Valentin17

EDIT: IT worked, i just had to wait a bit more. 😄

As @C2dan88 suggests, you can basically copy+paste a Hyper-V VM. If you copy+paste the vhd/vhdx, you can then create a new VM with that vhd(x).
 
I do it all the time, most recent being when upgrading some of them to Server 2016. Can even force the NIC's MAC to be the same or whatever you want.

To clone a vm in hyper-v you export it then reimport it as a copy.
https://www.bdrsuite.com/blog/hyper-v-clone-vm/
 

If you simply want to access your home network from work, just use OpenVPN.
 
Unlike NordVPN, I don't think ProtonVPN has any "mesh" feature to activate.

You have to disable one and enable the other.
You could just set up your home network to use Proton and then Open into that which would get you multihop

My PCs are all Windows 10. Thanks. 😄

Are your PCs Windows clients? Typically Windows will keep AD user credentials cached indefinitely by default, unless you defined a limit in GPO/registry. However, I have had experiences in the past where a Windows Update would wipe out the cached creds and the user will have to connect back to the domain network to log in and cache again. I've seen it happen many times (I used to support WFH users at a large org that didn't yet have a cloud presence for WFH users).
 
You can remove a PC from a domain while inaccessible. Just go into system preferences and set yourself back to a workgroup. It may prompt for credentials but you can just put in anything since it won't actually authenticate against anything.
 
If your PCs are Ubuntu clients, then I apologize I don't have much working experience in that scenario.

If anybody besides you is using this domain, you will be surprised how often people forget their password. "In theory" you can keep logging in indefinitely (if the passwords did not have expiration) in practice it just takes one unexpected event to bring your whole operation down.

Learning how to administrate Windows Server.

He is just sharing his experience of building a cheap NAS.

The above is all correct. Unraid is what you want, and fractal cases are great for NAS duty. 
 
You don’t strictly need NAS drives, especially since unraid isn’t actually RAID… with true raid you need drives that won’t randomly fall out of the array due to firmware spin down and head parking logic, but for unraid that isn’t an issue. You can just get any trustworthy drive (seagate and WD drives are all more or less fine).

Unraid looks the best option for you because you want ability to add drives down the road.
I would use something like used Fractal R4, R5 or R6, newer Fractal Define 7 etc.
For a NAS use a NAS disk like Seagate IronWolf or WD Red Pro.

I would suggest this approach if it is for your personal access. I have openvpn with selective routing setup on my Asus router and it works great. On a self run server you will have more control over the setup process but it can be a bit more difficult. 

I am not familiar with TrueNAS scale app instalation but you can if you want run a Ubuntu Server 22.04. VM in Scale and then run Pi Hole from there.
Just install Ubuntu Server, setup your static IP during instalation and then install Pi Hole with Unbound like in video.
After your setup is all done, login to your router and from there setup IP adress of Ubuntu Server VM as your DNS server and from there all your client would use Pi Hole as their DNS server option.

Stay away from Pseudo onboard RAID where possible for the above reasons. 
 
As for mdadm (mdraid or "Linux Raid). 
sdX are your block devices.
mdX is your virtual device. aka your "RAID".
 
So you want to mount the /dev/mdX device. 
Depending on your distro this could be md0, md1, or md2...just look for the large partition. 
 
To manually build a Mirror with MDADM:
 
Find your devices lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT Create your RAID device sudo mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc Create your Filesystem sudo mkfs.ext4 -F /dev/md0 Create a mount point, and mount it sudo mkdir -p /mnt/mymirror sudo mount /dev/md0 /mnt/mymirror You should now see your new mount sudo df -h Add the mount to your FSTAB to make the mount persistent echo '/dev/md0 /mnt/mymirror ext4 defaults,nofail,discard 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab  
 
You might also consider using ZFS instead to create your storage. It has more features so is far more resilient, and it is both the RAID and Filesystem in one. 
Heres an example of setting up a basic ZFS with a single Dataset and default configuration.
 
Find your devices lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT Create your mirrored storage pool zpool create mymirror mirror sdb sdc Check the pool status, and you can view the properties of your ZFS such as the mountpoint zpool status -v mymirror sudo zfs get all If you want to change the mountpoint, you can additionally do as below sudo mkdir -p /mnt/mymirror sudo zfs set mountpoint=/mnt/mymirror  

As said previously: do not use bios raid.
Why? When your board dies you need to have a compatible board to read your data. If you don't get that board, it's gone.
 
My recommendation regardless of what you gonna do: install that is on a third drive.
You may loose your OS but still have your data.
You can raid a boot drive, but it involves more command line fu.
 
If you are not a command line wizard I can recommend any of these in no particular order:
TrueNAS Core TrueNAS Scale Unraid Rockstor Openmediavault If you want to go Ubuntu still install Ubuntu on the third drive and create a BTRFS raid1 setup.
 
I would not go with mdadm these days.

Syncthing is fantastic. 
 
I don’t know if I would use it for a backup solution, but it is an amazing way to sync files.
 
If used for backup, make sure some rules exist so an accidental deletion at one node, or a ransomeware attack doesn’t render both backups useless. This is why ZFS replication is preferable as it’s specifically counters both of these things. But, you can do it with syncthing if you have sufficient storage and set it up correctly as well. 

Use software RAID 1 in Ubuntu Server instead of BIOS RAID, its more reliable. Clear the cmos to load BIOS default settings and then install Ubuntu Server in RAID 1 setup using this video instruction.
 

Use software RAID 1 in Ubuntu Server instead of BIOS RAID, its more reliable. Clear the cmos to load BIOS default settings and then install Ubuntu Server in RAID 1 setup using this video instruction.
 

I need help deciding which NAS solution is the most fitting given my requirements. I am leaning towards going TrueNAS Scale, but would appreciate any input to avoid pulling my, already not so thick, hair. Want to avoid hours of setting things up to just get into a "well, !@#$" moment.
 
In short:
I want a server that's going to act as a backup for all important data and simple storage for everything else. I want to run Folding@home while the server is running. I want to share/play media via Jellyfin/Plex (this is not important, as I can always run files directly from the shared folders)  
My needs/requirements:
- Server not running 24/7
- Wake-on-LAN or on power resume
- Possibly Debian-based
- Being able to install and run any regular software that's available for the OS, including: web server, docker images, Folding@home, Jellyfin (optional)
- Being able to access from external network (Internet)
- Application on Windows to automatically sync certain folders
- Application on Android to automatically sync certain folders / file types
 
My current hardware:
- Intel Celeron G3900 (ARK page)
- ASUS H110I PLUS (ITX)
- Patriot Signature, 8 GB (2x4), 2133MHz, CL15 (PSD48G2133K)
- Patriot Burst Elite 120 GB SSD (bought "recently", not a part of initial setup)
- WD Blue 2 TB 3,5" HDD (WD20EZRZ) x2
- be quiet! Pure Power 11 400W 80 Plus Gold
- Cooler Master ELITE 110 (yeah, it's tight in there :D)
- Qoltec Monolith UPS 1200VA 720W (it has USB, but I don't think I can monitor power loss on linux with it)
 
After buying the HW (back in 2019 :P), I was playing with OpenMediaVault. Some things were easy, some were a bit...not easy. Back then I had no knowledge of docker and how to properly setup everything, so I ended up with a system on the HDD which made every single thing both slow and noisy (though it gave a feel of the past with HDDs clicking all the time 😉 ).
 
Some time ago I tried to revive the project by installing fresh copy on the newly acquired SSD to act as system drive. Went quite ok, but had issues with how to properly setup the shares, etc. Clearly my fault of just not digging enough. Result: initial setup done, but without full synchronization, so it started to get dust again.
 
Now I want to do things "properly", set it and let it do its job. Given my requirements and previous struggles, should I stick to the OMV or should I switch to TrueNAS? I like the low-levelness of OMV, but at this point I don't know if I want to troubleshoot every issue. TrueNAS seems a bit more easy to use, while still allowing lots of flexibility. Would go with Scale and not Core as I have zero knowledge of FreeBSD (plus it seems to be a bit more restrictive), and the fact that Scale is based on Debian.
 
Two HDDs of 2TB that I have currently is not much, but I don't have that much data yet. Later I can add one or two to expand the pool. Thinking of going RAID1/RAIDZ1 first, then upgrading to higher capacity, then upgrading to RAID5/RAID6/RAIDZ2. The end goal will probably coincide with a platform change to support more than 4 disks, so I can have disks setup like: 1/2 boot (is system mirroring any good?), 4 backup (crucial stuff), 2 storage (non-crucial stuff).
 
To use my server as a backup, I want to have an automatic synchronization running from both Windows and Android devices that I own. What's the easiest way to achieve that? Syncthing? Nextcloud? I think both are supported on both systems, so is it just a matter of preference? The one thing I really need is to just be able for my Android phone to hook up and upload any new stuff to the server, possibly even over the Internet.
 
I have a static IP from my ISP, so would like to make use of it. Since access to both servers is mostly web-based, this should be just a matter of port forwarding, right? Any caveats here? I know the security risk of exposing the machine and won't make it public initially, but would like to do so eventually, once I am certain I can make it 99.9999% safe. TrueNAS supports 2FA, so I think that should be enough. How about OMV? Is there a way to setup either of those as write only so I can dump my files but not be able to read them? (FTP comes to mind)
 
To wake the machine, since I don't want it to run 24/7, I would love to use Wake-on-LAN. Is that easily configurable or rather a pain in the bottom parts? Secondary solution would be to have it connected through a smart plug and just fire it from the phone app. Would need to figure out how to turn it on from the Internet though - any suggestions that are not costly are greatly appreciated.
 
One crucial thing I want to use the server for is F@H. I am thinking about buying used card, maybe the GTX 10 series, and lowering its power to not stress the PSU. Would I be able to do so on either of NAS systems? Can(/Should) I use nvidia-smi for that and will it "just work"? I am not the master using terminal, but can handle simple things, including managing services and using cron. Is THIS guide good for setup on TrueNAS Scale? Anyone have it running on their servers?
 
Thank you for reading all of this. You deserve a cookie 🍪
 
Sorry for quite a long post. As usual, it started as a two-paragraph-long post in mind, but grew once I started writing :V
Also sorry for any mental shortcuts and lack of detail at any point: did some research, but it was limited by my general understanding and familiarity with the vocabulary (and English is not my native language).
 
Final note: I understand that both solutions are rather fine, but would like to know whether any of my requirements is a no-go or just harder on any of them.

Install windows on a SSD ... you get MUCH more performance compared to even 4 hard drives, and you don't need the capacity for an operating system.
Use RAID 1 provided by chipset if you want redundancy.
 
But if you insist, here's an example : LSI 9271-4i 4 port Drive Controller
or  (sata 2 only, but who cares with hard drives) Areca Arc-1260 16 port Drive Controller
 

geez so long ago I messed around with a card for raid. years ago i always went for the adaptec cards
to this day they are still delivering good options. I personally am a very stubborn individual and stick to brands i have never had issues with so I would say look at offerings from Adaptec. I used them as far back as the 90's on macs and later on PC's and never had any complaints. 

Note that RAID is NOT a backup. It only protects against outright drive failure, which is only one of the many ways you can lose data, and a lesser frequent one at that.
See it as a way to "not interrupt your work if a drive fails", i.e. increasing availability but not backup/data safety.
 
Backup should be separate.

Just add VLANs to your network with Inter-VLAN Routing :-), that should be sufficent enough.
 
I recomend to read this (its little more complicated to setup):
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Switch+Chip+Features
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/VLAN
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Bridge+VLAN+Table
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Basic+VLAN+switching
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=103841836
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/CRS3xx%2C+CRS5xx%2C+CCR2116%2C+CCR2216+VLANs+with+Bonds
https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=161636
 
 
These are not as important:
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Layer2+misconfiguration
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Loop+Protect
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Spanning+Tree+Protocol
 
If you need help with something just ask

I assume running your nextcloud server behind a DMZ doesnt work for you?