Please help!!! Broke OMV

Zitat von steelo

It looks like I broke the Pi again after I attempted to download a torrent movie. The pi became unresponsive so I rebooted. Now it continues to be unresponsive. I think the Pi is just too underpowered and unstable to use as a permanent NAS.

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Zitat von tkaiser

Well, my definition of 'working backup' is 'test restore until you can prove that a restore works reliably within an acceptable time frame'.

My actual data retention requirement is around 2TB, and what I consider to be "irreplaceable" is considerably less than that. (Otherwise, a 4TB drive would be be too small.)

The R-PI replicates changes to 10 network shares and, yes, I had the occasion to do a real world restore (not a test) when a user (I won't say my wife) deleted the contents of one of those shares.

It took about 2 hours to restore the share which, while not blinding fast, would be better than no backup at all.
(However, at that point in time, including the R-PI, I had 3 copies of the data that was lost. At that point, I still didn't trust it.)

I test everything. It took awhile to learn the extent of R-PI's limitations and, after a few months, I ran head on into SD-card issue(s). After creating a work around for SD card "crappiness", it took an additional year of use and testing, before I began to trust it. The same was true of testing OMV. I do next to nothing on blind faith which is why I still have personal files that go back to the days of Windows 95 and beyond. With that said, I haven't tested the R-PI anywhere near as exhaustively as you have. I've been reading your threads and I've learned a lot.

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On the other hand, costs are a real world factor along with the "WAF". Given that many users visit the forum pleading for help in restoring a sick RAID array or a dead/dying drive, I still maintain that for up to 4TB of backup, a $160 R-PI and a drive is not a bad deal - "IF" - users are willing to maintain a gross of SD-cards for clones of their boot drive. (Of course the power issue is key, but additional power loading by the hard drive can resolved with a USB drive dock or a decent quality powered hub.)

So, for +/- $160, I believe 40 hours is an acceptable time frame for a full 4TB data restore if there's no other possibility for restoration. If cost is an issue, and $160 or so is doable, an R-PI backup is far better than no backup at all.
For the WAF, the R-PI combo I have could be velcro'ed to the back of my 24x7 server and it's power requirement of roughly 12 watts is in the "Night Light" range.

On the other hand, I will concede that this is a very narrow use case. At the $325 to 375 price point, or if a PC is available to be re-purposed, I would agree that a better platform can be had, with a slightly higher power bill.

Zitat von tkaiser

True. But it's simply stupid if you can choose between a ROCK64, an ESPRESSOBin and an original Raspberry Pi to choose the latter. Since way too slow.

This (the bolded passage above) I believe, is the crux of the real issue. From a single very limited prospective, one could make that statement, but it's a gross oversimplification that's strictly based on a highly focused, technical, point of view. It doesn't take into account several real world factors.

The R-PI is, without doubt, the most popular SBC out there and that has nothing to do with processor performance or interface bandwidth limitations. It has everything to do with user support. The average Joe has little to no idea what the performance parameters are, when they wander into the world of SBC's for the first time. Hence, in the vast majority of cases; proposing that a "choice" exists between SBC's, at a point where users have next to no knowledge of SBC performance, is irrelevant. Realistically, the choice doesn't exist. On the other hand, given the abundance of information available, popularity and the enormous support base, there's an excellent chance that a first time SBC buyer will purchase an R-PI. It's not a matter of being stupid.

As we all may have noticed, the vast majority of SBC questions on this forum are about R-PI's. Why? Again, for better or worse, R-PI's are popular. (The ROCK64 and many others are not even a consideration because, in terms of numbers, they're nearly non-existant.) Top 10 - 2016

If we want to get more users into the OMV tent (I do), it's good common sense to support the most popular SBC out there, in a user friendly manner. With that in mind, support of the R-PI can be done by stating the limitations of the device and, if the use case is unacceptable to the user, another platform could be suggested. In any case, I believe this can be done without continuously implying that R-PI users are, somehow, impaired.

I'll admit that's a lofty goal, but I believe it's a healthy one.

Zitat von steelo

I can’t seem to get the computer to boot from a NAS4Free USB image

I wouldn't want to run that either

Zitat von steelo

I thought that was the recommended NAS software for Windows? If there was an OMV option for Vista, I would install that instead!

I guess I don't understand. Nas4Free and OMV are both NAS systems. Windows will work with either via samba (smb/cifs) shares. Are you trying to dual boot?

You are using Vista? Does Vista have a fast startup mode? If yes try to disable it.

Zitat von steelo

you CAN install it onto a USB stick so you would still have access to Windows if you need it.

Not really. I don't think nas4free can mount an NTFS or fat32 partition but I don't really care if it can OMV could but this is a bad idea. A box really shouldn't do both. If you just want to test OMV, use virtualbox running on windows.

I also don't understand asking for nas4free help on the OMV forum...

Zitat von steelo

I thought it was created by the safe developers

nas4free is built on freebsd and a fork of freenas which Volker (OMV's core developer) did work on many years ago. OMV is built on Linux.

Zitat von steelo

Sorry for the confusion.

I’m not necessarily looking for a dual boot system, but from what I’ve read, you CAN install it onto a USB stick so you would still have access to Windows if you need it. The problem I’m having is I’m trying to install Nas4Free and the instructions call for you to create a bootable USB. I have formatted it with SDFormatter and copied the image onto the USB stick with Win32 diskimager to make it bootable. I also went into the BIOS and prioritized it to look for a USB drive first. The system just keeps booting into Windows, with the USB stick inserted. I was going crazy troubleshooting what I may be doing wrong. Thanks!

There may be something "not quite right" with your USB stick, where it's not actually bootable. I'd open the side of your PC and disconnect the internal drive, so that the PC is forced to boot from the USB stick or not at all. It that doesn't work, if it fails to boot onto the stick, it would be time recheck BIOS settings and / or re-burn the image to the USB stick. (If you decide to use a USB stick as a boot drive, permanently, don't forget to install the "flash media" plugin.)

Zitat von steelo

Right now, I’m considering converting an ancient desktop -AMD dual core with 4 gb ram and a 2tb HD into a NAS.

OMV is efficient so a smoking fast CPU and tons of ram are not high on the requirements list, in a home environment. With 2 or 3 users, your old desktop should be fine.

Just keep in mind, as you explore options, that a limiting factor would a 100MBS ethernet interface. A 1GB ethernet connection, along with 1GB switches (you'd need both), goes a long way toward supporting a good performing NAS. 100MBS ethernet, on the other hand, sets a hard ceiling on data I/O. 1GB ethernet, compared to 100mbs, makes a real difference if you're pulling multiple streams or dragging video files to / from your NAS.

On the other hand, even with 100 mbs, your old PC would let you put OMV through it paces.

Good Luck