Learn NAS - History, Background & Why You Need a NAS

#Introduction

Before building a NAS, you need to know where this technology came from and what problems it solves. Episode 1 opens the series by tracing the history of storage: from DAS attached to a single machine, to NAS accessible by many devices over the network.

Understanding history isn't just trivia. Every design decision in a modern NAS — copy-on-write filesystems, the SMB and NFS protocols, redundancy built on RAIDZ — is an answer to real problems that emerged decades ago. If you understand why something exists, you'll know when to use it.

By the end of this episode you'll be able to position NAS among DAS and SAN, tell the different generations of NAS platforms apart, and judge whether your needs really call for a NAS or whether local storage is enough.

#The Evolution of Storage: From DAS to NAS

#DAS, the Limitations That Forced Change

DAS (Direct Attached Storage) is the oldest storage model: disks are attached directly to a single computer via SATA, SAS, or USB. The main problem is obvious — data gets trapped on one machine. To share files with another computer, you had to copy them over physical media or run a file server on top of a desktop operating system.

As more computers appeared in offices and homes, scattered storage patterns spun out of control. Backing up meant manual copying, file versions got messy, and a single disk failure could wipe out important data without a trace. DAS remains relevant for high-speed local storage, but it doesn't answer the need for sharing.

#The Birth of Dedicated NAS in the 1990s

In the 1990s, vendors like NetApp and Synology started selling NAS appliances: dedicated devices with an embedded operating system, designed solely to serve files over the network. Instead of installing a desktop OS and patching it to share files, these appliances spoke SMB and NFS out of the box.

This model was a huge success in both enterprises and households. Synology and QNAP proved that people would pay for centralized storage that's easy to manage through a graphical interface. NetApp dominated data centers with the WAFL filesystem and mature enterprise protocols.

#SAN, the Parallel Enterprise Path

In the same era as the birth of NAS appliances, enterprises developed a different path: SAN (Storage Area Network). Instead of sharing files, a SAN shares block storage over high-speed networks like Fibre Channel. NAS continued to serve file sharing, while SAN handled databases and block workloads demanding high performance and availability.

It's important to distinguish the two from the start: NAS speaks in files using SMB and NFS, while SAN speaks in blocks using iSCSI or Fibre Channel. This understanding will come in handy again when we cover iSCSI in episode 11 and compare all three in episode 22.

#Open-Source NAS and the Homelab Era

#FreeNAS Becomes TrueNAS SCALE

In 2005, FreeNAS was born as an open-source NAS based on FreeBSD, bringing ZFS as its flagship filesystem. The project grew into iXsystems with two lines: TrueNAS CORE for general hardware and TrueNAS Enterprise for vendors.

In 2022, TrueNAS SCALE emerged as CORE's successor: it moved to a Debian Linux base, kept ZFS, and added container apps, KVM virtualization, and broader cluster integration. Its latest version, TrueNAS SCALE 25.10 (Goldeye), was released in November 2025, with the stable 25.10.2 release in February 2026.

truenas version

The truenas version command shows the release running on your NAS. Getting into the habit of checking versions early will help when we discuss patch management in episode 15.

#OpenMediaVault and Unraid

On the other side, OpenMediaVault offers a lighter approach: Debian-based, plugin-based, and without a ZFS lock-in, making it a good fit for small hardware. Unraid takes a different route with flexible parity disks that allow combining disks of different capacities. Together, these three have become the pillars of the open-source NAS ecosystem in the homelab.

This philosophical difference matters: TrueNAS SCALE pursues maximum data integrity, OpenMediaVault pursues simplicity, and Unraid pursues flexibility when adding disks. Choosing a platform always starts with one question: what are your priorities?

#The Problems NAS Solves

#Centralizing Data Across Devices

The first problem a NAS solves is centralization. Instead of data scattered across laptops, PCs, and phones, all files live in one place that any device can reach over the network. This simplifies synchronization, collaboration, and version control.

smbutil view //192.168.1.100

The smbutil view command lists the SMB shares served by the NAS. This is how centralization works: one source, many consumers.

#Redundancy and Data Protection

The second problem is redundancy. With ZFS RAIDZ or mirroring, data is written with parity and checksums so that a single disk failure doesn't mean lost data. Periodic scrubbing ensures the stored data truly matches the original data.

#Multiuser Access and Centralized Backup

The third problem is multiuser access through open standards like SMB and NFS, plus centralized backup for all devices. A single backup policy on the NAS covers every device in your home or office, replacing the fragile per-machine backup pattern.

rsync -avh /home/devnull/proyek/ user@nas:/backup/proyek/

The rsync command above copies a directory from a workstation to the NAS. This is the pattern we'll build out more fully in episode 12.

#When You Need a NAS

Here are some signals that you need a NAS:

• Data is piling up across many devices and it's hard to find the latest version.
• Manual backups are often skipped and not centralized.
• A media server like Plex or Jellyfin needs one large storage location.
• Self-hosting services like Nextcloud, Gitea, or Vaultwarden.
• A small team needs file sharing with controlled permissions.

If your need is only single-machine storage, DAS or an external disk is still perfectly valid. But as soon as sharing, redundancy, or centralized backup needs appear, a NAS is the right answer.

#Closing

In this episode 1 you traced the evolution from DAS to the NAS appliances of the 1990s, met open-source lines like TrueNAS SCALE, OpenMediaVault, and Unraid, and understood the five main problems NAS solves: centralization, redundancy, multiuser access, centralized backup, and media server.

Key takeaways:

• DAS locks data into a single machine; NAS centralizes it over the network.
• NetApp and Synology popularized NAS appliances in the 1990s.
• TrueNAS SCALE is FreeNAS's Debian-based successor with ZFS.
• OpenMediaVault and Unraid offer light and flexible alternatives.
• NAS answers centralization, redundancy, multiuser access, and centralized backup.

In the next episode, episode 2, we'll break down the core concepts and main architecture of a NAS — from the storage engine, the sharing layer, to the management UI — and compare dedicated appliances with software NAS. Get your lab ready, because we're starting to get into the technical foundations.