howto»linux
I
fyou’veneverownedoruseda
networkattachedstoragedevice,
therearetwothingsyoushould
knowaboutthem:a)they’re
awesome;andb)thecommercialones
arebasicallyjustPCsrunninga
specialisedversionofLinux.Their
mainadvantageistheirindustrial
design:theeaseofinstallingand
removingharddrives.Butyoupay
quiteabitforthatindustrialdesign,
andmanycommercialNASshave
theirflaws.
Themostcommonflawisavery
weakprocessor,especiallyintheless
expensivemodels.VerycheapNASs,
thoseinthe$200-$400range,very
oftenuseextremelylow-poweredARM
chips.Whichisfineforfilesharingand
mediastreamingfromyourNAS,butif
youwanttodosomethingalittlemore
demanding,likelivetranscoding,
broadcasting,orIPcamerarecording
andmanagement,thenthosecheap
chipsarenotgoingtocutit.
Here’sthething:youcanturnanold
PCintoaNASveryeasily.Andevena
fiveyearoldPCislikelytohavevastly
morehorsepowerthanalowcostNAS.
And,ifyou’renolongerusingit,it’s
free!Sothismonthwe’regoingtowalk
throughhowtodothatwithoneofthe
moreuser-friendlyfreeNAS solutions.THEINGREDIENTS
Tomakethiswholethingwork,you
needjustfourthings:
Anoldx86PC.Itdoesn’tmatterifit’s
five or even ten years old. Even aTurning an old PC into a NAS
You don’tneedto paythrough the nose for a new NAS,
asN a t h a n Ta y l o r explains.
EntertheInstall Code to link to your Amahi
account.The language setup screen.Start the install.TheAmahicontrolpanel,availableonthesite
onceyou’vecreatedanaccount.Note–we’ve
blankedoutalotof our private information
from this shot!AnoldPCisallyou
need,thoughdesktop
PCsaregenerallythe
mostuseful,sincethey
havespaceformore
hard drives in them.low-powerPCcangetitdone.Itdoesn’t
needamonitor,keyboard,ormouse
(thoughtheseareusefultoconnectto
itduringinitialsetup,oncetheNAS
softwareisinstalledthey’renolonger
needed).
Storage.Thisistherealkicker.NASs
aremostlyusedforstoringlotsof
mediafiles(forstreamingouttoyour
variousdevicesaroundthehome)as
wellasnetworkbackups.Thatmeans
thattheyneedasmuchstorageasyou
cangivethem.YouroldPCmaynot
havethatmuchstorage,soyoumight
havetoaddmore.Thatwillprobably
involvecrackingopenthecaseand
checkingthenumberandkindsof
availableharddiskconnectors,and
perhapspurchasingnewharddisks(or
salvagingolderdisksthatwillworkin
thePC).It’sactuallynotthathard,
assumingyourPCcasehasavailable
physicaldrivebaysandSATAports/
powerconnectors.Butitwillinvolvea
Philipsheadscrewdriverandsome
fiddlinginsidethecase.
ANASoperatingsystem.There are
plenty of free ones available.AblankCDorUSB drive.To install
theOSontoit.FLAVOURSOFFREE
NASSOFTWARE
Asidefromthephysicalserver,allyou
needisaNASOStoinstallonit.There
areactuallyawholehostoffreeNAS
operatingsystems.FreeNAS(freenas.
org)isthemostpopular,powerful,and
bestsupported–butit’salsosomewhat
complex.There’salsoOpenfiler(www.
openfiler.com),NAS4Free(www.
nas4free.org),CryptoNAS(cryptonas.
senselab.org),OpenMediaVault(www.
openmediavault.org)andliterally
dozensmore.Here,though,we’regoing
tofocusonAmahi,oneofthemost
home-userfriendlyNASsolutions.It’s
basedonFedoraLinuxanddoesn’thave
therangeofcapabilitiesofFreeNAS,
butitgetsthejobdoneandiseasyto
setupandmanagewiththe cloud
serviceandmobileapps.INSTALLINGAMAHI
So,let’sgoaboutinstalling Amahi.
Follow these steps.