What is a NAS?
Want to have “The Cloud” in your house to backup your laptops and telephones to? Want to stream movies to your tablets and TVs? You need a NAS or Network Attached Storage. I n plain language a NAS is a hard drive that you can access using a wi-fi hotspot.
The NAS solutions you buy retail can be expensive. But if you have an unused unused Raspberry pi and a few storage device such as hard drives or flash drives, you can make one yourself with a relatively small time investment.
In this tutorial we will be making use of OpenMediaVault, a NAS solution with a bunch of services (ssh, ftp, smb, torrent client …) and a large number of plugins. Although the Pi is not designed to run NAS, it is very capable to do so.
What is OpenMediaVault?
OpenMediaVault is a Debian-based dedicated Linux distribution for building a network attached storage (NAS) system. It provides an easy-to-use Web-based interface, multi-language support, volume management, monitoring and plug-in systems to scale through LDAP, Bittorrent, and iSCSI capabilities. This tutorial describes the installation and configuration of OpenMediaVault.
Tools Needed for this Tutorial
You need an external storage drive, such as a Hard Disk Drive, Solid State Disk, or flash drive.
A LAN cable which will be plugged in the router Or in Network Hub. We are not going to use a WIFI for the first Boot.
You also need a Raspberry Pi. Models 1 or 2 for apply to this NAS, but I suggest you get started with Raspberry pi 2 Or 3 Model B. With Pi 3, you are still limited to USB 2.0 and 100Mbps via Ethernet. However, I can get the Pi 3 to power an external HDD. The Pi 2 B does not provide enough power for the same HDD.
In my Raspberry Pi NAS, I currently have a powered 1TB hard drive, a non-powered 1TB hard drive and a 128GB flash drive, with no installation needed. To use Pi 1 or 2, you may want to consider using a powered USB hub as an external drive or using an HDD that requires an external power source.
Step by Step
1) Download and Extract OpenMediaVault
The very first step to download the OpenMediaVailt ISO file from Sourceforge.
The software has 32-bit and 64-bit Intel / AMD processors as well as other platforms such as Raspberry PI, Odroid and Cubox i. I select the 64Bit processor (amd64) version. The current 2.1 version of the direct download link is:
2) Installing the OS
To install the operating system, we will use the same method as any operating system that does not have NOOBS installed. in short:
Use the SD formatter to format the SD card as FAT32.
Get the image files from Sourceforge.
3) Setting up Hardware
After writing the image to the SD card, just connect the peripheral device to Raspberry Pi. First, you need to connect via an Ethernet keyboard, monitor, and local network. Next, connect the power supply to Raspberry Pi and let this complete the very initial startup process in boot.
I use the Custom Case of SKY HD and that’s fits on it.
Once completed, log on using the default Web interface credentials. (So the default user name and password of this operating system username is admin and the password is openmediavault.) it will provide you with the IP address of Raspberry Pi. After that, you will no longer need the keyboard and the monitor to connect to Pi.
Connect the storage drive to Raspberry Pi and Explore the Web browser with the same network computer. Write the IP address in the address bar of the browser and Hit Enter. Re-enter the same login credentials (username admin, password is openmediavault) and you will be taken to the Web interface where OpenMediaVault is installed.
Open the Web browser and enter http: //, followed by your IP address such as: http: //192.168.1.80/ enter the web login:
Give login details user: admin, password: openmediavault:
Mount the disk
The first thing you will have to do is get your NAS to install your external drive online. Click “File Systems” in the “Navigation” left navigation menu.
Locate your storage drive and list it under the “Device” column, such as / dev / sda1 or / dev / sdc2. Click a drive to select it, and then click Mount. After a few seconds, click on the Apply in the right corner of top to confirm the operation.
Repeat this step to install any other drives.
Create the Shared Folder
Next, we will need to make a shared folder so this folder can be accessed by other devices(Smart phones, computer, IOT’s etc) on the network. To do this:
- In the navigation bar click Access Rights Management, click Shared Folders.
- Click Add and write the folder a name.
- Select a storage drive in the drop-down menu on the right side of
- Specify the path (if you want to be different name).
Next Step Enable SMB/CFIS
Finally, to get access these drives from an external computer on the same network, you have to enable SMB / CFIS.
Click “SMB /CFIS” under “Services” in the left navigation bar, and then click the toggle button next to “Enable“. Click Save and apply to confirm the change.
Next, click the “Share” tab near the top of the window. Click on Add, select one of the Directory that you created in the drop-down menu next to the shared folder, and then click Save. Repeat this step for the shared folder you created.
Access the drive over the network
Now your NAS(open media vault image) is running, you need to map these drives from other computers to access them. This process is different for every single device such as different in Windows and Mac, but it only takes a few seconds.
Access the networked disk on operating system of Windows, Click the File Browser, and then click This PC. Select the Computers tab and click Map Network Drive.
Select an unused drive letter from the drop-down menu next to Drive. In the Folder field, enter the address of network drive. By default, it is \\RASPBERRYPI\[folder name]. (For example, one of Directory is HDD or Storage drive, so the folder path is \\RASPBERRYPI\HDD). Click on Finish – a pop up windows will appear here. You want to enter the login credentials. By default, the user name is pi and the password is raspberry. If you want to change or forget the user’s login information, you can recover or create a new user and password in the Web interface under “User” in “Access Rights Management”.
For open the network Directory in OS X, open the Finder & press Command + K. In the pop up Explore that appears, type smb: // raspberrypi or smb: // [IP address], and then click Connect. In the next Explore, highlight the volume you want to load, and then click OK.
Now You are able to view and access these drives in the Finder or File Explorer and move the file to a network drive or remove it from a network drive.
OpenMediaVault has built a number of settings, including the ability to remotely restart NAS, set the date and time, power management, plug-in manager and so on. However, if you need a network storage solution, then you do not have to dig deeper.