Settinf up a NAS using Raspberry Pi 4 and OMV

[pmrid (Peter)]

It took me several hair-tearing days to do, but I finally managed to get a Pi4 running OpenMediaVault (OMV) connected on my home network. Terrific. But as with all things, there is a hurdle I haven't yet managed to cross.

Storage.

I have a 500GB SSD formatted to NTFS mounted on the system but even though it is empty the OMV system reports it as having less that 100MB capacity. And I can't find anywhere in the OMV configuration where I can address that.

Has anyone had any experience with this system? I'd appreciate any guidance you can offer.

[AstroViking (Steve)]

The Pi can't see NTFS drives. The 100MBytes it can see will be either the 'slack' space at the end of the disk, or some other system-level partition created in the factory.

You'll need to reformat the SSD to use a Linux filesystem such as ext4. Doing so will erase everything on the SSD.

Cheers,
V

[pmrid (Peter)]

G'day Steve. Curiously, the instructions for this SSD setup on Core Electronics' Tutorial specially require it to be formatted to NTFS. I know it isn't the Linux kosher format but I guess the answer is that the Core guy is wrong. Seems unlikely but I'll start again and reformat it and see what happens.
.
EDIT a day later:

Double-checked the NTFS in the tutorial. It's very specific. If you don't format the NAS storage medium (i.e. EXTERNAL HD or SSD), you can't access any stored data. So I started again and I am not sure what I did differently but now, thevsystem recognises the full disk capacity.

BUT now, I can't paste files into it. I have all the usual permissions set up but to no avail.

I am remembering why I have always hated LINUX.

FURTHER EDIT.
Yahoo I do believe I've done it. I am in the process of transferring all my astro images and calibration data to my allocated storage medium. And, miracles of miracles, it appears to be working. There's 150GB orvso to copy over so it will be hours not minutes but it IS happening.

I have a working NAS running on a Pi4.

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Congrats for getting it up and running.

Interesting that it specifies the use of NTFS. If I was building something like that I'd just format the disk with ext4 and set up Samba for the file sharing. Simple, although without too many bells and whistles...

I suspect you'll now run into the Pi's USB bus bandwidth limitations. It's not the fastest thing when it comes to shovelling data around.

Cheers,
V

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by AstroViking

Congrats for getting it up and running.

Interesting that it specifies the use of NTFS. If I was building something like that I'd just format the disk with ext4 and set up Samba for the file sharing. Simple, although without too many bells and whistles...

I suspect you'll now run into the Pi's USB bus bandwidth limitations. It's not the fastest thing when it comes to shoving data around.

Cheers,
V

I think Samba is built into the OMV software.

To ameliorate some of the bandwidth choking issue you mentioned, I'm rebuilding it around a M2.SATA SSD. I had noticed that when transferring data across my home network onto the old 1TB disk drive I was using for this experiment was way down - between 3 and 4MB/S. Several factors seemed to be having an impact not least of which was the network itself - a EOP system I've had for about 10 years that's great for avoiding cabling but not so great for speed.

EDIT
OK. That's done and running. The transfer speed has increased to 100MB/S plus a bit. Happy with that for the job it will have.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Originally Posted by pmrid

The transfer speed has increased to 100MB/S plus a bit. Happy with that for the job it will have.

That's flying!!
while a bit off topic the Orange Pi Plus seems like a very capable rasp pi alternative

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by rustigsmed

That's flying!!
while a bit off topic the Orange Pi Plus seems like a very capable rasp pi alternative

I didn't mention that the PI itself is booting and running off an M2 SSD as well. No SD cards at all. So it is as fast as it can go. It's also an 8GB model so all in all, a good little unit. The PI is housed in an Argon case which helps.

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Originally Posted by pmrid

I didn't mention that the PI itself is booting and running off an M2 SSD as well. No SD cards at all. So it is as fast as it can go. It's also an 8GB model so all in all, a good little unit. The PI is housed in an Argon case which helps.

It's nice you can finally buy the 8GB pi 4 in Aus at a decent price. Previously the only way I could access one was buy the full kit including case and other crap I didn't need for an extra $200 odd. I finally got an 8GB unit for a decent price but it took a long time. In saying that my son has played with the thing and I forgot why I bought it, maybe for a remote focus system I made up and fitted to my old WO Synta focuser on my 152mm Skywatcher Achromat. I think that's why I got it, can't remember, doesn't matter.