Setup NAS With Raspberry Pi 5

intermediateJuly 4, 2026
nasraspberry pidiy

This NAS setup guide references this how-to-article.

Hardware Ready

  1. Raspberry Pi 5 8GB RAM + Active Cooler + 27W USB-C Power Supply

  2. Kingston DataTraveler Kyson USB-A 256GB

  3. Western Digital Red 3.5-inch 2TB HDD x 2 (WD20EFRX)

  4. UNITEK - 2 Bay External Hard Drive Enclosure (S1308A01-UK)

Software Ready

  1. OpenMediaVault 8 on Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64-bit

  2. Installed openmediavault-md plugin

Assuming the HDDs are attached to the Raspberry Pi and OpenMediaVault is already installed, the HDDs should be displayed in OMV > Storage > Disks pasted-image

Check the storage devices by lsblk command

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT
NAME     SIZE FSTYPE TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0      2G swap   loop
sda      1.8T        disk
sdb      231G        disk
├─sdb1   512M vfat   part /boot/firmware
└─sdb2 230.5G ext4   part /
sdc      1.8T        disk
zram0      2G swap   disk [SWAP]

Once confirmed the storage devices are connected, build the software RAID array in Linux

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda /dev/sdc
[sudo] password for user:
To optimalize recovery speed, it is recommended to enable write-indent bitmap, do you want to enable it now? [y/N]? y
mdadm: Note: this array has metadata at the start and
    may not be suitable as a boot device.  If you plan to
    store '/boot' on this device please ensure that
    your boot-loader understands md/v1.x metadata, or use
    --metadata=0.90
mdadm: size set to 1953382464K
Continue creating array [y/N]? y
mdadm: Defaulting to version 1.2 metadata
mdadm: array /dev/md0 started.

In OMV > Storage > Multiple Devices, should see the newly created array pasted-image

May also check the status of the RAID

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md0 : active raid1 sdc[1] sda[0]
      1953382464 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
      [>....................]  resync =  1.2% (24163328/1953382464) finish=230.7min speed=139364K/sec
      bitmap: 4/4 pages [64KB], 65536KB chunk

unused devices: <none>

Create the ext4 filesystem on the RAID even while resync is in progress

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo mkfs.ext4 -F /dev/md0
mke2fs 1.47.2 (1-Jan-2025)
/dev/md0 contains a ext4 file system
        last mounted on Sat May 16 10:15:56 2026
Creating filesystem with 488345616 4k blocks and 122093568 inodes
Filesystem UUID: e13b6ac2-c822-4b72-88c8-c05b72cae4d7
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
        102400000, 214990848

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (262144 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

Create the mount point from /dev/md0 onto /mnt/md0

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/md0
user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo mount /dev/md0 /mnt/md0

Write the RAID configuration in the systems' RAID config file, and make sure the boot image includes the correct RAID configuration 

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo mdadm --detail --scan | sudo tee -a /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
ARRAY /dev/md0 metadata=1.2 UUID=3a643c69:049623c6:7a0b964d:bad4524e

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.18.29+rpt-rpi-v8
'/boot/initrd.img-6.18.29+rpt-rpi-v8' -> '/boot/firmware/initramfs8'
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.18.29+rpt-rpi-2712
'/boot/initrd.img-6.18.29+rpt-rpi-2712' -> '/boot/firmware/initramfs_2712'

Add an entry to /etc/fstab, it tells the system to automatically mount the RAID device on boot

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ echo '/dev/md0 /mnt/md0 ext4 defaults,nofail,discard 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
/dev/md0 /mnt/md0 ext4 defaults,nofail,discard 0 0

pasted-image

Check the status of the RAID, resyncing is completed

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md0 : active raid1 sdc[1] sda[0]
      1953382464 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
      bitmap: 2/4 pages [32KB], 65536KB chunk

unused devices: <none>

at this stage, we still cannot see the file system / drives are available to mount in OMV let's do the un-mount first

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo umount /mnt/md0

Read the OMV's internal configuration database, there is nothing in it

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo omv-confdbadm read --prettify conf.system.filesystem.mountpoint
[]

confirm HDDs are in healthy status, no error. In OMV > Storage > File Systems, click 'Mount' icon

pasted-image

the device appears for mount

pasted-image

after clicking the Save button and applying the configuration changes, the mount drive is ready in OMV

pasted-image

Verify by reading the OMV's internal configuration database

user@TechDev-RPI5:~ $ sudo omv-confdbadm read --prettify conf.system.filesystem.mountpoint
[
    {
        "comment": "",
        "dir": "/srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-e13b6ac2-c822-4b72-88c8-c05b72cae4d7",
        "freq": 0,
        "fsname": "/dev/disk/by-uuid/e13b6ac2-c822-4b72-88c8-c05b72cae4d7",
        "hidden": false,
        "opts": "defaults,nofail,user_xattr,usrquota,grpquota,acl",
        "passno": 2,
        "type": "ext4",
        "usagewarnthreshold": 90,
        "uuid": "a19d4fc5-8375-4565-8f92-88fda0da268b"
    }
]

Great, the filesystem / RAID 1 mount drive is ready for the next step: enable SMB and creating shared folders!