Unix and Linux → Building a file server with OMV

I just purchased:

BitFenix Prodigy M
Kingston Digital 60GB SSDNow V300
WD Red 3TB NAS HDD x3
Corsair Hydro Series H55

And I have this laying around:

ASUS M4A785-M w/ 8GB of DDR2 RAM
AMD Phenom II x4 925 2.8GHz
WD Caviar Green 3TB HDD

The intention is to turn all of this into a file server using OpenMediaVault. Has anyone out there done this before and have any pointers? I am sure I can figure it out if pushed. It would be nice to hear from some more experienced people as this will be my first time setting up a dedicated file server.

If anyone is wondering, I did not want to go with a pre-configured NAS as I could not find any with good reviews for less than $1k that met my requirements. These are:

Expandability
Capable of Raid 10
Upgradable (hardware)

Any thoughts?

I've never heard of it, but it says it's based on Debian and has several of the popular packages installed and hopefully pre-configured for ease.

In all honesty, it's the hardware that matters more than the OS.

I've heard of them. Why not a ZFS based solution like FreeNAS? I've run OpenIndiana and Napp-it with great success.

I have more knowledge of using Linux (and OMV is based on Debian Linux (specifically Wheezy I think)), so OMV should be more familiar to me.

I'm not a BSD or Linux guru by any means (far from it). FreeNAS was pretty darn easy to set up. You don't really need to know the OS.

I am thinking further ahead, such as if I wanted to turn it into more than just a file/back up server. Arch is right about the hardware. I am pretty sure what I have is more than capable for my needs. I am just looking to see what opinions are out there.

I talked to one of my instructors about it tonight. He actually does some coding for Debian. He told me to just download a vanilla version of Debian (or something with a minimalist GUI like xfce) and set it up myself using packages and what not. That is an option, as I know what packages are required, I just have little experience using them.

The hardware will be here tomorrow. I will update you guys with my experience after I get it all set up.

Then why not just build a debian box with samba/NFS and all the other tools you need and you can customize it however you see fit?

Owncloud seems to be getting a lot of praise as well. It's OS agnostic and actually has android/iOS clients

I am looking for a more OTB experience than building the packages and etc.

After a bit more research I am going to do what scrummie02 said. It seems OMV is based on Debian Squeeze, which means less file support. As it turns out, it only requires a few additional packages (samba, libcups, and etc) plus webmin to make Wheezy a file server that can be used over a browser.

Looks like I'm the only one with actual experience using OMV. I've been using it for two years now. You would not regret it. It's less of a hassle than building one from scratch with Debian. It also has very handy plugins. I would personally disregard the previous uninformed replies. You'd be up in running in maybe 15 minutes.

The only issue I had with OMV is that it is still based on Debian Squeeze, which is almost two versions old (Jessie is now in Alpha 1). Either way, I went with Debian Jessie and downloaded webmin. I have the file server up and running. Thanks to webmin I can admin it from any computer on my network, which is awesome.

I ended up going with a few different components. Here is what changed:

Cooler Master HAF LAN XB EVO

ASUS Gryphon Z87

Intel Pentium G3220

I had to get a different case because Amazon screwed up my order. I also decided to go with a different motherboard and CPU because of energy costs. The AMD would have cost me nearly triple per month to run.

I will put pictures in a different forum, since that is mostly hardware related.

This is the way to go I think. You can customize it and see the inner workings of the software and application involved. You'll learn a lot. I used to run a linux server as a file server with samba and some other things and did it manually. It really helped me learn a lot.