DietPi VS Ansible-NAS

DietPi is a lightweight Debian based Linux distribution for SBCs and server systems, with the option to install desktop environments, too. It ships as minimal image but allows to install complete and ready-to-use software stacks with a set of console based shell dialogs and scripts.

The source code is hosted on GitHub: https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi

That's a good point, but the array of devices supported by the DietPi team is extensive: https://dietpi.com/

Before someone starts the usual yadda yadda about the RPi biger community, the OS not having long time support etc. I would repeat one more time: do not rely on board vendor supplied images; this is valid for pretty much all boards. Just go to Armbian or DietPi pages and you'll almost certainly find one or more images that work on your board and forums to discuss about them with very knowledgeable people.

https://www.armbian.com/download/

https://dietpi.com/#download

Those projects are well worth a contribution, as they don't have a giant like Broadcom behind them.

> bananapi do a lot of boards but their software story has been a bit poor

This is quite common with other board manufacturers too. I'd rather suggest to ignore completely their cobbled together distros, often also tainted by proprietary modifications, that become unmaintained in a few years, and see if they're among the many supported by Armbian or DietPi.

https://www.armbian.com/download/

https://dietpi.com/#download

The full release notes can be found at: https://dietpi.com/docs/releases/v8_25/

RPi OS = diet pi https://dietpi.com/ - initial config via text file - SDcard burning out partially mitigated as writes log files to ram then flushes to SDcard reducing write cycles

You could also try very minimalistic distros like TwisterUI or DietPi which are most known for their use in the RasprebbyPi / SBC computers but which also have editions for desktop / laptop.

Ansible-NAS

Tried it a few years ago. I had some strange error when simply trying to setup an SMB share on truenas. I immediately switched to https://github.com/davestephens/ansible-nas and haven't looked back. I feel a lot more safer and in control with ansible nas.

Ubuntu supports ZFS as well. I use this at the moment which works very well. https://github.com/davestephens/ansible-nas

Right now I manage docker mule with ansible. Traefik and dashboard is autopopulated with labels ( homepage is great, ansible-nas is sometimes outdated but can be easily fixed ) .

Never used this thing but it seems popular https://github.com/davestephens/ansible-nas freenas is fine for me

Nice UI ! I’m personally using Ansible nas , I have a private fork of it and it allowed me to custom things as I like in yaml files

- NAS software and solutions: -- FreeNas or TrueNas, I heard they are good file storage solutions, but I cross them out because I read there is limited Docker or VMs support; -- Unraid, I cross it out since needs paid license I am not sure if I need all the features. Maybe I am cheapscate, but I would like to see if I can get what I need using free software first. I probably would invest if I build a proper NAS from scratch, and not reporpusing old hardware; -- OpenMediaVault. Something I am considering, but I heard it is a decent open source NAS based on Linux, has it limitations, doesn't really like USB storage and so on. -- Synology hardware. Friend has it because he knows he has no time to mess around. Don't want to go this rout since I have the hardware already. -- Roling out your own solution or using ubuntu or ansible-nas. Sounds like a great learning experience. BUT for some reason, people who create their own solution end up switching to some different framework like this guy.