An Ansible playbook to automate the setup of a full-featured home server or NAS replacement using Ubuntu and Docker containers.
Ansible-NAS is an open-source Ansible playbook that automates the setup of a fully-featured home server or NAS replacement on Ubuntu. It solves the problem of manually configuring and maintaining a complex self-hosted server by deploying and managing dozens of Docker-based applications—like media streamers, cloud storage, automation tools, and backups—through a single, reproducible configuration. It provides a flexible, DIY alternative to proprietary NAS operating systems.
Home lab enthusiasts, DIY server builders, and developers who want a customizable, automated home server for media, storage, and self-hosted services without relying on pre-built NAS solutions.
Developers choose Ansible-NAS for its infrastructure-as-code approach using Ansible, which ensures consistent, repeatable server deployments. Its key advantage is the extensive library of pre-configured Docker applications, saving hours of manual setup while offering the freedom to customize and extend the server beyond typical NAS offerings.
Build a full-featured home server or NAS replacement with an Ubuntu box and this playbook.
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.
Automates deployment of over 80 Docker-based applications, such as Jellyfin, Nextcloud, and Home Assistant, covering media, storage, automation, and more with a single playbook.
Uses Ansible for declarative, idempotent configuration, ensuring reproducible server setups and easy updates through version-controlled playbooks, as highlighted in the README.
Runs on any Ubuntu-supported hardware, from old PCs to dedicated servers like HP Microservers, avoiding vendor lock-in and allowing reuse of existing equipment.
Optionally sets up dynamic DNS and SSL for secure external access to applications, handling IP changes automatically for remote management.
The playbook explicitly does not automate disk partitioning, a critical and error-prone step that users must handle manually, risking data loss if done incorrectly.
Requires proficiency in Ansible, Docker, and Ubuntu administration, making it inaccessible for beginners or those unfamiliar with infrastructure-as-code tools.
Running numerous Docker containers can consume significant RAM and CPU, potentially degrading performance on low-end hardware or with many concurrent services.
Lacks enterprise-grade support or formal SLAs; reliance on community forums and documentation may lead to slower issue resolution for critical deployments.
Ansible-NAS is an open-source alternative to the following products:
TrueNAS is an open-source network-attached storage (NAS) operating system based on FreeBSD that provides file sharing, data protection, and storage management features.
FreeNAS is an open-source network-attached storage (NAS) operating system based on FreeBSD, designed for data storage, sharing, and backup with ZFS file system support.