Building a NAS using Open Media Vault running on a Banana Pi
Sunday 4th October 2015 6:35 PM

The Banana Pi is a system-on-a-chip released by Le Maker in late 2014, and is well-suited for building a NAS[1]Network Attached Storage i.e. a file system that is accessible over a network. (even if for no other reason than the cool name you can give it: BanaNAS ::-): )

While the Raspberry Pi is more well-known and slightly cheaper, it has one significant drawback that makes it a poor choice for a file server: it only has 10/100 Mbps ethernet. If you are moving a lot of data around your network[2]For example, I backup many hundreds of gigabytes of data every night., gigabit ethernet is a must-have. The bPi also has a SATA port (if you want fast access to an external hard disk), and a dual-core processor (which makes it responsive, even when it's working hard).

The only downside is that it only has 2 USB ports (to the rPi's 4), but with consumer hard drives available in sizes of 8 or even 10 terabytes, this is unlikely to be a problem[3]If you have multiple hard disks, you can also use a USB hub, or SATA port multiplier..

Requirements

The requirements for my NAS are:

  • Most access will be from Windows, with some access from Linux.
  • Most access will be read-only (e.g. playing movies or music), with the occasional write (e.g. when adding new content).
  • However, I also need space that everyone can write to (e.g. for moving files between computers).
  • It must be usable without internet access (for security).
  • I must be able to use the hard disks on another computer[4]If the bPi dies, I can set up something new and plug the disks in. Copying terabytes of data to rebuild a NAS can take many days!

Tutorial index

This series of tutorials will walk through the processing of setting up and configuring Open Media Vault on a Banana Pi:

References

References
↑1 Network Attached Storage i.e. a file system that is accessible over a network.
↑2 For example, I backup many hundreds of gigabytes of data every night.
↑3 If you have multiple hard disks, you can also use a USB hub, or SATA port multiplier.
↑4 If the bPi dies, I can set up something new and plug the disks in. Copying terabytes of data to rebuild a NAS can take many days!
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