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PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

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Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#121

Post by sliken »

rlt wrote: post #58
anderspitman wrote: post #18

Interesting. Usually my critique for products like this is something along the lines of "great, but how are you going to access your data from the internet?" Typically the answer to that is you need some sort of tunneling service like ngrok to get around port forwarding, CGNAT, firewalls, etc. I maintain a list of solutions here[0]. The problem with most of these services is that they're targeted at developers and ar…

Maybe I’m paranoid, but I wouldn’t want to expose my NAS directly to the internet. At most via a VPN.

Heh, I'd happily do so with ssh, assuming passwords are disabled, it's the current openssh, all other ports blocked, and only key based auth.

However I wouldn't let the random vendor webstack with cloud sync anywhere near anything I care about.

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#122

Post by sliken »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #6
sliken wrote: post #2

I was hoping for a bit better performance. Any suggestions for similar that could max out 4-5 drives, maybe add a M.2/U.2 for caching (or 2), and handle 2.5 gbit ethernet?

Synology 420+ ticks all of those boxes. I have one and love it.

Can you run debian or similar on the synology 420+ so that when synology dies, merges, abandons the 420+, is bought, or just changes their mind that I can switch to something with updates?

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#123

Post by sliken »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #41
sliken wrote: post #2

I was hoping for a bit better performance. Any suggestions for similar that could max out 4-5 drives, maybe add a M.2/U.2 for caching (or 2), and handle 2.5 gbit ethernet?

I think you want a Synology or QNAP device at that point. I bought one of these for $550: https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/ts-932px 5 HDDs and 4 SSDs for caching, with 10gbit fiber or 2.5gbit ethernet. I have 40 terabytes of storage in mine(21TB free). If I ever fill it up, I'll probably buy an actual storage server with ~500TB of drives.

Can you run debian or similar on the ts-932px so that when synology dies, merges, abandons the ts-932px, is bought, or just changes their mind that I can switch to something with updates?

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#124

Post by anderspitman »

k8sToGo wrote: post #89
anderspitman wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cloudflare Tunnels is currently my recommendation for most people. Not only is it free, it will also manage DNS records and HTTPS for you very easily. My main concern is that when it comes to self-hosting photos and videos, that's against the TOS for Cloudflare's free tier. If enough people start using it I assume they'll crack down. Bandwidth isn't free.

I hope you also mention the implications when using Cloudflare when you recommend it: That it is basically MITM and has access to all of your data. But I am also not sure why I'd want to expose my photos and videos to the internet. Just use a VPN of some sort.

I'm not aware of many tunneling services that offer e2ee. My own boringproxy[0] does.

In any case, the MITM issue you mention is no different of a risk profile than storing your data on google drive or icloud, which is what most people are currently doing. Hosting through Cloudflare on a domain you own isn't perfect, but it's a big step in the right direction.

> But I am also not sure why I'd want to expose my photos and videos to the internet

I often share photos and videos with others, whether actually allowing them access directly through their device, or pulling images up on my phone to show them in person.

[0]: https://boringproxy.io/

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#125

Post by anderspitman »

fulafel wrote: post #73
anderspitman wrote: post #18

Interesting. Usually my critique for products like this is something along the lines of "great, but how are you going to access your data from the internet?" Typically the answer to that is you need some sort of tunneling service like ngrok to get around port forwarding, CGNAT, firewalls, etc. I maintain a list of solutions here[0]. The problem with most of these services is that they're targeted at developers and ar…

Tunneling is a good fallback if you don't have working v6 or v4, but i disagree potential internet connectivity problems should be a critique of internet applications like like this.

Certainly it could still be useful without internet access, but it can't compete with Google Drive or iCloud unless you can easily access your data from anywhere and share with others.

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#126

Post by maneesh »

anderspitman wrote: post #18

Interesting. Usually my critique for products like this is something along the lines of "great, but how are you going to access your data from the internet?" Typically the answer to that is you need some sort of tunneling service like ngrok to get around port forwarding, CGNAT, firewalls, etc. I maintain a list of solutions here[0]. The problem with most of these services is that they're targeted at developers and ar…

Love your work! I used boringproxy for over a year almost daily!

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#127

Post by k8sToGo »

anderspitman wrote: post #124
k8sToGo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you also mention the implications when using Cloudflare when you recommend it: That it is basically MITM and has access to all of your data. But I am also not sure why I'd want to expose my photos and videos to the internet. Just use a VPN of some sort.

I'm not aware of many tunneling services that offer e2ee. My own boringproxy[0] does. In any case, the MITM issue you mention is no different of a risk profile than storing your data on google drive or icloud, which is what most people are currently doing. Hosting through Cloudflare on a domain you own isn't perfect, but it's a big step in the right direction. > But I am also not sure why I'd want to expose my photos…

Im not saying it is a problem. But it is something to be aware of. That's all.

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#128

Post by MichaelBurge »

sliken wrote: post #123
MichaelBurge wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you want a Synology or QNAP device at that point. I bought one of these for $550: https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/ts-932px 5 HDDs and 4 SSDs for caching, with 10gbit fiber or 2.5gbit ethernet. I have 40 terabytes of storage in mine(21TB free). If I ever fill it up, I'll probably buy an actual storage server with ~500TB of drives.

Can you run debian or similar on the ts-932px so that when synology dies, merges, abandons the ts-932px, is bought, or just changes their mind that I can switch to something with updates?

The QNAP OS is already a variant of Linux, so with enough work you could make it run anything you want. I haven't tried or looked for instructions on it, though.

But, the data is more important than the OS here. And the filesystem is a variant of ext4 and there's some instructions floating around on how to mount drives on an external standard Linux machine to recover said data in the event of a disaster.

You should also back up the data regularly so it doesn't matter if the hardware or company fail.

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#129

Post by sliken »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #128
sliken wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you run debian or similar on the ts-932px so that when synology dies, merges, abandons the ts-932px, is bought, or just changes their mind that I can switch to something with updates?

The QNAP OS is already a variant of Linux, so with enough work you could make it run anything you want. I haven't tried or looked for instructions on it, though. But, the data is more important than the OS here. And the filesystem is a variant of ext4 and there's some instructions floating around on how to mount drives on an external standard Linux machine to recover said data in the event of a disaster. You should a…

Well the trick is, can a user do it themselves. Is there a locked bootloader? Proprietary binaries? Etc.

I'd be find with a vendor linux, but vendors tend to get bored with older products, drop support, go bankrupt, get purchased, revoke previously promised functionality, have security holes in their addons, etc.

Re: PiBox Mini – Modular Raspberry Pi Storage Server

#130

Post by shepherdjerred »

gonehome wrote: post #72
vladvasiliu wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: specifically, Tailscale uses their own proprietary relay servers, and if you don’t want to use them you can’t use tailscale. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is incorrect [0]. You can use your own relay servers [0]. However, Tailscale only uses the relay servers as a last resort. Most of the time, the connection will be established directly between the peers. If you're able to configure port forwarding on your router as anothe…

I find it hard to model the flow of this stuff and it can be hard to get a sense reading through the product offerings, maybe I can ask and you'll know enough to give me an overview? Currently I run a server on a digital ocean box I access via a custom domain with a let's encrypt cert (too much detail about this setup is here: https://zalberico.com/essay/2020/06/06/urbit-on-the-cloud.ht... ). It'd be cool to have thi…

I have a similar setup. I have a server at my house that I want to be able to access from anywhere.

What I did was:

1. Install Tailscale on my devices (server, laptop, phone, etc.)

2. Setup a cert with LetsEncrypt and import it into Apache. I use AWS Route53, so this was as easy as setting up my AWS credentials and running the certbot cli.

3. Setup a A & AAAA record pointing to my server's Tailscale IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. This is fine even though these addresses are only accessible through Tailscale. You'll obviously still need to be connected to Tailscale, but you can just use your custom domain name to connect.

4. Done!

I use this server for media streaming and file syncing. I manage it with Ansible; I've even have GitHub Actions set up to run my Ansible playbook whenever I commit!

https://github.com/shepherdjerred/ansible-playbook/blob/mast...

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