Advice wanted on best way to store music files for LMS/ RaspPi

[Timmy C]

Set up as was: Rasp Pi running Max2play for LMS. Qnap NAS on network storing music. Squeezeboxes throughout house. All worked great...until now!

My Qnap has recently been infected with ech0aix malware and all files encrypted (although the actual FLAC files themselves don't appear to be). As a short term solution I dug out my previous Qnap model and after a quick scan it seems that one was infected with Qsnatch so this has put me off the idea of using a NAS altogether. Yes it may well be partially my own fault for not regularly checking for security issues but it's happened and now I'm looking for a new approach.

So for the moment I have a small USB hard drive (old laptop drive in a USB caddy) plugged in to the USB port on the Pi so at least I have some music. My question is, would this approach be the best permanent solution or are there better options? If the Pi is powered up 24/7, should I buy a particular type of USB attached drive that is best suited for this purpose? Is there advantages/disadvantages to desktop vs portable drives for this purpose?

Alternatively, is there some kind of very basic NAS unit I can put on the network that simply doesn't connect to the outside world so not open to these kind of attacks? I don't want or need 99% of the features my Qnap NAS had but the ability to access the drives from any PC in the house over the network will be missed if I stick with my current new method.

Computers really aren't my thing so please keep that in mind when it comes to suggestions or telling me what a moron I have been! Thanks!

 

[TheHighFlyingBirds]

You might be able to plug a usb hdd into your router and share the music that way. Any usb hdd would need to be low power, but an externally powered one would probably be best.

My preference would be to get a spare pi, and get a nvme ssd and load all music on there, then you have a nice little server accessable to all. This was the approach I took after synology pulling / preventing LMS working on dsm 7. I got the argon one case with the m2 ssd option. Works brilliantly (and even has pihole running on it to prevent ads on all computers and phones on my network).

Argon ONE M.2 Raspberry Pi 4 Case

The Argon ONE M.2 Case for the Raspberry Pi 4 builds on the popular Argon ONE case and provides two full-sized HDMI ports, Power Management Modes that allow for automatic booting, Built-in IR support and integrated M.2 SATA SSD support through the USB 3 Ports of the Raspberry Pi 4! Boot from M.2...

thepihut.com

 

[Timmy C]

You might be able to plug a usb hdd into your router and share the music that way. Any usb hdd would need to be low power, but an externally powered one would probably be best.

My preference would be to get a spare pi, and get a nvme ssd and load all music on there, then you have a nice little server accessable to all. This was the approach I took after synology pulling / preventing LMS working on dsm 7. I got the argon one case with the m2 ssd option. Works brilliantly (and even has pihole running on it to prevent ads on all computers and phones on my network).

Argon ONE M.2 Raspberry Pi 4 Case

The Argon ONE M.2 Case for the Raspberry Pi 4 builds on the popular Argon ONE case and provides two full-sized HDMI ports, Power Management Modes that allow for automatic booting, Built-in IR support and integrated M.2 SATA SSD support through the USB 3 Ports of the Raspberry Pi 4! Boot from M.2...

thepihut.com

I'm currently with NOW/Sky broadband and they tie you to their routers so that option is a no go but your second suggestion I will certainly look in to.

I got my Pi after Qnap did the same with LMS so have been running it on that since. Are you saying I need a second Pi or can I do it all with just the one?

UPDATE: Just figured out how to set up a share via Max2play so I can now access the drive from PC's on the network. Would never have even tried if it wasn't for your post so thank you!

 

[TheHighFlyingBirds]

Glad you got it sorted. Guessing you've effectively mapped the hdd as a shared folder via smb or as a dlna server.

 

[Timmy C]

Glad you got it sorted. Guessing you've effectively mapped the hdd as a shared folder via smb or as a dlna server.

Yeah smb. Is there anything I need to be concerned about doing this? As you are probably well aware by now, I have no idea what I'd doing!

 

[TheHighFlyingBirds]

Yeah smb. Is there anything I need to be concerned about doing this? As you are probably well aware by now, I have no idea what I'd doing!

I don't think so, it should be ok as its just a standard smb share protocol. Connections from outside your network shouldn't be an issue provided you haven't forwarded any ports on your router to your pi. If you do want to access the files when away from your network you'd be best to setup a VPN to your home network. Main thing will be users on your network deleting files accidentally but no different to when they were on the NAS.

 

[Timmy C]

I keep seeing port forwarding talked about and I certainly haven't deliberately set anything to do that as far as I'm aware. I've also ensured UPNP is disabled on the router as I often see that mentioned as being potentially dangerous.

Got a password set up on the share so no danger of anyone in my house accidentally accessing and deleting anything so all good on that front. No need for access while away from home. It seems that luxury is far more trouble than it's worth for someone like me!

 

[gvh]

I have lms on a dedicated pi4 and music on an ssd. It was caseless for a year but I just bought the Argon case and one of these to tidy it all up. Cheap and simple.

SSD Base Enclosure for Argon ONE Cases

This SDD base enclosure for Argon ONE Raspberry Pi cases allows you to fit a 2.5" SSD below your Argon ONE V2/M.2 - a tidy way to add additional fast storage and maintain the sleek lines of the Argon ONE case! Note: SSD, SATA USB cable and Argon ONE case not included! This is the base enclosure...

thepihut.com

My sympathy for the infection

 

[Timmy C]

I have lms on a dedicated pi4 and music on an ssd. It was caseless for a year but I just bought the Argon case and one of these to tidy it all up. Cheap and simple.

SSD Base Enclosure for Argon ONE Cases

This SDD base enclosure for Argon ONE Raspberry Pi cases allows you to fit a 2.5" SSD below your Argon ONE V2/M.2 - a tidy way to add additional fast storage and maintain the sleek lines of the Argon ONE case! Note: SSD, SATA USB cable and Argon ONE case not included! This is the base enclosure...

thepihut.com

My sympathy for the infection

Can you tell me if there are advantages to using an SSD? I know they are good for fast boot times in a laptop but in my case, where I'm purely storing music for LMS, is an SSD going to be a better option than a regular hard drive? Again, keep in mind I'm not clued up about these things so feel free to point out even the most basic advantages/disadvantages that may be obvious to most!

 

[TheHighFlyingBirds]

Can you tell me if there are advantages to using an SSD? I know they are good for fast boot times in a laptop but in my case, where I'm purely storing music for LMS, is an SSD going to be a better option than a regular hard drive? Again, keep in mind I'm not clued up about these things so feel free to point out even the most basic advantages/disadvantages that may be obvious to most!

It just makes it nice and compact, adds a speed boost (handy when scanning your library) and I think they take less power than a mechanical hdd.

 

[Timmy C]

It just makes it nice and compact, adds a speed boost (handy when scanning your library) and I think they take less power than a mechanical hdd.

I like the idea of less power but not sure the additional cost of the drive would be worth it from that point of view as I would probably want a 1tb and would guess they don't come cheap in SSD flavour. I will look into it though.

I have my pi powered on 24/7 so was wondering, should I not be looking for a hard drive designed with that in mind, as you might use in a NAS? I currently have a WD portable drive attached but I have no idea if these types of drive are happy being powered up and spinning 24/7. I haven't figured out if it goes into any kind of sleep mode at any point but so far it seems to be spinning all the time. Is that normal or should I be concerned?

 

[TheHighFlyingBirds]

I like the idea of less power but not sure the additional cost of the drive would be worth it from that point of view as I would probably want a 1tb and would guess they don't come cheap in SSD flavour. I will look into it though.

I have my pi powered on 24/7 so was wondering, should I not be looking for a hard drive designed with that in mind, as you might use in a NAS? I currently have a WD portable drive attached but I have no idea if these types of drive are happy being powered up and spinning 24/7. I haven't figured out if it goes into any kind of sleep mode at any point but so far it seems to be spinning all the time. Is that normal or should I be concerned?

As the argon case (if you went that way) only accepts m2 sata ssd's options are more limited, but you would be looking at about £80, but this option would require you to buy the case and a pi4 (if you current pi isnt a 4b)

Can't imagine a portable drive is happy with 24/7 running, I think some have sleep modes, but would have to look into it. An external ssd should work and be more suited, but these seem to be even more expensive. Sounds like options would be:

A. M2 sata ssd with the argon one case.
B. Keep using the portable external drive (would be worth reading up on using it in this manner)
C. Get an external ssd
D. Get a cheap nas type unit with nas drive (this might be best option, and only needs a cheap base model as it just needs to act as a remote file server, which the pi with LMS installed will have as its directory).

 

[Timmy C]

As the argon case (if you went that way) only accepts m2 sata ssd's options are more limited, but you would be looking at about £80, but this option would require you to buy the case and a pi4 (if you current pi isnt a 4b)

Can't imagine a portable drive is happy with 24/7 running, I think some have sleep modes, but would have to look into it. An external ssd should work and be more suited, but these seem to be even more expensive. Sounds like options would be:

A. M2 sata ssd with the argon one case.
B. Keep using the portable external drive (would be worth reading up on using it in this manner)
C. Get an external ssd
D. Get a cheap nas type unit with nas drive (this might be best option, and only needs a cheap base model as it just needs to act as a remote file server, which the pi with LMS installed will have as its directory).

Unfortunately mine's a Pi3 so I have ruled out the Argon case for now.

I can probably clean my NAS and reuse it, I'm just waiting on Qnaps next response to my ticket to see what level of cleaning needs to be done. That said, after what happened, I'm uneasy about using a NAS again as they seem to have so many features that you need to keep on top of to avoid running in to trouble. I just want something I can power up and forget about.

I'm wondering if I can find a desktop USB connected external drive that's designed to be on 24/7 but so far, google searches just bring up NAS units. I shall keep searching!

 

[gvh]

I think a proper spinning drive will need external power as well. Ssd can hang off a USB port of a pi just with the usual adapter. I only needed about 500 gb for my music collection so it wasn't a big deal. It's stopped growing since tidal came along. With lms the speed only really helps with indexing.
If I was doing it now I would go m2 because of the size

 

[gvh]

If you want more inspiration...
(yes you can run lms on these at the same time as being a player)
Setup SmartiPi Touch case | piCorePlayer documentation
I need to take a photo of the white one I've built for my daughter

 

[Timmy C]

I think a proper spinning drive will need external power as well. Ssd can hang off a USB port of a pi just with the usual adapter. I only needed about 500 gb for my music collection so it wasn't a big deal. It's stopped growing since tidal came along. With lms the speed only really helps with indexing.
If I was doing it now I would go m2 because of the size

I have it working with a portable mechanical drive just working off USB but I'm finding sleep mode is a bit hit and miss and sometimes find the drive still spinning hours after I've listened to anything. With that in mind I'm coming round to the idea of paying out for a 1TB SSD to replace it but I've got a cheap refurb WD Mybook due to arrive this week which has it's own power supply, so I'll try that first and see how I get on.