Rekabs

Unraid for Your NAS

Why Unraid Is the Perfect OS for Your Newly Built NAS Server

Building your own NAS is one of the most satisfying upgrades you can make to your home lab. It gives you centralized storage, the ability to run powerful services, and the foundation for automation and virtualization. But the operating system you choose determines how capable that NAS truly becomes.

For many home-lab builders — including you — Unraid is the ideal choice. Here’s why.

1. Flexible Storage Without RAID Limitations

Traditional RAID systems impose rigid requirements:

  • All disks must match in size
  • Expanding the array requires time-consuming rebuilds
  • Multiple drive failures can lead to total data loss

Unraid removes all of that friction.

You can:

  • Mix and match drive sizes
  • Add one drive at a time as needed
  • Use single or dual parity for protection
  • Access each disk individually

This flexibility means your NAS grows with you, not the other way around.

2. Docker and VMs Built Into the OS

Unraid doesn’t just store data — it runs services.

With built-in:

  • Docker Manager, making app hosting incredibly simple
  • VM Manager, allowing Windows, Linux, and GPU-accelerated virtual machines

…your NAS becomes a full-scale server.

Common uses include:

  • Plex and Jellyfin media servers
  • Home Assistant
  • Nextcloud
  • Game servers
  • Development or testing VMs
  • Self-hosted automation tools

Unraid turns a NAS into a multipurpose homelab powerhouse.

3. Speed Where You Need It With Cache Pools

Unraid’s unique cache system lets you blend:

  • NVMe speed
  • SSD responsiveness
  • HDD capacity

Cache pools accelerate:

  • File writes
  • Docker containers
  • VMs
  • Database workloads
  • Media indexing

You get the speed of SSDs and the storage of large HDD arrays without compromise.

4. An Interface Anyone Can Use

Unraid’s web interface is simple, organized, and feature-rich. You can manage:

  • Disks
  • Shares
  • Users
  • Containers
  • VMs
  • Plugins
  • Logs
  • Backups

…all from one clean dashboard.
Beginners understand it instantly. Advanced users never feel limited.

5. Expandability for Years to Come

What makes Unraid so attractive for DIY builders is how effortlessly it grows with your needs:

You can add:

  • More drives at any time
  • Additional parity later
  • More cache pools
  • GPUs for transcoding or compute
  • More Docker applications
  • More virtual machines

Your NAS becomes a modular, expandable platform, not a fixed configuration.

6. Massive Plugin and Community Ecosystem

The Community Apps plugin turns Unraid into a full app store.

Popular tools include:

  • GPU monitoring
  • File integrity verification
  • Disk preclear utilities
  • System monitoring dashboards
  • Backup and sync tools
  • Media management systems

By choosing Unraid for your NAS build, you’ve unlocked:

  • Storage flexibility
  • Container and VM power
  • A clean, modern interface
  • Speed through cache pools
  • Effortless expansion
  • A thriving plugin ecosystem

Your NAS is more than storage — it’s a foundation for everything your home lab can become.

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