Hello NOTS community! I’m looking for some recommendations for an open source block storage solution. Most of my home PC’s are only running a single ssd and a few have multiple. I have quite a few leftover 3Tb HDD and was looking to set up a home storage server for backups, long term storage and whatever else becomes useful. I have been doing some research and I have found that CEPH or FreeNAS would be my best options and was looking to see if anyone had any insight to offer.

I also have 2 storage VPS’s with 500Gb each if that could be integrated. 

I've heard good things about FreeNAS, but I don't have any experience with it myself. I've never heard of CEPH before. I'll look into both of them this weekend when I have some time to gather more information.

Alright, I tried making a video about FreeNAS yesterday. The first take wasn't good enough to publish, but I can say that FreeNAS is pretty easy to install, if heavier than I would have guessed.

I'm not sure about integrating external storage.

Okay, today I recorded again and ended up with a good video about FreeNAS. Their new UI is turning out great! Of course, if someone with some CEPH experience could tell us how it's different, that would be great, or maybe I'll look at that too at some point. Hopefully this is at least somewhat helpful to you, though. https://nerdonthestreet.com/episode/tech/freenas-installation