Raspberry Pi NAS Server

« VK » · 2 Mar 2014 at 15:59

Hey guys,

Having recently used a Raspberry Pi and realising it's abilities, I started looking into Network Attached Storage powered by Raspberry Pi. I came across this video on YouTube and wondered how effective would a Raspberry Pi be as a NAS Server.

Would anyone recommend using this as a cheap Low-Power NAS Server just for simple file storage? If so, what parts would I need to purchase?

Thanks.

Caged · 2 Mar 2014 at 17:46

AFAIK there's only one USB root hub on the Pi, which the ethernet adapter is connected to. I would imagine NAS performance is going to suck.

Lumeycom · 2 Mar 2014 at 17:49

Not the best idea, the pi wont deal with the overheads of moving large amounts of data well. From memory the USB is on the same bus as the nic so I guess you'd struggle to move anything worthwhile.

Shad · 2 Mar 2014 at 18:55

Hey VK

If you don't need mega throughput then it's worth a shot I'd have thought. The NIC is only 100Mb so it'll never be amazing for shifting loads of data at high speed. But if you just need somewhere to chuck stuff (photos, documents, etc.) then you could do worse than a powered hub and a few drives attached. I wouldn't use it for video storage though (but it's good for playback - check out Xbian).

DJMK4 · 2 Mar 2014 at 18:56

Lumeycom said:
Not the best idea, the pi wont deal with the overheads of moving large amounts of data well. From memory the USB is on the same bus as the nic so I guess you'd struggle to move anything worthwhile.

You would be maxing at about 5MB/s. Which in all honesty if you don't really care about speed, or just storing smaller files, but for transferring GB,s of data it could be very tedious.

A PC on a 100mb link will get you 10MB/s,

Then overheads of course

Hopefully if they bring out a new model. The Ethernet should be on a separate bus, and with gigabit,

This will make it fine for a nas, aswel as a cpu and mem upgrade

« VK » · 2 Mar 2014 at 21:57

Hmm :\ Thanks for the feedback guys, appreciate it! Might have to keep an eye out for future models and I also forgot to mention that it's just for offloading images and small documents, nothing too large.

The Pi idea just randomly came into mind and I wondered whether it was possible. Thanks again for the replies

Tony Williams · 2 Mar 2014 at 22:15

Don't bother mate, either get a NASable router or better HP Microserver for a one'er (£100)

OmegaHarvest · 2 Mar 2014 at 22:23

I built a small rack of Pis as an experiment to get a 24/7 cloud based home hosted solution working without hitting the electricity bills much

I wouldn't recommend one as a NAS with serious use but they can be handy for other stuff which sounds like what you may be after.

Mine do the following:

1) BIND secondary DNS server (for when my DC is offlline and I need name resolution).
2) ownCloud Server (slow but functional)
3) Subsonic Server (Like Google music but hosted internally)
4) miniDLNA Server (Media streaming to SMART TV)

I was able to mount NFS shares from my NetGear NAS to my Pi so I could stream all of my media from it.

I have had one SD card crap out on me already after running them 24/7 for about 3 months but I guess it's to be expected so bare that in mind that theyre not designed to be used as highly available servers

Hopefully this has given you a few ideas if you still want to play with one! They're pretty fun little devices and have taught me a lot about Linux general use.

« VK » · 4 Mar 2014 at 18:31

OmegaHarvest said:
I built a small rack of Pis as an experiment to get a 24/7 cloud based home hosted solution working without hitting the electricity bills much

I wouldn't recommend one as a NAS with serious use but they can be handy for other stuff which sounds like what you may be after.

Mine do the following:

1) BIND secondary DNS server (for when my DC is offlline and I need name resolution).
2) ownCloud Server (slow but functional)
3) Subsonic Server (Like Google music but hosted internally)
4) miniDLNA Server (Media streaming to SMART TV)

I was able to mount NFS shares from my NetGear NAS to my Pi so I could stream all of my media from it.

I have had one SD card crap out on me already after running them 24/7 for about 3 months but I guess it's to be expected so bare that in mind that theyre not designed to be used as highly available servers

Hopefully this has given you a few ideas if you still want to play with one! They're pretty fun little devices and have taught me a lot about Linux general use.

Thanks! That's made me want to get one now xD I'll probably have to experiment with them a little further

Thanks again for the reply