dev_all_the_ops
CasaOS is about as easy as it gets.
curl -fsSL https://get.casaos.io | sudo bash
It provides a gui front end for docker. You can install it on any debian based system (which mint is). Combine that with the portainer app and there isn't much you can't do.
This video by Wolfgang has tons of good information on finding a good low power cpu.
There is a google sheet pinned at the top where people have real world power measurements.
Basically you want to find a low TDP cpu/motherboard combo.
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You could add more with a usb/thunderbolt/sas jbod expansion.
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Buy a bigger unit, transfer the drives and sell the old one
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Clustering/hyperconverged with truenas or ceph
Instead of 3 small drives, why not go for 2 larger drives. You are sort of fighting 2 constraints. That case isn’t meant for 3 drives.
Also I really think you will regret the usb. You could get a pci to SATA connector and put 1 or 2 drives inside the case.
If power efficiency is important, then you will want to look for CPUs with low TDP.
I reccomend this video by Wolfgang
Or this one by hardware haven
They go into depth on low power home servers.
Something like this?
Obviously this is make for ripping DVD/Blu-Rays, but combined with software like Automatic Ripping Machine, I feel confident that you could automate 90% of this. (Still would need to put disks in, and rename any folders that were created).
Based on the fact that you are dealing with medical files, you likely have HIPPA hoops to jump through, so using a unmanaged second computer might be out of the question. (As an it administrator I would not allow a raspberry pi or similar access to the VPN/Network). You may have luck asking IT for a second computer (that they control), and then do the USB drive option.
CasaOS can mix and match, but it uses mergerFS which doesn’t have the same parity as ZFS/ceph/raid.
Im also a big fan of CasaOS and run it. You should also check out ZimaOS alpha release as it has more raid functionality.
ZFS needs roughly 1GB of ram per TB of storage.
Truenas code is older and runs on BSD. 99% of people will want to run Scale.
What’s your budget?
For a very clean professional look and future proofing I would add smurf tube behind the drywall and add a media enclosure
Unraid- if your drives are different sizes. Truenas - if you have lots of ram and like ZFS. CasaOs - If you like pretty things. Proxmox + Open Media Vault - If you want to run vms.
Completely False? No known 3.5 external that isn't normal inside?
You sure about that?
What about these drives that have a USB interface instead of SATA.
What do you mean the addresses are private? Are you double NAT-ed?
As others have mentioned, tailscale or Cloudflare tunnels can solve your problem