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
Just to repeat what you’re already hearing: if I started over from the beginning, I’d skip a NAS entirely and just build a server with a ton of bays (which I just bought). Funny enough, I came here to recommend Fractal Design cases too
I used to use an old Intel NUC with a HDD enclosure plugged into the USB 3 port as a NAS. Ran the *arr suite + Jellyfin on the internal SSD and stored all the media on the HDD and it worked fine. You should be good
Yep, you’ve got it right.
As for me, I have a pretty beefy main server so I went with a multi-drive enclosure and set up a ZFS pool with the enclosure in JBOD mode.
I had been using the built-in RAID feature but it broke and even with formatted drives and a new enclosure it wouldn’t work, so I offloaded the RAID stuff to the server with ZFS.
HDD enclosure is a fine way to start, as long as you know it has limitations. Eventually you’ll probably need more storage, and it won’t scale. That being said, you can get 26TB hard drives now, it’ll be a while. Just make sure you plan out how to back it up. Remember the rule - if you can’t afford to buy a backup then you can’t afford to do the project. Make sure you have backups in mind.
If you decide to upgrade to a full NAS solution later also remember that during that migration you probably will need to use new hard drives while migrating as your current ones will need to be copied from to the new NAS, meaning you will probably end up with a few redundant drives. Not a huge thing, but there will be no “in-place” upgrade. It all depends on where you want your homelab to go in the future.
Beware, an NAS will have its own file formats and structure. I put all my music files and backups on a NAS, which failed. Now I can’t recover them without buying another NAS of similar model. More ore less the opposite of why I got a NAS.
This is also one reason why I am hesitant for a NAS. They might run on their own OS and have their own private format while I dont want to be vendor locked in in any ecosystem
True open source products are your best bet. TruNAS and Proxmox are popular options, but you can absolutely set up a vanilla Debian server with Samba and call it a NAS. Back in the old days we just called those “file servers”.
Most importantly, just keep good backups. If you have to choose between investing in a raid or a primary + backup drive, choose the latter every time. Raid will save you time to recover, but it’s not a backup.
No sane NAS should work that way.
Unless you have a giant raid array, where you need all the drives running at the same time on the same system, plugging in a single raid 1 member, for example, via usb to sata adapter, should let access its contents just fine.
Provided you’re on an OS that can read the file system. That can require some extra effort on windows.
But yeah. Beware of the pre-built NASes. The vendor lock-in is real.
This is a qualified truth. In theory what you’re saying is true but for example with Synology they use their own raid format and while they ostensibly use btrfs they overlay their own metadata system on top.
Was this Synology by chance?
Terramaster.
The third alternative (and best IMO) is to buy a PC case with lots of drive slots and transfer everything into it. With a NAS you’re going to pay a ton of money for the NAS itself which is just laptop-equivalent hardware and a fixed number of drive bays meaning you can’t expand it when it fills up without buying more expensive hardware, and you’ll also be forced into buying matched drives. With an HDD enclosure, you’re spending less money but again fixed on the number of drives while also being somewhat unreliable due to the USB connection.
I use a Fractal Design Define 6 midtower case which can hold around 12 HDDs. For hardware I bought a mobo with the most SATA ports I could get and began slowly buying drives as my storage pool filled up, eventually needing an LSI HBA card to expand the number of SATA connections. This is the best value IMO as the cost is comparable to buying a NAS, you can add drives as you go with a much higher drive capacity, the connection is rock solid, and you can run real PC hardware.
This is an interesting option but the main drawback is it is too big for my place currently. But I will absolutely consider it in the future
You don’t need something huge. Remove the DVD drive and the old mechanical drive from a USFF machine, stick a pair of 4TB drives in it, and put a basic debian image on it. Configure SMB with a shared folder or two, and voila: you now have a comfortable NAS for maybe £20 plus drives. Add in a sata pcie card if you can find a decent low-profile one, and that’s an extra four or even six drives. It won’t give you the cream of top performance, but it will be perfectly serviceable for a homelab.
Its honestly pretty small for what you can pack inside but they do have smaller options like the Node series. The 304 is around 8"x10"x14" with room for 6 drives.
“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.
