Can this board be used as a NAS?

[ScottAirmanMcCoy]

I don/t have much experience with computers but, I built a NAS from my old desk top (I just googled it). I am considering using the Parallella as a NAS for media storage/streaming. I noticed that there are two micro USB ports, would I be able to use a USB hub and plug several external (powerless) hard drives into it? Currently I use FreeNAS as the OS. Is this going to be compatible?

Thank you in advance for your time.

[9600]

I don't see why not — it's an ARM/Linux system with GigE. Although you'd need to ensure that you used a standards-compliant powered USB hub (see the ).

If you did this now the FPGA and Epiphany accelerator would be sitting idle, although in time to come there may be support for accelerating transcoding software.

Cheers,

Andrew

[ScottAirmanMcCoy]

Andrew,

I appreciate your quick response regarding my NAS question. I want to make it clear that I am next to clueless when it comes to this stuff however, I am eager to learn. I have purchased some books and I am enrolled in some college classes (courtesy of the USAF) to help me pick this stuff up. With that said, I now know that it will work as a NAS but, I don't really understand some of what you said "it's an ARM/Linux system with GigE." Can you please elaborate on this for me?

Also, would I be able to use a USB splitter/expander/extender (I am not sure what the proper name is) to give me more ports to plug hard drives into? The hard drives would be un-powered and I might use up to four. I was then planning to set it to RAID 5. Is this possible and would you even recommend it? If not what would you do?

Respectfully,

Scott

[9600]

Hi Scott,

What I meant was that it is a Linux system with a gigabit Ethernet port and since it can be connected to external hard drives, can be used as NAS.

You'd need a USB hub to get more ports. Since the drives will be taking their power from USB, you would need a "powered USB hub" that plugs into the wall via an adapter. However, you need to be careful to ensure that you get a powered USB hub that is standards compliant, which to be on the safe side probably means a trusted brand name rather than a cheaper generic one.

What you suggest is possible, but the only question I'd ask is why you want to use Parallella for this. That is, since the NAS application wouldn't be making use of the Epiphany co-processor (which is the "supercomputer" part of Parallella). Of course, it may be that there are other things you aspire to do further down the line and which would use the co-processor.

Best,

Andrew