BUILD Building a 12v NAS for a Motorhome. Help

[Wissel]

Hi all. I'm new to here and new to using a NAS.

Currently, I'm in the process of building a pretty high tech motorhome that the Missus and I intend to start living in next year. I work online and will be working from the van. Most things to do this are sorted, but I need a storage solution.

I think a NAS makes most sense as it gives redundancy and avoids having to use a bunch of external drives. It would be hard-wired to the vehicles router (Huawei B315) and besides holding work stuff would act as a media server (is Plex best for this?)

It's the build I'm not 100% sure on.

From a PC I build a few years ago (again for mobile use), I have the following components:
i3 2100T low power processor
Mini ITX board
4 or 8GB Low Voltage Ram (what's better?)
128GB SSD
Pico 120w PSU (can run the PC on any voltage between 8v & 32v)

I'm then planning to add 2 x 6GB WD Red drives in Raid 1.

Everything needs to be low power. The PC at this moment runs @17w, with the extra drives it should run at a max of 25w.

Does this sound okay?

Or am I an idiot (and what would work better).

Thanks,
David

 

[wblock]

For a mobile thing like that, I would strongly recommend SSDs. Yes, they are a lot more expensive. But no moving parts to rattle when driving.

8G of RAM is the minimum.

 

[Wissel]

Thanks @wblock I think you are right tbh. They would also be better on power consumption.

I'm now wondering about using SSD's, but without Raid.

Then adding a dock to take 3.5 drives and backing up to these weekly.

Not ideal, but a lot cheaper. What do you think?

 

[wblock]

Like other things, it depends on your comfort level. How traumatic/expensive would loss of a week of data be? If it is data that can be recreated, maybe no big deal. If it is irreplaceable new photos, a really big deal. Availability of a high-speed LAN connection might provide another way of making backups. How long it takes to recover from a failure is another consideration.

 

[Evertb1]

Hi all. I'm new to here and new to using a NAS.

Currently, I'm in the process of building a pretty high tech motorhome that the Missus and I intend to start living in next year. I work online and will be working from the van. Most things to do this are sorted, but I need a storage solution.

I think a NAS makes most sense as it gives redundancy and avoids having to use a bunch of external drives. It would be hard-wired to the vehicles router (Huawei B315) and besides holding work stuff would act as a media server (is Plex best for this?)

It's the build I'm not 100% sure on.

From a PC I build a few years ago (again for mobile use), I have the following components:
i3 2100T low power processor
Mini ITX board
4 or 8GB Low Voltage Ram (what's better?)
128GB SSD
Pico 120w PSU (can run the PC on any voltage between 8v & 32v)

I'm then planning to add 2 x 6GB WD Red drives in Raid 1.

Everything needs to be low power. The PC at this moment runs @17w, with the extra drives it should run at a max of 25w.

Does this sound okay?

Or am I an idiot (and what would work better).

Thanks,
David

First of all I think you should be asking your self if FreeNAS is the answer to your needs/use case. Choosing for FreeNAS is pretty much choosing for the ZFS file system. And while that offers you a lot in the sence of data security it also comes with some demands for the hardware. 8 GB of memory for example is a minimum for the current version of FreeNAS (4 GB or 8 GB hardly makes a difference for power consumption). And ECC memory is -while not an absolute requirement- very much recommended.

There are other (free) options available and some of them come with less strict demands for hardware. Open Media Vault is one of hem. They run that even on Raspberry Pi's. Don't take me wrong though: I love FreeNAS but it is not the answer to everything. By the way I agree with the use of SSD's for what you want, be it with FreeNAS or not.

Another thing I can higly recommand is take some time to read up on FreeNAS. There is a wealth of information avavilable in the user guide and the resources section of the Forum.

 

[Arwen]

If you choose not to use FreeNAS, there are all-in-one x86_64 computers that are 12 volt only. For example, my new home media server, (un-moving home), uses about 8 watts at around 12 volts. It even has an optional 12 volt UPS. This fitlet is not a speed daemon, but it works perfectly for me as my media server, (no transcoding required for my videos).

I do have 8GB non-ECC memory, and do use ZFS on Linux. The smaller model has an mSATA slot and eSATA port, while another the same mSATA slot plus has an internal 2.5" SATA drive bay. Don't think it will take those 15mm high >2TB spinning disks.

Here is the link;

http://www.fit-pc.com/

 

[Jailer]

You've got a high tech motorhome and it doesn't have an inverter built in? Decent inverters are relatively inexpensive.

 

[Wissel]

You've got a high tech motorhome and it doesn't have an inverter built in? Decent inverters are relatively inexpensive.

It does (will) have an inverter, but all inverters are inefficient so I try to avoid using where possible.

The electrical system includes 300Ah of LifePO4, a lot of solar, super speed charging whilst driving (the main reason I went LifePO4) and Victron electrics. The inverter will be the MultiPlus 1600.

Thanks.

 

[Evertb1]

It does (will) have an inverter, but all inverters are inefficient so I try to avoid using where possible.

The electrical system includes 300Ah of LifePO4, a lot of solar, super speed charging whilst driving (the main reason I went LifePO4) and Victron electrics. The inverter will be the MultiPlus 1600.

Thanks.

I think your choice for a Pico PSU is the right one. It fits perfectly in your plans to limit the power consumption of your Server. I used to own a boat with a 12v system. I did the GPS based navigation with software running on a small form factor PC. It was based on an Mini ITX board with integrated AMD CPU/GPU. It was powered with a 110 W Pico PSU. While it was limited in its capabilities it never disappointed me. I even got internet wit a GSM dongle supporting the 3G (UMTS) network. Of course these days I would use my Smartphone as a hot-spot.