Do I need a monitor and keyboard plugged in all the time?

[Snifferdog3]

Hey, so I have a few spare parts laying around and I'm going to buy a new 2tb HDD to replace my 3 old HDDs in my main pc, so I was thinking I could build a Nas out of the old parts (why not, what else would I do with them?) I was just wandering if I need to have a keyboard and monitor always plugged into the Nas for it to work? I kinda want it so I can just turn on the Nas when I need it, then turn it off when I'm not at home or asleep etc without needing a screen plugged in all the time taking up room, if I need a keyboard always in that's fine because I can tuck that away out of sight, I doubt it will boot without a keyboard as I unplugged my keyboard on my main machine once and it said I needed it in to boot, but as long as I don't need the monitor plugged in after I set everything up that's fine. Probably a stupid question but just wandering

[Raudi_]

Leave them plugged in when booting the NAS up then once booted you can unplug them. 

[Snifferdog3]

1 minute ago, KingCry said:

Leave them plugged in when booting the NAS up then once booted you can unplug them. 

But if I shut it down for the night, I would have to plug them in the next day, boot and unplug, I can see that getting annoying.

[Raudi_]

Just now, Snifferdog3 said:

But if I shut it down for the night, I would have to plug them in the next day, boot and unplug, I can see that getting annoying.

Yes very much so you might be able to run a KVM in that case? That would allow you to leave a monitor plugged in for the NAS and your main system as well as a keyboard at all times.

[Snipergod87]

You can unplug everything and boot it, it doesnt matter.

[tarfeef101]

You can set warnings for things like that on/off in most motherboards' BOIS. Just gotta hunt for the settings. 

My server, for example, routinely boots with no peripherals whatsoever. I do all my administration over ssh so they're just not needed.

[Firewrath9]

26 minutes ago, Snifferdog3 said:

But if I shut it down for the night, I would have to plug them in the next day, boot and unplug, I can see that getting annoying.

you are supposed to run NAS 24/

[porina]

Keyboard error is a common option in the BIOS you can disable. Monitor is not needed to boot. NAS systems typically run headless, and any admin is done over web interface. Even if you use Windows as a host, that doesn't necessarily need a monitor connected. However since Win10 (Win7 doesn't seem affected) if you don't have a monitor attached the OS defaults to a tiny virtual resolution if you use something like VNC. Workaround is to get a fake monitor dongle if this is your situation. Alternatively RDP isn't affected as it is a virtual desktop, but I don't consider that as "like being there" with the likes of VNC.

[porina]

2 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

you are supposed to run NAS 24/

Depends on your use case. I also turn mine off when it is not in use, which is 99% of the time. I use mine as a backup server so it only needs to be on when in use.

[Jarsky]

You can run any computer headless, just make sure in the Bios you disable halt on no keyboard. You'll obviously just need to make sure everything is setup First. If you're running Linux then you'll want to setup fstab to auto mount the drive when you start it up. I use Windows Server 2019 and just run it 24/7 and manage via rdp. Similarly with Linux you can just use vnc/xrdp/ssh/etc... to manage it remotely. Or of course use a nas distro with Web interface. 

[Snifferdog3]

That's all I need to know, Thanks everyone

[mariushm]

With Windows, you could just leave a mouse near the pc... after all you can buy one for a dollar or so and doesn't take much space.

You can use on screen keyboard for small things when needed, even to log in

You can use remote desktop connection otherwise..

 

Monitor and keyboard aren't required.

Not though that with some drivers and some cards (AMD in particular), without a monitor connected to the video card, the video card may stay at lower frequencies so for example performance in OpenCL or some things may be slower without a monitor connected.  But the system will work without.

 

[Snifferdog3]

 

11 hours ago, mariushm said:

With Windows, you could just leave a mouse near the pc... after all you can buy one for a dollar or so and doesn't take much space.

You can use on screen keyboard for small things when needed, even to log in

You can use remote desktop connection otherwise..

 

Monitor and keyboard aren't required.

Not though that with some drivers and some cards (AMD in particular), without a monitor connected to the video card, the video card may stay at lower frequencies so for example performance in OpenCL or some things may be slower without a monitor connected.  But the system will work without.

 

well i was thinking of using FreeNAS, i have plenty of keyboards and mouses, but it would just be easier to just be able to click the power button and leave it. 

 

edit: maybe not freenas now as it says it needs 8gb ram, i only have 4