Medium OpenMediaVault Part1

My perfect 2018 media server. Openmediavault:... https://medium.com/@yllanos/my-perfect-2018-m...
My perfect 2018 media server.

Openmediavault: NAS/storage +
multimedia services
Yamil Llanos Follow
Jul 14, 2018 · 7 min read
So I’ve been a long time Synology user. I think their machines are great.
I have had three models over the years, the latest one is a DS415+
Having a pre-made NAS has its own set of drawbacks, as mentioned

here:
The Problem with a NAS (ft. 14TB Brick fro…
But considering I’m a curious person and the fact that I have some
hardware from a previous PC build doing nothing, I decided to build
my own NAS.
So even though I’m a big fan of Synology boxes, I decided to go in

another direction because:
3.
2. 1. I’m a fairly advanced user. And I’m not a SysAdmin, but I’ve had
my fair share of developing scripts and I’m very familiar with the
Linux console
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Synology software is awesome, but honestly their machines are a

bit underpowered. In some cases, this is partially justi�able: those
ARM-based CPUs consume little power and in general, serving
�les should not require massive hardware.
When you start to heavily use a machine like this, you go beyond
just serving �les, and your need for both storage and processing
capacity can grow overnight. Scaling on a premade NAS box can
become really expensive, specially if you are interested on x86-
type CPUs
I have been toying with this DIY NAS idea for a long time, but there was
always something that held me back. Over that time, I have had the
opportunity to look at di�erent options (I’m only considering open-
source options):
FreeNAS: It may be the most popular NAS operating system. One

of its strongest features may be the use of ZFS. It has a strong
community. I didn’t like it: the GUI looks ancient; it is FreeBSD-
based, and I feel familiar with Linux; The minimum hardware
requirements and recommendations were o� with my available
hardware, and it doesn’t have a very well de�ned Docker support.
You cannot fully utilize di�erent-sized disks on a ZFS pool, and
this was a deal breaker to me, as for home usage I �nd opportunity
of adding any drives I �nd on sale.
NAS4Free: Less popular than FreeNAS but it is certainly an option.

To me, it was just more of the same as it was the case of FreeNAS.
unRAID: This may be the second most popular option. It is

Debian-based (Linux). It is fast (once it loads up). It has Docker
support. Nice community. You can use di�erent-sized disks. It can
use SSDs for caching. What I didn’t like: The whole thing about
installing and running the OS from a USB stick didn’t feel right to
me. I mean, why would I invest hundreds of dollars on SATA
drives, CPU, RAM, Motherboard, Chasis, PSU and so on, when
everything will boot from an USB drive? That makes no sense to
me. The GUI looks like a website from the 90s. There is a lifetime
fee for a license (unRAID is developed and commercially
maintained by a company), and then if you scale, you have to buy
licenses again (I guess this is �ne, and I respect that, but I
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personally prefer to invest in hardware). Finally, I had some

strange errors sometimes and the interface froze on me a couple
times. I also remember I tried to create a boot USB and somehow
my thumb drive was blacklisted, with no previous use for that.
Ubuntu server + a bunch of packages on it: I really liked this

option. Almost there, I guess. I created my own Dockers using
docker-compose but it had three main issues: 1)
Adding/managing disks using MergerFS + SnapRAID via
command line wasn’t friendly and a way to potential disaster 2)
Having a dedicated GUI is nice, because script your way all the
time can be overwhelming over time, specially when you want to
do something quick, like setting up a new share 3) The complexity
of having di�erent (but related) packages on a system to work in
concert in an integrated way can become di�cult, and perhaps
even too much work for a home server.
Then I stumbled upon Openmediavault. It ticked all my checkboxes. I

installed on a VM and I could verify it did all I am interested in.
So this is my server part list.
There are a few “lies” in that part list. The smaller SSD is from another
brand that I could not �nd on PCPartpicker or Amazon, so I replaced
with some Kingston drive. For the bigger SSD, in reality I have a
Samsung CM871a that I also could not �nd anywhere. The 8TB drives
are not really WD Red, but WD “white label”; those are disks “shucked”
from WD EasyStore drives. More info here.
I basically already had all the parts, except for the ones explicitly
speci�ed. For a home NAS server, this might be a little overkill, but I
think I have some other ideas down the line to take advantage of the
hardware. But anyway, my general design considerations are:
A case with the ability of holding up to 10 3.5" HDDs (or at least 8

+ my SSDs).
A CPU robust enough to do Plex transcoding
A motherboard with as much SATA ports as possible. I got 10 on

that motherboard, but SSDs will use 2, so I’m down to 8. In any
case, I can add an expansion card later, if I need it.
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The ability to run Docker containers
Be able to use disks of potentially di�erent capacities and have

1-drive parity (hence MergerFS + SnapRAID)
The OS will be installed on the smaller SSD (120GB, as boot

drive)
The other SSD (256GB, as “hot” drive) will be used to hold

downloads and bittorrrent seeds. This is also where plex trancodes
will be done and the �les for Docker containers will be stored. So
in essence, this will a somewhat busy drive, and that is why I
wanted an SSD here. Then the �les that rarely change, will go to
main storage (as expected from a media server).
To install OMV, I recommend this video:
Openmediavault 4 Install and Complete Set…
To set-up MergerFS + SnapRAID I recommend this guide.
Now, on to install Docker and a bittorrent client. I prefer Deluge over

Transmission, but whatever:
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Transmission, Docker and Openmediavault
To install Plex:
Plex media server on OpenMediaVault usin…
And �nally, Radarr, Sonarr and Jackett:
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Installing Radarr in OpenMediaVault
Installing Sonarr in Openmediavault
Installing Jackett Indexer in Openmediavault
So here are some pictures and screenshots of the build:
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Some of the parts before building
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The case arrived
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Starting build
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Boot and OS install
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So this is how you take out the drive cages
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Each drive cage can hold up to 4 3.5-inch drives
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Everything in place, cable management only thing pending
SysInfo right after install
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List of disks attached to the system
List of �lesystems and their corresponding type across all disks. MergerFS on datapool01
Data pool composition
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SnapRAID con�g. 1-drive parity
My �le shares
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Some performance graph. SnapRAID Sync was executing, photos were being indexed by Plex the
night before
RAM usage. SnapRAID Sync was running
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Network tra�c stats
My list of Docker containers. I got everything I needed
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I installed Muximux on a Docker container, which gives me access to all those apps from a
single point
Typical system status after installation
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Finished product
To migrate all my data, I used used the “Remote mount” plugin to

mount shares from my old NAS box to my new machine (all mounted
shares will be under ‘/srv’ dir, just replace source and destination
dir/�le):
rsync -rva /src /dst
I really enjoyed working on this project. I already pointed most of my
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client devices to the server. So far so good.
Let me know if you have any questions of the comments section.
Cheers!
EDIT: There is now a part 2, get it here.
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My perfect 2018 media server. Openmediavault:... https://medium.com/@yllanos/my-perfect-2018-m...

My perfect 2018 media server.

Having a pre-made NAS has its own set of drawbacks, as mentioned

The Problem with a NAS (ft. 14TB Brick fro…

So even though I’m a big fan of Synology boxes, I decided to go in

Synology software is awesome, but honestly their machines are a

FreeNAS: It may be the most popular NAS operating system. One

NAS4Free: Less popular than FreeNAS but it is certainly an option.

unRAID: This may be the second most popular option. It is

personally prefer to invest in hardware). Finally, I had some

Ubuntu server + a bunch of packages on it: I really liked this

Then I stumbled upon Openmediavault. It ticked all my checkboxes. I

So this is my server part list.

A case with the ability of holding up to 10 3.5" HDDs (or at least 8

A CPU robust enough to do Plex transcoding

A motherboard with as much SATA ports as possible. I got 10 on

The ability to run Docker containers

Be able to use disks of potentially di�erent capacities and have

The OS will be installed on the smaller SSD (120GB, as boot

The other SSD (256GB, as “hot” drive) will be used to hold

To install OMV, I recommend this video:

Openmediavault 4 Install and Complete Set…

To set-up MergerFS + SnapRAID I recommend this guide.

Now, on to install Docker and a bittorrent client. I prefer Deluge over

Transmission, Docker and Openmediavault

Plex media server on OpenMediaVault usin…

And �nally, Radarr, Sonarr and Jackett:

Installing Radarr in OpenMediaVault

Installing Sonarr in Openmediavault

Installing Jackett Indexer in Openmediavault

So here are some pictures and screenshots of the build:

Some of the parts before building

The case arrived

Boot and OS install

So this is how you take out the drive cages

Each drive cage can hold up to 4 3.5-inch drives

Everything in place, cable management only thing pending

SysInfo right after install

List of disks attached to the system

Data pool composition

SnapRAID con�g. 1-drive parity

RAM usage. SnapRAID Sync was running

Network tra�c stats

My list of Docker containers. I got everything I needed

Typical system status after installation

To migrate all my data, I used used the “Remote mount” plugin to

rsync -rva /src /dst

I really enjoyed working on this project. I already pointed most of my

client devices to the server. So far so good.

Let me know if you have any questions of the comments section.

EDIT: There is now a part 2, get it here.

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