Getting stuck setting up mass storage NAS

[xDanielxOossiex]

I've recently built a second pc from secondhand parts.

The PC I want to use for the NAS is already running Windows 10 Pro, but I am getting stuck setting up the software side of things. I have Googled a good amount of times now but I just can't seem to find the right tutorial.

 

I want to use the second pc for mass storage, and being accessible from the internet (via an app or website)

And I would also like to automatically upload photo's taken on my phone, to the NAS's storage.

[Electronics Wizardy]

How much storage do need? Windows has storage spacse to make software raid of multiple drives.

 

You can easily make a file share on windows under sharing properties. 

[xDanielxOossiex]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much storage do need? Windows has storage spacse to make software raid of multiple drives.

 

You can easily make a file share on windows under sharing properties. 

I have a 3TB NAS HDD

 

I would like to use something like Nextcloud

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, xDanielxOossiex said:

I would like to use something like Nextcloud

Nextcloud is linux only, so you would need to setup a linux vm or install linux on the system.

 

How much storage do you need?

[xDanielxOossiex]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Nextcloud is linux only, so you would need to setup a linux vm or install linux on the system.

 

How much storage do you need?

I already tried using HyperV, that's also why I chose Win10Pro.

 

I have a new 3TB NAS HDD

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, xDanielxOossiex said:

I already tried using HyperV, that's also why I chose Win10Pro.

 

I have a new 3TB NAS HDD

were you able to setup nextcloud in hyper-v?

 

 

[Applefreak]

Setting it up in windows is not that easy to begin with, as server cloud and sync software is rare or pricey. Also having your system connected to the internet makes it an easy target for mass hacking attempts. Unless you already have bought hard drives etc. You may want to consider renting a dedicated linux server. You can get those in 2 to 3 tb capacity from a company called Hetzner in germany. I have one running Nextcloud (a sort of dropbox alternative). It only works on linux as a server but has windows and mobile clients as well for unlimited sharing between logged in devices. It also comes with plugins to edit documents and spreadsheets.

If you mus go the windows route, the only option of syncing photos the easy way is MS onecloud service. Transferring photos via ftp or ssh is an option but you would have to program an app for that to work with windows and I am not if that is even possible. On the other hand, if your system is fairly new and can run MS Hyper-V, you can run a debian or ubuntu machine on your system (virtual machine) and have that do all the server stuff. Not very efficient though. Penguin people won't like to hear that.

[Nick7]

What I'd suggest is setting up nextcloud in docker within WSL2, if you really intend to use Windows.

Otherwise - Linux with nextclud, again in docker.

 

If you are overly cautions&scared about security - Hyper-V with Linux, or in Linux KVM.

[Ginz]

If you're interested in the topic, and enjoy this kind of thing as a hobby, then I would definitely recommend learning how to use Linux.

It may seem scary/complicated at first, but having a project like this will help you get familiar with the operating system, as well as using containers.

Getting some experience in Linux will vastly increase the amount of homelabbing projects that you can take on, and will also give you a lot of experience should you wish to pursue this kind of stuff as a career.

 

If this sounds like the kind of thing you would like to try out, then I would:

• Look into a hypervisor such as Proxmox (which uses KVM underneath)
  • Storage can be set up in a few different ways:
    • You could have your hypervisor control all of your disks, and then create virtual disks for your VM. (I'd recommend this approach for a beginner)
    • You could dedicate a ssd/hdd for the hypervisor (or even a usb if using esxi), then passthrough a secondary disk(s) to a virtual machine.
    • You could have your hypervisor control all of your disks, create a virtual disk for your VM's OS, and then use NFS to grant your VM access to your hypervisor's disk.
• Create a VM and install Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS on it.
  • Note that setting up a static IP for your server, or dhcp reservation will be key to making sure that the VM is accessible even after rebooting your modem/router.
• Learn how to remotely access this VM via ssh.
• Watch an introductory video on Docker, and then go through a few tutorials to get yourself familiar with it.
• Read a tutorial on creating a Nextcloud instance via docker (try use docker-compose as you can easily see what container configuration that you have defined)
• Try accessing your Nextcloud instance over local lan.
• Don't expose Nextcloud to the internet unless using https.

 

Some considerations and more advanced topics

• Learn about ssh keys, and set them up to increase security around remotely accessing your server.
• Learn about dns, and consider getting a domain (there are some cheap/free options)
• Learn about https, certificates and reverse proxies before exposing Nextcloud to the internet.
  • Traefik, caddy, nginx, and haproxy are all examples of reverse proxies.
  • Letsencrypt is a service which you can use to issue https certificates to your sites (requires a domain)
• Some other cool things you can deploy via docker:
  • pihole
  • bookstack
  • emby/plex
  • wordpress