Building the best Raspberry Pi NAS - Wiretrustee SATA

[@JeffGeerling]

The day I finished editing the video for the Wiretrustee SATA, the folks behind the board announced they were postponing production because of the component shortage-some parts, most notably the SATA controller chip, had increased in price dramatically, and would only be available in small quantities. You can still sign up for updates on the Crowd Supply page, and I'm still hopeful this product ships, since it's the simplest and most compact SATA NAS board I've seen for the Pi. Subscribe so you don't miss out on some other really amazing boards I'm testing right now!

[@joeltyler3427]

Yeah it's hurting a lot businesses around the world. I know of one who has products waiting to go but doesn't have the numbers for them.

[@wcg66]

Understandable. The last time i got interested in a Pi SATA board it was sold out. Hopefully, these things are orderable, some day!

[@ATomRileyA]

Yeah the shortages are holding back a few projects Skycoin talked about this as they are building Skyminer 2,0 boards for their meshnet project and also a NAS among other things they are making.

[@johnsonlam]

Just my 2cents, not to mention the shortage of components (I think most of them is just tricks to bring up the price). it's better to wait for them to fix the problem or changed the hardware to latest one, everyday Mouser have new chips out, may help to make the hardware more powerful.

[@KameraShy]

Congress says they are going to fix the component shortages.

[@TheTechieScientist]

Jeff's never ending Raspberry Pi NAS saga continues..

[@JeffGeerling]

Don't worry, I still have more to come!

[@TheTechieScientist]

@@JeffGeerling we’re counting on it :)

[@NewAgeDIY]

No worries Jeff, we are happy for today’s video, I’m interested in seeing this project completed, no pressure Jeff. 🙄. It takes time to make something great 👍🏼

[@autohmae]

A bit off-topic but did you know the guy who started the Ceph storage project is a real Sage ? :-)

[@igorschmidlapp6987]

Shouldn't it ideally have 5 slots, for RAID5, etc.? I'm a RAID 0+1 guy, myself (which is NOT RAID 10)... I also would've thought about a jumper to enable those USB ports, but, that's me being nit-picky...

[@CraftComputing]

That thing is adorable!

[@smpperaa]

I hear that quite often

[@JeffGeerling]

🤨

[@DETERNET]

As always, they’re Jeff

[@BCollingwoodTV]

@@DETERNET very good

[@frizzletits8511]

More small home lab work, I recently got a 10u network rack and need some cheap equipment.

[@JoshuaSmith-hr1yx]

Thank you for perfectly simulating the difficulties the rest of us would encounter trying to assemble it.

[@ninline2000]

This is the best Pi NAS setup I have seen. I'm very interested in this.

[@SchoolforHackers]

Jeff, I like this newer, relaxed style. It’s a lot more like you’re teaching live in the lab. Keep the great vids coming.

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

Oh man! We gots some competition!

[@JeffGeerling]

A product like this could fill in the gap I see on the low end, for a low-featured 1 Gbps product. Maybe ASUSTOR would like to build a CM4-based NAS someday? ;) I still use and love that Lockerstor 4 you guys sent my way a few months ago. It's a great mid-range option!

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

@@JeffGeerling Not ruling it out!

[@intrax2tv]

Come on guys get a board like this with a celeron 4125 out and have a case for the drives standing up hot plug and have synology and qnap have a run for their money !

[@radexx]

The click it makes at 4:10 when you secure the Pi module in place must be the most satisfying sound I've ever heard ^_^

[@andreaszweili8593]

Thank you for all the open source work you're doing!

[@over9000713]

At first I thought it was going to be another generic raspberry Pi USB NAS... This is something I actually am interested in ... saving for later!

[@nerffan1]

Omg, the English word, "satan," translates to "Satanas" in Spanish. When I saw the video icon (SATA NAS) I was like, "What does computing have to do with the devil?"

[@KameraShy]

Computers are the devil's work.

[@tanchunyong3418]

@@KameraShy …

[@washedtoohot]

@@tanchunyong3418 he was made a funny jk?

[@tylerhathcock2778]

Captions changed it to satin ass lmao

[@LeDragoX]

This happens in Portuguese to, when I saw the thumb I thought the same thing, "this man doesn't know what he had put" like a SATA with NAS server. But also say the devil name in other languages. . . Like, what's the chance from this to happen?!!

[@KarlWinegardner]

Love the Trogdor shirt! Your credibility is now off the charts.

[@p_mouse8676]

I really like the whole concept as a Raspberry Pi enthusiast. But for the price combined at this point, I would rather go for a (slim) mini itx x86 CPU onboard solution. Which is much faster as well. Or just a dedicated ready NAS. But extremely nice idea 👍🏻😉

[@warmwaffles]

It has been 0 days since you recompiled the kernel

[@JeffGeerling]

You can say that again!

[@aaroncarson]

@@JeffGeerling It’s been 0 hours since You recompiled the kernel.

[@squelchstuff]

Thanks for showcasing this Jeff. The mechanical design leaves a little to be desired, and I'd like to see an open hardware hot swap rack that could take this board and others. There's a few racks that will accommodate 2.5 and 3.5 disks already, but they come as a complete system, so not so useful for a diy build. The board itself looks like a great start, and I hope to see others follow suit soon (ASUS?) What a shame the worldwide chip prices are all over the place at the moment. Part of it seems to be down to the pandemic and other logistic impacting events, but another part seems to be related to the demands of crypto mining. This rather inflates (artificially) the prices all round with those with enough resources to hoard hardware, and therefore pushing out consumers and enthusiasts wishing to make but the simplest of devices. I sure hope the bubble bursts on this soon.

[@RaidOwl]

"This is always the best part" *hides peel from camera* lol great video, Jeff!

[@GrowlyBear917]

When he peeled off the film I thought he was going to smell the plastic case.

[@IvanStepaniuk]

I saw the ANSIBLE lanyard in the back and my two neurons fired... you are THAT Jeff Geerling! Amazing videos, subscribed.

[@JeffGeerling]

That's me! And that's the last in-person conference I attended :(

[@playeronthebeat]

Okay, that is almost everything I wanted 😂 I'm really stoked on what RPi and the community is able to pull off!

[@kayneahnung3661]

the advantage of 3.5" drives is, that they are cheaper per terabyte, and if you use a typical 1GB-Network Connection they are fast enough. My intel based Fileserver uses 5 3.5" drives in raid5 setup and can usually reach up to 200MB/sec whereas a 1GB connection "only" can do about 112MB/sec. So no need to use SSD as long as you only have 1GB Network. I'd love to see the case being able to accept a hotswap-Box for 3.5" drives, there is a couple of them that use 2 or 3 5.25" Bays - those would be perfectly suited for this setup.

[@drawings4896]

I liked, it was pleasant watching you working at the raspberry pi while talking and not looking at the camera.

[@Mikefence]

This version of Tom green is just awesome

[@utubepunk]

Chill Tom Green.

[@DavidSmithakaTubaDave]

Trogdor The Burninator! Nice shirt and good video.

[@haroldhannon7253]

LOL I LITERALLY stopped the video to make a Trogdor comment and then saw so many other fans!!! Ok back to the video.

[@alfblack2]

FINALLY! been waiting for a long time for somebody to design it. I want one! lol.

[@gannas42]

Rad shirt, dude! TROGDOR!! Now I have the song stuck in my head. :D

[@KS-wr8ub]

This design of a NAS board is still one of the most reasonable and useful I’ve seen for the Rpi. Really too bad they never made it to market. Would be perfect for people to deploy off site backups.

[@JeffGeerling]

Yeah it was tough seeing it die off during the shortages... luckily the next best option now is the Radxa Penta SATA HAT, though it's hard to get your hands on one :(

[@KS-wr8ub]

@@JeffGeerling Yes, I’ve looked at that and also the Taco. Feels a bit expensive though, at least compared to what you could run with x86 hardware at the same total cost. Still considering it, might set one up for some family or friends just for fun.. 😅

[@OctavianTheGr8]

BRO!! Are you wearing a Trogdor shirt!?! That’s amazing! Great video.

[@MestreDentistaGUC]

Id like to see a version with more drives and mountable in a server rack. 😊

[@nelsonlunas]

SATANAAAAAASSSSSSS

[@ramonbs6075]

Jajajaja

[@rafysoto]

jajajajajaja

[@wollacebomfim9802]

HUE BR

[@PurpleIsDaNewBlack]

hahahaha primeira coisa que pensei

[@dr4d1s]

Aww, your wife films for you. That is so cute. You guys are awesome. Very good content too.

[@pepote78]

Amazing job, I hope to see very soon your Compute Module 4 SATA

[@neilmurgatroyd3197]

SATA NAS, sounds like a perfect Christmas Present

[@yabadabadoo5928]

You got to love the home star runner trogdor shirt

[@rigues]

The title image gave me a good laught. "Satanás" is one of the words in Portuguese for "Satan". 😂

[@callmebigpapa]

The Bob Ross of Pi building.....great video!

[@bartsimpson1615]

Hi, I haven't looked at all the comments, so I may be repeating what someone may have already told you. Sorry if that's the case. Here goes. Keep some small containers such as the tops of instant coffee jars so they can hold your small things such as screws, posts, and such, and they won't fly off the bench. Any rotary hard drives are better in a vertical position. That is the platters should be in vertical mode, and in the housing seen in this build, you are right, they would be better if the whole assembly rests on a shock absorbing medium. Thirdly, it may be a good idea to direct the output of a small fan onto the heatsink connected to the Pi. The boards may not run very hot, but you'd prefer them to be kept cool, which would be easier if the drives are kept in vertical mode.

[@masiosareiii4915]

SATA NAS? That is the most diabolic thumbnail I have ever seen.

[@marthinus.x]

👏🏼 😎 Very cool! When the bugs are ironed out this is going to be in lots of people’s homelabs. A 140mm fan would be a great footprint for a 3D Printed case for this!

[@jmedlin6]

Take my money! Been waiting for something like this.

[@JarodKeel]

I knew this was going to be a great video when I saw the Trogdor shirt. I do like how the case has a lot of speed holes. This would be something I would try and build in my car hole.

[@zambonidriver42]

That reset button needs a trigger guard.

[@SSFighter1701]

I feel you so much with the "I've put it together backwards... Twice"

[@johng7rwf419]

Looks like a solution to a NAS upgrade for my radio shack. Thanks Jeff ..

[@madcowdis]

Trogdor shirt in 2021!? Respect.

[@JeffGeerling]

Burninatin' the countryside!

[@feralshad0w]

almost 3 years later... this is still "coming soon"

[@rullywow3834]

Just bought your book - Ansible for dev ops. Loving it!

[@JeffGeerling]

Glad you like it!

[@jasonluong3862]

We don’t need notifications from these NAS builders. We have Jeff to tell us when it’s ready for prime time.

[@mikelabyrinth]

Props for Trogdor and blinkenlicht! Good man!

[@danieljuno810]

Those acrylic cases are easy to screw up, been there. Great video! Great style!

[@msthalamus2172]

The board itself looks awesome. I'm currently using an old Mac Pro as a NAS, but I think a Raspberry Pi 4 could do as well for my purposes and take up SO much less space. TBH, I could not be less impressed with the case design here though. I wonder if the 3.5" case was a bit of an afterthought? It would be nice to see the 2.5" case built out.

[@woooo_yeah]

I didn’t realize Jeff wanted such a big Pi NAS!

[@nullsmack]

I am chomping at the bit for this thing. It looks so handy. I hope it's not as expensive as other NAS gear.

[@PRAGEETHKARUNADHEERA]

I used below 4 port sata controller board on the CM4 io board and ran Manjaro ARM Linux aarch64. I didn't have to recompile the kernel. The expansion board I used: SATA controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE9215 PCIe 2.0 x1 4-port SATA 6 Gb/s Controller (rev 11) I have setup a software RAID1 array with two 2.5 inch 2TB drives. It has been running for over a month without any issues apart from the fact that I did not get time to put everything nicely in a box. Will do that soon. Also on another note, the upgrade from my previous board, a Banana Pi M1+ (with built in single SATA port), this is a big upgrade. Everything is faster. With same things running CM4 load average is around 0.1 where BPi M1+ was well above 1.0.

[@tapu_]

Him: *sata nas* KZbin captions: *satan ass*

[@lnk77]

if You prsent almost prove of concept boards your clips are USEFULL

[@cristianoo2]

I got this video recommended today. Fun fact: your thumb title is Raspi SATA NAS, of which "Satanas" means "the devil" in portuguese LOL. That was funny

[@vmoutsop]

This looks great! Next version they should add nvme drive support for cache drive for HDD's. (Feature Creap, LOL!)

[@eskimoburns9328]

Hopefully they can get this board up and running again I would love to get it!

[@petersage5157]

I think you mounted the fan back to front. Unless you're blowing directly onto a heat sink, it's generally best to suck air through the case and blow it out through the fan. Definitely not critical with this kind of product, but it's good thermal management practice. Have a look at a few teardowns of lab bench equipment and you'll find the overwhelming majority have the fan blowing out. Your case orientation seems to be a bit inverted as well. I'd expect the huge heat sink was meant to be on top, not bottom. Again, best practices, in this case because heat rises.

[@mickfreeley6054]

Maybe during the postponement they could update the design to support SIX drives. RAID 6 capability with a separate boot drive is a worthwhile target.

[@JerguynTx]

I really like this option. Specially since its not over USB. Been trying to find a “mobile” NAS that I can affix somewhere in my Travel Trailer. Whoot

[@johnsonlam]

Thank you, you are my best news and review for Pi new hardware, too many of them I'm totally confused.

[@MasterOfGigs]

That is quite nice :) I was searching for a proper SATA NAS Solution for the raspberry Pi. Now i only need to design a better looking 3D printed Case for that

[@sunhawk1104]

Trogdor! Burninating the countryside Burninating the peasants Burninating all the peoples

[@keyboard_g]

And the thatched roof cottages!

[@jamess1787]

Oh my. Those were the days.

[@deviationblue]

TRAGDARRR

[@DdgeluvinHic]

Love the video. And I especially love the Trogdor shirt. As soon as I saw it, I yelled “Trooogdooor!” In my best Strongbad impression. 🤣

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

Wouldn't need to worry about drive support if they're was a de facto server distro for the Pi. A mix of Pi OS and Debian Server would work well.

[@francistheodorecatte]

hmmm, reminds me a lot of the old Helios4, especially in regard to the 3.5" drive case design.

[@JeffGeerling]

That was definitely some of the inspiration behind this board!

[@kennethmadsen6474]

That t-shirt brings back fond Strongbad memories :)

[@CrayonIRL]

As I was watching assembly, I thought to myself man that would stink if he put them on the wrong way. Then died laughing when you did 😂 hahaha

[@haydenc2742]

twice :D

[@gorillaau]

At least he admitted it. Full credit for that one.

[@redmach12003]

I was thinking the same thing as he was assembling it.

[@andresvaldevit3692]

I'd love to see a finished and polished version running. Matter of fact I am in the market for a NAS.

[@michaelreed9048]

I've been planning out a plex and a home nas for months. This. Is. It. There are other options in PI that I might pursue, but I am all about this so I hope they can get back to production sometime soon. Thanks for the share!

[@Squinoogle]

Props for the Trogdor t-shirt :D

[@doktorparadox1791]

That's dope, need to wait for end-user revision.

[@FrankenLab]

One thing about hard drives, the cooler you keep them the longer they last and fewer problems. The thing I don't like about this case it that the drives are stacked Horizontally. This causes each heat from the lower disks, and in this case that heat sink to accumulate into the disks at the top of the stack. If you monitor the SMART data for the temps you can see ~2c or more temp differences at the top. The hot swappable bays you can buy for other NASs usually have vertical mounted disks.

[@JeffGeerling]

Very true. The 2.5" setup allows for all the drives to be vertical, and is what I'd say is optimal with this board (if you can get the storage volume you need in 2.5" drives, that is!).

[@ericm.8885]

Is there anything like this currently available for pi4 or pi5? Looks like this wiretrustee project was cancelled due to previous semiconductor shortage.

[@snax_4820]

NAS are still one of the most challenging projects for a Raspberry Pi.

[@haydenc2742]

Try openmediavault on this please!!!?? Also is there a TrueNAS build for ARM? Such a great awesome build!!!! Can't wait till it goes into full production!!!

[@Tsaukpaetra]

No I don't think they're going to build TrueNAS Core for Arm. But they're working on TrueNAS Scale which IIRC installs on standard Linux.

[@dividion8102]

Looks like you could hold off on putting in that bottom plastic plate until right before you screw down the large heatsink. That would give you easier cable management, and also access to the SD card slot. Would probably be really helpful if you had all 4 drives in there.

[@JeffGeerling]

True, though you'd also need to have one side of the heat sink unscrewed to allow a little flex at the bottom.

[@ZeR0God]

Cool! Looking forward to seeing throughput tests.

[@KameraShy]

EXACTLY what I have been looking for. Cannardly wait. Would be interesting to see the results after this has been up and running for a week. For a month. Is it stable? Any evidence of data corruption? Does the plastic case melt from the heat?

[@njbair]

The lack of hot swap is a minor annoyance, but I’m more worried about the lack of any kind of vibration dampening. Otherwise, a very cool design!

[@JeffGeerling]

Yeah; one solution could be to use rubber grommets on all the screws, but that would affect the overall dimensions of the case, to the point you'd have to redesign a bit of it.

[@javaman2883]

That's just what I've been looking for

[@rdscorreia1974]

And...nearly a year after and Crowdsource still hasn't made this product available. I'm ignoring these guys from this point onwards. Anyways, big thanks for the video, Jeff.

[@GrayRaceCat]

June 27, 2022 and their site still has “coming soon” with 0 updates thus far.

[@nil3010]

And I was really excited buy it right after video come lol I'll wait

[@jonathanduchesne8437]

The Sata Nas needs a DeathMetal intro 😉😁 Cool project

[@georgeforde7268]

Thanks!

[@Cheerok]

The shirt itches my dooo-instinct .... TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOOOR! **starts berserking on an ukulele**

[@OpiumZA]

Love your vids dude

[@KanakSinghal]

Time for another NAS build? We have rpi5 now plus I’m thinking if we can somehow use the turing pi as well and run the softwares in cluster mode for additional fail proofing 🤔

[@JeffGeerling]

Been working on it! Right now with the PCIe adapter I have, SATA cards don't work very stable, so I'm waiting to see if someone can come out with a better adapter...

[@abergethirty]

Rubber washers and grommets would be quick and dirty way to isolate the drives from vibration.

[@spacewolfjr]

OH MY JEFFY!!! You have a Trogdor shirt, let's "bee" friends

[@kdeuler]

Thanks much for this video!!! Jeff, did you ever test the speed of the wiretrustee nas? Also, do you have updates as to its availability?

[@JeffGeerling]

Sadly they decided to scrap selling the project since they couldn't source the parts they needed :(

[@kdeuler]

@@JeffGeerling That's a shame. There's covid for you.

[@kdeuler]

@@JeffGeerling ... I'll have to watch your other NAS videos for ideas.

[@MarkVP]

How to tell a true geek. He smiles as he puts in the screws.

[@shreeharimarathe6715]

One last feature I ask for would be a PoE. That would make it better overall, as its already AWESOME !!!

[@JeffGeerling]

If using with a few hard drives, you'd need at least PoE+ support but to be safe it would require PoE++, which would require much more expensive switches or power injectors, so the market for that would be too small (as it is today) to warrant adding the hardware to the board (not to mention there's nowhere within the current footprint for it). it would be really cool if someone would build a small 1 drive SATA NAS or NVMe board with PoE though.

[@shreeharimarathe6715]

@@JeffGeerling oh yeah makes sense! Thanks jeff for the detailed info. really appreciate taking time to reply for comments.

[@ljtuckey]

Love the Trogdor T-Shirt. Go Homestar Runner!

[@sineateralldevourer8433]

In nomine dei nostri SATA NAS.

[@PaoloNon]

Is there any other sata solutions for the pi that is available now? I'm planning to setup my own without the mess of a DIY job

[@lsav1085]

Is that a trogdor t-shirt lol?! Amazing! Good video, thanks

[@JeffGeerling]

Burninatin' the countryside!

[@AdityaMehendale]

@@JeffGeerling RIP shockwave Flash ;)

[@lis6502]

One downside that i see: fan is too small or there's lack of additional fan. Effective cooling will be received by drives 2nd and 3rd. Also putting board on botton will additionally fry 4th drive. This could be circumvented by putting single fan lower on front and forcing airflow through 4th drive and then make it turn so it will flow over 3rd drive. Then turn again to topmost vent. Given some cheap gaskets here and there this could be actually met.

[@NicolaiSyvertsen]

That big case shouldn't use the HDDs as structural support. I can think of a few simple modifications to the design that would still be doable with laser cut acrylic (because this is very cheap) and allow the sliding of drives in and out.

[@creeperjhgaming5346]

I need this for my nas I'm running a huge hdd bank. Has 4 3.5inch 18tb hdds. This looks so much better.