Tag: network attached storage

Building My New Network Attached Storage(NAS): A Change of Plans, Keeping Up With The Jonsbo

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Despite the fact that my ODroid H4+ had an issue, I still remained committed to the course of action of building a NAS to replace my commercial one. So, even as I pursue the Odroid H4+, I decided to explore the other option I’d explored. My original plan was build a mini-ITX NAS. And so, feeling nervous about the ODroid future, I decided to revisit that plan.

I really wanted a low power, small NAS, but while I liked the simplicity of the Odroid 4 drive case, the experience of assembling the case made me a bit concerned about how running a case that is supported entirely by the drives might work out. I decided, since I need to have a secondary location to store the backup for the NAS, I would use this for that, and I’d go more conventional for the primary location. That is a bit more than I’d budgeted for, so this is going to have to last me a while.

On reading a lot of commentary on Mini-ITX NAS cases, I had decided on the Jonsbo line of NAS cases. There’s the Jonsbo N2, which supports five hard drives, or the slightly larger Jonsbo N3, which supports eight hard drives. While I opted for the N2, I can understand some wanting the extra space for future expansion.

The budget board I opted to try is also a N100, the same line I’d been advocating for. There are a variety of variations of this board sold. For example, by CWWK. Or HKUXZR. Or Dytebeply. With minor variations, these boards contain 6 SATA ports…5 of which are via an expansion chip, which may cause throughput issues. They also have 4 2.5 gigabit ethernet ports and 2 M.2 ports on the board. Reading a lot of reviews of these boards, it takes a long time to post, may have limited RAM options, but a lot of people are using these boards, it seems. I’ll be talking a bit more about how I might set up the options I’ve chosen.

If I only wanted a 2 drive NAS, the Aoostar mini PC would be tempting.

The next challenge is how I am going to configure this. There are a lot of decisions, even once I have the hardware.

Building My New Network Attached Storage(NAS): Introducing the ODroid H4 Series

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I’ve been back and forth between a commercial Network Attached Storage(NAS) product and a homebuilt NAS product. But for the last iteration, I had given up on something I built and moved to a commercial product. But I’m finally ready to go back to homebuilt. Except this time, I’m going to try TrueNAS, because my barrier is always how much time I spent tinkering with it.

I debated a variety of different system configurations and decided I wasn’t going to have my NAS also handle other server duties. It’s primary job would be to run applications. I have a server for that. I just want to run functionality related to file serving, and TrueNAS offers most of that out of the box…although there are more decisions to be made. It isn’t a pure drop in replacement.

So, I settled on the N100 series of CPU processors. Generally available, reasonably priced, and more than enough power for what I wanted. Looking around, that meant I needed to pick a case, a motherboard, etc. While looking, I stumbled across a product just launching, from Hardkernel, who makes the Odroid line of products, which are single board computers. I’d rejected single board, wanting a x86 compatible processor, but the newly launched H4 series is just that.

There are three models, the H4, H4+, and H4 Ultra. The H4 and H4+ use the N97 processor, and the Ultra ups that to an i3 N305. The basic difference between the H4 and the H4+ for me is that is offers 4 SATA ports. The power profile of this thing is perfect for a headless server. They offer a mini-ITX conversion kit, but they also offer 4 different designs of metal cases you can buy, and DC adapters to power them. Case Type 4 allows for 4 SATA hard drives, a fan, and the board. It is essentially 4 cut pieces of metal you can assemble, as well as screws and a fan. The picture in this post is courtesy of their site.

It doesn’t look like a normal NAS, or a computer…it looks like an appliance, which is what I want. I sourced the equipment through Ameridroid, who is the O-droid provider in the US and who I have dealt with minimally before. This included ordering the type 4 case, the board, and the power adapter. That ran me a little over $200.

It also limits me. If I install the operating system on an NVME SSD, plus the 4 SATA drives, I can’t grow the system with additional drives. Any changes become a drive replacement, or a system replacement. But I’ve stuck with only 4 drives up until now in my commercial unit, and even in the home built ones I’ve had in the past. It allows me to have a good mix of redundancy and performance.

Redundancy in the same system is not the same as a backup though. I will be talking more about that as I learn about the options TrueNAS offers, and will talk a little about my backup strategy in future.

We’ll see what happens when the board comes and if I made the right decision.