Home on the RAID
Build your own NAS box, with stuff you have lying around, and the magic of open source.
OFF-THE-SHELF NAS UNITS are easy to come by, but they’re often underpowered, overpriced, or otherwise disappointing. Many of them run some kind of Linux (usually on quite modestly powered ARM hardware), and it’s pretty straightforward to build a Linux box, and cram it with as many hard drives as geometry permits. You may even have enough spare parts lying around to get most of the way there (we did). You don’t need anything special hardware-wise (4GB of RAM and a CPU sometime from the last decade is fine), but several large hard drives help. Many consumer-level NAS devices come in attractive small form factors, and thanks to their low power consumption, don’t require noisy cooling. So, we thought we’d try our hand at mimicking this.
If the prospect of using Linux makes you cringe, don’t worry – we’re going to use the fantastic OpenMediaVault, which (all going to plan) means you won’t have to touch a command line, and everything can be controlled from a friendly web interface. Next-gen filesystems, RAID, and LVM don’t need abstruse incantations (or sacrifices) at the terminal. Best of all, OpenMediaVault can be customised and added to as much as you want. Read all about it at www.openmediavault.org.
The Plex extension (available via the OMV-Extras.org repository) is particularly great, and will turn your NAS into a fullfledged DAAP media server. Beyond that, OMV can run Docker images, so you can host any popular Linux application you like, whether it’s Nextcloud, Mastodon, BitTorrent, or anything else you care to name. OMV is also based on Debian Linux, so you can do pretty much whatever you’d do there with it.
IT’S PRETTY STRAIGHTFORWARD TO BUILD A LINUX BOX, AND CRAM IT WITH AS MANY HARD DRIVES AS GEOMETRY PERMITS. YOU MAY EVEN HAVE ENOUGH SPARE PARTS LYING AROUND TO GET MOST OF THE WAY THERE (WE DID). YOU DON’T NEED ANYTHING SPECIAL HARDWARE-WISE (4GB OF RAM AND A CPU SOMETIME FROM THE LAST DECADE IS FINE), BUT SEVERAL LARGE HARD DRIVES HELP.