3 hidden NAS features you’re probably ignoring
When you get a NAS (Network-Attached Storage), you usually get a ton of features. In fact, I personally found it intimidating when I first opened the dashboard and started opening dialog boxes. Now these are the ones I use the most.
Of course, not all NAS devices support all features. You’ll have to click into your NAS interface to find out, but most of what I’m talking about is found on many modern NAS devices.
Link aggregation
Because who doesn’t want to maximize throughput?
Like everyone else, I want my NAS to run at maximum network speed and reliability. This is why I take advantage of the two Ethernet ports on my NAS to form a link aggregation.
The benefits of link aggregation are generally two-fold: load balancing and fault tolerance. On a NAS, load balancing refers to the process of distributing traffic across multiple connections rather than relying on just one. Fault tolerance, as you might guess, means that one or more connections can fail without total loss of existing connections.
I built a low power NAS from a Raspberry Pi
NASberry Pi.
When working on your NAS, you may see link aggregation labeled as “trunking” or “bonding”, but they are actually the same thing. You will probably also have several modes to choose from. What you should use depends on your setup and goals, but I opted for “round robin” mode because it provides both load balancing and failover capabilities.
NFS file sharing
Remote file access in a Linux first homelab
A basic feature of any NAS is the ability to share files over a local network, or at least to a device where you want to access those files. This is one of the best uses of NAS because it allows you to keep files at your fingertips without relying on your PC or phone’s internal storage or third-party cloud services.
Of course, there are several protocols you can use to share files on a NAS. One of the most popular is Samba, which I recommend if you use Windows. In fact, Samba can be very useful for cross-platform device ecosystems. However, I use Windows or Mac very little these days, and NFS works best between the Linux devices I primarily work on.
Everything you need to create a custom NAS enclosure
It only takes a few simple ingredients to build a delicious NAS.
My main use case is actually providing my Jellyfin server with the media files I want to access with it. The Jellyfin instance runs on a separate mini PC while pulling media from my NAS via NFS sharing. It was surprisingly simple to set up. If you follow my steps, make sure to configure your remote PC to automatically mount the NFS share on startup using the fstab file.
Inverter control
Make your NAS act exactly as you want it to in the event of a power outage
One of the most valuable accessories you can get for your NAS is a UPS or uninterruptible power supply. As the name suggests, it provides power without interruption, even when your electrical connection experiences a brownout or power outage.
My house has electrical problems quite often and I don’t want to put my NAS device at risk by subjecting it to power company failures. If my NAS were to lose power at the wrong time, valuable stored data could be corrupted or my NAS could become completely unusable.
The UPS protects my NAS from these risks, but what’s interesting is that it can also work in harmony with the NAS. I connected the USB cable from the UPS to the NAS, opened the external devices menu on my NAS portal and started adjusting the settings. This allowed me to tell my NAS what I wanted it to do when it receives the signal from my UPS that it has lost external power and is supplying battery juice, and when to take that action.
These settings gave me better control over the behavior of my NAS and tailored it to the profile of my homelab setup. If you want to do more with your network storage, check out some NAS application recommendations or try a different NAS operating system.
- Brand
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QNAP
- Processor
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ARM Cortex A55
- Memory
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4 GB DDR4
- Drive bays
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4
The QNAP TS-433-4G-US 4-bay NAS is a great entry-level 4-bay NAS for your home storage setup. With four 3.5-inch hard drive bays, a 2.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A55 quad-core processor, and 4 GB of DDR4 RAM, you have enough power to meet everyday storage needs and more. Plus, with 2.5GB Ethernet on the back, you can move files 2.5x faster than a normal Gigabit network.
