Questions about upgrading my Pi4 NAS and Plex Media Server

[DrMacintosh]

Hello, I have a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4 which is setup as a SMB file server (a single external HDD over USB) and a Plex Media server. The data on the drive is not mission critical, but I'd feel safer knowing I had RAID redundancy. However since a Pi4 is a low power device, using software raid introduces a big performance hit, so I'm looking into hardware RAID options. 

 

There are multiple USB HDD enclosures that support RAID. This enclosure is one that has particularly peaked my interest because of its design and price (on sale atm): https://www.newegg.com/orico-3529ru3-dock/p/0VN-0003-001P0?Item=9SIA1DSB8V2618&Description=Dual HDD enclosure&cm_re=Dual_HDD enclosure-_-9SIA1DSB8V2618-_-Product&cm_sp=SP-_-370410-_-0-_-2-_-9SIA1DSB8V2618-_-Dual HDD enclosure-_-enclosure|hdd-_-6

 

My question is, would configuring this box in RAID 1 produce any problems for a Raspberry Pi? I'm assuming I would be able to just mount the drive(s) (it should just show up as 1 drive since RAID 0, right?) to my SMB share list and it should just work, right? Worried about potential driver issues on the Pi, this is a pretty large purchase that I would have no use for if it does not work. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Software raid won't have a big performance hit, it takes very little cpu power, and the pi will be able to run it just fine. Id just get a second usb drive.

 

ALso the hardware raid on those usb boxes normally isn't great, so id stay away from those.

 

And if you want to keep your data safe, you want backups, not raid. Backups are much better at keeping your data safe than raid.

 

3 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

y question is, would configuring this box in RAID 0 produce any problems for a Raspberry Pi? I'm assuming I would be able to just mount the drive(s) (it should just show up as 1 drive since RAID 0,

Well raid 0 will double your chance of drive failure as if either drive dies you lose all the data. You would probalby want raid 1 here.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Well raid 0 will double your chance of drive failure as if either drive dies you lose all the data. You would probalby want raid 1 here.

Oh lol, did I switch my RAID numbers up? The intention was for the second drive to be a parity drive. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Oh lol, did I switch my RAID numbers up? The intention was for the second drive to be a parity drive. 

You would probably want a mirror with 2 drives.

 

But really you want backups here, not raid. Backups are much better at keeping your data safe than raid.

[Biohazard777]

6 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

However since a Pi4 is a low power device, using software raid introduces a big performance hit,

Using wrong filesystem is a lot bigger hit, don't use NTFS.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

But really you want backups here, not raid. Backups are much better at keeping your data safe than raid.

Of course, my main concern is the reliability of external USB HDDs. I can get other enclosures but I'm not entirely sure how reliable a USB drive hooked up to a network 24/7 is going to be. 

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Biohazard777 said:

Using wrong filesystem is a lot bigger hit, don't use NTFS.

Not using NTFS. My drive right now is exFAT since I need compatibility with devices that run software other than Windows

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Of course, my main concern is the reliability of external USB HDDs. I can get other enclosures but I'm not entirely sure how reliable a USB drive hooked up to a network 24/7 is going to be. 

For a home nas it should be fine. USB isn't great, but its not that bad.

 

If you want more reliable, Id get a premade nas or something like a used desktop, but the Pi should be more than plenty for a basic home nas.

 

Id just get a single external hdd, and then back it up so you don't lose data.

 

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Not using NTFS. My drive right now is exFAT since I need compatibility with devices that run software other than Windows

If your doing a network share the filesystem doesn't matter. Use a linux native filesystem like ext4/xfs/btrfs.

[Biohazard777]

5 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Of course, my main concern is the reliability of external USB HDDs. I can get other enclosures but I'm not entirely sure how reliable a USB drive hooked up to a network 24/7 is going to be.

It will be fine, speaking from personal experience. Have a Maxtor M3 Portable 1TB (2.5" spinning rust) hooked up via USB as a network drive since 2018.
Oh and one more thing, if you plan on plugging in 2 drives to the Pi keep in mind that max current output for all USB ports combined on Pi4 is 1.2A (@ 5V obviously), so you should check how much power do those drives of your draw... Spinning rust takes power to spin up ;).

[DrMacintosh]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If your doing a network share the filesystem doesn't matter. Use a linux native filesystem like ext4/xfs/btrfs.

Is there any penalty with using exFAT though? Worst comes to worst, my Pi or router dies but I can still easily connect my drive to my Mac or my PC and view all the data. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Is there any penalty with using exFAT though? Worst comes to worst, my Pi or router dies but I can still easily connect my drive to my Mac or my PC and view all the data. 

It doesn't do permissions as well, and generally just has more issues, but should work fine.