NAS Server Hosting | CoreNetHub — Dedicated NAS Bare Metal with SSD Cache

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NAS Server

HDD Pool · SSD Cache · RAID 5/6/10 · 10 Gbps

Drive Config 8–12× HDD + 2× SSD Cache Core Range 32– to 64 cores (1P) RAID RAID 5 / 6 / 10 (default: RAID 6) Max RAM (1P) 1152 GB per socket Storage PCIe Gen 4 NVMe · Up to 15.4 TB Network Options 1 Gbps or 25 Gbps Unmetered

Why a Dedicated Bare Metal NAS

Consumer NAS appliances (Synology, QNAP) top out at 4–8 drives, 2.5 GbE, and 4–8 GB RAM — they become bottlenecks the moment you put them in a datacenter or connect multiple concurrent users. A dedicated bare metal NAS server gives you 8–12 drive bays, a 10 Gbps unmetered uplink, 64–128 GB ECC RAM for ZFS ARC caching, and a real server-class CPU for concurrent protocol handling. SSD cache tiers (960 GB – 1.92 TB) accelerate metadata operations and random reads without replacing the cost-efficient HDD capacity pool. Deploy TrueNAS for a turnkey UI, or use Linux with Samba/NFS for maximum control — the hardware supports both equally.

8–12× HDD + SSD Cache

64–96 TB raw + 960 GB–1.92 TB SSD

DDR5-4800 ECC Registered

12 channels · Max 1152 GB

10 Gbps Unmetered

SMB/NFS at datacenter bandwidth

Platform Comparison

Bare Metal NAS vs Alternatives

Specification	Bare Metal NAS	Consumer NAS (Synology)	Cloud NAS (FSx)
Max capacity	96 TB raw	~120 TB (12-bay max)	Scalable (at cost)
Network uplink	10 Gbps unmetered	2.5 GbE / 10 GbE LAN	Up to 10 Gbps (provisioned)
RAM for ZFS cache	64–128 GB ECC	4–8 GB	Managed (opaque)
SSD cache tier	960 GB – 1.92 TB SSD	Optional add-in	N/A
Monthly cost (50 TB)	€129 flat	Hardware + hosting cost	~$5,000+/mo
OS / software	Any (TrueNAS, Linux…)	DSM / QTS (vendor)	Managed (no OS access)

Use Case Fit

Built for File-Sharing Workloads

A dedicated NAS server is the right choice when you need shared file access, protocol flexibility, and SSD-accelerated performance — at a flat monthly rate with no per-GB charges.

TrueNAS & Nextcloud Hosting

TrueNAS SCALE and TrueNAS Core both perform significantly better on dedicated hardware than on consumer NAS appliances — more RAM means a larger ZFS ARC cache, and a real server-class CPU handles concurrent SMB/NFS sessions, scrubbing, and snapshot management without latency spikes. Nextcloud on a NAS-1 (64 GB RAM, SSD cache) serves hundreds of concurrent users with no storage I/O bottleneck.

TrueNAS · 64–128 GB ECC

Team File Server & Collaboration

SMB shares for distributed teams, creative agencies, broadcast studios, and software development environments that need a reliable, fast, central file repository. A 10 Gbps uplink means cross-connect transfers within the same datacenter reach near line-rate. SSD cache tiers (960 GB – 1.92 TB) absorb hot-file read patterns and dramatically reduce latency for frequently accessed project files.

SMB · NFS · 10 Gbps

VM & Container Shared Storage

iSCSI block storage and NFS datastores exported from a NAS server are a common pattern for VMware ESXi, Proxmox, and Kubernetes persistent volume backends. The NAS-2 (16-core EPYC 7302P, 128 GB ECC, 1.92 TB SSD cache) handles concurrent iSCSI sessions from multiple hypervisors at 10 Gbps without the per-GB charges of cloud block storage services.

iSCSI · NFS · Proxmox · ESXi

Media Production & Post

Video editing workstations, colour grading suites, and render farms need shared storage with low-latency random reads for active project files. The SSD cache tier on NAS servers serves hot assets (current project files, proxies) at SSD speeds while keeping the full capacity pool on cost-efficient HDDs. 10 Gbps uplink enables multi-seat editing over NFS without frame drops.

SSD cache · Multi-seat NFS

Configuration Guide

NAS-1 or NAS-2 — Which Tier Is Right for You?

Two NAS tiers with different CPU, RAM, and cache capacity — choose based on concurrent user count and workload intensity.

NAS-1 — Entry, Up to 50 Concurrent Users

8× 8 TB + 2× 960 GB SSD 64 GB ECC From €129/mo

The NAS-1 (Xeon E-2288G, 64 GB DDR4 ECC, 8× 8 TB HDD, 2× 960 GB SSD cache) is suited for teams up to ~50 concurrent SMB/NFS users, TrueNAS deployments with moderate ZFS ARC pressure, and Nextcloud installations with 50–200 users. 64 GB ECC gives ZFS ~30 GB of ARC cache after OS overhead — sufficient for hot-file workloads up to ~20 GB working set. Available from €129/mo in Strasbourg.

View NAS-1 plans

NAS-2 — Pro, High Concurrency Workloads

12× 8 TB + 2× 1.92 TB SSD 128 GB ECC From €299/mo

The NAS-2 (EPYC 7302P, 128 GB DDR4 ECC, 12× 8 TB HDD, 2× 1.92 TB SSD cache) handles 100+ concurrent SMB/NFS connections, iSCSI multi-initiator setups for Proxmox or VMware clusters, and high-concurrency Nextcloud/Owncloud deployments. 128 GB ECC gives ZFS ~60 GB of ARC, and the 1.92 TB SSD cache tier absorbs significantly larger hot-file working sets. The 16-core EPYC 7302P eliminates CPU as a bottleneck for parallel NFS requests and ZFS scrubbing.

View NAS-2 plans

Need More Raw Capacity?

Up to 192 TB raw RAID 6 / JBOD From €199/mo

If your workload is primarily cold or sequential — data lakes, log archives, media repositories — rather than shared file access, our Bulk Storage servers scale to 192 TB raw (12× 16 TB) with a 10 Gbps unmetered uplink at €1.99/TB/month. No SSD cache tier (not needed for sequential-dominant workloads), and JBOD mode is available for ZFS-based deployments that manage redundancy at the filesystem layer.

Explore Bulk Storage

NAS Server FAQ

Common Questions About NAS Server Hosting

Yes. TrueNAS SCALE (Linux-based) and TrueNAS Core (FreeBSD-based) both install cleanly on NAS server hardware. We can pre-install TrueNAS before delivery on request, or deliver with Ubuntu/Debian and let you install it yourself via IPMI. For TrueNAS, we recommend using JBOD mode so ZFS has direct drive access — this enables per-drive integrity checking, better scrub granularity, and transparent drive replacement. The NAS-2 (128 GB ECC) is particularly well-suited for TrueNAS with large ZFS pool configurations.

NAS servers are pre-configured with RAID 6 by default — it provides dual-drive fault tolerance across the HDD pool, which is the recommended choice for 8–12 drive arrays. You can request RAID 5, RAID 10, or JBOD at provisioning. JBOD is the correct choice if you're deploying ZFS (TrueNAS) — ZFS implements its own redundancy (RAIDZ2 is equivalent to RAID 6) and works best with direct drive access rather than a hardware RAID layer on top. SSD cache drives are always presented separately, regardless of HDD RAID mode, for use as ZFS L2ARC or as a bcache/dm-cache tier.

The SSD cache drives (960 GB on NAS-1, 1.92 TB on NAS-2) are separate from the HDD pool and can be configured in multiple ways depending on your software stack: as ZFS L2ARC (read cache extending ARC beyond RAM), as ZFS SLOG (synchronous write log for NFS/iSCSI), as a Linux bcache or dm-cache tier for transparent read/write caching, or as a dedicated volume for hot data. TrueNAS configures L2ARC and SLOG via the UI — no CLI required. The SSD tier significantly reduces latency for hot-file reads that don't fit in RAM ARC.

Yes. iSCSI (via TrueNAS, targetcli, or LIO) and NFS datastores are both supported. For Proxmox, NFS is the simplest option — add the NAS server's IP as an NFS storage in Proxmox datacenter storage settings and it appears immediately as a shared datastore for live migration. For VMware ESXi, both NFS and iSCSI are supported. iSCSI with multipath (MPIO) is recommended for VMware if you need block-level deduplication or thin provisioning. The NAS-2 with 10 Gbps uplink handles multi-host iSCSI traffic without bandwidth contention in most cluster configurations.

The NAS-1 uses an Intel Xeon E-2288G (8 cores / 16 threads, 3.70 GHz) with 64 GB DDR4 ECC and 2× 960 GB SSD cache. The NAS-2 uses an AMD EPYC 7302P (16 cores / 32 threads, 3.00 GHz) with 128 GB DDR4 ECC and 2× 1.92 TB SSD cache — twice the RAM, twice the SSD cache, twice the CPU cores, and 50% more HDD capacity (12 drives vs 8). Choose NAS-1 for teams up to ~50 concurrent users and working sets under 20 GB. Choose NAS-2 for 100+ concurrent users, Proxmox/VMware iSCSI backends, high-concurrency Nextcloud, or any workload where ZFS ARC pressure is a bottleneck on the NAS-1.

The 25G suffix means this configuration ships with a 25 Gbps network uplink instead of the standard 1 Gbps. Bandwidth remains unmetered in both cases. The 25G config also includes the maximum memory (1152 GB DDR5 ECC) and 4× 3.84 TB NVMe (15.4 TB raw). It’s designed for workloads where both internal throughput and external bandwidth are bottlenecks simultaneously: LLM model serving with large batch sizes, real-time streaming analytics, or CDN/object storage backends that need to saturate network bandwidth while keeping a large working set in RAM.

NAS Server
Hosting

Bare Metal NAS vs Alternatives

NAS Plans. 6 Global Locations.

Built for File-Sharing Workloads

NAS-1 or NAS-2 — Which Tier Is Right for You?

Common Questions About NAS Server Hosting

Also in the Storage Line

NAS ServerHosting

Bare Metal NAS vs Alternatives

NAS Plans. 6 Global Locations.

Built for File-Sharing Workloads

NAS-1 or NAS-2 — Which Tier Is Right for You?

Common Questions About NAS Server Hosting

Also in the Storage Line

NAS Server
Hosting