Old USB 3.0 laptop as a NAS?

[Patrick]

Here is a crazy idea I had:

1. Find some inexpensive second hand laptop with USB 3.0 ports and a Gigabit Ethernet Port
2. Hang 4TB 2.5" external USB 3.0 drives off the laptop
3. Install Ubuntu
4. Enjoy a cheap NAS with BBU, local terminal and hot swap drives.

This may end up being a fun rainy day project (assuming we get a rainy day in California in the next few months.)

Has anyone tried a similar project?

 

[CreoleLakerFan]

You would probably have better results with eSATA than USB 3.0. Although the laptop eSATA expansion cards can have issues with heat if you use RAID due to throughput.

 

[unwind-protect]

No, that still sucks.

What you want is a SATA card for mini-PCIe:
Amazon.com: IO Crest Mini PCIe 2 Port SATA III RAID Controller Components SI-MPE40095: Computers & Accessories

2 port, then an expander. Expander is not ideal but better than USB.

One big problem of raid on usb is that any temporary drop in drive connectivity will instantly degrade the array, and then rebuild for hours.

 

[cptbjorn]

My entire home network/server setup basically was a spare T410 thinkpad running CentOS for several months when I had a surprise relocation for work. It was my router, wifi AP, NAS, media server, AD/DNS and more.

I still run a laptop as an ESXi server with a Sophos UTM HA node and a couple other VMs so that I can shut down all my "real" hardware without breaking wifi. Works great and since its low power I get pretty good runtime out of my network UPS. VT-d even works on lots of newer "enterprise" type laptops.

 

[unwind-protect]

You could also use one eSATA port and then a raid enclosure that does raid inside on its own, so that you don't need multiple ports on the laptop.

 

[Deslok]

I used a w510 ThinkPad for a hyper v host it has two drive bays already(with hot swap using the odd to hdd tray) and has usb3 available in addition to esata, with gen 1 quad core mobile i7 and up to 16gb ram(4x4gb) it would do well as a 4 drive nas booting from sd, add a expresscard Ethernet adapter for dual gigabit Ethernet and that's all without it's docking station

 

[Evan]

I have an old 2012 (first usb3 model) MacBook Air that I thought to do this with, idle power is ~6 watts !
It's not a very pretty NAS but would do a good job.
It also has thunderbolt if I wanted to add some other (but more expensive) storage options.

 

[Danic]

One big problem of raid on usb is that any temporary drop in drive connectivity will instantly degrade the array, and then rebuild for hours.

^^^This. My nas long ago was a laptop with USB drives. random drops would cause system to hang and mdadm would have to rebuild upon reboot. I personally dislike most usb devices, they always fail for me. As for USB hubs, well I've throw a few out the window.
But laptops are great for basic servers. I've used them for torrentboxes, webservers, and DNS.

I still run a laptop as an ESXi server with a Sophos UTM HA node and a couple other VMs so that I can shut down all my "real" hardware without breaking wifi.

That is a good idea, I going to do something similar. Thanks!

 

[Deslok]

I had a similar idea building a cluster out of old laptops(I have a stack of CF-52 toughbooks) that i may have to revisit now that ubuntu 16 launched, I couldn't quite get the nodes to behave the way i wanted

 

[CreoleLakerFan]

My entire home network/server setup basically was a spare T410 thinkpad running CentOS for several months when I had a surprise relocation for work. It was my router, wifi AP, NAS, media server, AD/DNS and more.

I still run a laptop as an ESXi server with a Sophos UTM HA node and a couple other VMs so that I can shut down all my "real" hardware without breaking wifi. Works great and since its low power I get pretty good runtime out of my network UPS. VT-d even works on lots of newer "enterprise" type laptops.

What laptop are you using for ESXi?

 

[cptbjorn]

What laptop are you using for ESXi?

Current one is a Dell E6420, picked because I could run the same CPU as an AIMB-272 ITX motherboard. I've also used a bunch of different Lenovo models that all work - T61, T500, T410, x200 and more.

 

[Deslok]

Current one is a Dell E6420, picked because I could run the same CPU as an AIMB-272 ITX motherboard. I've also used a bunch of different Lenovo models that all work - T61, T500, T410, x200 and more.

Add lenovo's W510/w530 to that list as i've used them (the w530 with 32gb ram is a monster) and panasonc's CF-52(I'm hoping to make a storage cluster out of the cf-52's actually)

 

[CreoleLakerFan]

Add lenovo's W510/w530 to that list as i've used them (the w530 with 32gb ram is a monster) and panasonc's CF-52(I'm hoping to make a storage cluster out of the cf-52's actually)

Cool. I have a w540 w/32GB of RAM and was wondering if I could convert it to an ESXi server. I just got a Surface Pro 4 - I travel frequently for projects and often carry multiple laptops. The Surface Pro travels much better and it also allows me to bill 5 hours on a cross country flight as opposed to not.

I will probably end up selling the w540, but I will tinker around with ESXi once I get the rest of my data off of it.

 

[Deslok]

Cool. I have a w540 w/32GB of RAM and was wondering if I could convert it to an ESXi server. I just got a Surface Pro 4 - I travel frequently for projects and often carry multiple laptops. The Surface Pro travels much better and it also allows me to bill 5 hours on a cross country flight as opposed to not.

I will probably end up selling the w540, but I will tinker around with ESXi once I get the rest of my data off of it.

With the W530 we used it with 2x 840 evo(it was a while ago) and booted ESXI off SD, the 540 should do the same thing