NAS build from an old hp Pavilion G6 - question about HDD/SSD and how to distribute stuff between them

1. offizieller Beitrag

    Hi everyone,


    my first post here! First of all, would like to thank the developer for the fine piece of software that OMV is ;)

    I would like to build my first NAS device from an old laptop that i was given - an HP G6 with 6GB of RAM and an Core i5. Thinking about buying a 2,5' SSD and a 2,5' HDD. Will do a DIY enclosure for the motherboard, but that's a different story.


    Today i would like to ask you about how to properly distribute the duties between the hard drives. I am planning to install Plex docker container, and some torrenting apps. Will use the NAS only for media. As i understand, several different places need to exist on the system - OMV boot drive/partition, a drive for media, swap disk, plex metadata, plex transcoding, Docker container and plugins. The motherboard has two SATA conections, SD card reader, and plenty of USBs. What do you think would be the best way to go:

    1. SSD for OMV, containers, plex metadata and transcoding. HDD for media only;
    2. SSD for OMV and containers, HDD for plex metadata, transcoding, and the media files;
    3. buy an SD card/ USB key for the OMV system. Containers and all the plex stuff on SSD. HDD for media only;
    4. skip the SSD altogether, and leave only SD/USB for OMV, and HDD for everything else.

    Haven't bought any SSD or HDD yet. I imagine i would need to have separate partitions for the different duties? Or i just install OMV and dockers and everything else on one single drive? By the way, been looking for this sort of info on the Plex forums, but there is nothing of this sort.


    If you have some more patience, then a second question: What do you think, would i be able to install OMV to a SD/USB/SSD from another computer, then stick it into this PC and boot?

    I've been having difficulties booting anything on this motherboard, mainly because the screen is missing, the BIOS is not outputting any video signal over HDMI, and i can't see what's going on on the screen. I believe there are some SecureBoot thingies going on in there. I only managed to boot Ubuntu from a CD ONCE, with some key combo, but didn't have any more luck since then. The old HDD with Windows is broken.


    Any answers would be highly appreciated! :)


    thanks in advance, your dude Paul

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I would use alternative 3. Flexible, easy to backup and most likely very efficient and fast.


    OMV system on USB drive. (Don't forget to install the flash-memory plugin!)

    Docker images and data on SSD.

    Media files on HDD.


    Yes. You should be able to install a basic OMV system on a USB thumbdrive on another PC system, and then boot headlessly (without a monitor) on the HP. Then you can scan for drives and add them using the web interface. And configure OMV further.


    However OMV is not likely to boot unless the bios allows it. Most likely you need to change the boot device in the bios. Possibly also fiddle with uefi/legacy boot in the bios.

    Thanks for your opinion! I was kinda leaning towards option 3 myself :)

    But are there any tradeoffs to having data and containers separated from main system? I mean, do you have to redirect the directories or something?

    And using option nr 3, should i have several partitions on the SSD or just one?


    Thanks ;)

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    You really need to experiment a little and find out for yourself. I can only make vague suggestions.


    You need to be a little careful when you configure docker and the docker images. So that it all ends up on the SSD.


    One trick could be to make a custom partitioning so that /var/lib/docker ends up on the SSD. Or just create a share on the SSD and use that instead of /var/lib/docker.


    I'd have only one partition on the SSD. Either for /var/lib/docker or a share used for docker images and appdata. But subfolders for docker images and docker app data.


    This way you could easily clone the thumbdrive and the rootfs by removing the thumbdrive and clone it in some other system. And you could backup the SSD by booting from another thumb drive with a custom install of OMV or clonezilla, and clone the whole SSD. You could even clone the whole SSD to a folder on the HDD using rsync.

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