top of Debian. It offers a straightforward way to set up freeNAS servers for home users. It features an impressive web interface for accommodating this task and makes sure users with limited knowledge of Linux or Debian can easily manage the software. It comes with default support for a wide range of standard protocols, including Samba/CIFS, FTP, NFS, Rsync, and TFTP.
3. Amahi
Amahi is another suitable free NAS Software for home users or businesses. It offers many robust and innovative features that make Amahi an excellent choice for starting NAS users. Among these include their open-source BTRFS storage, fast vertical scaling features, impressive monitoring dashboard, instant cloning abilities, and more. Moreover, they also offer plenty of in-depth, quality documentation on their site to help people getting up and running in no time. Check out Amahi if you’re looking for an open-source NAS with premium functionalities.
4. Openfiler
Openfiler is, without any doubt, one of the best open-source NAS solutions for Ubuntu/Linux users. It is developed on top of CentOS and provides a compelling file-based network-attached storage and block-based storage area network services. Openfiler’s web-based management makes it easy to administer while allowing large-scale storage operations at the same time. The software features the free GNU GPL 2 license, enabling third-party devs to modify the software based on personalized requirements.
5. FreeNAS
FreeNAS is a modern-day free NAS Software based on the FreeBSD operating system and uses the highly efficient OpenZFS filesystem. It provides a well-curated set of functionalities that make it a suitable option for both the general public and us Linux enthusiasts. The software has been downloaded more than 10 million times already and continues to be a popular NAS server choice. Some of its well-received features include easy replication, snapshots, file sharing, and an intuitive web interface.
6. CryptoNAS
CryptoNAS is one of the best Linux NAS server solutions for open source enthusiasts. It offers a substantial list of modern-day features that make large-scale data management easier for people with limited or no exposure to freeNAS. It is based on the FreeNAS open-source codebase and features the simplified BSD license. Moreover, it provides experimental support for the ARM architecture while preserving the m0n0wall/PHP of FreeNAS. Don’t forget to check it out if you’re looking for a free NAS solution.
7. Nexenta
Nexenta is another powerful free NAS Software with an extensive list of innovative features. They offer a full-fledged proprietary edition and a free of the charge community edition. We find the community edition to be more than adequate for home users. It supports up to 18 TB of disk memory storage alongside the ZFS filesystem architecture. Since the community edition is simply a stripped-down version of the enterprise product, it also receives frequent updates and bug fixes like its proprietary counterpart.
8. XigmaNAS
XigmaNAS, formerly known as XigmaNAS, is a robust free NAS Software that allows users to encrypt data smartly and effectively. It is built on top of the Linux kernel and is available either as a Live CD or as an installer package. You can quickly set up your NAS server using XigmaNAS and proceed to encrypt it. For users with limited experience with NAS security, we suggest getting the Live CD. It will act as a standard NAS server with encryption functionalities.
9. Datish Systems
The developers of Datish Systems claims it to be a deduplication based filesystem that can be used to develop personalized Linux/Ubuntu NAS servers. It offers an immensely useful cloud storage gateway and filesystem. SDF, the filesystem used by Datish Systems, can perform inline deduplication to local or cloud storage and offers numerous advanced features. Some of these features include storage space optimization, efficient scaling, and large-scale data protection. It is
10. openATTIC
Many people use Ceph for their home or office NAS due to its immense scalability and improved performance over traditional Ubuntu/Linux NAS servers. Ceph is a powerful storage platform that offers object storage on a single distributed cluster. OpenATTIC is a free and open-source monitoring and management solution for Ceph and can be used for implementing your own NAS server pretty quickly. Servers deployed on Ceph are typically faster and has only a single point of failure. Thus finding and fixing problems is very easy.
10. Linux SAN Software for Heavy Users
Linux SAN storages are the most commonly used technology by many leading cloud providers. The ability to build and manage large-scale infrastructure is what makes them stand out. We’ll go over some excellent SAN server software offered by Linux in the next section.
11. ESOS – Enterprise Storage OS
ESOS, aka Enterprise Storage OS, is a modern-day take on Linux SAN solutions. It is an open-source quasi Linux distribution built on top of the SCST project and provides robust SCSI targets using SAN. ESOS supports many different channels, including Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, iSCSI, and FCoE. If you’re looking forward to building your personalized SAN, ESOS is an excellent starting point for you. It allows you to leverage a dedicated storage OS without bankrupting you in the process.
12. PetaSAN
PetaSAN is, without any doubt, one of the best SAN storage software for Linux users. It is an extremely robust, innovative, and scalable SAN solution that allows us to create high-performing SANs conveniently. PetaSAN utilizes various cloud-based technologies to achieve its goals, and the result is a top-notch SAN platform for both home and enterprise users. PetaSAN balances the disk access loads very cleverly and can offer much faster load time than many traditional Linux SAN software.
13. OpenIO
OpenIO is a compelling object storage solution that can be used for building high performing and hyper-scalable IT facilities. It is a relatively recent project that has been immense momentum for the last couple of years. If you’re looking for enterprise-grade Linux SAN storage software for building large-scale storage infrastructure, OpenIO can be an excellent option for you. It is a subscription-based proprietary solution but offers an open-source edition for home users who aren’t willing to buy the paid version.
14. Open vStorage
The Open vStorage project is considered the fastest multi-datacenter block storage by many. It has shown some outrageous performance feats like supporting 500,000+ IOPS per machine, 50,000,000 IOPS per rack, and Geo-Scaling abilities. Open vStorage also supports efficient VM/vDISK policy level engines, full recovery pools, public/private clouds, and many more. If you’re looking to set up a secure, fast, and reliable SAN with an efficient and flexible feature set, Open vStorage is a must-try.
15. OpenStack
Any list discussing storage solutions can’t be completed without mentioning OpenStack. It is a modern, innovative, and immensely popular open-source collaboration suite that facilitates network-oriented storage. It is one of the fastest-growing open-source NAS and SAN collaboration and is already used by industry leaders like Paypal. It provides many flexible components for creating, computing, and controlling network storage resources. The community is thriving and full of new ideas that may lead to the next generation of storages.
16. OviOS
OviOS is one of the most efficient Linux SAN solutions for starting Linux users due to so many reasons. It is a specialized Linux distribution that allows users to create the fastest and easiest to use storage networks. OviOS abstracts away technical details and enables users with little or no knowledge about Linux, NFS, SMB, or iSCSI protocols to create a fully functional SAN. The software is free to use and can be easily installed on most Linux distributions.
17. TurnKey File Server
TurnKey is a thriving open source collaboration suite that offers more than 100 tools for creating and managing personalized Ubuntu/Linux NAS and SAN Solutions. The TurnKey File Server tool is one such utility you can use for making your next storage infrastructure. It supports quite an extensive list of features, including but not limited to its Windows-compatible network file sharing, web-based management dashboard, public and private clouds. You can also get this software for free and modify it if you wish.
18. Libvirt Storage Management
Libvirt Storage Management allows managing storage networks via storage pools and volumes. It is an open-source Linux SAN solution that can be beneficial to a large number of users. It supports a huge list of storage pool types such as filesystem pools, directory pools, NAS pools, logical volume pools, iSCSI pools, among many others. No matter whether you’re a home user or enterprise, if you’re looking for the best software for managing your network storage, Libvirt is a must-try.
19. Lustre
Luster is a straightforward yet immensely rewarding Linux SAN software you can use for creating your large-scale storage clusters. It is a particular type of parallel distributed file system which derives its name from “Linux and Cluster.” Luster is written using the C programming language and is, therefore, very high-performing. Monitoring your network storage will feel relatively easy, thanks to the LMT(Lustre Monitoring Tool). You can manage your cluster on the go and observe the feedback in real-time.
20. Raider
Raider is a compelling modern-day utility that allows Linux users to automate the Linux software raid conversion. It can create a single Linux system disk into a software raid 1, 4, 5, 6, or 10 system very quickly. Raider is aRaiderlso incredibly lightweight and doesn’t leave any significant memory footprint. So you can use this tool without having to worry about system resource overheads. Raider is publicly available for download and enables modification of the source.
Conclusion
Since many home users depend on Ubuntu/Linux free NAS Software for their data backups or media streams, our editors have compiled this guide keeping them in mind. Small to medium-sized companies can also leverage many of the SAN, as mentioned earlier, storage software. We suggest you check out Linux SAN storages for people looking for something more powerful to store their day-to-day data. Hopefully, we were able to provide you the insights you were looking for. Stay with us to get more exciting guides on various Linux software and commands.
