Building a low power NAS cloud home server

[abaday789]

I'm looking to/thinking about building my self my own NAS system. This will be my first home server/cloud build so I would like to get some info on building and setting one up.

I'm looking hardware wise for it to be a very quiet/silent SFF mATX/mITX based system with minimal power consumption and with room for possible expansion in the future. The system doesn't need to be very powerful at all as it will only be used for file storage that can be accessed both at and away from home.

This leads me onto the storage its self to begin with I will only be wanting to run two drives to begin with in something like RAID 1 or some other form of RAID that will allow for drive failure and for drives to be swapped out/added if I need.

Next is I will be aiming for it to be a Linux based system (I have no experience with it but I doubt it will be too hard to get to grips with) unless anybody can suggest a better option. I would like to be able to access it away from home. Plus would like the system to be able to run in a way where it shuts down/ goes into sleep mode when it is inactive but then wakes up when I want to access it. As I really want to try and keep its power consumption to a minimum especially as I wont be needing to access it all day everyday.
Further to this it would be handy if I would also be able change its settings remotely from my home computer rather than having to plug a monitor, mouse and keyboard into every time I wanted to change something on it.

TL;DR
So in summary I would like any information whether it be software or hardware based about:
-Low power & noise components for a small form factor NAS system
-The OS and utilities I would require to install on it
-Being able to enable power saving features like automatic sleep/wake up
-Being able to access it remotely away from home
-RAID option/setup
-Being able to change setting remotely

 

[stevech]

First, decide what hardware-independent/open source NAS software you find acceptable. I could not find other than basic functions in FreeNAS and the like. So I bought and happily use a low-end commercial NAS with superb software.

 

[M.G.]

I'm looking to/thinking about building my self my own NAS system. This will be my first home server/cloud build so I would like to get some info on building and setting one up. ...

I set up ownCloud (see owncloud.org) in a Virtual Machine on a Linux server. Their documentation is quite good, but if you aren't comfortable playing sysadmin on Linux, they even provide a Virtual Appliance image you can download and unpack. I use it via WebDav, and their Linux/Windows/Mac clients. What I like best is that with their Android app, when I take a picture or movie on my GN4, it is immediately uploaded to my server.

 

[System Error Message]

You could use an intel i3 and it will be fast enough and cheaper than an equivalent embedded NAS not to mention customisable. You have a choice of buying embedded or building your own. If you want to build your own consider what sort of NAS do you want to use it for. If you want to stream videos from it than it will need a good CPU or software that can use the GPU to perform it such as intel quicksync.

If you want to go for a low cost and low power NAS i suggest you go with a chassis thats not more than 2U high but big enough for space to put all the stuff you want inside and currently i think the micro ATX boards are cheapest and usually can have up to 3 PCIe slots. Using an i3 from the latest intel iseries isnt as low power as intel atom but it is cool enough and has a GPU that can be used for quicksync and enough CPU power for SMB. In short you want
- i3 or higher
- micro ATX
- case that is 2RU high when flat
- 2 or 4GB ram minimum depending on OS and software your run, much, much more if you plan to use ZFS with many TBs
- a non windows server/NAS OS
-SSDs or WD reds or other hard drive equivalent
-multi port gigabit ethernet card (such as intel 2 or 4 port gigabit PCIE NIC or 10G NIC)
- If you need to get SATA or RAID card, look at RAID or filesystem type. ZFS doesnt benefit from RAID card with cache, software based RAID doesnt require a RAID card and can just use a SATA card.

This should give you a lower power profile. Its not the lowest but it shouldnt cost much, it can cost more than an embedded NAS but cheaper if you consider the performance for price and configurability. It would use more power than an embedded NAS that uses intel atoms but it would have more CPU power and a GPU capable of compute and quicksync. It requires more skill to set up than an embedded NAS. It may be bigger than an embedded NAS but should still be small enough to not take up too much space and if you use a 2RU height it will be slimmer than an embedded NAS and can potentially fit more drives for cheaper though you may need a SATA or RAID card. Since it will have integrated IGP and standard components it would have display ports so it can also be used as a TV box.

an i3 or i5 CPU can be made fanless using a huge heatsink and with a fanless PSU though this would be pricey so the whole system may not need a fan. Its possible to use a mobile CPU variant with compatible board for even lower power use.

I suggest using software RAID because it is easier to recover, doesnt require pricey cards though it requires the OS be placed on a seperate boot drive. I suggest you try ubuntu server with the software and settings (you may need to search) or freeNAS and select either ZFS or ext4 file system. There are newer file systems coming out and software RAIDs so i suggest you research them to see the pros, cons and stabilities and also their performances to see how it can benefit you. You can also use compression to save space.

for hardware sleep there needs to be a way to wake it up. I suggest you get a router that can be scripted to send a magic packet to it when it gets traffic while it is asleep though for it to work on LAN you need a router to perform layer 2 bridging. The easier way is for you to use a software to send a magic packet yourself.

 

[sfx2000]

TL;DR
So in summary I would like any information whether it be software or hardware based about:
-Low power & noise components for a small form factor NAS system
-The OS and utilities I would require to install on it
-Being able to enable power saving features like automatic sleep/wake up
-Being able to access it remotely away from home
-RAID option/setup
-Being able to change setting remotely

Most of the Commercial NAS vendors can meet these requirements - and a lot less work for you... and likely at less cost/time invested...

Check out your options with Synology and QNAP, along with ReadyNAS...

 

[System Error Message]

The the problem with getting a NAS that is already made like synology and qnap is that there already is a limited number of drives that you can use whereas if you make your own you can put as many drives and cards as you like.

For his start option obviously a commercial NAS would be better but it depends on how he wants to expand.

 

[stevech]

The the problem with getting a NAS that is already made like synology and qnap is that there already is a limited number of drives that you can use ...
.

I haven't found that to be true. I choose based on quality/reputation so that leaves me with about 4 vendors to choose from. Any will work. And your NAS comes drive-less. Warranty not an issue. I use certain drives from WD, Seagate, Hitachi. SSDs: Samsung.

Be sure to spend a fair amount of time on the web site demos for Synology/QNAP to see what you can expect from a commercial NAS' operating software. You won't see it all in the demos, like Time Backup/versioning, but it'll help. There's far more to these NASes than serving files.

 

[System Error Message]

I haven't found that to be true. I choose based on quality/reputation so that leaves me with about 4 vendors to choose from. Any will work. And your NAS comes drive-less. Warranty not an issue. I use certain drives from WD, Seagate, Hitachi. SSDs: Samsung.

Be sure to spend a fair amount of time on the web site demos for Synology/QNAP to see what you can expect from a commercial NAS' operating software. You won't see it all in the demos, like Time Backup/versioning, but it'll help. There's far more to these NASes than serving files.

What i meant was you can only place a limited number of drives in them so expansion options are limited

 

[azazel1024]

Lower powered and lower cost would be finding a Braswell mITX/uATX board and processor instead of an i3. If this is solely for file storage and local/remote access a Braswell can more than handle any processing loads and would be lower power and lower cost than an i3, which is overkill for standard file storage.

I would NOT use RAID. You want back-ups? Run the two drives as separate volumes and have daily back-ups from the primary, user accessible drive, to the 2nd drive. RAID also mirrors corruptions...

 

[sfx2000]

Believe it or not, and this will come from left field - consider this...

Buy a low-end Dell laptop - replace Win8 with Ubuntu/Fedora/Debian/RHEL and drop in your apps as needed - replace the 2.5" internal sata drive with a 1TB internal, and a 2TB bus powered portable USB3 (or two)...

I picked up a Dell Inspirion 3000 - it's got GigE onboard (Atheros btw), and it's linux friendly - 1.4GHz Celeron 2957U, so it's pretty power friendly, but close to performance of a j1900 - and it'll run on battery for 8 hours as it's a Haswell ULT processor (15w TDP) - since the battery is built in...

$229 at Fry's Electronics for the laptop...
$39 for the 1GB SATA drive
$69 for the external 2TB bus powered USB3 portable drive.

Small enough that you can put in a backpack if you need to bug-out quick...