Hello,
Please let me know if this is the right sub thread for this.
I am a newbie to NAS and Linux world and need some opinions/recommendations.
I have a few laptops and desktops at home and want to set up a basic NAS / server at home for backup purposes. The initial thought is to use it as a backup storage NAS and go from there. I want to store my media collections and also backup documents and files I have on my laptop.
I am a total beginner related to Linux, but am technically inclined - I can solder, build PC's and such. We have a pfsense router at home that I set up.
So, with that said, I looked at a few NAS OS's out there and OMV looks to be the most easy to use and to set up for home use. So, I wanted to ask some questions to you guys.
So far, I have:
Spare Dell Optiplex i3-3220 MT with 4 gig RAM with Intel NIC
Spare 2.5 HDD with 250gb for use as OS drive
Buying one 2TB HDD for storage
All clients are PC except for one old Mac Laptop.
Pfsense router on a used Dell Optiplex Core2Duo.
My questions are:
1. I don't want RAID. Am using 1 drive as storage. (I don't want complications with all that RAID stuff). I just want to buy another 2TB as a backup. Can I put it in the same Optiplex NAS case and make it so that OMV will backup into it from the main Drive every night or just a couple times a day? Or, do you recommend an external backup solution?
2. If external backup is preferred, do I get an external enclosure for the 2TB drive? If so, what kind of software solution do I use? I can not do things such as putting a Raspberry Pi controlled external drives at someone's house to do BittorrentSync backups all day. It's just not possible for me. And I am not so sure about CrashPlan service.
3. For the main storage, do I mount it as one single drive? How do people setup their drives? Do you partition the drive to different drives for each type of files (i.e. music, movies, documents, etc.)? Or, do you put multiple drives and mount each as one type of folder? I am asking because am not familiar with Linux file setup. I want to mainly store music, some movies, and documents.
4. How do I make so that my laptops and desktops backup into the NAS every night? We really don't have a lot of data like some people do. Do I have to install some kind of client software on each?
5. Do I have to use Samba so that each PC clients can see the files on NAS? Or, does OMV automatically allows PC clients to see the storage files / folders / documents.
6. In the future, I might want to use OwnCloud for remote access. Do you recommend it? I know it may introduce some issues such as hackers and whatnot due to opening the server to internet (port and all). What are your thoughts? I may never do it but am curious. I must say I am not an expert in Network and Security. I read some people recommend SSH or VPN. Would that introduce major complexity to the setup? If too complicated, I may forgo doing OwnCloud. Only reason I considered it is due to my inclination to NOT trust Dropbox or equivalent for my phone taken photos and such.
7. Does Docker work like hypervisor? I am reading about it and still don't understand it. Can some explain to me?
8. I don't want ZFS, too complicated - am not an IT person. What is a good file setup that's just simpler and make it easy to add new drives as time goes by without re-configuring all the drives again.
I would really appreciate any help on these questions.