NAS Notes
Notes for upcoming/first NAS build/config
[ Updated 08-16-23 | Created 08-16-23 ]
The time has come. My offline SSD storage method is no longer sufficient.
Parameters
Criteria
- NAS for multi-device data sync (access via macOS and Linux)
- File share, file backup
- Media
- Pictures
- Documents
- Unsure about how to deliver these best
- Samba share -> file browser?
- Frontends, like PhotoPrism, VLC/Peertube?
Constraints
- Size - must be small enough to pick up and go with in emergency
- Noise - I’m extremely sensitive to fan/hard drive noise; quiet as possible, but also stowed away
- Cost - ~$550 starting budget, but we’ll see. I already have some parts laying around.
- “Future-proof” - adding drives down the road may be complicated
- Backup-ability - No resources for a cloned backup server. Need to be able to back up to external hard drives. Not sure how my software configuration will impact this.
Other thoughts
- Encryption vs no encryption?
- Obvious benefits
- Not Internet facing, so the “it’s available anyways” doesn’t apply
- Very inconvenient to manage after reboots
- PiKVM?
- On redundancy and drive quantity
- One parity drive
- One cache SSD (I have many SSDs laying around, so why not?)
- More drives, less capacity?
- 2x 8TB (+1x parity) = 16TB
- 3x 6TB (+1x parity) = 18TB
- How much space do I need?
- Eliminating drives below 8TB; $/TB not worth it
- This means at least 16TB
- Would add more for negligible cost; ex $120/8TB vs $140/12TB (refurb*)
- Current storage fits well on 2TB NVMe (lol!), but 2hr of GoPro video is ~100GB alone
- 15min GoPro video (4K, ProRes 422) ~ 75GB!
Hardware
Compute
Storage
- Redundancy
- One parity drive
- One cache SSD (I have many SSDs laying around, so why not?)
Misc
Case - InWin IW-MS04
- 4-port with sleds
- Power supply included
- Need to check SATA power connectors, in case of a fifth drive
- Slim 5.25" is useless, but maybe I can use the space (Type-C adapter?)
Software
Resources
Links
- installgentoo wiki - home server
- archwiki - ZFS storage pools
- reddit - “easiest way for ZFS pool backup to external HDD
Sites
Tagged: Backup Hardware Homelab Networking