Building a NAS Server with Raspberry Pi and Openmediavault
By Brian Schell
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About this ebook
What if, instead of simply plugging an external or internal hard drive into your working computer, you could have a file server located somewhere in your home or office? One that offers access to files for any device on the premises, taking into account security settings that you can set up?
This is the function of a NAS, or "Network Attached Storage" device. This file server does nothing except act as a go-between between the network and the hard drives. The Raspberry Pi, a super-inexpensive, low-power consumption, tiny computer, is just perfect for handling this task.
The software we will be installing to make this happen is called Openmediavault, or OMV for short. It's an open source project that is heavily developed and still getting new features regularly. OMV is the NAS software, but it all runs on the Linux operating system, which means it's stable and very reliable. Not to mention all this software is completely free of charge.
This book explains how to set up a Raspberry Pi for use as a NAS Server. We'll look at hardware options, downloading and installing the operating system and Openmediavault software, how to configure your hard drives (either with a single hard drive or as a dual-drive RAID system), folders, and files, how to get files into the Pi from other places in the house, and how to access everything from other devices on the network using secure user accounts. It's all you need to know, and only what you need to know!
Brian Schell
Brian Schell is a College English Instructor who has an extensive background in Buddhism and other world religions. After spending time in Japan, he returned to America where he created the immensely popular website, Daily Buddhism. For the next several years, Schell wrote extensively on applying Buddhism to real-world topics such as War, Drugs, Tattoos, Sex, Relationships, Pet Food and yes, even Horror Movies. Twitter: @BrianSchell Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/Brian.Schell Web: http://BrianSchell.com
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Book preview
Building a NAS Server with Raspberry Pi and Openmediavault - Brian Schell
Building a NAS Server with Raspberry Pi and Openmediavault
Brian Schell
BlueHouseBooks.comBuilding a NAS Server with Raspberry Pi and Openmediavault
Copyright 2020 by Brian Schell.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or in any means – by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission.
Raspberry Pi, openmediavault, and other products mentioned within are trademarks owned by their respective companies. This book is not affiliated in any way with any group mentioned.
Written and designed by: Brian Schell
brian@brianschell.com
ISBN: 9798632268356
Version Date: March 31, 2020
Contents
Introduction
Required Hardware
Setting up the Devices
Using your Raspberry Pi Remotely
First-Time Raspbian Setup
Installing Openmediavault
Configuring Openmediavault
Setting up a Dual-Drive RAID System
Connecting to a Shared Drive on the Network
Bulk Copying Files
Your Back-Up Plan
Troubleshooting Checklist
Upgrades
Conclusion
About the Author
Also by Brian Schell
Introduction
What does this book cover?
Put simply, this book covers all the steps necessary to build and configure a basic Network Attached Storage system using a Raspberry Pi and one or more hard drives. We’ll look at buying and assembling a Raspberry Pi, how to download, install, and configure the Linux operating system, and how to download, install and configure the basic Openmediavault server software. All of this assumes you’ve never touched a Raspberry Pi or Linux before; it’s a step-by-step book for non-techies.
We then look at two basic hardware configuration types: One with a single hard drive and the other with a dual-drive RAID setup, both of which can be expanded and customized quite a bit.
On the more advanced side, we will not be looking at Openmediavault plugins or Docker containers, as these are so specialized they simply aren’t necessary for a basic NAS system. This is not an advanced configuration manual, nor does it cover every single option in the Openmediavault software. It’s what you need to know, and only what you need to know to get yourself a reliable, working, inexpensive NAS setup!
Note that there a bazillion steps involved in configuring a NAS (only a mild exaggeration). If at some point, you get lost or think you may have missed something, skip ahead to the Troubleshooting Checklist
chapter, where all the steps are laid out for you in a more basic form. If you accidentally skipped something, this list should be of help in tracking it down.
What is a NAS Server?
First things first, NAS stands for Network Attached Storage,
and it is just what it sounds like. It’s storage (hard drives) for your files that are attached to a network. Instead of simply plugging an external or internal hard drive into your working computer, you have essentially a file server located somewhere in your home or office that offers access to files for any device on the premises, taking into account security settings that you can set up. This file server does nothing except act as a go-between between the network and the hard drives. Since this task is fairly light, processor-wise, a simple computer like a Raspberry Pi is just perfect for the task.
The software we will be installing to make this happen is called Openmediavault, or OMV for short. It’s an open source project that is heavily developed and still getting new features regularly. It also allows new functions to be added via a plugin feature. OMV is the NAS software, but it all runs on the Linux operating system, which means it’s stable and very reliable, not to mention all this software is completely free of charge.
What is a Raspberry Pi?
This product with a silly name is actually a pocket-sized computer. This little box that fits in your pocket is as powerful as any computer you could buy ten years ago. That doesn’t sound particularly impressive, but considering the tiny size and price of the Pi, it really is. Although you can set up a spare full-sized computer as your NAS server, a Raspberry Pi (RPI) is more than good enough for this project, and the whole system, bought new with everything you need, will only run you around $55, so it’s much less expensive than buying a full-sized computer; probably even cheaper than buying most used PCs.
This book will focus on setting up a Raspberry Pi computer, installing and configuring the hard drive(s) and the Openmediavault software on it, and getting your files into the new system.
What’s the catch?
Well, the tricky part
is that the Raspberry Pi computer runs Linux rather than Windows or MacOS, so it may require some learning to set up and use. That’s the point of this book: to get you from knowing absolutely nothing about Linux or the Raspberry Pi to having a fully-working OMV file server.