[SOLVED] Using raspberry pi as a nas

[Parroty69]

I have had a raspberry pi that I haven’t used in a long time and I thought: Why not make it useful? I have been wanting a nas solution for a while now and I thought a raspberry pi would do the trick. I want to connect a usb external drive to the pi and connect it to my router and use as a nas.

How can I do this?
Are there any drawbacks to using a raspberry pi instead of a proper nas solution?

 

[kanewolf]

I have had a raspberry pi that I haven’t used in a long time and I thought: Why not make it useful? I have been wanting a nas solution for a while now and I thought a raspberry pi would do the trick. I want to connect a usb external drive to the pi and connect it to my router and use as a nas.

How can I do this?
Are there any drawbacks to using a raspberry pi instead of a proper nas solution?

You will have to do a lot more manual configuration with a PI. There are probably lots of guides, but you still have to do the setup yourself.
A purpose built commercial NAS will have all the basic setup done out-of-the-box. Much more plug and play.

 

[Parroty69]

You will have to do a lot more manual configuration with a PI. There are probably lots of guides, but you still have to do the setup yourself.
A purpose built commercial NAS will have all the basic setup done out-of-the-box. Much more plug and play.

I am a beginner to pi and I know nothing about using a pi, perhaps you can give me some tips?

 

[kanewolf]

I am a beginner to pi and I know nothing about using a pi, perhaps you can give me some tips?

I always recommend the commercial alternative. I use my PI for PIHole and NTP with a GPS interface. The USB storage is used for an SSD to boot the PI. Never used it as network storage.
Do you have a PI3 or PI4 ?

 

[Parroty69]

I always recommend the commercial alternative. I use my PI for PIHole and NTP with a GPS interface. The USB storage is used for an SSD to boot the PI. Never used it as network storage.
Do you have a PI3 or PI4 ?

I have a pi 3.

 

[kanewolf]

I have a pi 3.

A PI3 is not great, since the ethernet and USB share bandwidth. The ethernet is limited to 300Mbit (30MB/s). That is about 1/3 the transfer capabilities of a spinning disk.
But, as I said before, I am biased to the commercial NAS units. If you have all the parts, you can try it.
Here is a step-by-step how-to -- https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-nas-for-whole-home-file-sharing
Maybe a little less step-by-step -- https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/build-a-raspberry-pi-nas

 

[Parroty69]

A PI3 is not great, since the ethernet and USB share bandwidth. The ethernet is limited to 300Mbit (30MB/s). That is about 1/3 the transfer capabilities of a spinning disk.
But, as I said before, I am biased to the commercial NAS units. If you have all the parts, you can try it.
Here is a step-by-step how-to -- https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-nas-for-whole-home-file-sharing
Maybe a little less step-by-step -- https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/build-a-raspberry-pi-nas

I must have been wrong, the pi is a pi 4. I don’t know how I typed it as a pi 3 but it somehow did it.