Software set-up for a new NAS

[NBeing]

Hello, I am building a new NAS (40TB, Norco 4020, 16GB ECC RAM) setup. It is all complete, but I am finding it difficult to decide on the software solution to use. Mainly because of all the options, and also due to the ZFS issues from Oracle. Maybe some of you can help me in deciding what would be best for me?

Overall I would like to have a nice USB set-up (but a small disk is fine), and having a ZFS CLI is mandatory, but having a nice web interface would be nice for common administration. I would also like to install a few daemons (FTP, bittorent client-webui, network shares). Below are some of the concerns which I have:

• Solaris 11 [ZFS v33 CLI]
  This is what I am leaning towards. I like that it is the newest ZFS platform. I dislike that it's run by Oracle. I do not like that I am locking myself into this OS, meaning I wouldn't be able to migrate my zpools to a different OS in the future (ie have v33 with encryption, can't go back to v28). I would just use the CLI, and install some application to use it as a NAS.
• FreeNAS 8.0.4 [FreeBSD8. ZFS v15]
  I dislike the older ZFS, an that it doesn't include many of the daemons FreeNAS7 had (bittorent/ftp/ect). I see they are releasing a new version soon, which will include these features, but it isn't out of beta yet. I like the web interface option, and having everything together.
• FreeNAS 0.7.5.9496 [FreeBSD9, ZFS v28] / NAS4Free Fork
  I like all the extra features, but dislike the uncertainty about it's future. It looks like 2 of the guys from FreeNAS7 are forking to NAS4Free, and will maintain it there. But I feel that eventual FreeNAS9 will have all the features this has and this may die out.
• ZFSguru [FreeBSD9, ZFS v28]
  I really like this, it was basically what I wanted (a real OS, with just a package ontop running the GUI). Only thing I dislike is that it's very new and doesn't have all the features in the GUI yet (i.e. no hot swap bay until 0.2). I dislike the ZFS future on FreeBSD, although I believe it is the best maintain one after the official Solaris version.
• Ubuntu Server 11.10 w/ ZFS Native Linux Port [ZFS v28]
  Go with something I know, use Ubuntu, easy to migrate to a different OS in the future.
• UnRAID 4.7/5.0-beta
  I really like the feature to be able to add any HD you like to your poll, and uses the 1 or 2 largest HD as the parity. I feel like this maximize my HD space, and allows me to utilize all my drive (even my old small ones, which I probably wouldn't throw into a zpool). Reminds me a little of Drobo's BeyondRAID.

I didn't mention any OpenIndiana. I prefer the open environment, but if I was gonna use a SunOS type system, I believe I would go with the Solaris with the latest ZFS v33. For an open platform I think FreeBSD may have the stronger ZFS community to continue it if it gets continued maybe? I do not know much about Nexenta or napp-it...

Please if you have any comments, let me know. More importantly if you have something different than one of the above set-ups, and love it. Let me know as well. Tell me if you like napp-it or some other webadmin that is popular, and what you use it with. Thanks!

 

[_Gea]

-Oracle Solaris with ZFS > V.28 is incompatible with all others
-Lots of ZFS developers had left Oracle and moved to Illumos (OpenIndiana. Illumian, SmartOS)
-Newest storage development is done around Illumos/ Solaris not FreeBSD
(although more "non-storage features" are in FreeBSD)