The Cheapest NAS • Hacker News Board

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#51

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:09 PM UTC

CyberDildonics wrote: post #24

Is there any NAS software that just lets you add disks whenever you want, while using them for redundancy if they aren't full? I wish something was as easy as adding another disk and having the redundancy go up, then removing a disk and having the redundancy go down.

If you just want a mirror, that's easy (I like ZFS but any software RAID should let you add/remove mirrored disks easily). If you mean mirror until it's full then automatically convert to striped, I don't think anyone does that and I don't think anyone would want that, because people who care enough about protecting their data to use a mirror don't want it to automatically stop being a mirror.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#52

Post by coconut08 » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:10 PM UTC

EvanAnderson wrote: post #22

coconut08 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

been using zfs on my home nas without ecc for well over a decade and never had any problems. i've seen people claiming this since before i started using zfs and it seems so unnecessary for some random home project.

Unless you've verified hashes of your files over time you may be having problems and not realizing it.

i've heard people say this, like i said, since before i started using zfs and i've never had an issue with a corrupted file. there's a few things that could be happening: i'm the luckiest person who has ever lived, these bit flip events don't happen nearly as often as people like to pretend they do, or when they do happen they aren't likely to be a big deal.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#53

Post by frutiger » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:13 PM UTC

jnovek wrote: post #16

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #3

Note that it doesn't look like it has ECC, so make sure to have backups. Fancy file systems like ZFS don't remove the need for ECC.

> so make sure to have backups Can you (or someone) suggest a backup scheme? I have a 28TB NAS. Almost everything I've looked into is expensive or intended more for enterprise tier. Are there options for backup in the "hobbyist" price range?

`zfs send --raw` of encrypted datasets to https://www.rsync.net/products/zfsintro.html.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#54

Post by stavros » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:16 PM UTC

universa1 wrote: post #7

jstanley wrote: post #4

When people set up these NAS's, how are they accessing the files? NFS? SFTP? And how are you accessing it when away from home? A VPN that you're permanently connected to? Is there a good way to do NAT hole-punching? Syncthing kind of does what I want, in that it lets all my computers sync the same files no matter what network they're on, but it insists on always copying all the files ("syncing") whereas I just want t…

Regarding the connectivity: tailscale... So far I am happy with them and the free plan hasn't been kneecapped afterwards (so far).

Even if it is, you can run Headscale on a server somewhere (or just pay).

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#55

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:16 PM UTC

woleium wrote: post #25

The image builder for this board looks dodgy af: "The distribution builder is a proprietary commercial offering as it involves a lot of customer IP and integrations so it cannot be public." Seems like a supply side injector to me!

Yeah, reading through the linked https://hub.libre.computer/t/source-code-git-repository-for-... really sours my opinion of Libre Computer - shipping with UEFI so you can just use generic images is a huge advantage, but creating your default images (and firmware! which is worse, IMO) with a proprietary process is such a big red flag that it makes me question the whole thing. If the firmware is FOSS and you can build it yourself using only FOSS inputs (which isn't obvious to me from that discussion), then you could do that and any old image (again, UEFI to support generic images is a huge win) and it would be fine, but the fact that that's not the default really makes me question the values/culture of the company.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#56

Post by cchance » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:17 PM UTC

I mean wtf wouldn't you just buy a G1 Elite Slice, or any of the various NUC's you can buy for 50$ and get you a full Intel computer with a 6700 or 8700 cpu 4-8gb of ram and a full drive slot, and normally extra space for a m2 and a gbit nic lol

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#57

Post by cchance » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:19 PM UTC

haunter wrote: post #46

Personally I like the Dell/HP/Lenovo Micro PCs. For ~200€ you can get one with an i5-10500T, 16GB DDR4, and 256GB NVMe SSD and it can be upgraded to 64GB RAM with lot of storage (1x NVMe + 1x 2,5")

I mean you can get one for 50$ on ebay with similar ram and hd, just with a 6700 or 8700 which is more than enough for a NAS lol

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#58

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:21 PM UTC

loeg wrote: post #38

EvanAnderson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you've verified hashes of your files over time you may be having problems and not realizing it.

I believe ZFS does periodic checksuming (scrubbing).

Strictly speaking I don't think ZFS itself does, but it is very common for distros to ship a cronjob that runs `zpool scrub` on a schedule (often but not always default enabled).

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#59

Post by rcarmo » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:31 PM UTC

jstanley wrote: post #4

When people set up these NAS's, how are they accessing the files? NFS? SFTP? And how are you accessing it when away from home? A VPN that you're permanently connected to? Is there a good way to do NAT hole-punching? Syncthing kind of does what I want, in that it lets all my computers sync the same files no matter what network they're on, but it insists on always copying all the files ("syncing") whereas I just want t…

SMB + Tailscale and SyncThing for me. Both combos just work, although admittedly SMB over mobile connections _and_ a VPN can be iffy.

Re: The Cheapest NAS

#60

Post by nfriedly » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 7:31 PM UTC

My NAS is just my old gaming PC - I swapped out the GPU with a more basic one, and I add another hard drive or two every time storage gets low. It works great and costs me very little in both money and time.

I'm currently at 46TB or storage, and I recently threw in a 2.5Gbps NIC when I upgraded the rest of my home network.

(Mine certainly uses more electricity than the one in the article, but I pay $0.07/kwh, and run a few docker images that take advantage of the added performance, so I'm happy with it.)