Project Title-Network Attached Information Storage

Project Title- Network attached information storage
Abstract
The growing demand in the market for increased storage capacity is mainly because of our
dependency on the Internet. Network Attached Storage (NAS) provides a dedicated file server to
manage all kinds of files. It is an independent Storage device which is connected directly to the
network. Due to its availability on the network it can be easily accessed by any number of
heterogeneous clients.
The Network Attached Storage devices readily available in the market these days are highly
overpriced and do not provide much scope for enhancements, another aspect which is to be taken
into consideration is that in most instances these devices consume a fair amount of power. This
proposed approach aims at providing a low cost NAS system which is easy to use and configure.
It also comprises of added security features and Web Server capabilities. It enables you to have
round the clock available storage device which is handy as well as power saving and allows
accessibility to data on and off the network
School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 1

Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 problem statement
1.3 Objective and methodology
1.4 Network storage concepts
1.4.1 storage divices
1.4.2 Examples of storage devices
1.4.3 storage location
1.4.4 Primary storage
1.4.5 Direct attached storage
1.4.6 Network attached storage
1.4.7 Storage area network
1.4.8 Secondary storage
Chapter 2
Literature Survey
2.1 NAS atchitecture
2.1.1 storage
2.1.2 Raspberry pi
2.2 Nas appliance theory of operation
2.3 Software considerations
2.3.1 Bios and drives

2.3.2 operating systems
2.3.3 Application software protocols
2.3.4 File systems
2.3.5 Networking protocols
2.4 Literature review
Chapter 3
Proposed Work
3.1 Block diagram
3.2 Nas vs San
3.3 Creating a NAS solution
3.4 Implementaion of NAS
Chapter 4
Result Analysis
4.1 use case analysis
4.2 features analysis
.Chapter 5
Conclusion & Future Scope
Reference

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Information Technology (IT) is an essential part of today’s business. IT-technology is, among
others, in key role for storing business knowledge into a stored format for later use. While IT
gives clear advantages over previously used methods for storing knowledge, it also generates
various new threats which are discussed in this project. However, these threats can be identified
and minimized with the proper combination of hardware and software. This study focuses on
utilizing various hardware and software to overcome the threats and it is based on design science.
NAS (Network-attached storage) is a data storage, which is connected to a computer network.

NAS acts as a file-server in a network, offering data storage to be located in a stand-alone unit,
which other computers can be connected. NAS can be seen as a network drive (via Ethernet) and
as such, it can be used to save documents and files as well as read them. Fundamentally, a NAS
is a computer, optimized in hardware and software, to be a file server.
The benefits from using NAS are clear; firstly it will improve the security of the data since it will
be located in one place only, rather than divided into several PC’s of the users personnel. That
greatly decreases the chances of information leaks due to thefts, mistakes and accidents.
Secondly, it will improve the maintenance of the data, allowing the local administrator to locate
the data from one place and because of that, it can be managed easier than if the data would be
located in several different places. Thirdly, it allows backing up the data frequently with an
efficient way, so that the valuable data will not be destroyed in an accident or a single system
failure. Fourthly, it improves the accessibility greatly by allowing users to connect to the device
via web from practically anywhere. That allows users to gain access to their documents from
home and practically anywhere which has an internet connection. In this case study, NAS will
be designed, configured and finally implemented into existing local network to act as a file-
server for the users. The project tries to solve and find out the proper way to implement it, as
well as how to utilize it correctly. However, a significant focus will be on finding the most
affordable solution without losing on features and fault-tolerance. The budget in this project is
limited. The aim is to support simultaneous users. The outcome of this project will be a proper

implementation of a NAS and as such it can be applied to any existing local network in a small-
sized company.
Figure 1: NAS Appliance in a Local Area Network
1.2 Problem Statement

Traditionally users manage their own data by storing it into their own hard drives. This generates
a threat of a data loss in multiple ways: user may accidentally delete his/her own data, the data
may not be recoverable. Another threat is that any of the used laptops may get stolen with the
data, which may even generate a risk of misuse of the information which is located in the hard
drive. One more threat is the hard drive failure which may lead to a complete data loss of that
specific hard drive content.
1.3 Objective and Methodology

The aim of this project is to create a data storage system for users which utilizes and fulfills the
following requirements:
 External access over Internet
 Access from LAN
 Optimized data security
 Maintainability
 Future expansions
 System health monitoring

This project allows users to increase their data security in multiple ways as well as increases their
mobility as their centralized data storage can be accessed over Internet. This project can also be
used as a guide in the implementation stage of a NAS-system in most scenarios. The project is
applicable to be utilized in either home use, or in small offices.
1.4 NETWORK STORAGE CONCEPTS

In basic terms, network storage is simply about storing data using a method by
which it can be made available to clients on the network. Over the years, the storage of data has
evolved through various phases. This evolution has been driven partly by the changing ways in
which we use technology, and in part by the exponential increase in the volume of data we need
to store. It has also been driven by new technologies, which allow us to store and manage data
in a more effective manner.
Network storage is a generic term used to describe network based data storage, but there are
many technologies within it which all go to make the magic happen. Storage is frequently used
to mean the devices and data connected to the computer through input/output operations - that
is, hard disk and tape systems and other forms of storage that don't include computer memory
and other in-computer storage. For the enterprise, the options for this kind of storage are of
much greater variety and expense than that related to memory. In a more formal usage, storage
has been divided into:
(1) Primary storage: which holds data in memory (sometimes called random access memory
or RAM) and other "built-in" devices such as the processor's L1 cache.
(2) Secondary storage: which holds data on hard disks, tapes, and other devices requiring
input/output operations.
1.4.1 Storage devices: It is alternatively referred to as digital storage, storage, storage

media, or storage medium, a storage device is any hardware capable of holding information
either temporarily or permanently.
There are two types of storage devices used with computers: a primary storage device, such as
RAM, and a secondary storage device, like a hard drive. Secondary storage can be removable,
internal, or external storage. Without a storage device, your computer would not be able to
save any settings or information and would be considered a dumb terminal
1.4.2. Examples of Storage devices
Magnetic storage devices:
Today, magnetic storage is one of the most common types of storage used with computers and
is the technology that many computer hard drives use.
 Floppy diskette
 Hard drive
 Super drive
 Tape cassette
 Zip diskette

Optical storage devices:

It uses lasers and lights as its method of reading and writing data
 Blu-ray disc
 CD-ROM disc
 CD_R and CD-W disc
Flash Memory devices: It is a non-volatile storage and it is cheaper, reliable and more efficient
than magnetic media.
 Jump drive
 Memory card
 Memory stick
 SSD
Online and Cloud: It is becoming popular as people need to access their data from more than
one devices.
 Network media
 Dropbox
 One drive
1.4.3. Storage location
When saving anything on a computer, it may ask you for a storage location, which is the area in
which you would like to save the information. By default, most information is saved to your
computer hard drive. If you want to move the information to another computer, save it to a
removable storage device such as a flash drive.
1.4.5. Primary storage

Primary storage, also known as main storage or memory, is the area in a computer in which
data is stored for quick access by the computer's processor. The terms random access memory
(RAM) and memory are often as synonyms for primary or main storage. Primary storage is
volatile and can be contrasted with non-volatile secondary storage, also known as auxiliary
storage. The terms main storage and auxiliary storage originated in the days of the mainframe
computer to distinguish the more immediately accessible data storage from data stored on
punch cards that required input/output (I/O) operations. when mainframe data storage
contained ferrite cores, the term core storage was often used in place of primary storage.
In the label primary storage is often used to describe storage for data that is in active use, as
opposed to data at rest in a backup. In this usage, the label primary storage may actually be
describing the non-volatile secondary storage referred to in meaning above. It should be noted
that although these two meanings conflict, the appropriate meaning is usually apparent from
the context. For example, primary storage in a tiered-storage architecture might consist of hard
disks or flash-based solid state drives on a centralized storage-area network (SAN) or network-
attached storage (NAS)array that stores transactional data or mission- critical application data
that requires extremely high performance.

1.4.5 Direct Attached Storage (DAS)

Direct attached storage is the term used to describe a storage device that is directly attached to a
host system. The simplest example of DAS is the internal hard drive of a server computer,
though storage devices housed in an external box come under this banner as well. DAS is still
by far the most common method of storing data for computer systems. Over the years, though
new technologies have emerged which work if you'll excuse the pun out of the box.
1.4.6 Network Attached Storage (NAS)

Network Attached Storage, or NAS, is a data storage mechanism that uses special devices
connected directly to the network media. These devices are assigned an IP address and can
then be accessed by clients via a server that acts as a gateway to the data, or in some cases
allows the device to be accessed directly by the clients without an intermediary. An increasing
number of companies already make use of NAS technology, if only with devices such as CD-
ROM towers (stand-alone boxes that contain multiple CD-ROM drives) that are connected
directly to the network.
Some of the big advantages of NAS include the expandability; need more storage
space, add another NAS device and expand the available storage. NAS also bring an extra level
of fault tolerance to the network. In a DAS environment, a server going down means that the
data that server holds is no longer available. With NAS, the data is still available on the network
and accessible by clients. Fault tolerant measures such as RAID, can be used to make sure that
the NAS device does not become a point of failure.
1.4.7 Storage Area Network (SAN)

A SAN is a network of storage devices that are connected to each other and to a server, or
cluster of servers, which act as an access point to the SAN. In some configurations a SAN is
also connected to the network. SAN's use special switches as a mechanism to connect the
devices. These switches, which look a lot like a normal Ethernet networking switch act as the
connectivity point for SAN's. Making it possible for devices to communicate with each other on
a separate network brings with it many advantages. Consider, for instance the ability to back up
every piece of data on your network without having to 'pollute' the standard network
infrastructure with gigabytes of data. This is just one of the advantages of a SAN which is
making it a popular choice with companies today, and is a reason why it is forecast to become
the data storage technology of choice in the coming years.
1.4.8. Secondary storage

Computer storage is made up of primary and secondary storage. Primary storage typically
refers to random access memory (RAM) placed near the computer’s CPU to reduce the amount
of time it takes to move data between the storage and CPU. Secondary storage (sometimes
referred to as secondary memory) is at the lower level of the storage hierarchy. It commonly

refers to hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drive (SSD) storage (flash) or other types of
storage devices. Computers use primary and secondary storage for a number of reasons
• RAM based storage is versatile
• RAM is far more expensive than non-volatile storage on cost-per giga byte
Chapter 2
LITERATURE SURVEY
This chapter contains the theories and the background to justify the usage of NAS based
solutions in business. When implemented properly, it lowers the risk for a data loss as well as
greatly improves the mobility of the work thus allowing employees to work abroad. This chapter
contains the basic knowledge of the NAS based solutions as well as different ways to implement
them.
RELATED WORKS
Due to the exceptional growth of Internet in the past few years, computing resources are
available everywhere. The existing system uses cloud computing for data storage. Cloud
Computing Environment consists of two components.
a. Infrastructure Providers: Infrastructure providers handle the cloud platforms and rent out
resources according to usage
b. Service Providers: Service providers lease resources from infrastructure providers and make it
available to end users.
In spite of this technology having many opportunities and applications in today’s world, there
still exist a number of challenges which need resolution. The biggest challenge faced is the open
characteristic and multi-tenant nature of the cloud. This technology has a huge impact in the field
of information security. The various impacts are described in detail below.
(1) There is no security boundary in this technology due to features such as dynamic scalability,
service abstraction, and location transparency. In addition there is no fixed infrastructure for the
applications and data making it difficult to keep the information secure.
(2) There is a need for quick information processing in this kind of storage because the platform
will be dealing with large amount of data. The security needs to be in line with this high speed
processing.
(3) In this type of system, it is difficult to have a common security measure as the resources may
belong to multiple providers.
(4) There is a possibility of unauthorized user access due to the openness of cloud and sharing
virtualized resources by multi-tenant .
2.1 NAS ARCHITECTURE

Figure 2: NAS architecture
The above figure shows a typical NAS architecture. NAS helps the organizations to quickly and
easily add file storage capacity to their technology infrastructure. NAS focuses mainly on
serving files ,while hiding many of the details of the actual file system implementations. NAS
appliances are easy to deploy and are self sustained. NAS works well for organization that need
to deliver data to multiple clients over a network. NAS functions well in places where data must
be transferred over long distances. NAS can be used for domestic automation of data storage.
2.1.1 STORAGE: There are basically two modes of data storage: a) offline storage b) online
storage.
a) Offline storage: This is the storage media that must be manually inserted into the system. The
information is safely stored and retrieved when required. The data stored is permanent and its is
unaltered until edited by user, the data stored is also more portable and can be accessed easily .
eg: hard disk ,pen drives.
b) Online storage: It is a concept of storing of electronic data over a network. This type of data is
more secured , portable and can be accessed from any part of the world . It helps in sharing of
files among the multiple users at the same time.
Networked storage: Networked storage is an online data storage mechanism that uses special
devices connected directly to the network media. These devices will be assigned with an IP
address and can then be accessed by the clients via the server. The server acts as the gateway to
the data. In some cases, networked storage allows the device to be directly accessed without any
intermediate source .The biggest advantage of networked storage is expandability.
2.1.2 RASBERRY PI: The raspberry pi is a series of small single board computer
developed by the Raspberry pi foundation to promote teaching of basic computer science in

schools. The Raspberry Pi platform can run the Linux operating system, which means that the
Applications of open source software can be used directly with it.
Figure.3: Block diagram of Raspberry pi 3 model B
The SD card inserted into the slot on the board acts as the hard drive to the Raspberry. It is
powered by USB and the video output can be viewed on a traditional RCA TV set, a more
modern monitor, or even a TV using a HDMI port .This enables all the basic features of a
computer. It also has an extremely low power consumption of 5watt.
Figur 4: Raspberry pi3 physical layout
The availability of drivers for opened source software makes the raspberry pi interfaced with
devices such as keyboard, camera with USB, and adapter of WIFI, without having any source
proprietary alternatives. Raspbian is a Debian based operating system for Raspberry pi. There are
several versions available including Raspbian Stretch and Raspbian lassie. The operating system
is a UNIX type, open source model. The latest release includes Raspbian Stretch with Desktop
.The working platform involves ARM i386 version. The kernal is a monolithic environment.
2.2 NAS Appliance Theory of Operation

A NAS device is essentially a plug-and-play storage appliance, designed to respond
to client requests for stored data in real time. NAS devices are well suited to serve networks
that have a heterogeneous mix of clients and servers, such as UNIX, Microsoft Windows, and
Linux. The NAS appliance can do this by running a suite of file system software compatible
with the clients it services. When a client on the LAN requests data from the storage system,
the application layer of the client sends a data request over the network to the NAS platform.
The local file system of the NAS determines the origin of the request and sends the
appropriately formatted data back to the originating client.

A NAS system provides file security, through methods such as “Access Control Lists,” and it
performs all file and storage services through standard network protocols, including TCP/IP for
data transfer, Ethernet for media access, and HTTP, CIFS, and NFS for remote file services. In
addition, a high-performance NAS appliance may handle tasks such as Web cache and proxy,
audio and video streaming, and tape backup.
2.3 SOFTWARE CONSIDERATIONS

This section describes the software layers in this solution stack and highlights technical
considerations for software implementation.
2.3.1 BIOS and Drivers
In addition to the numerous vendors providing BIOS solutions for Intel processors, equipment
manufacturers also develop custom BIOS versions for their particular solution. Original
equipment manufacturers may also develop drivers for their own hardware (such as hard
drives) or use drivers provided by Intel or other hardware manufacturers.
2.3.2 Operating System

The operating system (OS) manages all the software applications and hardware resources on
the system. NAS appliances may use off-the-shelf desktop or server operating systems, such as
Windows, Linux, or UNIX, or may utilize an embedded OS, such as Windows CE or
Embedded Windows NT*. Another alternative is a real-time operating system (RTOS) such as
VxWorks* or QNX*.
Figure 5: NAS Solution Stack
The main considerations for a NAS OS are the size and performance. Desktop operating
systems are easier for the customer to implement, but take up more disk space (which means
less storage) and also contain unnecessary overhead that usually degrades performance. An
RTOS offers a smaller footprint and may even reside in Flash rather than on disk.
Development using an RTOS allows for more direct control of the hardware, enabling
optimum performance tuning. However, there is a significant investment required in
developing with an RTOS. Plus, this may limit the ability to include value-added functionality,
such as using the NAS device as a Web server. Embedded operating systems such as
Embedded Windows NT are good alternatives because they are modular and provide tools to

allow only the necessary modules to be installed. Many Linux packages also have this
capability. High Availability (HA) is also becoming a key consideration for OS selection.
Linux, for example, has an HA initiative underway.
2.3.3 Application Software and Protocols

The application software layer can be segmented into several functional areas, including
services, access permissions, storage, fault tolerance, and networking. Additionally, NAS
products may come with client-based tools for setup and access to the NAS device. All
functional areas, aside from networking and storage, are value-added capabilities that NAS
manufacturers use to differentiate their products.
2.3.4 File Systems

 NFS: The Network File System (NFS) is an application that lets a computer user view,
update, or store files on a remote computer as though they were on the user’s local hard
drive. Most UNIX and Linux operating systems include NFS client and server
software.
 SMB: The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol allows a Windows client to access,
create, and update files on a remote server. The protocol also allows the same client to
access other resources such as printers and mail slots. The SMB protocol can be used
over TCP/IP or other network protocols such as IPX and NetBEUI. Microsoft
Windows 95 and later versions of the operating system include client and server SMB
protocol support. For UNIX and Linux systems, a shareware program called Samba is
available. The SMB protocol originated at Microsoft and has gone through a number of
developments, eventually evolving into the CIFS standard.
 CIFS: Common Internet File System (CIFS) is a standard protocol that enables
programs to request files and services on remote computers on the Internet. CIFS is an
open variation of SMB. Like SMB, CIFS is built upon the TCP/IP protocol. CIFS is
currently the most commonly used protocol for NAS systems because it is readily
available on Windows, UNIX, and Linux operating systems, and can also be used in
conjunction with Novell* IPX/SPX protocols.
2.3.5 Networking Protocols

Networking protocols control the communication to and from the NAS device. The
physical connection of a NAS is Ethernet. Because most NAS devices attempt to
homogeneously communicate over the LAN, multiple network protocols are typically
supported.
 TCP/IP: TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic
communication language of the Internet. Many higher-level protocols are built on top
of TCP/IP, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the File Transfer Protocol
(FTP), Telnet, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

2.4 Literature Review
1. David F. Nagle, Gregory R. Ganger, Jeff Butler, Garth Goodson, and Chris Sabol have
done project on Network Support for Network-Attached Storage. High- performance, low-
latency networking is essential to achieving the potential of scalable network-attached
storage. User-level networking solutions, such as VIA, have the potential to do this, but
must be mindful of the amount of on-drive resources required — connection state and
buffering can consume considerable resources. However, Remote DMA can help minimize
drive resources while providing a great deal of flexibility in drive scheduling and buffer
management. Further, VIA’s application-level flow control enables aggregation of flow
control across arbitrary storage components, something low-level network flow control is
not designed to support.
2. Darrell D.E. Long University of California have done project on authenticating

network-attached storage. The importance of distributed computing as the pivotal approach
to managing computing resources and data is well recognized. Scaling distributed
computing solutions is a challenge. Network-attached storage provides a solution for
creating scalable network access to data, but requires reliable and efficient authentication
techniques to ensure that while data is widely accessible, its content is secure from
unauthorized access. The SCARED architecture provides a mechanism for efficient and
reliable authentication to network accessible storage. We are building a distributed file
system on top of SCARED which we call Brave. It is serverless in the sense that there is
no central file server, but it stores all data and metadata on network-attached storage unlike
the sererless file system described earlier.
3. Howard Gobioff Garth Gibson Doug Tygar have done project in Security for Network
Attached Storage Devices.The NASD architecture is an innovative approach to the
problems of high performance and cost effective I/O based on network attached storage
systems. By providing security to network attached storage, we enable clients to utilize the
potential performance and scalability benefits inherent in network attached storage without
compromising their data security. The essence of our capability scheme is the
encapsulation of the bearer’s access rights on a particular version of a storage object using
a secret key shared between capability issuer (file manager) and capability enforcer.
4. The project Best Practices for running VMware vSphere on Network Attached Storage
by Paul Manning. Network Attached Storage has matured significantly in recent years and
it offers a solid availability and high performance foundation for deployment with
virtualization environments. Following the best practices outlined in this paper will ensure
successful deployments of vSphere on NFS. Many people have deployed both vSphere and

VI3 on NFS and are very pleased with the results they are experiencing. NFS offers a very
solid storage platform for virtualization. Both performance and availability are holding up
to expectations and as best practices are being further defined, the experience of running
VMware technology on NFS is proving to be a solid choice of storage protocols. Several
storage technology partners are working closely with VMware to further define the best
practices and extend the benefits for customers choosing to deployment VMware vSphere
on this storage protocol option.
5. Anna Suganthi, Karnavel ,Rajini Girinath.D have done project in Network Attached
Storage for Data Back Up Over a Local Area Network Software for the critical data in a
LAN was developed. The software could perform backing up of files in remote nodes,
deletion of files from remote node, retrieve files from remote node, join the group and
unsubscribe from the group. The software is also provided with an easy to use graphical
user interface. A program was developed through which one could write, delete, and
retrieve files to the external storage medium NAS which provides an additional reliability
for data storage.
Chapter 3

PROPOSED WORK
Here in this chapter we will discuss the components we are using. Since this project is purely
based on the concepts of networking therefore will discuss all networking related concepts and
why we are using RaspberryPi in the project.
3.1 Block Diagram
Figure 6.NAS BLOCK DIAGRAM
The Raspberry is powered by USB and the video output can be viewed on a traditional RCA TV
set, a more modern monitor, or even a TV using a HDMI port. This enables all the basic features
of a computer. It also has an extremely low power consumption of 5watt. Offline storage devices
are connected through USB port to Raspberry pi and it also has a separate port to connect
Ethernet cable. NAS solutions are configured as file serving appliances accessed through the
workstations and servers using a network protocl TCP/IP. Network File System (NFS) or
Common Internet File system (CIFS) are some of the application used for accessing the file.
Most of the NAS connections reside between workstation clients and the NAS file sharing
facility.
3.2. NAS vs SAN

The primary difference between NAS and SAN solutions is the type of access protocol. NAS
protocols such as NFS and CiFS provide shared file level access to storage resources. The
management of the file system resides with the NAS device. SAN protocols such as iSCSI and
fiber channel provide block level access to storage resources. Block level devices are accessed
by servers via the SAN, and the servers manage the file system. Despite their differences, SAN
and NAS are not mutually exclusive, and may be combined in multi-protocol or unified storage
arrays, offering both file-level protocols (NAS) and block-level protocols (SAN) from the same
system.
Benefits of NAS
• NAS devices typically leverage existing IP networks for connectivity, enabling companies to
reduce the price of entry for access to shared storage.
• The RAID and clustering capabilities inherent to modern enterprise NAS devices offer greatly
improved availability when compared with traditional direct attached storage.
• Because NAS devices control the file system, they offer increased flexibility when using
advanced storage functionality such as snapshots.
• With 10GE connectivity, NAS devices can offer performance on par with many currently
installed fiber channel SANs.
3.3 Creating a NAS solution

NAS is a common storage infrastructure offering in data centers worldwide. Eastern Computer
has assisted many of our customers in justifying, designing, and implementing enterprise NAS
solutions.
• Lower acquisition and management costs
• Meet performance and availability requirements
• Handle ever increasing annual storage growth with minimal to no impact to your business
• Minimize, or even eliminate, the impact of backup windows
• Deliver operational and disaster recover.
3.4 The Implementation of NAS

Accessing raspberry pi using vnc viewer

To access a Raspberry Pi (or any home computer for that matter) from outside your home
network, you’d usually need to jump through a lot of hoops, get an IP address, and tweak a few
settings on your home router. If you just need to control a few simple things on your Raspberry
Pi, that’s overkill. We’re going to outline two methods that skip all of that.The first thing you
need to do is get your Raspberry Pi set up and connected to your home network. Since you’re
exposing your Raspberry Pi to the internet, be sure you change your default password during the
set up process. Once that’s done, come back here to set up everything else.
Remote Log Into Your Raspberry Pi’s Full Operating System Using VNC
Connect
VNC has long been the best way to access any computer remotely on the same network.
Recently, VNC Connect came out to make it easy to access your Raspberry Pi
from anywhere using a cloud connection. Once it’s set up, you can access your Raspberry Pi’s
graphic interface from any other computer or smartphone using the VNC Viewer app.The
Raspberry Pi’s main operating system Raspbian software is downloaded and installed
Setup a NAS Server on Raspberry pi: we will set up a simple NAS server from
scratch, based on the SMB protocol. The goal is to save files on the NAS server
and share them between different computer clients. For this project, we’ll
need a Raspberry Pi 2 or Pi3 with a running Rasbian and connected to some
Network. Make sure you have access to the terminal or you’re logged in to the
Raspberry Pi via SSH connection.For the file storage, we need an external
USB Hard-drive with a storage capacity of your choice.

Prepare your RPi
Tthe Raspbian operating system is already installed and running on RPi. Connect your device to
the Network via a wired connection or via WLAN and open a terminal.
On the first step, we need to make sure that all packages are of the latest version.
$ sudo apt-get update

If the Raspbian is up to date, we are ready to setup our NAS server.
Install and Setup Samba Server

Samba file-sharing : There is a wide range of free open source software available to build a NAS
server with Linux OS. For the file sharing, Linux offers Samba which enables the file sharing for
Unix-based systems and which communicates with also Windowsbased systems
1. To share files from our NAS server we need to install the Samba package. This includes all required
apps and configuration files to setup the SMB protocol.
$ sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin

2. After the installation, we need to configure the smb services. For that, we need to configure a
sharing of an internal directory. For this case, we will create the directory and name it
“INTERNAL” in the home path of our Pi user:
3. Now open the /etc/samba/smb.conf file in an editor of your choice and enter the configuration
options for the INTERNAL sharing at the end of the file like shown below.

[INTERNAL]
comment = internal Files
browseable = yes
path = /home/pi/INTERNAL
writeable = Yes
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
browseable = Yes
public = yes
$ sudo leafpad /etc/samba/smb.conf

You’ll see the editor window to input the data we’ve mentioned above.
4. After that, you need to get an access to the sharing, we’ve just created. For that, the user Pi should be
allowed to be the Samba user.
$ sudo smbpasswd -a pi
Then, enter a password twice and restart the Samba server.
$ sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

5. Now we are moving over to a Windows 7 client to check if the Samba server is configured
correctly and we have access to our sharing directory.
On Windows open the Explorer and choose “Map network drive” from the Menu:
In the dialog window, enter the IP-address of your Raspberry Pi and the configured share name
“INTERNAL” as shown below.

Now enter the username “pi” and the password we’ve set up with the smbpasswd command
earlier.
After that, we are connected with the Raspberry Pi and we can save and share our files.

To make sure everything is OK, we can create a directory “Directory” and inside this directory,
we can create a “Dokument.rtf” file. If all the operations are done and you can find this file, so
our system is working the right way!

Back to the Raspberry Pi sharing directory, we must also see the newly created files, like that:
Prepare an external drive

If we want to provide a larger amount of file space we connect an external USB drive to
Raspberry Pi. In this we are going to use a 16GB external USB HDD with an NTFS file system
to expand our storage pool.
6. So, connect the external USB hard drive to the device. With the command lsblk, we can check
all the connected devices.
As you see above, the mmcblk0 device is the SD card which contains two partitions for the
Raspbian operating system. The sda device is the external USB disk already connected to the
RasPi. As we can see, the sda device contains one partition sda1 with a size of 16Gb. The sda1
partition contains an NTFS file system.

7. To mount this file system we need to install the “ntfs-3g” package.
$ sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
8. The next step is to create an “EXTERNAL” folder:
$ sudo mkdir /EXTERNAL
So, I should mention one important thing on this step. It looks like the latest models of Raspberry
Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 can automatically mount the devices.
$ sudo umount /media/pi/New\ Folder/
If it is done, we can mount the external drive to the new directory.
9. To automatically mount an HDD to the system, we have to modify the /etc/fstab file. For that,
we have to use the root command mentioned before to open up the file:
$ sudo leafpad /etc/fstab
In the editor, input the data outlined in the picture below:
10. Now we have to reboot and check if the external disk was mounted automatically.

As you can see above, the external hard drive partition /dev/sda1 is already mounted to the
EXTERNAL mount point. For testing purposes, we can create a directory and a file inside the
EXTERNAL directory.
Create an external share
Now we are ready to share the external disk to the network.
1. For that, firstly, we have to add the following configuration part to the end
of /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Don’t forget to use the special command for opening the file:
$ sudo leafpad /etc/samba/smb.conf
As soon as the file opens up, copy the data set below:
[EXTERNAL]
comment = external Files

browseable = yes
path = /EXTERNAL
writeable = Yes
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
browseable = Yes
public = yes
2. Then, we can restart the Samba server.
$ sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

3. On the next step, we’ll move over to a Windows 7 client to check if the external share is also
available in the Network. As described earlier, we map the external sharing in the
Now we can see the external sharing directory with the test file “external.file” inside.

If the result is as described and shown on the last picture, so we all set with our own and stable
universal Raspberry Pi NAS system, ready to use for any purpose of our choice!

Chapter 4
RESULT ANALYSIS
4.1 Use cases –analysis
The main aspect in use cases –analysis is that a functional NAS has to allow external connections
to users. It is very essential for today’s business that the company’s data storage is reachable
around the globe due to globalization. In this specific case, the users are also doing distance work
and they will benefit from a system which will grant the access to all the needed files, no matter
where they are. It is also mentionedr that while observing there were clients who liked to have an
access to specific documents.
As the usability is always a concern, this system should allow the users to see data storage
folders (and drives) as their network drives. There should be at least one network drive which is
user-specific, meaning that only the user has the rights to read and write to the folder and one
network drive which is for all the users.
4.2 Features –analysis

As the data in features show, the greatest priority is given to user-specific network drives. This is
relatively easy to configure with appropriate software. The common folder is also one of the key
features and is as easy to configure as userspecific network drives. As it will give the needed
security for any type of data loss in the primary device (NAS). The backup feature will be
implemented in the near future, but due to the budget, it was withdrawn from this artifact. The
optional way to overcome this problem will be constant backups to external storage drive, which
will be stored in an external location after the backup operations.
One of the hoped-for features was a web-based user management, which would be rather easy to
implement but very hard to manage. This type of management might lead to accidental user
removals which might lead to severe data loss. So we declined to implement this type of web-
based service as it might cause more trouble than what is the gain.

Chapter 5
CONCLUSION & FUTURE SCOPE
5 CONCLUSION
The implemented NAS architecture is an innovative approach to the problems of high
performance and cost effective data storage. By providing security to the network attached
storage, we can enable clients to utilize its potential performance. The scalability benefits are
inherent in network attached storage without comprising their data security. The essence of our
capability scheme is the encapsulation of the bearer access right on a particular version of
storage object using secret key shared between clients. Information Technology is an essential
part of day-to-day business. Even a small company generates a lot of valuable data which is then
stored locally to PC’s or into centralized storages. Centralized storage is a far more advanced
solution and when implemented and maintained properly, it offers the needed safety for the
valuable data.
5.1 Future Scope and Limitations
NAS can be developed further for large enterprises. Internet facility is

always necessary
REFERENCES
1. David F. Nagle, Gregory R. Ganger, Jeff Butler, Garth Goodson, and Chris Sabol, ‘Network
Support for Network-Attached Storage’, Proceedings of Hot Interconnects 1999, August 18 - 20,
1999, Stanford University, Stanford, California, U.S.A.
2. Darrell D.E. Long University of California, ‘Authenticating Network Attached Storage’,
IEEE Micro, Los Alamitos, CA, USA,Volume 20 Issue 1, January 2000
3. Howard Gobi off Garth, Gibson Doug Tygar, ‘Security for Network Attached Storage Devices
(CMU-CS-97-185)’ School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
15213, October 23, 1997.
4. ‘Best Practices for running VMware vSphereTM on Network Attached Storage’ Feb 4, 2013
5. Anna Suganthi, Karnavel ,Rajini Girinath.D, ‘Network Attached Storage for Data Back Up
Over a Local Area Network’,IJEA,Mar’15. 6.
7. http://www.tinkernut.com/portfolio/make-raspberry-pi-nas-network-attached-storage/
8. http://www.imexresearch.com/pdfs/sasnassan.pdf
9. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/network-attached-storage
10. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/storage
11. http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/s/stordevi.htm

12. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/primary-storage
13. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+work+in+command+prompt
14. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/secondary-storage
15. http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/secondary-auxiliary-storage
16. https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101004044133AAUE7Wu
17. https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/
18. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Create-a-Bootable-USB-Drive-Without-Using- A/
19. http://computernetworkingnotes.com/network-administrations/samba-server.html
20. http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/671354.pdf
21. https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/what-is-a-raspberry-pi/
22. https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-nas/
23. http://www.howtogeek.com/139433/how-to-turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-low-power- network-
storage-device/

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School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 1

1.2 problem statement

1.3 Objective and methodology

1.4 Network storage concepts

1.4.1 storage divices

1.4.2 Examples of storage devices

1.4.3 storage location

1.4.4 Primary storage

1.4.5 Direct attached storage

1.4.6 Network attached storage

1.4.7 Storage area network

1.4.8 Secondary storage

2.1 NAS atchitecture

2.2 Nas appliance theory of operation

2.3 Software considerations

2.3.1 Bios and drives

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 2

2.3.2 operating systems

2.3.3 Application software protocols

2.3.4 File systems

2.3.5 Networking protocols

2.4 Literature review

3.1 Block diagram

3.2 Nas vs San

3.3 Creating a NAS solution

3.4 Implementaion of NAS

4.1 use case analysis

4.2 features analysis

Conclusion & Future Scope

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 3

NAS (Network-attached storage) is a data storage, which is connected to a computer network.

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 4

Figure 1: NAS Appliance in a Local Area Network

1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 Objective and Methodology

 External access over Internet

 Access from LAN

 Optimized data security

 System health monitoring

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 5

1.4 NETWORK STORAGE CONCEPTS

1.4.1 Storage devices: It is alternatively referred to as digital storage, storage, storage

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 6

Optical storage devices:

1.4.5. Primary storage

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 7

1.4.5 Direct Attached Storage (DAS)

1.4.6 Network Attached Storage (NAS)

1.4.7 Storage Area Network (SAN)

1.4.8. Secondary storage

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 8

2.1 NAS ARCHITECTURE

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 10

Figure 2: NAS architecture

School of ECE, REVA University, Bengaluru. 11

Figure.3: Block diagram of Raspberry pi 3 model B

Figur 4: Raspberry pi3 physical layout