All in One NAS VM: Synology, fnOS, OMV, TrueNAS SCALE
Run NAS as its own VM on AiRouter—pick Synology DSM, 飞牛 fnOS, OpenMediaVault, or TrueNAS SCALE on Proxmox or ESXi.
All in One does not mean “one giant partition.” The durable pattern is a dedicated NAS VM on Proxmox or ESXi, separate from your router VM. AiRouter supports Synology DSM (community VM installs), 飞牛 fnOS, OpenMediaVault, and TrueNAS SCALE—choose by comfort, not by vendor lock-in from us.
Disk and network planning
- Passthrough a SATA/NVMe controller or map whole disks to the NAS VM
- Avoid double-RAID (hypervisor RAID plus pool RAID); let the NAS OS own the array
- Optional storage VLAN; default gateway still comes from the router VM
The x86 core board handles light to medium NAS loads; heavy transcode farms belong on guest VMs with realistic CPU limits.
Synology (DSM)
Strengths
Mature apps: photos, sync, surveillance clients many families already use.
VM note
Homelab installs often use community boot loaders—review licensing and compliance yourself. Give dedicated vCPU/RAM and disks; snapshot before DSM upgrades.
Good for
Households invested in Synology clients and packages.
飞牛OS (fnOS)
Strengths
Chinese-first NAS UX, media and album features, growing hardware compatibility list.
Good for
Users who want local-language support without hand-rolling ZFS commands.
VM note
Follow official x86 images; align DNS/gateway with the router VM.
OpenMediaVault (OMV)
Strengths
Debian-based, open, plugin-driven—pairs naturally with Proxmox homelabs.
Good for
Linux admins who like mergerfs + snapraid style flexibility.
VM note
Enable plugins selectively; too many services hurt a small CPU.
TrueNAS SCALE
Strengths
OpenZFS, snapshots, replication, Kubernetes apps on SCALE.
Good for
Builders who want data integrity features and are willing to learn ZFS tuning.
VM note
Plan extra RAM for ARC; HBA or full-disk passthrough is ideal.
At a glance
| OS | Upside | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| DSM | Rich apps | VM/licensing is on you |
| fnOS | Smooth CN UX | Check compatibility list |
| OMV | Open, flexible | Plugin sprawl costs CPU |
| TrueNAS SCALE | Serious ZFS | Higher RAM appetite |
Related articles
- Hypervisor: Proxmox VE / ESXi 9
- Router: OpenWrt / RouterOS / iKuai / iStoreOS
- Guests: Windows / Ubuntu / macOS
The PXE module handles network boot and imaging; it does not replace the NAS VM.
See All in One overview or contact with bay count and RAID goals for a core board memory cheat sheet.