Why I Chose TrueNAS for My Homelab

When I started rebuilding my homelab during my recovery, I noticed that I had begun to look at certain things differently.

In the past, storage was mainly a technical matter for me. You need a hard drive, you make a backup, and if something goes wrong, you fix it.

That changed after my stroke.

I sometimes notice that I forget things. It might be something small, or something that makes me think afterwards: I should have saved that somewhere.

As a result, I have come to value backups and good storage much more. Not only because they make technical sense, but also because I want a little more peace of mind. When I create, install or investigate something, I do not want to risk losing it later.

Storage Became an Important Part of My Homelab

As my homelab gradually took shape, the question of what I wanted to do with my storage also came up.

I wanted a central place for my files, backups and other data. I also wanted a good place to store backups of my Proxmox environment.

My homelab now consists of several systems and virtual machines. That makes good, centralised storage increasingly important.

But I also did not want to build a system that I would outgrow again in just a few months.

I try to build my homelab one step at a time. That is also part of my recovery. I do not have to finish everything at once. I look at what I need, build it, and expand it later.

That is why I was looking for a solution that fits this approach.

Why TrueNAS?

Eventually, I settled on TrueNAS.

For me, the choice is not just about the technical capabilities of TrueNAS. The most important thing is that it fits the way I want to build my homelab.

TrueNAS gives me a central NAS solution for my storage. I can keep files and backups there and use the storage from my homelab wherever it is needed.

I want a system that is easy to oversee, feels reliable and, above all, can grow with my needs.

If I need more storage later, I want to be able to expand without having to rebuild my entire environment. That scalability is important to me.

That is one of the main reasons I chose TrueNAS.

Backups Have Become More Important to Me

Good backups have always been important, but they now have an additional meaning for me.

Since my stroke, I have noticed that I sometimes forget information. That is why I do not want to rely on remembering important things alone. I also want to store them somewhere safe.

This applies not only to personal files. I also do not want to lose configurations, settings, documentation and projects that I have invested time in.

My homelab has become part of my recovery. I am learning again, trying things out and continuing to build. It would be frustrating to lose something along the way.

That is why I want to make sure my backups are properly organised.

TrueNAS gives me a central place where I can organise this storage.

It simply gives me a little more peace of mind.

Not Everything Has to Be Complicated

I like being able to manage a lot of things myself with TrueNAS.

That suits my homelab. I enjoy figuring out how things work and building my own systems. At the same time, I want to avoid making everything unnecessarily complicated.

My homelab is not a professional data centre. It is my own environment where I learn, test things, experiment and sometimes have to do something again because it does not work properly the first time.

That is part of the process.

And precisely because I sometimes forget things after my stroke, I find it helpful not to keep important information only in my head. Good storage and backups help me with that.

My TrueNAS System

For my TrueNAS system, I chose a RAIDZ1 configuration with five hard drives.

This gives me a solid foundation for my storage environment. The system is intended for backups, files and other data that I want to keep within my homelab.

Backups of my Proxmox environment can also have an important place here.

RAIDZ1 gives me a good foundation for my storage. It is not a replacement for a backup, but it does help make my storage environment more resilient.

That distinction is important to me.

A RAID configuration does not protect against everything. That is why I want to continue treating storage and backups as two separate considerations.

Scalability Matters to Me

One thing I like about this choice is that I do not have to plan everything in advance.

My homelab continues to change.

Perhaps I will add more storage later. Perhaps I will use TrueNAS for other purposes. Perhaps new systems will be added that need storage.

That is precisely what I like about the way I am building my homelab now.

I can start with what I need today and expand later.

That matters to me. I do not want to have to start over every time my needs change.

More Than Just a NAS

For me, TrueNAS is therefore more than just a NAS.

It has become part of the way I am rebuilding my homelab.

After my stroke, I had to learn and rediscover many things. My homelab has become part of that process, too. It gives me something to work on and allows me to keep exploring my curiosity about technology.

Perhaps that is why I look at things differently now than I did before.

A backup is no longer just a technical precaution for me.

It is also a way of making sure I do not lose something again.

That could be a file, a configuration, a project I have invested a lot of time in, or simply information that I might not be able to recall from memory later.

That is why I have come to value good storage and good backups more and more.

For now, TrueNAS fits the way I work well.

My homelab does not have to be perfect. It just needs to get a little better each time.

And that is what I will continue building towards, calmly and one step at a time.