Mini PC OpenMediaVault NAS

OpenMediaVault (OMV) NAS set up on a Bmax B1 Plus mini PC, although the method shown will work with any x86 hardware with a 64-bit CPU and 1GB+ of RAM. Access is demonstated in Windows 11, ChromeOS Flex and Linux Mint.
My previous review of the Bmax B1 Plus is here: • Testing a $100 Mini PC...
OpenMediaVault is available from: www.openmediavault.org/
Balena Etcher (to write the ISO to a USB drive) is available from: etcher.balena.io/
I looked at the HP Elitedesk 800 G2 reconditioned small form-factor PC in this video: • Renewed i5 Mini PC: HP...
And Chrome OS Flex in this video: • Chrome OS Flex: Google...
Oh, and finally, my most recent Raspberry Pi (OMV 6) NAS video is here: • Raspberry Pi OMV 6 NAS
For additional ExplainingComputers videos and weekly updates, you can learn about becoming a channel member here: / @explainingcomputers
More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:
/ @explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / @explainingthefuture
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:00 Hardware
03:22 Getting OMV
05:20 OMV Install
08:25 OMV Setup
15:59 NAS Access (Windows 11)
17:38 Other OS (ChromeOS & Linux access)
19:02 Wrap
#OpenMediaVault #MiniPC #SFF #ExplainingComputers

[@JeffGeerling]

The Explaining Computers mini NAS universe expands once again!

[@ExplainingComputers]

It does indeed! :) I'm enjoying watching your studio coming together.

[@danielpicassomunoz2752]

I'd love a video explaining why they recommend ECC memory for NASs,. The one solution which complied died

[@aspuzling]

@@danielpicassomunoz2752 "The one solution which complied died" what does this mean?

[@manjilunnobi]

Point is my .. Dots protection Domin add .. that's point loss ideas own server development

[@MK-ni6gs]

Excellent video, as always!

[@keith2964]

I used to know some chaps that started a band called the Megabytes. Funny thing was they never got a Gig....🤣👍😎

[@ExplainingComputers]

Nice.

[@montecorbit8280]

At 4:30 "4 3 2 1 Thunderbirds are go!" There is more to our beloved Chris than meets the eyes!! [I believe that he was referencing the stop motion cartoon Thunderbirds]

[@johnmofa]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2fRXqNvfcmWha8

[@trevorford8332]

I've been waiting for you to do something like this for ages, it's always interesting to see how other people setup their mini PC, what hardware and software they use.

[@RoboNuggie]

Thank you Chris, you always take the time to explain the smaller things that others leave out in such videos, and that's very much appreciated! Another great video from a great tutor....

[@ExplainingComputers]

Many thanks, and your support is as always appreciated. :)

[@SchoolforHackers]

COME ON PEOPLE! Chris is almost at a million subs! Let’s get him there -

[@lesliedeana5142]

Whenever I build a new pc or upgrade a previous system, I save the driver media or clone the original drive to a USB and tape those inside the case so I don't have to try to hunt down items in the future.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Very wise. You never know what you may do with hardware in the future.

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

That was very useful, thanks! There is a lot to be said for mini PCs, particularly size, low wattage, and usually lack of fans. Those ducks need an agent.

[@johnglielmi6428]

Love the Gerry Anderson reference with the Thunderbirds Are Go line LOL! I'm a big fan of his work. I was a very young boy when his shows were broadcast on US TV.

[@brianwood5220]

You made a great job of explaining this process, Chris. I'm sure loads of people will find this very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

[@HarriGary1]

Proper computing, this is my my new favorite phrase. And this perfectly describes my feelings for green text on a black background.

[@sbc_tinkerer]

Sunday greetings all! Chris, you and I are again in sync. Green on black in the terminal should be standard for “real” computing. Occasionally I get really nostalgic and use amber on black. And yes, ducks are always good in videos. Stay well my friend!

[@Rivenworld]

You make this all look so easy, thank you, brilliant as always.

[@kairon156]

Thanks very much. I love how concise your guides have always been.

[@Colin_Ames]

Clear and concise tutorial, as always. I haven’t yet got around to setting up a NAS, but this video shows how easy it will be when I finally do it.

[@DreQueary]

Just an absolutely fantastic tutorial. I've been looking for a Synology NAS alternative, and OMV seems the most user-friendly of the Linux based NAS systems. I also love Debian. 😊

[@andy.3407]

What fun.. I remember the OMV video you did on the raspberry pi.. I set it up on it and it ran wonderfully.. here we are now in the world of mini pc’s which have big capabilities for a small cash outlay.. I appreciate your detail and the expanded test fly-outs. Thanks for the video..

[@dylanwilsonYT]

Great video Chris! I've been wanting to setup a NAS for a while now, and this is probably the perfect time for me to get started! :)

[@markoneil8286]

@ExplainingComputers Love your style of presenting the video. Way cool. Will look into omv

[@mikewatson1105]

Thank you Chris for explaining at a speed that an interested but not expert viewer can cope and also absorb your information.

[@marcelofigueroafigueroa4687]

The clearest and most efficient explanation in the whole internet about this topic, haha! No kidding. This is the blueprint of how the "How to" videos should be made. Thanks

[@dennismartineau9147]

Thank you for being so organized and a top-notch teacher. Much appreciated!

[@idowebwork]

Another amazing video. Absolutely love that setting up a NAS is so much easier now thank to software like OMV.

[@GaryBakerEE]

The latest version of this software did not work on my brand new (11/2023) BMAX B1 Pro purchased from Amazon. I had to drop back to the most recent stable version and now it is running fine. I'm sure that it will be fixed in the near future, but I don't want to waste more time on the bleeding edge. Thanks for another great video. This was my first implementation of OpenMediaVault and it will not be my last.

[@lordhumungus9993]

As expected, yet another brilliant video! Many thanks

[@neilphilip2320]

Scarily timely - I was looking for just this sort of functionality but would never have come up with this solution which looks perfect for what I want. Many (!!!) thanks Chris.

[@johncundiff7075]

Wow, today I got to learn about Open Media Vault... I wasn't aware how handy it was! As always thanks again Sir!

[@DaCat2]

Hi Christopher, as always a brilliant topic and your explanations make it so easy to follow. Thank you!

[@timbleking]

Always a pleasure to have simple but accurate vids from you, Chris. I’ve done tons of these but still I enjoy viewing the tutorial. 😊

[@jwaddin]

Lolz same!😅

[@peterschmidt9942]

Thanks for taking the time to explain a bit about OMV and installation. Most videos I've watched on the subject seem to gloss over it and next thing its up and running LOL. I've already got a QNAP NAS, but I wanted to have a play around with a mini PC and some open source NAS software like OMV or FreeNAS to see how it holds up to my QNAP.

[@rickster2317]

Thanks Chris for this very relevant video, which, as usual, you have explained in a way making it clear how to proceed. I am going to set up OMV, on an HP mini PC, using an external archival hard drive, for more reliable long-term storage. Thanks for all your hard work and informative videos.

[@bobreiber2066]

My humble thanks !! I would never have made this thing work without this excellent tutorial !!

[@talk9415]

quality content! please do more tutorials like this, super helpful

[@nuaimahmed7620]

“Green text on a black background is proper computing” - Couldn’t agree more 😂

[@ronspi]

Thank you very much, Chris. That was straight and to the point. Those mini PCs have many usages, and this application is a great way to utilize the hardware and the software.

[@alanthornton3530]

Thanks Chris for a brilliant video, I've certainly got some ideas for my use case, linking up Linux mint, Win 11 & Android to our network. Green text on a black screen it took me right back to 1986, we had an Amstrad word processor in our office better, than a typewriter. Last but not least a test video of a happy duck, a happy Sunday to you :)

[@iNowHateAtSigns]

As someone who's not a cyber security expert, I hope you'll do a follow up tutorial on improving OMV NAS security by restricting user access

[@user-bu4wp1zl3s]

Bloody brilliant! Thank you, Christopher. My first time watching one of your videos. Subscribed. Cheers!

[@keith2964]

The end of this video Quacked me up 😂 Great video mate.

[@StavroMueller]

Suggestion for Part 2: - Setup MiniDLNA service - Setup Docker service and Portainer - Setup PLEX (in docker/portainer) - Setup Jellyfin (in docker/portainer) this will allow almost all devices to access the shared file system.

[@dragonfly-7]

That could be a setup I'd like to use as a base for a Nextcloud instance. Sooo: My addition here would be "- Setup Nextcloud (in docker/portainer)" ... ☺

[@anthonyjacks6331]

Agreed - I'd love to see a follow up getting a media application like Jellyfin up and accessible from other devices from the OMV NAS

[@joshman5217]

Excellent! Ive been running OMV for nearly 6 years now on my NAS. It works great. Ive actually been thinking about switching to a smaller platform with 2.5" SSDs or m.2 drives, so this video is right in line with what I'm considering doing.

[@abendroid]

Been using OMV for over a year. Great software for content storage.

[@strawberriebabieex3]

Very useful topic, well explained. Thank you for making this useful software accessible for the general public. if i tried to implement this simply by reading about it i don't think i would be feel confident in setting up the network access correctly. your comforting step by step explanations makes all the difference.

[@PS_Tube]

Greetings EC. That's one comprehensive tutorial video. Thank you! Have a great week !

[@chrismorgan441]

Very interesting. Thank you for this walkthrough, Chris.

[@zacmitchell_1984]

At the time I dont need this yet. However i foresee a time that I will. I've always wondered how to do this and now I know ! Thank you for taking the time to explain this, because for some reason I've always struggled on how to setup networks like this!

[@JendaLinda]

We are using OMV as well, it's great. For our use case such small PC wouldn't be sufficient because of it's limited expandibility. So our NAS is based on a traditional desktop PC with four high capacity hard drives. Everything is nicely contained in a single box.

[@m8harry]

Another fantastic video!!!! Thank you for the amazing content!

[@chriholt]

Thanks as always Chris. OpenMediaVault has really come a long way since you first introduced me to it!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Hi Chris. OMV has indeed come on in leaps and bounds.

[@IanTheCat]

Wow! Great and informative. Extremely useful for setting up and using while still being simple.

[@martinsmith5028]

Thanks Chris. Great Video. Must look at some of the older hardware I have sitting around my home office

[@RollerCoasterLineProductions]

Couldn’t click fast enough. You started me into the pi/omv universe with docker containers back in 2020. sadly the pi nas has been regulated to a backup role, I’ve moved onto building an awesome unraid server with truenas as a backup. I also run omv as a vm within unraid. Thx Chris, when I watched that first video back in 2020 I said I can do that!

[@themangix357]

Oh nice, just in time. I was gonna re-use my old PC (minus the case) for NAS, so this video gave me a great idea! Thanks!

[@PaulStenning]

I’m running OMV on a Lenovo mini PC. I have two 2TB SSDs for storage (mirrored using BTFS) and am using a USB flash drive for the system. If using a flash drive there is an add-on which needs to be installed to minimise writes, explained on the website installation section. It really helps if it is a fast flash drive otherwise installing updates and saving settings is very slow. I’m using a SanDisk Extreme Go 64GB which was £15 from CeX.

[@UsamaNada]

Something new i learned today. Clear explanation. Definitely going to implement this setup

[@DJEonT1]

I wish you had made this video 2 weeks ago Chris, lol. Last weekend I tried to setup TrueNAS, but it was a total minefield - and I wasn't prepared to spend hours and hours trying to figure out all those options. I eventually gave up on it and found Open Media Vault. Works great.

[@SuperCacahuete93]

Bonjour Chris, superbe et intéressante vidéo comme toujours 😊

[@olafelsberry420]

I’ve got to admit this KZbin channel is a guilty pleasure for me.

[@lillithepoo]

Excellent! This tutorial enabled me to set up a NAS step by step. Thank you!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Brilliant! Great to hear of your success.

[@timypp2894]

Great lesson in openvault. I'll look into doing an ov raid unit. Much thanks

[@HKey_Root]

Fabuloso. I love this stuff. Many thanks Chris.

[@festro1000]

I learned something new, I never knew of the .local prefix on the address bar still enjoy you videos.

[@youdolantube]

An excellent video as usual. This will be my next project...

[@majorpaindiaz]

This video and the others on the channel about setting up a NAS is the clinic on the NAS topic❗

[@Oharafolk]

Thank you so much Chris! really helpful video.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Nice a new minipc related video why i love to be that fast for avoiding people saying first have a nice one

[@mikefinn2101]

Chris extremely useful video very helpful to so glad I am a member. Loved it, Plan to make my own NAS like you did

[@ExplainingComputers]

Good luck!

[@gloiloidn5752]

This is great! I also wanted to make a NAS with an old PC at my home!

[@davidvantongerloo1907]

Already sunday's time goes fast !!! Chris have a good week, and all the viewers .......

[@woodwaker1]

Thanks for posting this. I have a fairly recent PC that can't officially run Win11, but has 6 SATA ports, will make a great NAS.

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Thanks, informative, and you have passed on some important information.

[@awesomearizona-dino]

YES- i was just installing OMV last night on an old Tower PC, so this will help me finish setup.

[@plutarcocriterion754]

EXCELENTE ! UN MARAVILLOSO REGALO PARA ESTE DOM8NGO ! ES ESTE CANAL.

[@andrewjoseph1363]

I would love a part two with in depth features like software raid plugins syncing etc otherwise educational video

[@mlt6322]

I love how you have the time to explain things that anyone can understand. My older brother was a computer engineer (retired now). He was an arrogant POS who did contract work for NASA and if I had problems with my computer he would say either go read a book or go to college and learn how to fix it yourself.

[@PiddeBas]

Did not know about OpenMediaVault, I've always set up my NAS computers with pure Debian but this video did indeed spawn some ideas like you said

[@johngermain5146]

Thanks for another Fun video. I've done this and compared the SMB shares with NFS shares and also with iSCSI shares. Very interesting!

[@louchitchat]

thank you to make us aware about this nice file sharing system and how to simplify setting it up

[@andrey_pav]

Thank you, Chris! Good video! Very interesting.

[@MichelMorinMontreal]

Whether it's with a good quality SBC, such as the Raspberry Pi (I'm not being objective here!) or a mini PC, it's becoming easier and easier for the average user (no negative connotation, on the contrary) to put together a file server, or even a small, high-performance multi-function server... We're back to the 'original dream' of the first digital creators: autonomy at affordable costs! Thank you for this excellent presentation! I think Lady Penelope would appreciate it!

[@techmaster-ch5yd]

A very good video, that can help beginners to setup their first NAS for local usage, next step will be to explain how to setup the NAS in order to access it from the internet (cloud usage), with security features like encryption, VPN, perhaps you have already covered these aspects on another video.

[@reggiep75]

Time add this to the KZbin favourites folder ready for when I do my new build next year. 👍

[@pepsiplease69]

This was a great tutorial, thank you for putting this together. I was in search of a NAS solution for my usb external drive which I needed to access from various places. I ordered the bmax b1plus off ebay and followed your instructions precisely and was able to install it properly. A couple of places where I got stuck: the installer gives an option to connect with wifi and you can provide the ssid and password for the home wifi and connectivity was not an issue (the wifi interface drivers were built-in). The trouble is, after it reboots, following the installation, there's no internet connectivity over wifi. I had to connect to the console and use the command 'omv-firstaid' to bring up a config tool to setup my wifi credentials. After this it worked just fine. Another thing that I had to work with is that my usb drive was formatted HPFS or h+ filesystem. Apparently there's a limitation where NFS shares cannot be configured on top of an HPFS volume (seems that this is unsupported). I tried to format the usb thumb drive (the one I used to burn the iso image and boot off of) with ext3 filesystem and NFS seemed to work great for that. So I bought a new USB disk and will format it ext3 and start migrating my data onto that and then share it out as NFS share. Hopefully it will all work out in the end. Thanks again for this tutorial.

[@perrymcclusky4695]

Wow, this video contains both nostalgic green text on a black background and ducks! The ingredients for a perfect video. Looking forward to your next video!

[@cgiannopoulos13]

I hear "Thunderbirds are GO!" i upvote :P

[@Praxibetel-Ix]

Always nice to see another video on OpenMediaVault! And one featuring ducks too. Thanks as always! 🦆 As for 4:27, I got a story for you bunch this week; Once upon a time when I was a teenager, I tried giving "Thunderbirds" a shot. The puppets freaked me out to where [opens umbrella] I wound up shutting it off and giving the TV version of "Hitchhiker's Guide" a try instead. Bring on the virtual tomatoes. 😂

[@nymnicholas]

Great Vid as always. For NAS i always advice using a proper Internal Static IP. Users should learn how to do that setup from their home router. After boot into OMV, they should check Date, region and Time Zone and Time itself. Reboot and check. Try to use 2 disks for Raid 1 at least and setup email notifications in case there is an error. Peace :-)

[@wackyworldofwindios3476]

I have a mini PC that has the same Celleron chip that's not getting used much. I think I will put it to work. Thank for all the great info a usual.

[@terryleach5108]

Excellent video! My old Intel NUC just found a new use! Thanks😃

[@spikekent]

Fantastic video as always Chris. Ive had a couple of NAS devices over the years. My current one is a 4 bay Ready NAS from Netgear, with 2 x 4TB WD Red HDDs. It's been working perfectly (fingers crossed that it stays that way lol) But I was tempted to do an OMV solution last time you released a video on it. Would there be any benefit to using OMV over my current implementation?

[@avejst]

Another great video as always 👍😀

[@ElDuke717]

I wish I knew about this channel and had this video before I bought my Synology NAS a few months ago.

[@joaojotta64]

That Amiga clock cursor looks amazing! 😃

[@ExplainingComputers]

Yes, I do like that too. :)

[@lesliedeana5142]

Chris... you always know what I want!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear! Hi Leslie. :)

[@jgranahan]

Another great video!

[@deesnutz42069]

I'll vouch for OMV. I have an old Asus prebuilt desktop on which I've been using it for years as a plex media server, network storage, various server tasks, etc. simple to set up, get what you want configured, and stable.

[@Justin-Case-2.0]

Thnx for another informative video (and special thnx for including those ducks in the park). A deeper dive into the OMV userinterface would be appreciated anyway, maybe you might to do in the next OMV related video? ;-)

[@Filtersloth]

Great video, man!

[@k.b.tidwell]

Excellent video instructional, Christopher! I'm teetering on the verge of escaping the online cloud with a NAS, and I'm also teetering on the verge of analysis paralysis in considering my options. But you always help me TREMENDOUSLY! Green text, black background = nestles me softly into my Commodore 64 comfort zone, my RUN magazine open before me, patiently entering "Oregon Trail" line-by-line because as a broke 14-year-old I hadn't been able to scrape up enough yet for my 1541 drive (with No2 pencil "legs" for ventilation). No, that wasn't the "factory" text color, but if you POKE a Commodore, you can work wonders.😉

[@CyborgZeta]

Thank you for the video. My tiny Lenovo PC is currently sitting around unused. Since storage is cheap right now, I might just buy another 2TB Crucial SSD and try setting OMV up on it.