In the information age, the security and availability of data are very important. While ensuring data security, it is also meaningful to ensure that data is always available, synchronized and updated in a timely manner, and backed up in multiple locations. For individuals, carrying a USB flash drive or an external hard drive is one way, but if lost, the loss is often unbearable. Establishing personal private storage becomes one of the solutions to this problem.
With personal private storage, data can not only be downloaded for use at any time but can also be uploaded for backup to private cloud storage, and even multiple versions can be saved simultaneously, establishing a private media library, etc. The implementation of these functions requires a professional device called NAS.
NAS can be purchased as a professional device or set up by oneself. If there is a soft router device, all that is needed can be achieved by installing the NAS service system. Before that, some basic environments need to be established, such as: PVE virtual system and LEDE soft router system.
1. Considerations for Choosing Hardware and Software for Soft Routers
Searching for “soft router” on Taobao will yield many products that are largely similar. Performance and functionality depend on the processor, memory, and hard disk space. Additionally, network interfaces and USB interfaces are also important considerations. The primary indicator for the processor is whether it supports V-D, which is the virtual direct pass-through hardware technology. This is crucial for virtualization and its performance. If virtualization is considered, it is recommended to start with 4GB of memory; there should be at least two USB interfaces, up to four, as more than that will not be used.
As for display interfaces, they are mainly divided into HDMI and VGA. Soft routers are designed with industrial motherboards and can run 24 hours a day all year round. The display interface is only used during initial installation and configuration, so there is no need to get caught up in which display interface to choose; whichever is cheaper is fine.
If software can be installed by oneself, there is no need to worry; otherwise, one should consider choosing a soft router device that already has the system installed. There are two types with virtual systems: one is ESXI, and the other is PVE. The former requires a licensed version, while the latter is open-source and free. Compared to the former, the latter has better functionality and performance, but the former is more commonly used since it comes from VMware, although many pirated versions are available on Taobao.
Of course, the J1900 processor, which does not support virtualization technology, can also handle light usage. Without a virtual system, using just LEDE can provide a good experience.
2. Reasons for Choosing the 3865U Processor and the PVE+LEDE Solution
To support virtualization, I gave up the J1900 and chose between the J3455 and the 3865U. Although there are other processors that support virtualization, considering the price factor, I ultimately chose the 3865U processor. The reason for choosing PVE as the virtual system is simple: it is both free and performs well. The reasons for choosing LEDE are twofold: first, it has a rich application and resource ecosystem; second, its security is far superior to the aikuai system, and no one wants to take risks with their private data security.
Although there are many 4-port soft routers on Taobao, they are not enough for personal use. I plan to use the soft router as the main router, and there are several boxes and other devices at home. Therefore, I can only choose a 6-port soft router: one port for the optical modem, one for the wireless AP, one for the TV, one for the computer, and one for the box, leaving one port as a backup.
3. Brief Steps to Install PVE and LEDE
The download link for the latest version of PVE 6.1 is https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads/item/proxmox-ve-6-1-iso-installer. After downloading the ISO file, use a tool to write it to a USB flash drive or use the command in a Linux system:
#dd bs=1M if=ISO file of=/dev/XYZ The ISO file is the complete file name downloaded, and XYZ is the device name of the USB flash drive in the Linux system. Compared to a bunch of tools in Windows, such as ultraiso, this command always works in one go.
Insert the USB wired keyboard and the prepared USB installation disk into the USB port of the soft router. Power on and press F11 to choose to boot from the USB drive. Follow the prompts and press Enter all the way to install the PVE virtual system, setting the root administrator password during the process.
Copy the downloaded LEDE system package, usually with a .tar.gz extension. Note to extract the .img file and copy this file into the PVE virtual system to prepare for installing the LEDE soft router system. There are two methods: one is to use WinSCP software in Windows, and the other is to use the scp command in Linux.
#scp lede.img root@IP:/tmp
Assuming the LEDE system file name is lede.img, this command can also be used in Windows 10.
Next, enter https://IP:8006 in the browser to open the PVE virtual system login interface, where IP is the IP prompted after the installation of the PVE system.
After logging in successfully, create a new virtual machine in the PVE virtual system. The default number for the virtual machine is 100, select linux5.x-2.6 as the virtual machine system, assign 1GB of memory, and choose the processor according to the actual situation. If there are several processors, select as many sockets as there are processors, and as many cores as there are cores. For example, with the 3865U processor, there is only one processor with two cores, so the socket value is 1 and the core value is 2. There are also many processor feature switches to choose from, such as aes, etc., all of which should use the default values. If the processor is not selected correctly, the virtual machine cannot start and will report an error no vncproxy, which other articles online do not clarify the reason for.
After following the prompts to set up the virtual machine, delete the virtual machine’s hard disk by selecting the hard disk in the virtual machine hardware and clicking the detach button. Then ssh into the PVE virtual system and load the previously saved lede.img as the virtual machine’s hard disk. An unused hard disk will automatically appear in the virtual machine hardware, with the file name the same as that of the command executed successfully.
#ssh root@IP Log into the PVE virtual system, where IP is the IP of the PVE virtual system after installation
#qm importdisk 100 lede.img local_lvm Import the img system file as the virtual machine hard disk
When the hard disk is successfully loaded again in the virtual machine hardware, click the expand button on the toolbar to increase the hard disk size.
At this point, the installation of the virtual system PVE and the LEDE soft router system is complete.
