Cloud storage as NAS

[Paulo_Andre]

Is there a service I can use that behaves like a NAS, but on the cloud? I don't want to replicate things in my local drive, like dropbox requires, I want to use it literally like it was a hard drive connected in my network.

I know there can be costly, have poor performance, I'll check and test all that, just wanted to know what exists. My google-fu is not powerfull enough to find this...

[Needfuldoer]

3 minutes ago, Paulo_Andre said:

Is there a service I can use that behaves like a NAS, but on the cloud? I don't want to replicate things in my local drive, like dropbox requires, I want to use it literally like it was a hard drive connected in my network.

I know there can be costly, have poor performance, I'll check and test all that, just wanted to know what exists. My google-fu is not powerfull enough to find this...

You would have to set up a file share on a VPS and set up a VPN tunnel to it, then mount the share on your local machine. The closest you'll get are pseudo-local services like Dropbox and OneDrive that cache the files you're using.

 

Generally, network sharing filesystems like SMB and NFS don't run out in the wilds of the public Internet. It would be a security nightmare, and very slow. (Even if your transfer speeds are okay, the latency might make some things time out.) And forget using it for your Steam library.

[Average Nerd]

Onedrive?

[Paulo_Andre]

2 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

You would have to set up a file share on a VPS and set up a VPN tunnel to it, then mount the share on your local machine. The closest you'll get are pseudo-local services like Dropbox and OneDrive that cache the files you're using.

 

Generally, network sharing filesystems like SMB and NFS don't run out in the wilds of the public Internet. It would be a security nightmare, and the latency would hurt.

The reason I didn't want this is that I didn't want to deal with raid arrays and still have great reliability.

Also, sorry for not explaining, I didn't mean to have an open SMB share, I wanted something like dropbox, that requires to install an app and shows up as a different drive, but without taking space in mine (except probably a small cache)

[Paulo_Andre]

6 minutes ago, Average Nerd said:

Onedrive?

I forgot about that one... but there's a reason why I forgot. When I tried that, years ago, I had LOTS of conflicts, it seemed to take a long time to sync and when it did, it didn't know if it was the latest version, so it created a conflict. From that day on, I refuse to use onedrive on anything.

[manikyath]

the reason local cloning exists, is because the cloud is too slow to do anything useful without the application making direct implementations to mitigate the slowness.

 

as for onedrive - that's probably your best bet here.. it's a pain to set up i'll grant you that, but it allows you to on-demand pull files local, and clear them up after you're done, and it does so in a transparent way. you can run an application from the 90s and it wouldnt know any better than that those files are just there.

[Needfuldoer]

37 minutes ago, Paulo_Andre said:

The reason I didn't want this is that I didn't want to deal with raid arrays and still have great reliability.

Also, sorry for not explaining, I didn't mean to have an open SMB share, I wanted something like dropbox, that requires to install an app and shows up as a different drive, but without taking space in mine (except probably a small cache)

All those cloud storage services will cache the files you're using locally by transparently downloading them on-demand. That's just how filesystems work. The local cache can be purged at any time, and will be purged if you start running out of space, but the files remain in the cloud. They generally don't download a complete mirror of the cloud "drive" to your local machine unless you specifically ask them to.

 

Some services may create the illusion that they're an external drive, but that's not how they actually function. If you want something that's literally a NAS share in the cloud, you'll have to host one on a VPS and access it with a VPN tunnel.

[johnt]

2 hours ago, Paulo_Andre said:

I forgot about that one... but there's a reason why I forgot. When I tried that, years ago, I had LOTS of conflicts, it seemed to take a long time to sync and when it did, it didn't know if it was the latest version, so it created a conflict. From that day on, I refuse to use onedrive on anything.

I don't really have any reason to recommend OneDrive, but I will say it has improved greatly since "years ago." The secret sauce is to make sure a file is synced right after you finish using it. Often times we have goobers at my office who dump 1 to 2 GB of photos into their OD folder at a hotel or their house, turn off the PC when the transfer is done, and they say it doesn't sync with their other devices. Come onnnn

[youcrew]

To me NAS/DAS is about the storage space, the ONLY service I have found with good TB of data at a good price is ICE drive. I bought the 10TB of life time storage a few years ago, and  have added storage a couple of times. The price is reasonable for what you get, I use it as my NAS backup for the things I care about. Then replicate it to my bothers NAS. This is how we solved the buddy back up system Linus is talking about with HexOS. buuuuut IceDrive is the only service I could think of that is the closest to a cloud housed NAS

[Soid]

Onedrive is one of the few things that will operate the way the OP wants. Downloads files as you need them, but of course limited by download speed. If your ISP gives you terrible upload speeds like most US based ISPs, then cloud drives kinda suck, cause the sync can take a while. I use onedrive at work and its OK

 

At hime I use Proton drive, ans it works the same way, plus the encryption, but their storage is limited.