XigmaNAS

Reader supplied reviews for XigmaNAS Average rating 9.3 from 6 review(s) What are your thoughts on XigmaNAS? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- 14.3.0.513.3.0.512.3.0.411.4.0.410.3.0.39.3.0.2 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 12.3.0.4 Rating: 9 Date: 2025-09-19 Votes: 4 I've been using XigmaNAS [FKA NAS4Free, FKA FreeNAS before the fork] ever since I out grew a NSLU2. Very easy to set up the second time, the first was, and is still a bit of learning curve for a noob such as i was. XigmaNAS is a mature software, very stable, very flexible. A set it and forget it device for storage. The embedded version boots from most any hardware compatible source to a RAM drive. [very fast in operation] I use a small SSD to avoid swap file write wear. I have mine set to spin down the drives to save wear and power. the ZFS file system for the storage is very secure, totally check summed, redundant to as many drives as you wish. The OS works on most every 64 bit hardware save the bleeding edge stuff. my favorite is i5 several years old. to borrow a phrase "it just works" Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 12.3.0.4 Rating: 8 Date: 2022-10-31 Votes: 13 I'm using 12.1.0.04. 12.3.0.4 wouldn't install but it not that big a problem. Overall I would recommend this for a file server. I tried to install Mint and just do a simple samba file share but despite reading over a dozen tutorials I could not get it configured and connected to my Windows machines. I looked at a few of the pure NAS OS's and tried a few without successful installation. I was able to get Xigmanas installed on an HP microserver and it worked well despite having only 4GB of RAM. It is just a simple file sharing server so nothing too taxing. I'm configuring another server with 32GB of RAM. My biggest complaint is that the GUI is not at all intuitive for someone without formal computer training. I have no computer training at all so I have to figure things out for myself. The online documentation is poor at best. If you are a computer person then I'm sure it all makes sense but for someone with none it's confusing. There are so many options and I have no idea what most of them mean. There should be some explanation of the multiple options available available through the WebGUI. There are some basic tutorials online but they are sparsely documented. I haven't been able to get a ZFS configured drive connected. I took 2 points off because of this and the documentation issue. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 12.3.0.4 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-07-17 Votes: 22 I tried XigmaNAS after the Web-UI of Open Vault Media turned out to be buggy as hell. And I have to say it's excellent! It was the first time I installed a BSD, but it was a breeze. The system and the Web-UI are pleasant to work with, simple and efficient yet powerful. The only critic I have is that some parts of the UI are not that intuitive (at least for me), like when you activate services or create/add new devices/arrays etc. - but overall the UI is well arranged and informative. And most important: your browser doesn't blow up because of "modern UI" JS crap. The documentation is also pretty good, although sometimes outdated. But for the most parted the user get's a good guide how to work with the system and do stuff. Another thing: the (idle) power consumption of the machine was significantly lower with XigmaNAS compared to Linux Distributions! Cool bonus. With additional advantages like native ZFS support XigmaNAS is a good choice for a NAS system. Conclusion: Recommended! Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 6 reader reviews of XigmaNAS...