Budget 6TB RAID-5 Network-Attached Storage (NAS) Under $600 DIY Guide

Setting up Users, Shares, FTP & SSL on OpenMediaVault

Now we need to login to the OMV Web Configuration page, so go to your normal PC (or any PC on the local network) open your web browser and in the address bar type http://xxx.xxx.x.xxx with xxx being the IP address you noted down earlier, then hit ENTER. Hopefully you are now at the Web Config page of OMV. Enter admin for username and openmediavault for password and login.

Setup SSL HTTPS & Change Password

First, let’s change the admin password from openmediavault to your own password, go to System > General Settings then click the Web Administrator Password tab and enter your prefered password, then click Save.

Now go to System > Certificates then click SSL tab, click +Add > Create and enter details as per below…

• Key size: 4096b
• Period of validity: 3 years
• Common name: [IP address NAS box]
• Organization name: ACME and CO. (anything)
• Organizational unit: Security Dept.
• City: [your city]
• State/Province: [your state province]
• Country: [your country]
• Email: [your email address]

Then click Save and OMV will generate a secure SSL certificate.

Now we want to setup secure HTTPS for our Web Config so go to System > General Settings and click the Web Administration tab, then enter details as per below…

• Port: 80
• Session timeout: 45
• Enable SSL/TLS: [enabled]
• Certificate: [click inside the dropdown box and select the newly created SSL certificate]
• Port: 443
• Force SSL/TLS: [enabled]

Now click Save then Apply.

At this point, you may receive an error, just ignore it and in your browser address bar type in https://xxx.xxx.x.xxx with xxx being the IP address of your NAS box, then hit ENTER (note the change from http:// to https://), you will then receive a warning from your web browser of SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER danger danger will robinson etc, just ignore and add an exception by clicking Advanced > Add Exception (add a permanent exception in Chrome). Once you’ve done that you should be able to login again. *Tip add the OMV Web Config page to Favorites or bookmarks toolbar for easy access.

Create File System

Now it’s time to create the main file system for your RAID array, so go to Storage > File Systems then click the +Create button and fill out as follows…

• Device: [click inside the dropdown box and choose your RAID array]
• Label: VOL0
• File system: EXT4

Then click OK then Apply and OMV will create the EXT4 file system on your RAID array, it may take up to a minute to finish. Once finished, make sure you are still in Storage > File Systems and select the newly created file system (left click) and click the Mount button (see slideshow below).

Enable Secure FTP

Now we need to setup secure FTP over TLS by going to Services > FTP and entering the following settings…

• GENERAL SETTINGS
• Enable: [enabled]
• Port: 21
• Max. clients: 5
• Max. connections per host: 5
• Max. login attempts: 5
• Timeout: 1200
• Anonymous FTP: [disabled]
• ADVANCED SETTINGS
• Permit root login: [disabled]
• Require valid shell: [enabled]
• Bandwidth restriction: [disabled]
• Passive FTP: [enabled]
• Port range: 49152 – 65534
• Masquerade address: [leave empty]
• FXP: [enabled]
• Resume: [enabled]
• Ident protocol: [disabled]
• Reverse DNS lookup: [disabled]
• Transfer log: [enabled]
• Extra options: [leave empty]

Now click Save and then Apply

Now making sure you’re still in Services > FTP click the SSL/TLS tab and enter as follows…

• GENERAL SETTINGS
• Enable: [enabled]
• Certificate: [click inside the dropdown box and select your SSL certificate]
• ADVANCED SETTINGS
• Required: [enabled]
• No certificate request: [disabled]
• No session reuse required: [enabled]
• Implicit SSL: [disabled]
• Extra options: [leave empty]

Click Save and Apply.

Create Users & Shares

Now we want to create shared folders and users. Go to Access Rights Management > User then click +Add > Add and enter the following details…

• Name: [your name]
• Comment: [whatever you like]
• Email: [you@youremail.com]
• Password: [your password]
• Confirm password: [your password]
• Shell: [default] /bin/dash
• Modify account: [disabled]

Then click Save and Apply and while in this section, select your username, then click the Privileges button and enable Read/Write for your username, click Save and Apply.

Go to Access Rights Management > Shared Folders and click +Add then enter the following details…

• Name: [whatever you like]
• Volume: [click inside the dropbox and select the RAID VOL0]
• Path: /[whatever you like, OMV will create a folder if none exists]
• Permissions: [default] Administrator: read/write, Users: read/write, Others: read-only
• Comment: [whatever you like]

Save and Apply.

Now go to Access Rights Management > User, click the Settings tab and enable User home directory, then click inside the Location: dropdown box and choose your newly created shared folder, click Save and Apply.

Finally go to Access Rights Management > Shared Folders and select your shared folder, then click ACL, give your new user Read/Write access and give the User group read/write/execute permissions. Enable Replace all existing permissions then click Apply.

Download Filezilla & Test FTP

Now we want to make sure our FTP is working, so go ahead and download Filezilla or your prefered FTP client, install and open the program. In Filezilla go to File > Site Manager and click the New Site button, enter details as per below…

• Name: [descriptive name ie. MyNas]
• Host: [IP address of your NAS, no prefix (sftp: or ftp:) just numbers and dots ie. 192.168.1.100]
• Port: 21
• Protocol: FTP – File Transfer Protocol
• Encryption: Use explicit FTP over TLS if available
• Logon type: Normal
• User: [your newly created user name, case sensitive]
• Password: [your user password]
• Leave everything else at defaults

Now click the Connect button and choose to Always trust certificate in future sessions checkbox, then click OK and you should be inside your shiny new-ish NAS Box! Make sure you enter your shared folder before attempting an upload as you only have read/write access for that folder. Test by uploading a movie file and take note of the MiB\s in the transfer window (bottom if your screen) and you should be getting between 50 to 100 MiB\s depending on your network hardware. If you want even faster transfers you can add more NIC’s and bond them together.