Create RAID 1 on Raspberry Pi with SATA hat

  • Hi guys,


    after reading a few threads here, where the result was mostly that OMV has disabled setting up a RAID system with USB connected drives, I hope you can provide me a reliable and simple solution.


    My setup is:

    1. Raspberry Pi 4B 4 GB

    2. https://wiki.radxa.com/Dual_Quad_SATA_HAT

    3. 2x WD Purple 2 TB HDDs

    4. 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250 GB SSD


    I'm using the SSD as system drive (as substitution of a Micro SD card) and I'd like to use the HDDs as RAID1-drives. The NAS is supposed to work as NVR to store all the CCTV footage.


    What is the best solution to create a reliable RAID1-NAS using the setup from above?


    I read about mergerFS, Snapraid, MD-RAID or btrfs...


    I'd appreciate any recommendations and help - many thanks in advance and best regards!

  • chente

    Approved the thread.
    • Official Post

    You can configure two independent drives with EXT4 file system and configure an rsync job in the GUI that regularly replicates data from the first disk to the second disk. The length of time between synchronization will depend on your usage needs.

    • Official Post

    Depends on what you want to achieve. If you want a first level of backup, chentes suggestion will give you a copy of the content on the first disk on the second disk. If you want you can keep files that are deleted on the first disk on the second disk and delete them on the second disk only on request.

    If you want a versioned backup, you can use rsnapshot. There is a plugin available.

    If you want a versioned, de-duplicated, compressed and encrypted backup use borg backup. Also available as plugin.

    If you want a backup strategy, read about the 1-2-3 backup strategy linked in my signature.


    Mergerfs does something completely different from RAID1. It creates a pool of drive that can be accessed via s single mount point.


    omv6:omv6_plugins:mergerfs [omv-extras.org]

  • Thank both you both for your reply!


    Since I want use this device as a NVR which will be written to continuously a simple backup seems problematic to me because the files change all the time (in opposite to a normal document / data NAS).


    Is there a real RAID1 solution to have a proper redundancy?


    Otherwise I'd need to think of either a simple backup as you wrote or a proper mainboard with native SATA interface.

    • Official Post

    a proper mainboard with native SATA interface.

    If you really need a Raid that would be the best option.


    You might be interested in this thread.

  • chente Since I want a RAID and therefore after reading your linked article (pretty nice written, thanks!) I started to start a deeper search for possible components and / or alternatives. The reason is: If I switch to another (and way better hardware) I'd transfer all my running services to this new hardware.


    The last (and only) DIY build of a computer was about 15 years ago. You seem to be competent with hardware, so I simply ask you for your opinion.


    Do you think that the linked mainboard is able to run:


    - Some docker containers (Home Assistant, PiHole, MQTT, nginx, ...)

    - OMV (or an alternative) for handling the RAID filesystem

    - Shinobi as NVR

    - probably more services in the future


    I'd like to install this in a 19" server rack. I can't find dimenions of this board - can you please provide me the height of the board?


    Thank you very much in advance!

    • Official Post

    Do you think that the linked mainboard is able to run:


    - Some docker containers (Home Assistant, PiHole, MQTT, nginx, ...)

    - OMV (or an alternative) for handling the RAID filesystem

    - Shinobi as NVR

    - probably more services in the future

    I don't know Shinobi, but from what I see in their documentation, a Raspberry is enough to run it. So I don't see any problem in using this board for everything you have related. The N100 should be able to do everything without problems.

    I'd like to install this in a 19" server rack. I can't find dimenions of this board - can you please provide me the height of the board?

    Sorry, I can't measure it since this server is not in my house. But as you can see in the photos, the CPU heatsink does not measure more than one centimeter in height, maybe two, in any case the most restrictive height will be that of the connectors on the back plate.

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