OMV NAS Server with Rock 3A

#1

Hello, everyone. This post is a just FYI.

I built an Openmediavault NAS server using the Rock 3A and an additional 2SATA to M.2 A+E Key converter.
The Photo is below.
Rock3A_2SATA

The image is a recent Debian buster removing GUI related software package. The storage is a mirror disk with two old 2TB HDDs. The setup was 1.5 hours, not so difficult.
This mini NAS is quite stable and the performance is reasonable. The average transfer speed between the Windows PC to the NAS was about 60MB/s via the ethernet.

If you would have completed your study or development with the Rock 3A, how about this mini NAS!
Thanks for reading.

2 Likes
#2

I had the exact same idea. I tried to compile an Armbian image on Buster and then OMV, but have not had luck yet. What exactly did you remove from the Debian distro in order for OMV to install? Have you tried it using eMMC, or just off the SD card?
thanks

#3

Hi, Vitnim,
I removed the all gui environment of Debian Xfce desktop following the site of
https://gist.github.com/gismo141/10656617
$ sudo su
# apt-get remove -y --purge x11-common
# apt-get autoremove -y --purge
# apt-get install -y deborphan
# deborphan | xargs dpkg -P # do this a bunch of times
# reboot

After reboot
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt install wget

I also referred to https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript for arm64 OMV install with skipping network setup by OMV because the network setup causes serious network trouble.

$ wget https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript/raw/master/install
chmod +x install
sudo ./install -n

Then you can login your the OMV NAS server by “admin” ID and password “openmediavault” at http://<your Rock 3A ip address>.
Good luck!

#4

Oh my goodness thank you. I got far enough last night to run into the network problem. I will try again tonight and hopefully report back with success.

#5

Success! Thanks for your help. I have not moved my disks over to the SATA adapter yet, but hopefully it will go smoother than the rest.

#6

Hi, thanks for this information, I will carefully read this thread for my plans in a few weeks.

As the Penta SATA NAS is back in stock on Allnet China, I ordered the hardware to test a NAS solution in software RAID 5 with either the Rock 3A, Rock 4B+ or Rock 5B, as I own them all, under OMV. The Penta SATA hat is announced as compatible with Rock 3A and 4B+, not Rock 5B. So I Will first try the ROCK 3A, to check if it is possible to reach decent read/write speed (reference is 315/275 MB/s read/write speeds with 3 SATA 5400 RPM NAS drives, with OMV 6 on Intel i3 12100). It will be tested with eMMc as exchange buffer for basic measurement, as my Network is currently still limited to Gbit ethernet (or a fast USB 3.0 key like Kingston HyperX)
Ordered hardware is arriving at different rates…

  • Inter-Tech IPC SC-4004 mini ITX NAS case with 4 hotswap 3"5 drives bays
  • Refurbished 150W Flex ATX power supply
  • ROCK 3A with passive heat sinks (relying on the 120mm case fan)
  • eMMc module 32 GB (a bit short for the I/O test buffer…)
  • Penta SATA hat
  • 3x Seagate Ironwolf NAS 4TB
  • some metal sheet and drill work… to fix the board and secure the cables

Stay tuned if interested in my experience an results.