You could totally turn on as needed, WakeOnLan is good for that. But typically when people run a NAS it is for streaming audio, video, file sync and backups and maybe docker running other services so the NAS is typically on 24/7 so it is available on demand. But it doean’t have to be 100% uptime if you don’t want it to be. For example I have two OpenMediaVaults one on a pi and one an old IomegaNAS. The pi is on always with an attached drive, and serves Samba Shares and DLNA/DAAP shares. Has docker running syncthing, CUPS print server, Trillium Notes, and homeassistant; so makes sense for it to be on all day, especially because my wife’s system backsup to it daily automatically. The converted Iomega NAS is mainly a backup machine sInce it is old and not as performant (only has 100 network speed. So that gets turned on to do a bulk backup and not much else.
Comment on Can I build a NAS out of a desktop? [Request]
comfydecal@infosec.pub 6 months agoHey sorry, thinking on this more, could I just turn on the NAS when desired? What is the benefit of running it constantly?
BCsven@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
Cyber@feddit.uk 6 months ago
Yep, look into Wake On LAN if you judt want to power the NAS on remotely.
My NAS also powers on at certaIn times of day and off again after a while - IF - no-one’s connected / no network traffic / etc.
I do NOT need my NAS on at 3am…
rentar42@kbin.social 6 months ago
Note that there is some reliability drawback of spinning hard disks on and off repeatedly. maybe unintuitively HDDs that spin constantly can live much longer than those that spend 90% of their time spun down.
This might not be relevant if you use only SSDs, and might never affect you, but it should be mentioned.
comfydecal@infosec.pub 6 months ago
Stellar! Thanks for the info!
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 6 months ago
You can also configure the HDDs to power down when they’re not in use. HDDs are the biggest power consumer anyway.