Using external USB HDD as Storage

[LimDul79]

I going to buy an Intel Nuc (NUC8i3BEH) to use as a server for different purposes (openhab, mqtt, mysql, etc) via virtualization.

I thought about running a VM/Container with FreeNAs using an (ONE) external USB Hard Drive as storage.

Was I got from googling is that using an external USB Hard Drive is a bad idea. I understand that the risk - especialy with the cables of data loss is higher, but I don't know if there more drawbacks,

My scenario would be to use only one external Hard Drive as Storage Medium mainly for storing media data (movies etc.) to be accessed from different devices. I do not intend to use the NAS as safe storage. Everything on that drive is either backuped externaly or if it's lossed, well than it's gone.

Is in that scenario using an USB Drive still a really bad idea? In what problems are I'm most likely to run? Or is freenas just overkill and for my scenario just sharing the drive as SMB/NFS Volume via a normal linux is enough?

 

[Chris Moore]

is freenas just overkill and for my scenario just sharing the drive as SMB/NFS Volume via a normal linux is enough?

For the purpose you indicated, FreeNAS is overkill. FreeNAS uses ZFS to create storage pool from many disks but that can't be done with USB because of the latency in the USB hardware. Disks can't stay synced up in the pool. ZFS is not able to error correct with only one disk.
So FreeNAS can't perform several of the primary functions that makes it preferred.
Please review the hardware guides we have to see the kind of hardware FreeNAS is Best with.

 

[LimDul79]

Thanks. Yes, I have read some documentation already and know what hardware FreeNAS is supposed to use. That is (at the moment) too much for me. I think will just expose that single drive via SMB/NFS and that's it.

Perhaps some time later i will make a dedicated system for the a NAS with proper HDD-Setup.