A Raspi NAS is sufficient for private data. Equipped with Ubuntu Server, NFS and ZFS, you design your secure network storage on your own.

(Image: Michael Plura)

Raspberry Pi 4: Build your own minimalist NAS with ZFS file management Choice of the file system Hardware shopping list Choice of the operating system Basic configuration Share ZFS dataset in the network A NAS based on a Raspberry Pi is ready for use in no time: A large MicroSD card or a plugged in U Self-service drive as data storage, plus OpenMediaVault (OMV, version 4 as an image, version 5 as an installable package) and you can meander through hundreds of menus, dialogs and options on your smartphone or browser. No question about it, OMV is well-made software and works great – as long as everything is configured correctly. However, as soon as a tool, a configuration or a function is not explicitly supported by its web interface, OMV needs manual work. So why not set up a minimalist, tailor-made Raspi NAS with the most necessary functions and a secure file system yourself?

There are several NAS distributions on an open source basis for this. They work, but offer too many superfluous functions even in the enterprise environment. A NAS for home use based on a Raspberry Pi usually requires even fewer functions. Our project is only about storing data in a central location. All that is needed is a handful of services: A secure local file system, a service for sharing in the network and preferably a reliable backup solution.

Choice of the file system Who stores data who wants to be able to read them correctly afterwards. This limits the choice of the file system to two candidates. Because only the ZFS and btrfs guarantee data integrity thanks to internal checksums. Our choice falls on ZFS, as it runs on the Rapberry Pi 4 with 2, 4 or preferably 8 GB of RAM. With less than 8 GB of RAM, ZFS may not run optimally – so you shouldn’t use deduplication.

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