Building a 30TB NAS from Scratch
Parts list, Proxmox setup, Docker containers, and all the things I learned the hard way.
I’ve been wanting to build a proper NAS for a while. After months of research and parts hunting, I finally put it all together. Here’s the full breakdown.
The Goal
I wanted a single box that could handle media storage, automated downloads via the *arr stack, photo management, IPTV, and general file serving — all running on Proxmox with Docker containers.
Hardware
The build is based around a case with plenty of drive bays, enough RAM to keep Proxmox and multiple containers happy, and a CPU that can handle transcoding when needed. Total raw storage is over 30TB across multiple drives.
Software Stack
- Proxmox as the hypervisor
- Docker containers for all services
- Cloudflare Tunnels for remote access without exposing ports
- The full *arr stack for media automation
- Photo management for my personal library
Lessons Learned
The biggest lesson was around drive configuration and redundancy. I also learned the hard way that not all SATA controllers play nicely with Proxmox passthrough. More details on the specific gotchas in a future post.