KubeSail PiBox - Pi CM4 NAS Box

[geerlingguy]

See: https://kubesail.com/blog/pibox-raspberry-pi-powered-nas (and minisite: https://pibox.io)

Still in prototype, but here's the synopsis:

Today we're announcing the PiBox, a Raspberry Pi powered storage server capable of running tons of great software, like self-hosted alternates to Dropbox and Google Photos. We're happy ship it to you with a vanilla OS, or with Kubernetes and the KubeSail agent pre-installed. KubeSail lets you install new software on your PiBox in a single click, via software templates!

[geerlingguy]

cc @pastudan (and thanks to @rockaut for highlighting this project).

[pastudan]

Thanks @rockaut and @geerlingguy ! We're early in the process of testing some prototype boards, but I'll keep this thread up to date as we make progress!

Right now we've got some development boards fully built that prove we're definitely on the right track! We're still having issues with a kernel panic at boot using the JMB582 chip (see #64), but the next revision of boards that we're ordering today will use a carrier / daughterboard design that will let the end user swap out SATA chipsets as well as number of drives. Likely we will make a 2-port design around the ASM1061 as its cheaper and the Pi can't fully take advantage of the performance of the JMB582 anyway.

[geerlingguy]

@pastudan - Nice; and sorry I haven't gotten around to testing the 2 port chipset—it's literally sitting on top of a small pile of cards I have in the queue after I get through a couple more videos on general CM4 boards that I've been putting off :)

[geerlingguy]

@pastudan - What are the two large connector spaces on the bottom left? (To the left of the HDMI port).

[pastudan]

@pastudan - What are the two large connector spaces on the bottom left? (To the left of the HDMI port).

This is an SD slot and Ethernet port, from left to right. The eth port is significantly smaller on the latest revision. Will be able to ship you a prototype within the next few days!

[pastudan]

Latest photos:

[geerlingguy]

@pastudan - Ooh, nice! I like the edge connector for the drives; and I was wondering... that port did look like network, but was way deeper than a typical RJ45 jack, but shallower than SFP+ (and I was thinking it would be odd to stick SFP+ in a consumer NAS!).

[miztroh]

@pastudan Any update you can share? If there's somewhere else I can follow the progress, I'd be happy to do so. I've already signed up for notifications at pibox.io. Thanks!

[pastudan]

@miztroh pibox.io is the best place for updates. We'll send an update email soon! We've been heads down finalizing prototypes, and we're on track to launch our kickstarter next month

[miztroh]

@pastudan Ok, great. Thanks for the quick reply. I'll be on the lookout for the Kickstarter!

[pastudan]

@miztroh Our Kickstarter goes live on Monday! You can follow it now for updates and to get a notification when it launches
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pastudan/pibox-a-modular-raspberry-pi-storage-server

[miztroh]

@pastudan I really appreciate you taking the time to come back here and let us know. I'm following this and will look forward to Monday. Thanks again!