Portable server to save and share (excel and pdf only)

[Pacorebon]

Hi all, to clarify better what i want i will explain the use first:

 

Me and my wife have an online business, we make multiple excel files and send them via pdf to our customers daily.

ACTUAL and BAD solution: we share an external SSD and we transfer the file done on it at the end of every day for backup and ''sync'' our progress.

Why i do not have an home server? Becouse we travel alot and cannot bring the server with me if it's big.

 

What i wish it's possible to do:

A compact SBC system (like raspberry) that i can turn on where i live at the moment, connect to the local wifi and have all the data there.

It will have to have RAID 1 to be safe if a drive fail, planning on using ssds for compactness.

512gb it's plenty enough for years.

No more need to save on the laptop and trasfer after to something else.

No online service to protect data, only local things.

 

What i think it's a base to start:

RaspberryPi 4 (rev B) for the 2 usb 3.0 ports.

x2 2,5 inch 512gb ssd's double sided taped together.

Rasp Pi4 screen for more practical use.

No idea on what OS or software use to do that.

 

No budget limitations, just it have to be small, portable and practical to use and configure. 

 

I'm open to every suggestions.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Do you have internet at these locations? Id just get google drive, one drive or simmilar. That would be much more reliable, secure, cheaper, and easier to setup and use. 

 

 

[Pacorebon]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you have internet at these locations? Id just get google drive, one drive or simmilar. That would be much more reliable, secure, cheaper, and easier to setup and use. 

 

 

I have internet but i do not want to make something online with all the data of work.. it does not feel very secure..

Just to clarify, I always have my 4g router with me if i'm not at home or at the 2nd house, the wi-fi will always be the mine, never tought on using ''public wifi''

[Electronics Wizardy]

7 minutes ago, Pacorebon said:

I have internet but i do not want to make something online with all the data of work.. it does not feel very secure..

Just to clarify, I always have my 4g router with me if i'm not at home or at the 2nd house, the wi-fi will always be the mine, never tought on using ''public wifi''

The large cloud storage providers, put a lot of work into security, with a lot of systems like 2fa and abnormality detection that is much harder to do on your pi. They also make sure everything is managed and stays up to date. Id trust cloud storage much more than a pi nas. Many large companies and goverments trust the security of these solutions, there isn't really a issue with them.

 

 

[Pacorebon]

19 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

The large cloud storage providers, put a lot of work into security, with a lot of systems like 2fa and abnormality detection that is much harder to do on your pi. They also make sure everything is managed and stays up to date. Id trust cloud storage much more than a pi nas. Many large companies and goverments trust the security of these solutions, there isn't really a issue with them.

 

 

Sorry but i really do not like the ONLY online part of those services, being able to have access at my files only if i have internet it's not for me..

[manikyath]

since you mention excel.. have you thought about just getting into Office365? you can set up sharepoint for your projects, invite clients to view all files related to their project (without them needing a licensed account).

 

i'm not a microsoft minded person at all, but O365 collaboration tools are probably the only reason for me to care at all.

[Pacorebon]

9 minutes ago, manikyath said:

since you mention excel.. have you thought about just getting into Office365? you can set up sharepoint for your projects, invite clients to view all files related to their project (without them needing a licensed account).

 

i'm not a microsoft minded person at all, but O365 collaboration tools are probably the only reason for me to care at all.

 

I Need to send them the PDF, the documents are invoices and orders they have to sign.

Bye thanks for the idea!

[jaslion]

10 minutes ago, Pacorebon said:

 

I Need to send them the PDF, the documents are invoices and orders they have to sign.

Bye thanks for the idea!

I mean office 365 + power automate would be the ideal solution. Power automate can automatically send and make the pdf for you.

 

The safest way to go about this would be to just use a online cloud storage. Does not mean everything is online only. Just let it sync your files locally and in the cloud on both devices then you have 3 copies available at all times.

 

The pi idea is pretty bad. One unlucky wifi connection and well data compromised pretty easily. That and sd cards are really not meant to be written and read from a lot. They are not a good storage. That and raid 1 is NOT A BACKUP AT ALL WHAT SO EVER IN ANY WAY. Super easy to get a raid 1 corrupted with a drive dying.

[mariushm]

You could rent a dedicated server at a datacenter.

You can pay extra (around 10-25$ a month more) to have use Windows as operating system - you can then basically connect to it from anywhere using Remote desktop connection, or Anydesk (once it's installed on that computer)

 

You can also set up a web server or some personal cloud type of solution (ex: nextCloud, ownCloud ) and sync the files with your laptop. 

You can set it up so that you can serve the PDF files directly from your server, and just send a special / custom / personalized link to the clients

[Pacorebon]

6 hours ago, jaslion said:

 

The safest way to go about this would be to just use a online cloud storage. Does not mean everything is online only. Just let it sync your files locally and in the cloud on both devices then you have 3 copies available at all times.

 

So It'ss possibile to have a service that continously Sync data from a local folder? 

Wich providers can do It?

 

PS: i get that the pi idea Is not that good if all of you are against It

[Needfuldoer]

34 minutes ago, Pacorebon said:

So It'ss possibile to have a service that continously Sync data from a local folder? 

Wich providers can do It?

Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive...

 

That's a pretty standard feature these days.

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, Pacorebon said:

 

So It'ss possibile to have a service that continously Sync data from a local folder? 

Wich providers can do It?

 

PS: i get that the pi idea Is not that good if all of you are against It

Google drive, one drive, I assume office 365. 
 

Remember, the entire internet, well, runs on the internet large corporations use google drive and Dropbox, it’s all plenty secure. It just comes down to implementation. If you have a good password and use 2fa, it’ll be way more secure then carrying around a harddrive, and it will be backed up globally. And yes, they all support online and offline mode. 

[Pacorebon]

1 hour ago, LIGISTX said:

Google drive, one drive, I assume office 365. 
 

Remember, the entire internet, well, runs on the internet large corporations use google drive and Dropbox, it’s all plenty secure. It just comes down to implementation. If you have a good password and use 2fa, it’ll be way more secure then carrying around a harddrive, and it will be backed up globally. And yes, they all support online and offline mode. 

Man.. you made me feel old, did not  look at those online services for a while and all had changed so much.

Never thought they even had offline mode.

Thanks all for the advices, i will look up on those services to find the best for our work.

 

 

 

[jaslion]

10 hours ago, Pacorebon said:

 

So It'ss possibile to have a service that continously Sync data from a local folder? 

Wich providers can do It?

 

PS: i get that the pi idea Is not that good if all of you are against It

Onedrive, google drive, dropbox, backblaze,... basically almost any cloud service