I wanted to build a nas and run storj as it seems like a fascinating project. After looking at SBCs it seems like building a computer is the better option.
Has anyone here done this and what parts did you choose? I went with a ryzen 5 4500 and a Mai b450m-a motherboard which only cost $170 together and has room for 4 sata drives plus another 4 from the pcie expansion slot with an adapter
This would allow for 8 10tb+ drives to easily run locally, but as I’m unfamiliar with actually running storj nodes I was wondering if there would be other bottlenecks I’m not thinking about
Wanted to use the storj payout to help offset running/paying for a nas and thought it’d a neat project
PCIe bandwidth is greater than what 4 SATA drives need so I think you’ll be fine, just make sure to pick a good adapter. You also need a SSD (NVME is better) to store the databases and caching. And don’t forget a good cooling for your system so everything can run smoothly.
I’ am sorry but if You are not building the machine from parts You already have, its again the agreement, because storj is not about farming its to utilize hard drives and home labs/NAS You already have, and compensation is really small for the first year, and its just to offset Your already taken costs, no reason to setup a computer only for storj, sorry.
StorJ is best when running side-by-side other things you already have or plan to have, like a general home server. Otherwise cost of buying and running will take forever to recoup.
Start with 1x 10TB node, certainly no more than 2. In a single location this will likely take a couple of years to fill at current rates. Can add more later, it doesn’t help in any way to start big.
For setup, personally I really like Ubuntu with docker + ext4 + LVM read-cache on a decent SSD (~128GB partition per HDD will do). Move databases and logs to SSD as well. If you need to run Windows (like I do) run a Hyper-V VM with direct HDD passthrough to achieve the same setup.
It solves all IO performance problems and is very lightweight on CPU/RAM.
How about IP addresses? All nodes in a /24 subnet sharing ingress. So it doesn’t make much sense to start multiple nodes if you don’t have a number of subnets.
For this crazy amount of money you can buy a proper enterprise server on a secondary market, with IPMI, 80Plus Platinum or even Titanium power supplies, support for SAS disks (and used SAS disks are usually cheaper than SATA on a secondary market), and massive amount of ram, that you will absolutely need. Don’t pay money for overpriced consumer junk please.
As OS consider FreeBSD (e.g. TrueNAS core), with ZFS filesystem, and consider adding special device or at least L2ARC
But as everyone else said, don’t build the server just for storj, if the monetary compensation is a goal. The purpose of storj it to put existing idle capacity to good use, not to create new capacity. It’s excellent to offset costs of running existing server. You cannot make money hosting nodes; if you could – why would storj need you? They could just rent VPS in a datacenter.
If you just do it for the educational value – sure. but then, buy old enterprise server hardware, it’s way more fun, quality, and value, compared to any consumer trash. (You may also feel good about keeping that hardware away from landfill for longer – but this needs to be balanced with its higher power consumption. But if you get free power – e.g. solar – not a question)
If you do want power efficiency – still do buy an old enterprise chassis but stick power efficient motherboard with SAS controller, and low power onboard SoC. There are sub-25W models available. They are expensive (around 1k, compared to $50 you could get a working MLB+CPU+RAM for older, more power hungry hardware) but will pay it back in electricity costs if you don’t have access to cheap source of energy.
For NAS CPU is irrelevant. You want a lot of ram and a lot of acceleration for metadata, such as SSD caches. And yes, buy used enterprise SSDs, not new consumer overpriced low quality trash.
As all other said - it’s better to build something only if it’s needed for you/your company/family, then you may offset costs of having the needed thing by running storagenodes.
If you think about to buy anything only for Storj - then you may not have a ROI anytime soon, it may take years. This is because the shared storage is used by real customers to store and retrieve their data, not some generated digital trash. Thus the usage is not predictable and it’s hard to calculate a ROI.
In terms of HW, it is better to use energy efficient systems, preferably refurbished/used to improve sustainability, but the basic requirements will depend on your needs. The node can work even on a router: Running node on OpenWRT router?
Regarding OS/software, I would agree with @arrogantrabbit, TrueNAS is a better solution than any other. It even has applications for backups to Storj bucket and to run a Storj node. Otherwise you may use any other software, even pure Ubuntu and configure everything yourself.
I have some nodes running on a potato H81 mobo, I3 4th gen, 8GB RAM, so you’ll be fine. Try to find used parts, like used server HDDs, that’s a great help to cut the cost.
I’ve got several Synology NAS appliances running Storj at both home and office. I wouldn’t put money into this if you’re not going to multi-purpose the devices. I have plenty of bandwidth and storage dedicated to Storj and my largest node is about 16TB total.
