So I’m quite new to the self hosting world, and not the most tech savvy, but I’m looking for a way to expand and increase the reliability of my file storage. I used to just use cloud storage but got concerned about privacy and environmental impact and whittled down all of my data to about 200GB including all my music, photos, movies, backup files, etc. I have a laptop, phone, and mp3 player and currently use synching to sync all of my files across all three devices. This works great, I love how seamless, cheap, and automatic everything is. But I want to expand my storage abilities and include a backup that isn’t with me / in my apartment. I was thinking of getting a couple raspberry pis with m.2 ssds, one to leave at my sisters house (small and unobtrusive little plastic box connected to power and her wifi) and then one at my apartment to act as another node, freeing up space on my phone so that all my files are in at least 3 different devices (3:2:1 rule?). this feels like an fairly easy project to set up, but I have a feeling there is probably a better way to go about what I’m trying to achieve.
If you’re going for reliability, and you just want things to be simple, you probably just want to spend the money on two cheap NAS boxes, honestly. There are some caveats that come with RPi’s, and you’re unfamiliar it’s: 1) going to cost about the same, 2) be simpler to manage and upgrade, and 3) be easier to repair disk columes when the time comes.
Even if you’re just looking to make these redundant to each other, just make it simple and easy.
Someone down-voted but I agree, and this from actual experience doing stuff similar to OP.
Flexibility, compatibility, and power consumption are significant considerations for a self-hoster.
I’ve run ST with Pi, and while Pi is great, it’s non-standard so doesn’t have the benefit (yet) of ubiquity. While it’s low power consumption is fantastic, mini PC’s and even SFF (Small-Form-Factor) desktops are in the same range for similar costs (in the used market) while providing orders of magnitude more performance per watt and much more hardware compatibility.
A Pi 5 today is in the $120 range - for a device that on it’s own will idle at about 4 watts, with peak draw at 15w. This without any storage yet, and no case.
A mini PC will idle about the same - but can house a large, standard drive so be a much better package for OP’s intended use-case, and cost less on the used market.
I’d maybe add an online backup for the device you’ve chosen to be the authoritative data source to achieve close to a 3-2-1.
The downvotes here are from people who have no idea what in the world actually works best, and just FEEL a certain way about things 🤣
Kinda the mantra of this entire sublem.
I’m honestly not even talking about a Minipc. I’m talking a cheap ass dual bay NAS. Let’s do a price breakdown:
So at the bare minimum that’s going to be $460 or $510 for the 1TB variant per device. Then you need to fuck with all the software side of things as well.
$400 and you’re done. All the software is ready to go, you’ll have automatic rebuilds of your array if you need to swap drives, and a simple interface to work with everything in.
I’m not even here simping for Synology, because QNAP and others have similarly priced solutions. I’m here pushing for SIMPLICITY and cost effective solutions.
As a counter point you can grab an old Pi for cheap and install OpenMediaVault OS and have all the NAS tools you need managed from a GUI.
There are Plugins for tons of self hosting options, and GUI docker management for your own add ons. (New versions dumped portainer, in favor of their own GUI tools).
Pi3 is fine Pi4 would be better. Wattage is between 4-7
I used to host this way till I found a fanless heatsink case for a ITX board.
Idle wattage is 15, and 23 for processing heavier tasks
You’re going out of your way to prove some unnecessary point with this solution though.
Only the RPi5 has PCIe, first of all, and the older boards would need a slow USB interface for any type of larger storage. Then you have longevity and reliability questions because of the age of the boards…it’s just worth it.
OP wants a simple solution. RPi of any kind just ain’t it when you get down a simple list of Pros v Cons list.
You don’t have to have pcie for a simple nas, USB with an SSD is fine. I ran my video, audio and samba shares on it that way and its plenty good.
Again…I think you’re just missing the point here and trying to justify a worse solution without cause. A cheaper, more functional solution exists already. Trying to assert “you don’t need this or that” is not useful.
If I went to a car dealership and they told me a newer model of a car I wanted was in stock for $X, I’m not going to say “Okay,bsure, but I want the shitter version, and I’ll pay more for it.”
Makes zero sense.
I think you missed the part about me saying older Pi, being cheap. Like you can pickup a pi3b for $35 where as I’d have to pay $150-180 for a pi5. People get focused on hardware that is overkill for their needs (especially if you track access and system load). You can probably get a deal on an old thinclient or nuc also. Its good to show people options.
For example I have a 15 year old arm board with 256mb non expandable RAM. (Dedtined for the garbage dump) with debian It handles music streaming and samba shares perfectly fine with an SSD. And doesn’t even use 50% of the RAM.
I didn’t miss it, but didn’t loop back. Apologies.
I disregarded that as a solution in my response to that, because it’s not really a solution to OP’s request. Yes, they are cheaper. No, they are not functional for this need due to lack of PCIe. Running SSDs on these devices is not a feature because of the bus speed and connection limitations.
Sure it’s possible. No, it’s not functional for the needs requested here, or even a good suggestion. If somebody wanted a RELIABLE backup target using SSDs, this is the last possible scenario I would even suggest, and only if working from a box of scraps.
I’m not discounting your point that it’s cheaper at all, but it’s like…okay…if someone asked me where to get steak, because they need steak for a recipe they are cooking for dinner, my response shouldn’t be “Well, you could get steak right there, but it costs $X, and you can get Chicken wayyyyyyyy over there. It’s not beef, and it’s not what your recipe calls for, but it’s cheaper and possible to get.”
You’re asserting a position into justification for an argument that doesn’t exist. OP isn’t asking what they could theoretically run backups to. That could be an esp32 board for even cheaper. It’s also an even worse solution than an RPi. It’s just not what they’re asking for is my point.