DIY NAS Built on Desktop Linux and Hardware RAID

By Alexander Grundner | August 2nd, 2006

Both David Walker and I have been contemplating putting together a how-to on building an NAS server with RAID 5 support on the cheap for home use, but it looks like the guys at Tom’s Hardware beat us to the punch. Bill Meade has done an excellent job of laying out all the necessary hardware required and explains the pros and cons of using a hardware or software RAID solution. Bill even takes the time to explain how to make the device visible on the network, set up file sharing with Windows and Mac PCs through Samba, and how to recover from the inevitable hard drive failure.

My favorite part of the article is when Bill explains his experience with using a hardware RAID solution:

“After using hardware-based RAID for two years, I’ve successfully recovered from drive failures, but just as importantly, I’ve learned that hardware RAID gives you a degree of freedom in designing your NAS. A hardware RAID card insulates you from operating systems and their issues. Since I use a well-supported hardware RAID card, I have installed Windows 2003, freenas, Ubuntu, ClarkConnect, and SUSE, on the same hardware, without having to learn each operating system’s setup for RAID and how to perform RAID recovery.”

His last point in particular truly is what sold me on using a hardware RAID solution (Bill’s pick: LSI Logic MegaRAID i4 – check eBay) for my next NAS box. Plus, the ROM-based management utility used by the card (similar to your motherboard’s BIOS configuration tool) is extremely useful in configuring, formatting, and troubleshooting your RAID system. Previously, I was considering using mdadm for a software RAID solution – not any more.

One last thing….
Bill decided to go with Ubuntu 6.06 to power the server (note: his instruction will work with any Linux distribution running GNOME as its desktop windowing environment). Since he’s using a full desktop OS to power the NAS server, it is possible to log into the PC through VNC and manage the server and access its desktop applications remotely if you so desired. Of course, you could always just use SSH for a lean, efficient communication channel.