Raspberry PI NAS

Setup your own NAS on a Raspberry Pi.

Preview

Dashboard

Monitoring

Hardware
OS
- SSH
SMB Shares
Docker Setup
CloudflareD

Hardware

If you want to use a software based RAID setup instead, you need to format your drives first. You can use the following guides to setup a RAID 5 with Btfs:

OS

64 bit Raspbian
Vanilla Rasbperry Pi OS Bullseye (e.g. Raspberry Pi OS LITE 64 bit) Installation guide

SSH

More documentation to enable SSH or generate Keys.

# Enable SSH
sudo systemctl enable ssh
sudo systemctl start ssh

# SSH Keys
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C

SMB Shares

Format Drives

# List Disks
sudo fdisk -l

# Open Disk (replace X with the disk letter)
sudo fdisk /dev/sdX 

# Create Partititon
n
default
default
default
w

# Check Table
sudo fdisk -l

# Format the partition (replace X with the disk letter)
sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdX1

More documentation can be found here.

Mount Drives

Prepare Disks

In order to identify the disks with a descriptive name, we need to add a label to the disks. This can be done with the following commands.

# List Disks
sudo fdisk -l

# Goal state
# /dev/disk/by-label/qnap (8TB)        | LABEL="qnap"

# Add Label to Disks: (replace X with the disk letter)
sudo e2label /dev/sdX1 qnap

Mount Disks manually

# Change Owner of /mnt directory (Otherwise SMB Shares cannot be mounted)
sudo chown root:users /mnt

# Create Mount Points
sudo mkdir /mnt/qnap

# Check Permissions
stat /mnt/qnap

# Change Owner (replace $USER with your username)
sudo chown -R $USER:users /mnt/qnap/*

# Change Permissions
chmod -R 775 /mnt/qnap/*

# Mount Disks
mount /dev/disk/by-label/qnap /mnt/qnap/

# (Optional) Mount Disks with User Permissions
mount -o user=$USER /dev/disk/by-label/qnap /mnt/qnap/

More documentation can be found here.

Mount Disks automatically

# Identify UUIDs or Labels of the disks
sudo blkid
# Edit /etc/fstab
sudo nano /etc/fstab
# Add the following lines to /etc/fstab
#LABEL=qnap /mnt/qnap ext4 nofail,x-systemd.device-timeout=1ms 0 0
LABEL=qnap /mnt/qnap ext4 defaults 0 0

More documentation can be found here.

Setup SMB Server

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

# Install Samba
sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin

# Setup Shares
sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

# Add Configuration to smb.conf (replace $USER with your username)
Comment out all lines under "Share Definitions" and add the following lines:

[nas]
    path = /mnt/qnap/nas
    writeable = Yes

    # 1. Multi-Device Compatibility Layers
    # catia: handles illegal characters (: ? *) between Linux/Windows/Mac
    # fruit: speeds up Apple devices
    # streams_xattr: stores metadata in a way all modern OSs understand
    vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr

    # 2. Universal Performance Settings
    # Use 'stream' for metadata so it's compatible with iPad/Apple TV apps
    fruit:metadata = stream
    fruit:resource = file
    fruit:aapl = yes

    # 3. Prevent Hidden File Clutter
    # This prevents the creation of .DS_Store and ._ files across the network
    # which can sometimes confuse Linux-based media players (Plex/Kodi)
    fruit:veto_appledouble = yes
    veto files = /._*/.DS_Store/
    delete veto files = yes

    # 4. Critical for Apple TV / iPad Apps (Infuse, VLC)
    # These apps rely on fast directory listings to show movie posters/metadata
    readdir_attr:aapl_finder_info = yes
    readdir_attr:aapl_max_access = yes

    # 5. Your existing permission logic
    create mask = 0775
    directory mask = 0775
    public = no
    force user = $USER
    force group = $USER


[timemachine]
    path = /mnt/qnap/timemachine
    writeable = Yes
    vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr
    fruit:time machine = yes
    # Limit the advertised size to 1 Terabyte
    fruit:time machine max size = 1T
    fruit:aapl = yes
    fruit:model = MacPro
    public = no

# Setup SMB User (replace $USER with your username)
sudo smbpasswd -a $USER

# Restart Samba service
sudo systemctl restart smbd

# Check SMB Status including Version
sudo smbstatus

More documentation can be found here and here.

Setup TimeMachine Share

# Check if Avahi service is running
sudo systemctl status avahi-daemon

# If the `avahi-daemon` is not installed, install it with the following command:
sudo apt install avahi-daemon

sudo nano /etc/avahi/services/samba.service

# Add Configuration to samba.service
# You can choose different Icons of your Server based on this file
# /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Info.plist
# https://simonwheatley.co.uk/2008/04/avahi-finder-icons/
<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
  <name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
  <service>
    <type>_smb._tcp</type>
    <port>445</port>
  </service>
  <service>
    <type>_device-info._tcp</type>
    <port>9</port>
    <txt-record>model=RackMac3,1</txt-record>
    <txt-record>model=MacPro7,1@ECOLOR=226,226,224</txt-record>
  </service>
  <service>
    <type>_adisk._tcp</type>
    <port>9</port>
    <txt-record>dk0=adVN=timemachine,adVF=0x82</txt-record>
    <txt-record>sys=adVF=0x100</txt-record>
  </service>
</service-group>

# Restart Avahi service
sudo systemctl restart avahi-daemon

More documentation can be found here. After modifying the samba.service file, the TimeMachine share should be visible in the Finder.

Other useful things

HD-Idle

Setup HDD spin down times to save energy and increase lifetime of the disks.

# Install hd-idle
sudo apt install hd-idle
# Configure hd-idle
sudo nano /etc/default/hd-idle

# Change line according to your available disks. Replace X with the disk letter.
# The following line will set the default to 0 and the custom idle time for disk sdX to 8 minutes. Save File afterwards.
HD_IDLE_OPTS="-i 0 -a sdX -i 480 -l /var/log/hd-idle.log"

# Configure hd-idle service
sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/hd-idle.service

# Add the following lines in the "[Service]" section
# This will make sure that the service will be restarted in case of errors.
[Service]
...
Restart=always
RestartSec=3

# Restart Systemd Deamon
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# Restart hd-idle
sudo systemctl restart hd-idle

# Check if hd-idle is running
systemctl status hd-idle

# Check if disks are spinning down
cat /var/log/hd-idle.log

Log2Ram

sudo apt update
sudo apt install log2ram

# Check if log2ram is running (after reboot!)
systemctl status log2ram

More documentation can be found here.

Check Disk Utilization

df -h

Docker Setup

Install Docker

I recommend to install it yourself following a simple guide.

Prepare Docker Environment

All following commands need to be run from your Raspberry PI. Either connect via SSH or direct access.

1. Clone Repository

git clone https://github.com/timoknapp/rpi-nas.git
cd rpi-nas

2. Configure your Setup

Replace Placeholders in docker-compose.yml file:

${PATH_TO_DISK} with related Path on your PI
Execute the following command on your PI: id `whoami`
- Replace ${USER_ID} with the integer value of uid.
- Replace ${GROUP_ID} with the integer value of gid.
Set password postgres user

3. Run Compose-Stack

docker-compose up

4. Try it out

Opening a browser with the IP of your PI should show now the Heimdall dashboard. A configured dashboard would like like one on top. (e.g. http://IP-OF-YOUR-PI)

Components

Following show all the applications of the docker-compose.yml related to their exposed ports on the host.

Application	Port	URL	Optional
Portainer	9000	http://localhost:9000
Heimdall Dashboard	80, 443	http://localhost, https://localhost
Pi-hole	53, 8080	http://localhost:8080
CloudflareD	-
Homebridge	8581	http://localhost:8581
Deconz Conbee	8888, 8443	http://localhost:8888, https://localhost:8443
Plex	32400	http://localhost:32400/web/index.html	yes
CloudCmd	8008	http://localhost:8008	yes
pyLoad	8088	http://localhost:8088
Nextcloud	8081	http://localhost:8081	yes
Home-Assistant(1)	8123	http://localhost:8123	yes
Grafana	3000	http://localhost:3000
InfluxDB	-
Telegraf	-
Internet Speedtest	-		yes

Optional means that the application is not necessary for the NAS to work properly. It is just a nice to have. If you want to use it, you need to uncomment the related lines in the docker-compose.yml file.

(1) In order to expose your external devices using Zigbee/Z-Wave dongles to the Home Assistant container, you can read this guide

Configure Pi-hole

Open http://IP-OF-YOUR-PI:8080/admin and login with the password you set in the docker-compose.yml file.
Go to Settings -> DNS -> Interface settings and change the setting from Allow only local requests to Permit all origins -> Save. (This could already be set by the environment variable DNSMASQ_LISTENING in the docker-compose.yml file)
- This will add the following line in /etc/dnsmasq.d/01-pihole.conf:
```
except-interface=nonexisting
```
Since the Pi-hole is running in a docker container, it is not possible to use the Allow only local requests setting as its only considering the local network of the container.
Go to Settings -> System -> Disable Query Logging.

Since we want to use the Pi-hole as a DNS server only, we don't need to log any queries. This will reduce the amount of writes to the disk and will allow us to run Pi-hole in anonymous mode.

Add the following lines to /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf:

PRIVACYLEVEL=3 #; 0=show everything, 1=hide domains, 2=hide domains and clients, 3=anonymous mode
#; MAXLOGAGE=24.0 #; up to how many hours of logs to show in pihole web interface
MAXDBDAYS=7 #; delete entries older than 30 days. Setting this to 0 will disable the database.
DBINTERVAL=60.0 #; write to the pihole-FTL.db file every 30 minutes (lets the HDD spin down)
#; DBFILE=/etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.db #; path to the database file. Setting this to DBFILE= disables the database altogether

Restart Pi-hole container!

Configure CloudflareD

Tdb.

Add your Cloudflare API Token to the TUNNEL_TOKEN variable in the docker-compose.yml file.

More configuration options can be found here or here.

rpi-nas

Raspberry PI NAS

Preview

Dashboard

Monitoring

Table of Contents

Hardware

OS

SSH

SMB Shares

Format Drives

Mount Drives

Prepare Disks

Mount Disks manually

Mount Disks automatically

Setup SMB Server

Setup TimeMachine Share

Other useful things

HD-Idle

Log2Ram

Check Disk Utilization

Docker Setup

Install Docker

Prepare Docker Environment

1. Clone Repository

2. Configure your Setup

3. Run Compose-Stack

4. Try it out

Components

Configure Pi-hole

Configure CloudflareD

ViTAS

frirss

Sandwich-Batch-Normalization

markItDown

rpi-nas

Raspberry PI NAS

Preview

Dashboard

Monitoring

Table of Contents

Hardware

OS

SSH

SMB Shares

Format Drives

Mount Drives

Prepare Disks

Mount Disks manually

Mount Disks automatically

Setup SMB Server

Setup TimeMachine Share

Other useful things

HD-Idle

Log2Ram

Check Disk Utilization

Docker Setup

Install Docker

Prepare Docker Environment

1. Clone Repository

2. Configure your Setup

3. Run Compose-Stack

4. Try it out

Components

Configure Pi-hole

Configure CloudflareD

ViTAS

frirss

Sandwich-Batch-Normalization

markItDown

search