Advice setting up NAS

Maximusheadroom said:

Some great advice there Thank you
Ive had no luck with USB stick in the router I'm going to have a look at filezilla that's been mentioned but I think soon as the pc is shut down the USB in the router will disappear.

I do actually have a redundant HP proliant t an n40 I think, that was being used as a media server a couple of years ago I'll dig that out andchaveca look but it does sound like a daunghting task, obviously the synology sounds like the easiest way forward but I don't want to spend (haven't got) the money.

Hi there

@Maximusheadroom

the ProLiant type servers are simple and easy to set up. Also being servers they are designed to operate at low power and reliable to run 24 hrs a day.

Install a Linux system on it . Loads out there and are 100% Free. Suggest probably for a beginner Linux Mint or UBUNTU are quite "Windows Like". Try first installing these as Virtual Machines on your current Windows computer to get used to running and installing Linux. I wouldn't advise attempting Windows itself on those ProLiant servers - you can't boot easily Windows from an internal USB (it can be done but it's fiddly) and you need to get the correct Windows AHCI drivers -- a pain anyway -- Linux just installs !!!. You also don't have Windows licensing / activation problems either as Linux is FREE. Also for a server you don't want the overhead of a full blown Windows desktop OS especially on a lower powered CPU.

If you can use a Linux system -- start with a GUI. You can set the boot partition on to an internal USB device - once the system has booted it doesn't need that partition any more. It can then load the OS (automatically via the boot process) to say an SSD which is a great idea - especially if the SSD doesn't boot directly -- connect an SSD to a port where a CD/DVD is usually connected. The OS then runs from the SSD nicely and efficiently.

For the HDD's ensure the MDADM program is installed in your Linux system -- this is Linux's software RAID and it's very fast and efficient. I use RAID 0 as I have backup anyway of my data and it is incredibly fast. You also can mix HDD sizes with Linux RAID --- Using RAID 0 means all the disks in the array are aggregated as 1 big HDD and I/O optimised for speed --- downsize is if you lose 1 HDD in the array the whole lot go -- but HDD's these days are reliable and if you have backup just re-build the array -- the speed is so much worth it.

For sharing the disks just use SAMBA -- if you get stuck just post back - I can link you to some decent stuff on that.

This way especially if you have one of those old servers is so much cheaper than a dedicated NAS system and you can install all sorts of things on it too.

For video - you could use standard RDP to access the NAS server --you don't really need to logon to it much once it's up and running anyway or if it has built in video just temporarily plug in monitor via vga connector or whatever -- you don't need a separate high quality graphics card if there's one built in as it's a server !!!

(You can install another graphics card on those servers if you must but check -- might be 1/2 size one you need -- personally I don't bother -- using RDP from a laptop etc was just fine for me).

These things work a treat -- I'm using 2 as NAS servers -- the only time I re-boot if changing HDD's (the don't have hot swappable HDD's) or updating the Linux kernel (very rarely). Otherwise they just run 24 hrs a day 7 days a week out of the way. If you don't have a lan connection for these though just plug the built in ether net connector to a lan connector on a wifi extender -- I don't want my boxes near the router which is by my main TV !!.

Cheers
jimbo

Another option if you have a spare microserver lying around anyway is to put the Synology DSM OS (a custom linux variant) onto it.
Details (and caveats) here...Xpenology - How to Install Synology DSM on your Custom Built NAS - NAS Compares