I agree, the acronym NAS does indeed mean that.

But would you call a Hypervisor a NAS?

When I say NAS, I mean NAS. Bulk storage remotely accessible on the network.

When someone starts talking about all their VMs/Containers, I understand that to mean something else… I’d prefer to use a generic term like “server” instead.

Look, there’s 2 things here:

• NAS - meaning storage

and

• NAS - meaning a virtualisation / container server that’s doing lots of fairly random disk access

Which are you wanting?

For the first, just consider capacity (you’ll fill it) and noise (spinning away all night)

For the 2nd, really really consider SSDs as they’re silent and fast.

RAID1 is just a convenience factor, so whatever you do, don’t get too caught up in the drive mechanics as you’ll have a full backup (right?) and can restore your data at a moment’s notice.

Honestly, honestly, just go for something large & quiet and you’ll be fine.

And yes, SSD for the OS

+10 for keeping notes.

Yep, even that temporary thing, write it down. Usernames & passwords go in KeePass - with descriptive notes in there too

You should check out Ansible

I run multiple Arch systems at home; laptops, NAS, media, etc. but I’d recommend a Debian based OS for a new starter… unless they’re really, really keen to learn how everything works.

For inspiration, take a look at the Nextcloud Devices - just for the hardware ideas.

I’m still running a Nextcloud Box (with the original Western Digital drive) and it’s fine for my needs.

Yep, numbering’s the key.

When you create NAS01, you know there’s going to be a NAS02 one day

Yep, seen a similar thing with servers…

A few years ago I built up a system with ~ 20 servers. Powered them all up and did all the RAID initialisation (RAID5 across 6-8 disks per server IIRC)

One server basically needed all it’s disks replacing and some of the others needed a disk or 2 replaced - within a month!

Since replacing those disks and building all those arrays I’m happy to build a NAS / server, let it bed-in for a while and if nothing fails I’ll just keep powering up & down my NAS as needed and I’ll run the drives until they die…

Maybe get that patent sorted out quickly?

Me? I’m not the subject here… I’m just providing a real-life account of a counter point of view, which I guess you didn’t agree with.

Have you actually witnessed that entire event pan out?

The police that I personally know, visit the caller and talk to them first to understand the complaint and often (but I agree not always) educate the caller that teenagers are just doing what the caller(s) did at their age… usually, there are no more calls and all groups move on with their lives.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make headlines and it’s not emotive enough to discuss.

In my personal experience, the older generations trust the media and just believe / expect the worst will happen. Most parents, younger adults, just don’t see the problem.

Am I the first person to mention the flaming torches and pitchforks about the backup encryption on their forum?

🤔 interesting idea…

(Calls patent office)

I updated a Phillips (I think?) TV - years ago, so this was over-the-air, not internet - and the built-in Program Schedule started showing adverts that were obviously in the update.

Eventually the ads stopped appearing, so at least there was some form of expiry date, but no, I’m very wary of consumer updates.

TVs should remain as display devices. I even keep the tuner equipment as a separate device to upgrade separately - sorry if that doesn’t increase their market share.

What next? A toaster with butter spreader built-in?

LOL

Be brave enough to test my backups

I can recommend pfSense.

It uses a single config file and upgrades are painless.

If you need to restore the system (I had a drive failure once), just boot up the installer, supply your config file (ie on the same stick) and it will re-install everything just as it was.

Checkout openmediavault they develop on some sbcs so the forum should be helpful

Well, I’m definitely not using any delivery service - we live ~25 mins drive from the nearest town, so it’s just not an option.

I’ve lived most of my life in the countryside and just think that getting someone else to go get my food is a weird concept anyway… I’d go as far as saying that I’m no-one special, so why ask someone else to get my food - just get it myself (lazy, etc.)

Plus, I like driving, so I’m happy to get out of the house for a while (and drive like a delivery driver to get the food home whilst it’s still hot)

IMHO, separate duties… have a NAS for storage and a separate device for “stuff”

And again, IMHO, don’t buy proprietary.

I built my own (Arch linux based) NAS based on an ASRockRack mobo so it has IPMI for remote management and I can power it on /off from Home Assistant.

I’ve setup my NAS to power up in the morning and off later in the day if it’s not in use (based on CPU, I/O, network, etc). It has multiple syncthing daemons running for each person to sync their files from phones and laptops and also has SMB (v3) shares. All on btrfs.

I have a completely separate, low power passively cooled device for Home Assistant, UptimeKuma, Smokeping, Ansible, etc - currently as Proxmox VMs, but I’m considering moving away from that.