Whether you are a professional photographer with thousands of high-resolution images, a small business owner with critical data, or a movie enthusiast with an extensive collection, having a reliable and secure storage solution is essential. The same goes for any individual who wants to safely store and access their data with complete privacy. This is where network-attached storage (NAS) comes into play.

While commercial versions are available, you may also build your own NAS using a Raspberry Pi 4 and ownCloud—which is more cost-effective and customizable.

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Why Build Your Own NAS Using Raspberry Pi and ownCloud?

Building your own NAS provides several advantages over buying a pre-built solution:

ownCloud is a popular open-source software solution that allows you to create your own cloud storage. It provides a secure and easy-to-use interface for managing and accessing your files from anywhere, using any device—including Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, and Windows platforms.

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You can also sync your files across multiple devices and share them with others. It also supports a wide range of plugins and extensions, enabling you to extend its functionality and enable two-factor authentication for additional security.

In addition, you canbuild a personal DIY cloud storage with remote accessor a web server andhost a website on your Raspberry Pi 4.

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Things You Will Need

To build your own NAS with Raspberry Pi 4 and ownCloud, you will need the following:

Step 1: Set Up Raspberry Pi 4 for NAS

Firstly, you need to download the official Raspberry Pi Imager tool and then follow these steps to install the operating system.

After flashing the microSD card, insert it into the Raspberry Pi 4 and connect the power supply. The Raspberry Pi 4 will boot into the Raspberry Pi OS Lite.

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You can now check the router’s DHCP setting to find the IP address of the Raspberry Pi, or use the Fing app on your smartphone (iOS and Android). Alternatively, connect a keyboard, mouse, and display to the Pi and then run the following command to find its IP address:

Step 2: Install and Configure ownCloud on Raspberry Pi 4

To set up ownCloud on Raspberry Pi 4, you will need to install the following:

To install these services, install and run thePuTTYapp on Windows, or use the Terminal app on macOS, andconnect to the Raspberry Pi via SSH.

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Then run the following commands:

Wait for the upgrade to finish. PressYand hitEnterwhen prompted. After the update, run the following commands to install the required packages.

After installing the required packages, restart the Apache server.

Then run the following command to add theuser to thewww-datagroup.

Next, we can download and install the ownCloud on the Raspberry Pi 4 using the following commands:

Create a directory to mount an external SSD and change the ownership of the ownCloud directory:

Fix permissions to avoid issues:

Next, you need to configure the Apache web server. Open the config file:

Then add the following lines to it:

Save and exit nano withCtrl + OthenCtrl + X. Then enable the Apache modules:

Install the MariaDB database:

Create a database for users:

Reboot the Raspberry Pi:

Step 3: Add External Storage

You can add multiple USB storage devices to Raspberry Pi 4 via the USB 3.0 ports. Connect one of your SSDs or hard drives to the USB port and follow the steps below to mount the external storage device to a directory in the file system and add storage to your DIY NAS.

We have already created the/media/ExternalSSDdirectory for mounting the external storage. Make sure the SSD or HDD is NTFS formatted. Then follow these steps to mount it:

Then get the GID, UID, and UUID:

Note down the UUID, GID, and UID. In our example, the sda1 is the external NTFS formatted SSD disk. Next, we will add the drive to thefstabfile.

Add the following line:

To mount the external storage device, you need to find its device identifier. Use the following command to list all connected storage devices:

At this stage, you can restart the Raspberry Pi to auto-mount the external storage, or mount it manually:

All your files on the NTFS drive should be visible in the/media/ExternalSSDdirectory.

The drive currently contains onlySystem Volume InformationandRECYCLE.BINhidden folders. Reboot the system.

4. Configure ownCloud

After the reboot, visit the IP address of the Raspberry Pi in a web browser to access your ownCloud.

Enter ausernameandpasswordof your choice. Click onStorage & databaseand enter the MariaDB database details as shown below.

If you are using an external drive to store data, make sure to change theData folderpath to/media/ExternalSSDfrom default/var/www/html/owncloud/data. In future, if you want to add new drive or more storage, follow thisownCloud guideto update the directory path.

ClickFinish Setup. After a while, you can log in to ownCloud.

You can download the ownCloud app on your smartphone or computer to sync your files. But before you start the sync or file upload, add external HDD or SSD storage.

If you have followed each step carefully, you should be good to go and ready to upload the files to your ownCloud NAS.