What storage enclosure (Thunderbolt?) and network filesystem do you use?

When there's a MacOS security update and the Macbook reboots, do NAS functions work before a local user has logged in?

Just a random powered USB-C Hub with a few external drives on one port and a Thunderbolt SSD I had from an old project on the other. For now, I just use the SMB server built into MacOS because I've not gotten around to installing Asahi on it.

I think I turned auto update off on this machine but if it reboots, you would have to login first. Doesn't bother me, though. I don't have any uptime requirements.

You can fully control when macOS does updates of any kind with a couple of UI toggles.

Any launch daemon service will load and/or start at boot, only user-domain services require a login (like the Dock or menu bar would)