Building a NAS can seem deceptively simple. After all, at its foundation, it’s a computer with a hunk of storage, running some kind of operating system that allows you to access its storage volumes from your network. Like many things in the self-hosting world, however, it’s rarely that straightforward. The problem is that most of the decisions that matter don’t let their ramifications be known until months or even years later. By then, changing course is expensive, disruptive, or downright impossible without migrating all your data. Looking back, there are a few lessons I wish someone had drilled into me before I ever laid my hands on a drive bay.