I’m looking at building a basic nas for my church to be able to store files and transfer things between systems. What is the recommended system to install - we are looking at using a few year old business class desktop (optiplex or elite desk) to host and while I don’t want something super complicated I also don’t want to end up needing features and not having them later.
Would also recommend to get a basic prebuild 2-bay NAS in your case. Synology, Qnap and Asustor all have app stores and Docker support within their NAS so you can install additional software later.
Is there someone internally that is capable, and willing to support it?
do they expect vendor support as well?
For business, especially one where you dont want to be "that person" they call for tech support randomly and you would rather direct them to the vendor indeed I agree set them up with a Synology build and enjoy your free time
If you are their IT person, maaaybe a custom build would work, but how long do you plan to stay and consider how troubleshooting that device will go, or the lack of vendor support where you are limited to vendors supporting each individual part as opposed to the hardware and software as a whole.
Also consider how well off your client will be with said hardware if you move on and someone else has to support it. You will likely be setting them up for failure at most, and headaches at a minimum. It will be referred to as "that custom build some dude made but nobody knows anything about" and will likely direct the church towards buying a proper business/enterprise solution to replace it after trouble they struggle to support it anyways