Every home lab starts as a single machine that does everything: file share, Jellyfin, Home Assistant, ten Docker containers, and last month’s Proxmox reinstall. Then a kernel panic takes the whole thing down for a weekend and you find yourself trusting your backup script for the first time in a year. The lesson people keep learning the hard way in 2026 is that a NAS should not share hardware with a compute box. The storage machine’s job is to sit quietly and never restart; the compute machine’s job is to churn.
We put together the desktop and web-console apps that make a split-hardware home lab work: which OS to run on which box, how to move backups between them, and what to install so the two boxes stay honest about their health. Here are the seven best apps for splitting a home lab and NAS onto separate hardware.
What to look for in a split home lab and NAS setup
Start with the storage side. The NAS needs an OS built around ZFS or Btrfs snapshots, ECC-friendly if the board supports it, and quiet under idle. Anything else and you are running a compute box that happens to have disks in it.
On the compute side, pick a hypervisor with painless snapshots and a clean way to back up VMs off the box. Between the two you need three things: an off-box backup destination for the compute VMs, a monitoring surface that shows both boxes at once, and a way to reach the web consoles from your desktop and phone without exposing them to the internet.
Watch the network. A gigabit link between the boxes will bottleneck a large snapshot; if you can afford a 2.5G or 10G direct link between them, do it. Last, plan the reinstall test: can you flatten the compute box, reinstall from scratch, and pull VMs back from the storage box in an evening? If not, you have a home lab that is one bad update away from a weekend of grief.
Quick comparison
| App | Role in a split setup | Free plan | Paid tier | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TrueNAS Scale | OS for the storage box | Free, open source | TrueNAS Enterprise licensing exists | ZFS-first, native SMB/NFS, apps runtime for lightweight services |
| Proxmox VE | Hypervisor on the compute box | Free, open source | Paid subscription for enterprise repo | KVM + LXC + a clean web console |
| Aprox Proxmox client | Reach the Proxmox console from your desktop and phone | Free | Free | Native client instead of leaving a browser tab open |
| Proxmox Backup Server | Snapshotting compute VMs to the NAS | Free, open source | Paid subscription for enterprise repo | Deduplicated, verified backups from Proxmox VE |
| UrBackup | Client-side backup of desktops onto the NAS | Free, open source | Free | Fast image and file backups of your daily desktops |
| Netdata | Live metrics across both boxes | Free tier | Paid cloud plans | Real-time telemetry a few seconds after boot |
| Uptime Kuma | Uptime and service checks | Free, open source | Free | Alerts you before something else notices the outage |
| Cockpit | Web console for the storage box | Free, open source | Free | Handles updates, users, storage without SSH |
1. TrueNAS Scale
TrueNAS Scale is the OS to install on the storage box. It is built around ZFS, ships with SMB, NFS, iSCSI, and a Linux base that runs a small app catalog if you want the NAS to also host lightweight services (Nextcloud, Immich, a media catalogue). Split-setup users usually keep the app catalog empty and let the NAS be a NAS.
Where it falls short: the app catalog is not the place to run heavy containers or VMs. That is the compute box’s job.
Pricing: Free, open source. Enterprise licensing is a separate product for support and hardware certification.
Platforms: Bare metal or in a VM on the storage box.
Download: TrueNAS Scale
Bottom line: the default storage OS for a split home lab. Install it, forget it.
2. Proxmox VE
Proxmox VE is what runs on the compute box. It gives you KVM VMs, LXC containers, snapshots, live migration between nodes, and a web console that does 90 percent of what a small home lab needs. The community repo is free forever; the enterprise repo is a paid subscription and is not required.
Where it falls short: the storage side of Proxmox is fine but not TrueNAS. Point Proxmox at the NAS for backup and bulk storage rather than expecting Proxmox to be the NAS.
Pricing: Free with community repo. Paid subscription for the enterprise repo starts at a modest annual fee per socket.
Platforms: Bare metal on the compute box.
Download: Proxmox VE
Bottom line: the hypervisor. Pair it with Proxmox Backup Server pointed at TrueNAS.
3. Aprox Proxmox client
Aprox is a native Proxmox client for Android and, through packaged builds, desktop. It shows node status, VM lists, task history, and starts and stops guests without needing a browser tab open to the web UI. Useful when the compute box goes sideways during a workday and you want to restart a VM from your desk without hunting for the bookmark.
Where it falls short: it is a client, not a replacement for the web UI. Complex tasks (creating a storage pool, editing a firewall rule) still go through the browser.
Pricing: Free.
Platforms: Android primarily; usable from desktop through Android app runtimes on Windows and ChromeOS.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: the quick-check client for a home lab you do not want to log into a full desktop to touch.
4. Proxmox Backup Server
Proxmox Backup Server is a separate Proxmox product designed to receive backups from Proxmox VE. Install it either as a VM on the storage box or on a small dedicated device, point it at a dataset on TrueNAS over NFS, and Proxmox VE writes deduplicated, verified snapshots into it. Restore is a two-click operation from the Proxmox VE web console.
Where it falls short: it is another moving part. Small home labs sometimes get away with straight vzdump snapshots written to an NFS mount instead.
Pricing: Free with community repo. Paid subscription for enterprise repo.
Platforms: Bare metal, VM, or LXC container.
Download: Proxmox Backup Server
Bottom line: the correct backup path for a split home lab.
5. UrBackup
UrBackup is a fast client-server backup tool for the desktops that live outside the home lab: your laptop, a family PC, a Mac. Server side runs on the NAS, clients on the desktops. It does incremental image and file backups, deduplicates, and restores over the LAN in minutes.
Where it falls short: it backs up desktops, not the compute box’s VMs. Use it alongside Proxmox Backup Server, not instead of.
Pricing: Free, open source.
Platforms: Windows, macOS (client), Linux (client and server).
Download: UrBackup
Bottom line: the desktop-side counterpart to Proxmox Backup Server.
6. Netdata
Netdata gives you live per-second telemetry from both boxes: CPU, RAM, disks, sensors, network, and per-container metrics. It installs in one line and starts reporting within seconds. Netdata Cloud stitches the two agents into one dashboard.
Where it falls short: long-term retention on the free tier is limited. If you want a year of history, prepare to store your own metrics in a Prometheus or InfluxDB stack.
Pricing: Free tier covers a small number of nodes. Paid cloud plans add longer retention and team features.
Platforms: Linux (agents), any browser (dashboard).
Download: Netdata
Bottom line: the fast answer to “how are both boxes doing right now”.
7. Uptime Kuma
Uptime Kuma is the smallest possible uptime monitor for a home lab. It pings services from a container running on the compute box, reports outages to Discord, Telegram, or ntfy, and shows a public status page you can bookmark on your phone. Install it in an LXC container on Proxmox and forget it.
Where it falls short: it does not check anything from outside your network. Run a second Uptime Kuma somewhere else if you want that.
Pricing: Free, open source.
Platforms: Docker, LXC on Proxmox, most Linux distros.
Download: Uptime Kuma
Bottom line: the alerting layer nobody regrets installing.
8. Cockpit
Cockpit is a lightweight web console for Linux boxes that turns TrueNAS Scale, an Ubuntu VM, or the compute host itself into a manageable server without opening a terminal. It handles user accounts, storage, updates, and log viewing. Great for family members you want to grant partial access to.
Where it falls short: TrueNAS has its own web console for the storage side. Cockpit shines on general-purpose Linux hosts rather than TrueNAS itself.
Pricing: Free, open source.
Platforms: Any modern Linux distribution.
Download: Cockpit
Bottom line: worth installing on any Linux VM or bare-metal host that is not TrueNAS or Proxmox.
How to pick
Start with TrueNAS Scale on the storage box and Proxmox VE on the compute box. That combination is the split home lab. Add Proxmox Backup Server writing to a TrueNAS dataset over NFS. Layer Netdata for live metrics and Uptime Kuma for alerts. If your desktops are worth backing up too, install UrBackup on the NAS. Aprox lives on your phone as the “poke the compute box from anywhere” button. Cockpit is the fallback console for any other Linux host that sneaks into the network.
FAQ
Why put the NAS and the home lab on separate hardware?
Storage and compute have different failure modes. A NAS should reboot rarely, use quiet, always-on components, and prioritize disk health. A compute box will restart for kernel updates, VM reboots, and driver installs. Combining them means one box carries both risks.
Can I run TrueNAS as a VM under Proxmox?
You can, and many people do. It is a fine starting point, but it re-couples storage and compute in the way this article is arguing against. On separate boxes, TrueNAS on bare metal is the more resilient path.
What is the best backup path for Proxmox VMs to a TrueNAS NAS?
Install Proxmox Backup Server, point it at a TrueNAS dataset over NFS, and configure Proxmox VE to run daily backup jobs to it. That is the intended workflow and the fastest restore.
Do I need a 10G link between the two boxes?
Not required. A gigabit link is fine for daily backups of small VMs. A direct 2.5G or 10G link between the two boxes matters when a single VM is dozens of gigabytes and daily incrementals stack up.
How do I monitor both boxes from one place?
Netdata Cloud stitches multiple agents into one dashboard on the free tier. For long-term metrics, run a small Prometheus and Grafana stack on the compute box and scrape both hosts.