NexentaStor vs FreeNAS

Solution 1:

Let's start by saying that since this is for a home lab it really doesn't matter one way or another unless you have some business need to go with one solution over another. By business need I mean to gain experience with a particular application in order to put it on your resume.

I personally do not like NexentaStor because it doesn't provide an UI based way to limit your storage traffic to either a particular NIC or a particular network segment. You can of course hack that in via iptables but I couldn't be bothered.

There's another option which is OpenIndiana. There are a whole bunch of different resources on the net in terms of implementing ZFS. One very helpful resource with a lot more information than your average SF reply can be found at Hardforum: OpenSolaris derived ZFS NAS/ SAN (Nexenta*, OpenIndiana, Solaris Express) . The folks are Hardforum are extremely helpful and knowledgeable and with over 500 replies to that thread you'll find a wealth of information posted by folks who actually implemented different scenarios and give an unbiased view of the pros and cons.