Hi selfhosters,
I would like to expand my server storage and I am confused now. For a bit of context, I have a mini pc running several Docker containers and I am pretty happy with it.
Right now I want to expand my server storage and after going though some options, this is my current understanding:
- NAS: it is a real PC with its own chip/memory/OS and we can connect to the storage via network mount. Some are powerful enough to run docker containers on them and are generally not cheap.
- HDD enclosure/docking station: it is just some enclosure to hold a lot of HDDs together and I could just plug it into my server like an USB.
I would like to ask:
- Is my understanding above correct ?
- Since I still have some resource left in the mini pc and want to save some bucks, is it safe to go with the HDD enclosure ?
Thank you very much and have a nice day :D
“Good” software based RAID (unraid, zfs, etc.) needs reliable access directly to the drives. Usually, USB attached storage doesn’t meet this criteria.
Not using RAID is risky unless you’re very confident in your extensive backups (which you should have anyways).
Personally I have been using a mini PC running TrueNAS with a JBOD over USB3.1 for years and have had some hiccups but nothing catastrophic, but I’m migrating it soon to a device I can use SATA.
Hardware raid is typically not a great idea because you’re usually tied to the chip.