What a journey it was! It’s time for the last part of the Raspberry Pi NAS project.
Raspberry Pi NAS – Setting up Open Media Vault
Note, that I will expect a know-how in terms of Raspberry Pi connectivity. If you are unsure how to do that, check my tutorials section for more helpful guides. The Raspberry Pi NAS is running an Open Media Vault software. It’s a free NAS operating system. Download the latest repository and install it on your board. Find the Raspberry’s IP and log in:
- User: admin, root (for terminal)
- Password: openmediavault
I formatted the drives on my desktop PC to speed things up. Set it all as Ext4. Once ready plug everything in and log in to the web interface.
OpenMediaVault – drives
I strongly suggest to quick-wipe the drives before you do anything else. This way you are 100% sure drives can be accessed by the Raspberry Pi NAS. Also, scan for drives even if the drives are present. The fstab file will get populated this way and will save you some issues later.
Create a user account, set a username and password. You will need these credentials later to access the network storage. Once this is done, you have to create the file systems. If you want to create a RAID partition, don’t create any file systems on the drives used for that. We will do this once the RAID partition has been created.
SMB – file sharing
Enable SMB in services, click through to shares option and create shares. It’s important that you select permission inheritance for any folders that contain media files for Plex or DLNA, otherwise, Plex server won’t see new file structures.
Once you have the shares available, modify the user permissions using the ACL option in users/share. This way you can allow users, groups etc to write/read content from the shares.
RAID1 – Mirror files
The speed of the USB on the Raspberry Pi NAS is not great, there will be no gain from stripping data across drives, but I can take advantage of RAID1 configuration. Mirroring is set so one disk is automatically mirrored on the other drive, and creates a safe backup environment. Leave this step for the end. This will take a couple of hours depending on your drives. When the RAID set up is complete, you can create the file system, and add the shares.
PLEX – Media files
First, go to OMV- extras and enable Plex. Once this is done, download Plex plugin from the menu and installation will start. It will take few moments, after which you will get the Plex option in running services. This is where you can configure your Plex server and access the Plex interface.
Make sure you have some files on your drive (transfer it using SMB protocol) as it will be easier for you to verify that you have your Plex server running successfully on Raspberry Pi NAS.
Log in to your Plex account, and the libraries selecting the correct paths and after few moments you should see the Plex and your media available for streaming.
To make sure the drives load correctly on boot we have to delay the root. I spent countless amount of hours trying to figure out why my RAID1 partition disappears after the boot. Turned out that disks weren’t spinning quickly enough at the boot to register. To fix this, pop the SD card out and add this to the cmdline.txt file
rootdelay=10
Conclusion
The setup can be time-consuming due to slow CPU of the Raspberry Pi NAS. It’s worth it. I ended up with a nice low power backup solution and a Plex server. I set up all my video files to be downloaded directly to the NASpi, this way I’m saving a lot of time transferring files back and forth between the computers. You can see the box in its full glory below.
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| Item | Amazon UK | Amazon USA | Aliexpress.com | Banggood.com | Comments |
| 1 x USB 3.0 4 port hub | £8.99 | $9.99 | $6.64 | $11.99 | I picked the microUSB powerd one, other are available |
| 4 x USB angled cables | £6.99 pack of two | $6.99 pack of two | $1.68 | $2.99 | Plan the bends accordingly |
| 1 x 2.5 -3 A 5V power supply | £5.79 | $8.99 | $4.99 | $5.75 | Works from 2.4A but aim for 3A if possible |
| 1 x Raspberry PI 2/3 | £32.00 | $35.10 | $39.50 | $39.99 | There is no speed penalty for RPI2 |
| 3 x HDD | £5.95 | $8.99 | $8.49 | $9.49 | Needs to have a specific opening mechanism |
| USB hub with power 2.5A | £12.22 | $16.99 |
Conclusion
I write this part months later, the project has been completed and it’s running non stop, serving as a media center and local back up. It may not be the fastest NAS solution out there, but it’s one of the cheaper ones, and incredibly handsome! On top of that, no one else have it, unless you followed my tutorial step by step. In that case: KUDOS to you! Enjoy your new NASpi!
Project Download
Download project files here. Bear in mind that Patreon supporters have early access to project files and videos.
