Mount a Home NAS with OpenMediaVault (OMV) It has become one of the most rewarding projects for those who want to centralize backups, multimedia, and documents at home without relying on proprietary solutions. Furthermore, it allows you to repurpose old PCs or small ARM motherboards and use them as powerful servers.
Throughout this guide you will see how to install and configure OpenMediaVault Whether you're using a traditional PC or an Orange Pi-type board, we'll cover how to enable services like SMB, NFS, SFTP, Docker, and specific plugins, as well as the options for expanding your system with RAID, MergerFS, backups, remote access, and more. The goal is for you to end up with a robust, practical NAS tailored to your everyday needs.
What is a home NAS and why use OpenMediaVault
When we talk about NAS, we are referring to a Network Attached Storage. In other words, a device with one or more hard drives connected to the local network (usually the router) that provides centralized storage for all your devices. Basically, it's like having a network hard drive Always on, accessible from mobiles, laptops, Smart TVs and other PCs.
A NAS can be a dedicated box that you buy pre-made, or a Repurposed PC/motherboard with multiple disks where you install a storage-oriented operating system. That's where OpenMediaVault comes in: it's a NAS-specialized system that relies on Debian Linux, with a very user-friendly web interface and many ready-to-use features (RAID, SMB/CIFS, NFS, FTP, SFTP, plugins, Docker, etc.).
Compared to alternatives like FreeNAS/TrueNAS or proprietary solutions, OMV stands out because It doesn't lock your data in strange formatsIt works with standard file systems (EXT4, XFS, Btrfs, etc.). Furthermore, if the hardware ever fails, you can plug the disks into another Linux system and easily recover the data.
Furthermore, being based on Debian, inherits its stability and securityThe OMV community maintains a very active repository of plugins and packages, along with OMV-Extras, which opens the door to Docker containers, advanced SFTP, automated USB backups, and a host of other features without having to struggle with the console too much.
Hardware requirements and mounting types for your NAS
Before getting started with the installation, it's a good idea to be clear about the minimum requirements and hardware variants OpenMediaVault is commonly used in these applications, ranging from mini PCs to budget ARM motherboards.
In a classic PC build, OMV recommends as a base a 64-bit Intel or AMD processor, at least 8 GB of RAM and a separate boot drive (SSD, HDD, or even a 16GB or larger USB flash drive) for the operating system. The drives where you'll store your movies, photos, and backups are separate. Ideally, in a RAID array if you want fault tolerance.
For RAID 1 (mirroring) configurations you need at least two disks of equal capacity. You can also opt for RAID 5 or RAID 6 if you have 3 or more drives. OMV can work with many TB as long as the computer's BIOS/UEFI recognizes them correctly: in mode UEFI does not have the ~2,2 TB limit which the classic BIOS did suffer from.
On boards like the Orange Pi or similar, the key factor is memory. OMV works reasonably well on any board with 1 GB of RAM or moreSome users have successfully installed it on Orange Pi Plus 2E, Orange Pi Prime, and other variants, especially when there is a Armbian image based on DebianWith models that only have Ubuntu-based images, incompatibilities appear, especially in older versions of OMV that depended on PHP5.
Another very common approach is to build a more powerful NAS in a Jonsbo N1-type case with desktop hardware. For example, Ryzen 5600G, B550 mini-ITX board, 16 GB RAMA 512GB NVMe drive for the system and Docker, a SATA SSD for system downloads and backups, and several mechanical HDDs (e.g., an 8TB Seagate Ironwolf) for data. This also allows you to run Docker containers for Plex, Pi-hole, Tailscale, Nginx Proxy Manager or advanced download clients.
Downloading OpenMediaVault and creating the installation media
The installation process varies slightly depending on whether you have an x86_64 PC or an ARM motherboard, but the philosophy is the same: Download the official image and install it from a USB drive or similar device..
On a standard PC, the first step will be to go to the official OMV repository at SourceForgewhere you'll find ready-to-burn ISO images. Choose the current stable version and download the file. Then, on Windows, you can use tools like Rufus To convert that ISO into a bootable USB drive; in Linux you would simply use dd (being very careful with the destination disk).
With the USB created, Enter the BIOS/UEFI of the team and configures the Boot sequence So it tries the USB drive first (or the optical drive if you've burned a DVD). Many modern computers allow you to access a quick boot menu by pressing a key when turning on the computer (F8, F11, F12, etc.), where you can temporarily choose which drive to boot from without changing the permanent boot configuration.
In the case of ARM motherboards with Armbian or other distributions, the approach is different: there, one starts from a Debian/Armbian image already installed on the SD card Then the OpenMediaVault repositories are added to install it with apt. The procedure described for Orange Pi, for example, involves connecting via SSH to the Armbian-Debian system and adding the source file. openmediavault.list to the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory with the OMV URLs and then run a series of commands to download the GPG key, update and install the necessary packages.
Initial PC Setup Wizard
When the computer boots from the OpenMediaVault USB drive, you'll see a Debian-style welcome screen. There you choose the option to Install and the wizard starts in text mode, which is operated with the arrow keys, the Tab key, Enter and the space bar.
The first thing it will ask you for is the first language for the installer. Next, you will need to specify the country or region, which is useful information for configuring the time zone and suggest the appropriate keyboard layout, although you can always adjust it manually in the next step.
Once the network hardware has been detected and the basic environment loaded, the installer will request a team name (hostname). This will be the name the NAS will appear as on your local network. You can then enter a local domain, such as local or the one you use on your LAN.
The assistant then asks for the root user passwordThis user is the system-level administrator, different from the web interface admin user. You must type it twice to avoid typos. Since the characters are not displayed while typing, you have the option to view the password if needed. This is recommended if you are in a controlled environment.
After these steps, the system will ask you to specify the time zone This is specific to the country. It's an important aspect for timestamps in logs and file metadata. From there, the copying of system files from the installation media to the chosen disk will begin.
Choosing disks, RAID and file systems
Once the base environment is loaded, the installer will detect the connected hard drives and warn you if there are any. several units presentYou will need to choose which disk to install OMV on. The usual recommendation is to dedicate one small disk or SSD 10-16 GB or more to the system only and reserve the large disks for NAS storage.
If you decide to install everything on a single disk out of necessity, there's a trick. First, you install OMV normally, using the entire disk, and then you boot from a GParted LiveCD/LiveUSB To resize, reduce the system partition (sda1, for example) to about 16 GB, freeing up space at the end of the disk where you create a new partition with EXT4. After applying the changes, reboot into OMV and, from the web interface, mount this new partition as storage in the section Storage → File systemsThat will be your data zone.
In multi-disk NAS installations, it is common practice to first create a Software RAID From the OMV interface, in the "Storage → Software RAID" section, add a new array specifying the type. The following options are available:
- Stripe/RAID 0 for performance without redundancy.
- Mirror/RAID 1 to duplicate data on two disks.
- Linear to combine capabilities with no fault tolerance.
- RAID 5 and RAID 6 for arrays with parity and greater resilience.
You just need to select the units involved.
Once the array has been created and synchronized, go to "Storage → File systems" and format the RAID array with the desired file system. OMV supports EXT3, EXT4, XFS, JFS, F2FS, and Btrfs.
After creating the file system, the next step is mount From that same section, select the volume, click mount, save, and apply the changes. From then on, it's available to host shared folders, backups, and anything else you want to save.
First boot and access to the OMV web interface
When the wizard finishes, the boot manager is installed. GRUB On the appropriate disk, the final adjustments are made and the system notifies you that you can remove the USB drive and restart the NASUpon restarting, you will briefly see the GRUB menu and, after a few seconds, the Debian login console.
On that local console you can log in as root with the password set during installation for direct system tasks, although from now on you'll typically manage almost everything through the web interface. After booting, the following appears on the screen: local IP address assigned to the NAS by your router (for example, 192.168.1.64).
On any other computer on your network, open a browser and type the URL with that IP address: for example http://192.168.1.64The OpenMediaVault login page will appear. By default, the username and password for the web interface are admin y openmediavault respectively.
Once inside, it's advisable to adjust the location In "System → General Settings" you can set the language to Spanish, the correct time zone, and other basic details. Afterward, it is highly recommended to access the admin user section and change the default password of the web interface so as not to leave the door open.
From "System → Update Management" you can also search for pending packages, mark them, and update OMV and Debian to stay up-to-date with security and bug fixes. Always remember to click "Apply" when the interface displays the yellow bar indicating pending changes.
Create users, groups, and shared folders
With the system ready, it's time to define who will use the NAS and what they will be able to do. This involves create users, groups and shared folders with properly configured permissions.
In "Access Permissions → Users," you can add new accounts for people who will access the NAS from their PC or mobile device. You define a username and password, and optionally assign them to specific groups. In "Access Permissions → Groups," you manage these groups, which is useful if you want to grant permissions by category (family, guests, backups, etc.).
Next, go to "Storage → Shared Folders" and create one or more. root folders on the volume you mounted earlier (RAID, single disk, or separate partition). For example, you can create "Multimedia," "Backups," "Documents," or a dedicated folder for each user. Each shared folder is associated with a specific file system (EXT4, Btrfs, etc.) and will be available for export via various protocols.
In the same section, with the folder selected, the button "Privileges" This allows you to adjust, for each user or group, whether they will have read-only, read/write, or no access. It's important to take some time to do this while the NAS is still empty, because if you later need to aggressively reconfigure permissions, you could be forced to reformat and lose data.
In addition to privileges, there is a Unix-level permissions system (user, group, others) that you can adjust if you already know Linux, although for most home uses the privileges offered by the OMV interface on shared folders are sufficient.
Enable SMB/CIFS, NFS and other network services
With the folders defined, it's time to expose them on the network using the appropriate protocols. The most common are: SMB/CIFS for Windows y NFS for Linux/Unix environmentsalthough OMV also supports FTP, SFTP and other services.
To allow Windows computers to see the folders, go to "Services → SMB/CIFS → Settings" and check the box for "Habilitado"You can customize the server's NetBIOS name, workgroup, and advanced settings, although the default values ​​are usually sufficient to get started. Save and apply.
Then go to the "Shared Resources" tab in SMB/CIFS and add a new resource. There you select the shared folder You can configure which resources you want to expose, allowing them to inherit permissions, making them visible or hidden in the file explorer, and setting additional parameters. After saving, this resource will appear on the Windows network, and you can connect to it from "This PC" and assign it a drive letter using the "Map network drive" option.
If you're going to use Linux clients that benefit from NFSYou'll find the configuration under "Services → NFS". By enabling the service and creating NFS exports of the same shared folders, you can mount them from other Linux systems by specifying the NAS's IP address, the exported path, and the permissions.
In backup environments using Veeam and similar technologies, it is common to combine OMV with NFS or CIFS as backup repositoryThe service is enabled, a specific folder is shared, and a Linux repository or CIFS share is configured from Veeam, pointing to the volume mounted on OMV. This type of solution has proven to be much more stable than some low-end commercial NAS devices that crash or are abandoned by the manufacturer.
It can also be enabled SSH In "Services → SSH" to have secure access to the NAS console from another computer, which is essential if you want to automate tasks or install advanced add-ons like OMV-Extras via the command line.
OMV-Extras, Docker and additional services
One of OMV's strengths is that it doesn't stop at file sharing: through plugins and containers you can turn your NAS into media center, VPN server, ad blocker, download manager and much more. The starting point for this is the repository. OMV-Extras.
If you already see the "OMV-Extras" option in the "System" menu, it's installed. If not, you'll have to add it from the local console or via SSH. To do this, log in with the user root and execute a command like:
wget -O – https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/packages/raw/master/install | Bash
This script downloads and installs the OMV-Extras package. Once it finishes (if everything goes well, you'll see a "done" message at the end), return to the web interface, refresh the page, and the new menu should appear. From there, you can activate the repository and access a expanded plugin list, such as Docker support, advanced SFTP, USB synchronization, etc.
With Docker (and, in recent versions, Podman in some cases) you can easily deploy containers for services such as:
- plex (multimedia server).
- Pi-hole (DNS and DHCP to block advertising).
- tailscale (Mesh VPN to access the NAS from outside).
- Nginx Proxy Manager (management of reverse proxy with certificates).
- Full discharge stacks like Gluetun + Qbittorrent + Jackett + Flaresolverr.
The idea is that the NAS should stop being just storage and become the core of your home infrastructure.
Secure access from the Internet using SFTP
Having your files centralized is great, but it only really makes sense when you can Access your NAS from outside your homeThere are several options for this, but it is important to distinguish between the less safe and the recommended ones.
The protocol Classic FTP It's easy to set up, but it transmits data and credentials unencrypted, making it unsuitable for internet exposure. A much better alternative is... SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), which reuses the encrypted SSH channel to securely transfer files.
In OMV, you can install the SFTP plugin via OMV-Extras. Once installed, the "SFTP" section appears in the "Services" menu. Before activating it, you should create a specific user: in "Access Permissions → Users," add, for example, a user named "sftp-user" with its password, and in the "Groups" tab, add it to a dedicated group, such as sftp-acces.
Then, in "Access permissions → Groups", select that group and, using the "Privileges" button, grant it reading writing Regarding the shared folder you want to use with SFTP, in "Shared Folders" you verify that both the group and the user have the appropriate privileges. This ensures that, even if the SFTP user has external access, they can only see the portion of the NAS that you specify.
In "Services → SFTP" you check the enable box, you define a non-standard portNext, you maintain password authentication and enable the option to restrict access to the sftp-acces group. In the "Access List" tab, you associate the user with the corresponding folder. You save and apply the changes.
Port forwarding on the router for remote access
With SFTP working within your local network, the final step to access it from anywhere with the internet is to configure a NAT/port forwarding rule on your routerEach model has its own interface, but the idea is always the same.
Accessing the router's control panel (usually in http://192.168.1.1 or another similar IP address) with the username and password indicated on the sticker or by your operator, look for the section of NAT/PAT, Port mapping, Port forwarding or similar. There you will create a rule that says something like: "when someone connects to the home public IP on port 35000 TCP, redirect it to the NAS's internal IP (for example, 192.168.1.20) and port 222."
In that rule you usually fill in fields like:
- Descriptive name ("SFTP OMV").
- External port (35000).
- Internal port (222).
- Protocol (TCP).
- Internal IP address of the NAS.
It is also advisable to reserve a DHCP address in the router's DHCP settings. Static IP address for the NASso that it doesn't change between restarts and the rule always points to the same destination.
From a laptop or mobile device that is outside your WiFi network, when configuring FileZilla you will need to specify your server as the server. Public IP (You can find it by searching "public IP" on Google) and use port 35000, which you mapped. The rest of the parameters (SFTP username and password) remain the same. If everything is configured correctly, you'll be able to view your NAS files from anywhere as if you were at home.
This approach not only allows you free up space on your mobile Uploading photos to your NAS while traveling, as well as accessing documents, series, or music without relying on third-party cloud services, while maintaining control of your data.
MVNOs versus Nextcloud and other end-user applications
Many people wonder if it makes sense to install Nextcloud on top of a NAS with OpenMediaVault, when they can already access shared folders via SMB or SFTP. The key difference is that OMV focuses on being pure network storagewhile Nextcloud provides a whole layer of applications and services geared towards the end user.
With OMV you share folders as if they were network units It's a classic file manager: you drag and drop files, make copies, open videos, etc. It's ideal as a backend for backups, multimedia, work files, and repositories for VMs or ISOs. On its own, it doesn't provide a calendar, contacts, collaborative document editing, or web photo galleries (beyond what other services you add on top of it might offer).
Nextcloud, on the other hand, is more like a Google Drive / iCloud self-hostedIt seamlessly syncs folders across devices, offers WebDAV, mobile clients, apps for viewing and organizing photos, managing notes, tasks, calendars, and contacts, integrates with online office suites, and much more. If you want to replicate much of the experience of major cloud services but on your own server, Nextcloud is the missing piece.
The best option is usually to combine: using MVNOs as base storage platform and build on top of it, using Docker or other methods, the services that really benefit you: Plex/Emby/Jellyfin for videos, Navidrome for music, PhotoSync or similar applications for photos, and only add Nextcloud if you are really going to take advantage of its productivity layer (syncing between devices, sharing public links, online editing, etc.).
From here, your home NAS with OpenMediaVault can grow as much as you want: from a simple repository for backups and movies to a small "home data center" with monitoring (Glances), an ad blocker (Pi-hole), a VPN (Tailscale), a reverse proxy, download automation, and anything else you can imagine. The important thing is to start with a foundation. stable, well installed, and with proper permits and safety measures in place.From there, the rest are layers that you can add according to your needs and curiosity.