Build a Private Cloud with a Pi 5 NAS
This DIY Raspberry Pi 5 NAS offers secure, fast home backups with NVMe/SATA storage, and it has a snazzy acrylic case.
Cloud-based data storage services may be the easiest way to back up your files, but there are some issues that come along with using them as well. First and foremost, nothing transmitted over the internet or stored on an internet-connected server can ever be guaranteed to be completely secure. For the most part, service providers do a fine job — but there are more than enough security breaches to rightly cause concern. Privacy aside, transferring large amounts of data over the internet can be really slow.
The best solution to these problems is running your own storage solution at home. That can sound scary to someone that has never set up such a system before, but Michael Klements breaks down how simple it can be in a recent video.
To keep things as user-friendly as possible, Klements chose to build his network-attached storage (NAS) system around a Raspberry Pi 5. These little computers don’t have a lot of options for interfacing with external drives, but by using an NVMe HAT that connects to the PCIe port and supports two drives, along with a USB to SATA adapter that supports two additional drives, Klements was able to pack in enough storage for most people’s personal needs.
This is the point where you might expect a 3D printer to be used to make a case to house the drives and other hardware. Klements didn’t want the rough look that often comes with 3D printing, however, so he used a Makera Z1 desktop CNC machine. The parts were designed in Fusion 360 before being cut out of acrylic sheets. Carbon fiber accents were also formed with the CNC machine to spice up the look of the NAS.
With the hardware build out of the way, Klements installed openmediavault on the Raspberry Pi. This made it possible for him to define shared drives and control access to them over his local network.
In a series of tests, it was found that both reads and writes to the NAS clocked in at about 110MB per second. For a network-connected home storage solution meant for use as a backup device, that is pretty nice performance.
Even if you don’t have access to a CNC machine, Klements’ video may still be of interest to you. If you aren’t concerned about how it looks, the hardware will work just as well without the fancy case.