Planning a NAS home build - Help please.

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JJ2012

JJ2012

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I am planning on building a NAS but, as I've only read about it and watched youtube would like some advice please.


I have bought these second hand parts:

Case : Fractal Design Define XL R2 which has a supermicro X7SBA motherboard, Corsair CX600 PSU.

Memory: Micron 4 x 1gm server ram (have ordered Samsung 16GB (4X4GB) PC2-5300F DDR2-667MHZ ECC Fully Buffered FB-DIMM Server RAM) I know the motherboard can only use 8gb but I might make another one!

I'm going to buy 4 new WD red or Seagate HDDs (not sure what size yet).

I was thinking of putting FreeNas on it but as I've only read stuff not sure if this is what I need!

I will be using it as a place to store all my photos, videos and important documents. I want to be able to copy all the things over from several HDDs I have at the moment. I would also like to be able to give access to a friend for her to have her own private folders to store her photos etc on.

Do I need a NAS or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Any advise very welcome as a complete beginner to this!

TIA.

I'm in the UK if that makes any difference!
 
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The Paladin
I used to run an extra PC to be my NAS, and I got tired of it, and just bough 2x2TB WD NAS BOX and 1x6TB NAS Device, put the 6TB NAS box on the internal network for movies, and music, accessed by 3 TV, and Sound system on the deck of house and converted DVD collection I own (about 4TB full) and the 2x2TB are for primary and secondary backup of important documents.

take a whole less room than any pc configuration you can have, sits in my living room wall shelf, wired to the 8 port switch.
link to the 8TB version of what I have , but they all look the same. http://www.frys.com/product/8755441?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
size wise hard to beat, the size of a hard cover book.
ptDwSps.png



small compact, simple...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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1. The server board and the ECC ram is a bit overkill.

2. I would NOT be using that secondhand CX600 PSU.

3. For this functionality, pretty much any PC would work. What you're going to have to be careful with is if you open things up for access from outside your LAN.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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If you and your friend can access it from outside, maybe I can as well.
You have to be really, really careful with external openings.

For instance, I had 5 (failed) log in attempts to my Qnap NAS box, from somewhere in Russia, just this morning. The last just 10 minutes ago.
Failed, because the default admin account pwd is changed, and that account is completely disabled.
An unsuspecting used may have left the original account still in existence. And even with the pwd changed...an outside attacker is one step closer to getting in.

I've had log in attempts from IP addresses in Caracas, South Africa, Portugal, Russia, Ohio.....


FreeNAS? Sure, that would work.
But for your use, any OS would work. Windows, Linux, whatever. This is simple file sharing.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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I have a NAS box.
There is also a full backup of that NAS box.

Basically, you want your data in more than one place. A RAID array of any type is "one place".

All of my data exists in at least 2 places, sometimes 3, and for critical stuff, a different 3 places.

On the PC
A daily backup of the PC to the NAS
A weekly backup of the entire NAS to a USB connected drive.
And for critical stuff, a whole other drive that lives in a desk drawer at my office.

My 2.5TB movie collection lives in the NAS box, and the backup of that. (x2)
The data on my PC lives on the PC, and in the NAS, and in the backup of the NAS (x3)
Scans of drivers license, birth certs, pics of my grandson (at age 2 in a tutu)...live in the NAS, the backup, and in a desk drawer at work.
Some things you cannot get back.

A NAS box is simply one or more drives in a Network attached storage box.
This also needs a true backup.
The RAID in the NAS box (RAID 5 in my case) only covers the instance of a physical drive failing. It does not do anything for an accidental deletion, major virus infection, theft, fire, flood, ransomware, etc, etc.


Read here for how I and other people do it:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3383768/backup-situation-home.html
 
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JJ2012

JJ2012

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One more thing - sorry

I would like to have everything backed up but, also be able to access my things when I am not at my computer from either my laptop or mobile phone, this is why I though a NAS was the answer.

What would I need to do in order to achieve this please?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Again, we're talking about external access. A NAS box, either prebuilt Qnap or Synology, or just a regular PC that you build...can do that.
There is nothing special about "NAS" that makes this possible.

My Qnap could be completely local, or accessible from outside. The same with the regular PC house server (Pentium G840/4GB RAM) that it replaced.

This involves port forwarding on your router. And a deep investigation in how to allow that, and also prevent nefarious actors from also accessing it.


Also, something like DropBox or OneDrive would allow access to files from outside the house.
 
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The Paladin

The Paladin

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I used to run an extra PC to be my NAS, and I got tired of it, and just bough 2x2TB WD NAS BOX and 1x6TB NAS Device, put the 6TB NAS box on the internal network for movies, and music, accessed by 3 TV, and Sound system on the deck of house and converted DVD collection I own (about 4TB full) and the 2x2TB are for primary and secondary backup of important documents.

take a whole less room than any pc configuration you can have, sits in my living room wall shelf, wired to the 8 port switch.
link to the 8TB version of what I have , but they all look the same. http://www.frys.com/product/8755441?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
size wise hard to beat, the size of a hard cover book.
ptDwSps.png



small compact, simple to use, locked out from outside, behind my firewall, and if I want to access if remotely I can

in case of emergency, I can pull those drives from the shelf in less than 10 secs, and walk out of the house with them.
little harder with a pc system... unless you have it in a fire, flood, tornado, hurricane proof box ....:)
 
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