Choosing a medium-advanced NAS for the home - where to read?

Question

NAS

Began to read what is on sale from NAS.
I assumed that NAS is some kind of Linux, on top of which there is software with a web interface, in which all sorts of things like one-button backup, synchronization with cloud services, and so on are implemented.

Now I don’t quite understand how this Linux is closed there and how difficult it is to legally get root (and whether it is necessary). No experience with NAS.
Watched Synology, or is it better to look towards mycloud?

I want to put two disks in a mirror raid, or maybe three in a raid-5
Plus one more slot, ideally a hot swap, to insert some kind of random disk into it and connect it separately on the go so that I can climb in, format, not disassembling the computer

That is, I'm looking towards 4-slot ones, such as Synology DS420+ or ​​Synology DS920+, but I can't understand what the difference is. If you can run virtual machines on one, why not on the other?
Or can I install a virtualbox/vmware thread myself and run a simple virtual machine inside?

Answer 1

> Now I do not quite understand how this Linux is closed there.
You can get root and install packages, but is it necessary? The built-in store is very rich.
>Plus one more slot, ideally a hotswap, to plug
in via a USB port
> like Synology DS420+ or ​​Synology DS920+, but I can't figure out the difference
https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/compare/ DS...
Differences are not significant RAM, CPU and further down the list
> Or can I put some virtualbox / vmware thread myself and run a simple virtual machine inside?
https://www.synology.com/en-global/dsm/packages/Vi...
In my opinion, Synology is the most functional on the market.
You can still distort and use Xrenology as a virtual machine on any server, but stable updates, etc. etc.
https://xpenology.com/forum/forum/4-russian/
mycloud - minimum-minimum functionality, even the rights for home users are not particularly divided.

Answer 2

If you're thinking about 4-disk storage and running virtual machines, try considering the HP microserver. If you only need storage, then you can take the simplest 2-disk NAS and mirror a couple of 10TB disks.

Answer 3

You describe your goals - so that it is clear what you offer.
By what you write, you do not understand at all that the storage system is not a server, not a docking station, and not a phone. You don’t need to root the storage system, you don’t need to put disks into it to format it, and you won’t be able to start anything. Storage systems are bought for data storage and must be selected based on the tasks at hand. If the tasks are to do everything for which the storage system is not suitable, apparently you don’t need it and you need to look for something else.