Thinking about making a NAS

[Indus Monk]

Hello people. I have begun that transition from student to Video editor/screenwriter. And since we have acquired a Sony a7smk3, I was thinking about making a NAS with atleast 8TB storage for storing a7smk3 footage because that camera has high file sizes. (Like about 3 gb for a minute long clip)

 

So right now, I have

i5 4690k

8GB DDR3

GTX 1060 6GB

 

as spare hardware. Yes I could sell it, but the second hand market for PC in India is awful. I was asking 50 USD for the 1060, nobody is giving more than 35 USD. So it seems like i will have to keep it. 

 

My questions are:

• Is this hardware adequate for a NAS?
• What OS should I run on the NAS?
• Is 8GB gonna be enough for just a cold storage computer?
• How do I send footage to this computer over AC wifi?
• If i wanted to hook it up to TV for some netflix etc, would I have to go for 16GB RAM? (no gaming on the second rig. I have my main workstation for that)

 

NOTE

i am not too advanced with tech, I can build a PC, reinstall windows, debug people's PC, but I cannot write any type of code, including command line. I would have gone linux, but i cannot code, and I cannot devote too much time to debugging linux or learning it. (I know that disappoints a lot of you guys and gals out there, but I just cannot do anything about that anymore. I had to begrudgingly leave engineering and science behind, because i was too dumb. Not that i am any smarter now.)

 

[Windows7ge]

This is more than good enough to act as a NAS/File Server. You can omit the GPU though if the motherboard has display outputs.

 

There's a lot of options available for NAS operating systems. One of the most popular being TrueNAS CORE. It's not Linux but it's not Windows either. The initial setup might be a little nerve wrecking but once it's installed it has a user friendly web page you can access it from and setup whatever storage/sharing you like.

 

They might still support the PLEX media plugin which you could use for streaming video to your TV.

 

It should be mentioned though that you shouldn't keep this as your only copy of your data. Make sure you maintain at least a second copy of everything important somewhere else.

[GhostRoadieBL]

20 minutes ago, Indus Monk said:

• Is this hardware adequate for a NAS?
• What OS should I run on the NAS?
• Is 8GB gonna be enough for just a cold storage computer?
• How do I send footage to this computer over AC wifi?
• If i wanted to hook it up to TV for some netflix etc, would I have to go for 16GB RAM? (no gaming on the second rig. I have my main workstation for that)

- yes, that hardware is plenty for a NAS, would make a great plex server too

- I run FreeNAS (aka TrueNAS), it's a linux based OS with a really simple interface layer and very focuses on being a NAS OS over anything else

- 8GB is plenty for cold storage, there shouldn't be a need for more unless you plan to run VMs or do file conversions, since most NAS OS's run linux they are very light on RAM

- you will have to setup a network share, this is different on each OS you choose so it's best to narrow that down. once the share is set up you access it just like any HDD on your system

- do you mean use the NAS as a media box and hook the display up to it or access it through a smart tv interface for something like plex or media playback? If you are hoping to use it as a PC with the TV as an output you can run a VM or even just run windows instead of a NAS specific OS and setup a network shared drive which is "hosted" by the computer and the rest of the computers on your network can access it.

[shoutingsteve]

4 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

- yes, that hardware is plenty for a NAS, would make a great plex server too

- I run FreeNAS (aka TrueNAS), it's a linux based OS with a really simple interface layer and very focuses on being a NAS OS over anything else

- 8GB is plenty for cold storage, there shouldn't be a need for more unless you plan to run VMs or do file conversions, since most NAS OS's run linux they are very light on RAM

- you will have to setup a network share, this is different on each OS you choose so it's best to narrow that down. once the share is set up you access it just like any HDD on your system

- do you mean use the NAS as a media box and hook the display up to it or access it through a smart tv interface for something like plex or media playback? If you are hoping to use it as a PC with the TV as an output you can run a VM or even just run windows instead of a NAS specific OS and setup a network shared drive which is "hosted" by the computer and the rest of the computers on your network can access it.

I, also, run FreeNAS.  It's pretty great.

[Indus Monk]

Okay, so the general consensus says freeNAS or TrueNAS. l will tak e a look at both of them.

 

9 hours ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

 

- do you mean use the NAS as a media box and hook the display up to it or access it through a smart tv interface for something like plex or media playback? If you are hoping to use it as a PC with the TV as an output you can run a VM or even just run windows instead of a NAS specific OS and setup a network shared drive which is "hosted" by the computer and the rest of the computers on your network can access it.

Nono, no plex, wanna use it like a normal PC hooked up to a 43inch 4k monitor to do normal PC things like documents, browsing the web etc. But no gaming.

[silentdragon95]

In that case the easiest option may be to just install Windows on it and set up network shares on Windows. Technically installing any regular desktop Linux would also work in the same way of yourse, but since you're more familiar with Windows you might as well just go with that at that point.

 

There are ways to pass a GPU to a VM running on TrueNAS, but it's a pretty complicated process that requires lots of command line inputs and (according to some forum posts I found) it doesn't always work. Here is a video but keep in mind I haven't tried any of this so I don't know if it's going to work.

 

The other option I can think of is using OpenMediaVault, which is another OS meant for use as a NAS. It's based on Linux Debian, which Ubuntu is also based on, and therefore as far as Linux is concerned it's pretty easy to deal with. With OMV, it would be possible to install Kodi (formerly XBMC) on it, using any XBMC for Debian tutorial. However this is not officially supported or recommended eiher, even though some people got it to work - I ran a similar setup for a while years ago, but it was a pain to set it up and once again you'd have to use the command line a lot.

 

The last option you may want to consider is to keep the NAS just as a NAS and get a FireTV Stick or anything along those lines. You can then, no matter what NAS OS you choose, install a Plex addon and stream to your FireTV Stick. I know it may seem easier to just use one PC for everything, especially if it has enough power, but unfortunately the reality is that it's not.

[shoutingsteve]

10 hours ago, Indus Monk said:

Okay, so the general consensus says freeNAS or TrueNAS. l will tak e a look at both of them.

 

Nono, no plex, wanna use it like a normal PC hooked up to a 43inch 4k monitor to do normal PC things like documents, browsing the web etc. But no gaming.

Great News!  They are the same thing!  FreeNas became Truenas at the start of the pandemic.

[GhostRoadieBL]

11 hours ago, Indus Monk said:

wanna use it like a normal PC hooked up

I've never seen a truenas setup with a windows or linux system on the main system.

It's definitely possible when setting up a virtual machine and choosing hardware for it in the settings, just always see it accessed through a browser rather than directly outputting to a screen.

[shoutingsteve]

4 hours ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

I've never seen a truenas setup with a windows or linux system on the main system.

It's definitely possible when setting up a virtual machine and choosing hardware for it in the settings, just always see it accessed through a browser rather than directly outputting to a screen.

Yes, absolutely correct.  You can use a virtual machine, but it's not really the best experience in the world.  I must have missed that the OP wanted to use windows on it.  I would only recommend freenas/truenas if you just want a really great NAS box. If you want windows, just setup a bunch of  shared folders.  It won't be as fast to access, though.  NAS  is built for multiple clients to access simultaneously, unlike windows shares.

[Indus Monk]

On 1/31/2022 at 1:53 AM, shoutingsteve said:

OP wanted to use windows on it.

-snip-

 

Anyways, having four drives should do the trick. Two for cold storage. One with TrueNAS and has access to the cold storage drive. The other with win10 and no access to cold storage drives. But if that is too much to ask, we can omit the HTPC purpose

[shoutingsteve]

1 minute ago, Indus Monk said:

That was never one of the goals. But it would be a nice to have. I think to do that, I would have to use two boot drives. One with FreeNAS that has access to the cold storage drives. And the other with windows 10 with no access to the cold storage drive. The end goal is cold storage, not an HTPC

The thing about NAS boxes is not rebooting them.  Mine has been up for 89 days.  Having them accessible 24/7 is a really great aspect, otherwise you may as well just buy a few 1 tb external hard drives and plug them in as you need them.

[Indus Monk]

1 minute ago, shoutingsteve said:

The thing about NAS boxes is not rebooting them.  Mine has been up for 89 days.  Having them accessible 24/7 is a really great aspect, otherwise you may as well just buy a few 1 tb external hard drives and plug them in as you need them.

I edited my final reply

[Indus Monk]

6 minutes ago, shoutingsteve said:

The thing about NAS boxes is not rebooting them.  Mine has been up for 89 days.  Having them accessible 24/7 is a really great aspect, otherwise you may as well just buy a few 1 tb external hard drives and plug them in as you need them.

Also, I don't want to run my NAS 24/7. Unless I absolutely need it.

 

That would be quite slow and quite a hassle to fuck around with.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, Indus Monk said:

Also, I don't want to run my NAS 24/7. Unless I absolutely need it.

 

That would be quite slow and quite a hassle to fuck around with.

The external hdds would normally be faster as its faster than gigabit networking, and you can get much bigger drives if you don't want to deal with multiple drives.

 

 

But if you want to use it like a normal pc plugged into the tv, and then get a 8-12tb hdd, and make a network share in windows.

[shoutingsteve]

4 hours ago, Indus Monk said:

Also, I don't want to run my NAS 24/7. Unless I absolutely need it.

 

That would be quite slow and quite a hassle to fuck around with.

Just and FYI, TrueNAS/FreeNAS system takes about 3 or 4 minutes to get up and running each time you power it on.  Leaving it running isn't too much of an energy hog as the system has the "turn of disks after XX minutes" feature built into the OS.  You could only turn it on when using it for video editing, but then you miss out on all the scrubbing features that make having a NAS box worth it.  Plus once you have one, you'll want to put all sorts of stuff on there

Or' buy a crappy router that has network storage abilities.  I had a Linksys n600 that you could attach a USB drive to and it was instantly network storage.

[Indus Monk]

4 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

The external hdds would normally be faster as its faster than gigabit networking, and you can get much bigger drives if you don't want to deal with multiple drives.

 

 

But if you want to use it like a normal pc plugged into the tv, and then get a 8-12tb hdd, and make a network share in windows.

 

1 hour ago, shoutingsteve said:

Just and FYI, TrueNAS/FreeNAS system takes about 3 or 4 minutes to get up and running each time you power it on.  Leaving it running isn't too much of an energy hog as the system has the "turn of disks after XX minutes" feature built into the OS.  You could only turn it on when using it for video editing, but then you miss out on all the scrubbing features that make having a NAS box worth it.  Plus once you have one, you'll want to put all sorts of stuff on there

Or' buy a crappy router that has network storage abilities.  I had a Linksys n600 that you could attach a USB drive to and it was instantly network storage.

My god. I am now in a dilemma. I dont even know if i should make a NAS now.

 

Also, what is this scrubbing features of NAS? @shoutingsteve

[shoutingsteve]

1 minute ago, Indus Monk said:

 

My god. I am now in a dilemma. I dont even know if i should make a NAS now.

 

Also, what is this scrubbing features of NAS? @shoutingsteve

Scrubbing is how it makes sure that the data spread across the 3 or more disks inside your NAS isn't corrupted.

Also, there is no reason not to build a NAS.

[Indus Monk]

Just now, shoutingsteve said:

Scrubbing is how it makes sure that the data spread across the 3 or more disks inside your NAS isn't corrupted.

basically a method of saving my data from data rot/ bitrot?

[shoutingsteve]

Just now, Indus Monk said:

basically a method of saving my data from data rot/ bitrot?

exactly.  the ZFS file systems is great that way.

[Indus Monk]

Just now, shoutingsteve said:

exactly.  the ZFS file systems is great that way.

I think that is enough of an excuse to get a NAS. Also, is bitrot an issue on external drives? is bitrot more prominent if there is 24/7 operation?

[Indus Monk]

Just a small note.

 

I have the option of buying a bunch of drives and just using that. But i have always wanted an extra PC. Maybe I will make an HTPC out of my spare system and use something else for cold storage

[shoutingsteve]

1 minute ago, Indus Monk said:

I think that is enough of an excuse to get a NAS. Also, is bitrot an issue on external drives? is bitrot more prominent if there is 24/7 operation?

Yes and no.  The more times a file is moved around the more likely it is to be screwed up.  But, when it is confirmed through a system like zfs, it is less likely that the screw up will not be caught and corrected.

[Indus Monk]

1 minute ago, shoutingsteve said:

Yes and no.  The more times a file is moved around the more likely it is to be screwed up.  But, when it is confirmed through a system like zfs, it is less likely that the screw up will not be caught and corrected.

I see. So imma now build a NAS. But first, Let me get a job first and then imma build a cold storage system with HTPC Capabilites.

 

Please wish me luck in finding a job. Especially in a cespool like Bollywood