NAS

[D-Dan]

Does anyone have any experience of this: https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/d-link-sharecenter-nas-personal-cloud-storage-enclosure-a58lu. At the price, Maplins are well below anyone else (unusually).

I want it as a vanilla file server. I don’t want it getting in the way with picky filetypes, etc. It will simply be storage for the PI to use as a media server.

I have a 1TB spinner in my main rig, which I can give up to it. There’s plenty of storage in there, anyway. Having experimented with the PI as a media server (using NFS from my main machine) I figure I’m ready to make it self-sufficient.

 

Oh, and if anyone has experience of initial setup on Linux, so much the better. The PDF guide suggests it’s not a big issue, but confirmation would be nice.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Dave Rice]

Following on from Ed’s reply in a new thread…

I agree that this is one case where spending an extra £35 will gain you so much more it’s in a different league. I’m sure you know what I’m going to say Synology DS115j

[blacklion1725]

I would vote synology as well – different league. Only got rid of mine as it was overkill for me…..and I think a NAS may be for you too.

If your router has a USB port you may well be able to connect your 1TB drive to it via a USB caddy and serve the media from there. That is what I do, and for media only (so no real security or backup concerns) it works fine. Some routers just show the drive as a Network Share, others have a built in DLNA server. Your Pi should work with either/both.

If your router doesn’t offer a USB port, you may want to consider spending the cash on a router upgrade (maybe a TP-Link mid-range model). The router may well bring other useful new features too.

If you have grander plans for the “NAS” than just media then 100% I would go for a synology, if not it (dedicated NAS) is not the only way to go.

[Ed P]

Dan, I got a bit frustrated yesterday with trying to respond so unlike BL I did not respond to the nub of your question! Building on BLs reply just use a 64GB USB as your main drive (OS+media) and only boot off an SD. This not only gives you most of what you want quite cheaply, but vastly improves the reliability of the Pi.

This article shows how to do it.

I found that in my media application I had a lot of r/w going on and the usb ran darned hot. I’d recommend buying a metal cased usb stick and superglue a heat sink to the top of it! If you need more than 64GB then bigger sticks are available but the price goes up 150-200%/GB

Apparently the experimental usb boot mode is picky with usb sticks. I used the linked one and it works.

[Ed P]

I should have added that there is also a hybrid sd card pre-boot mode. The steps should be straight-forward to a Linux guru such as yourself but are set out here if you are lazy like me.

Obviously you could extend this to fit in with BLs suggestion or any other USB drive. If you have an old redundant SSD you can use something like this to operate it with the Pi. (lots of options, but make certain that your power supply is up to it I use a powered hub in the latter case). A usb caddy for your spare 1TB drive might be a way to explore – I’d certainly use a hub to power it and pi in this latter case.

[D-Dan]

OK, first at EdP, I never even considered a USB enclosure. I have a BT HH, which does have a USB port, but never tested it, which means I don’t know how well it performs.

The reason for NAS (and USB would probably solve this just as well), is to liberate a bucket load of duplicated drive and sd space across my varied machines and to get it all in one place. Now, since I also want this to be accessible to me outside of my home network, and will possibly throw in another drive for redundancy, I’m now wondering about my best options.

And BTW, anyone know of a simple solution to locating and removing dead media? I have several files that look fine, until I try to play them. Mainly audio, and replaceable, but until I try …..

 

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Dave Rice]

Router NAS-from-a-USB-drive solutions usually perform well enough for light use and I include home file serving as light usage. But I don’t recall one that allows access from the internet. That brings a whole raft of potential security issues and that leads me right back to the Synology.

Drive redundancy? Well you must have a backup whether you do or you don’t. In a business solution you want continuity of service, in a home scenario I’d say that a few days without access is not going to be a deal breaker. Plus bear in mind that with Synology Hyper backup there is a utility that allows you to explore the backup files from a PC should you need to get hold of some files desperately.

The other solution you could look into is another Pi running Tonido Tippon put me onto Tonido and I did use it for a while, until I go the Synology…

[Ed P]

On a Pi I would not bother about redundancy, its only a tiny beast so really hard work over an extended period can stress it to failure in areas other than the drive. A decent back-up regime is far more important. (Imaging the main drive and boot sectors are the best route). If you are really going to stress it over a long period, I’d recommend adding heat sinks to your pi (works better if you add a fan)

There are lots of Pi uses detailed on line – this person seems to have similar ideas to yourself which may be a good starting point. From memory I believe Drehzda may also have done something similar.

 

[D-Dan]

Ed P wrote:

I’d recommend adding heat sinks to your pi

I have a set due for delivery today 🙂

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Drezha]

Ed P wrote:

On a Pi I would not bother about redundancy, its only a tiny beast so really hard work over an extended period can stress it to failure in areas other than the drive. A decent back-up regime is far more important. (Imaging the main drive and boot sectors are the best route). If you are really going to stress it over a long period, I’d recommend adding heat sinks to your pi (works better if you add a fan) There are lots of Pi uses detailed on line – this person seems to have similar ideas to yourself which may be a good starting point. From memory I believe Drehzda may also have done something similar.

I think it might have been Freakshow that went down that route in the end – I did try it but I ended up just changing the SSH port, accessing it via SFTP instead with a fail2ban server running on it. I stopped that when I got the Synology, but I have recently opened the Pi up to the outside again at home, as it’ll run tasks that the Synology wont (Pi-Hole as one example, and shell scripts with programs as another). I do have one at my local cadet hut that’s running as a print and file server, allowing me to print to the printer wirelessly and it’s running Resilo Sync so that I can sync documents etc that we need to work on.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[blacklion1725]

Edit: Sorry quoted wrong post!

[blacklion1725]

Dave Rice wrote:

Router NAS-from-a-USB-drive solutions usually perform well enough for light use and I include home file serving as light usage. But I don’t recall one that allows access from the internet. That brings a whole raft of potential security issues and that leads me right back to the Synology. Drive redundancy? Well you must have a backup whether you do or you don’t. In a business solution you want continuity of service, in a home scenario I’d say that a few days without access is not going to be a deal breaker. Plus bear in mind that with Synology Hyper backup there is a utility that allows you to explore the backup files from a PC should you need to get hold of some files desperately. The other solution you could look into is another Pi running Tonido Tippon put me onto Tonido and I did use it for a while, until I go the Synology…

Dave my Asus allows access to theUSB  files via the internet using FTP. And ES File Explorer can add the FTP share as a resource and stream quite happily over the net. I did a TP-Link for someone last year and I’m sure I set that up the same way. My Asus runs Merlin firmware but I think the featue is in the stock firmware as well. FTP can be clunky but with the right client (e.g. ES it is just another folder – takes a bit longer to load but then plays fine).

[D-Dan]

Well, I have a BT homehub, and have tentatively tested a USB thumb drive on the USB port on it. After a bit of faffing with mount option, I now see it and can access it on my desktop (Arch Linux). For the moment, the media server on the Pi will still access the NFS drives from my main rig, and is updating the library, but once done, I think I have an old USB enclosure in my bag of crap, so may try the spinner on that connected to the router and see how I get on, and then work on mounting it on the Pi if it seems OK.

EDIT: Mounting the thumbdrive connected to the router was a lot simpler on the Pi. No faffing about with smb permissions etc.

As an aside, I have a second SDCard, and I’m going to give ArchARM a go and see how it performs. I have the SD Card ready to try. But again, need to wait for Plex to update first.

Oh, the heatsinks arrived and are fitted. The case is waiting for me at work (I unexpectedly had to take Friday off after spending half the night in hospital with an old (as in years old) friend collapsed whilst I was visiting him, and so the case was delivered in my absentia.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

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