Building a NAS entirely from an Alpine Linux initramfs
By
ethanpil
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
The author describes their NAS setup called "frood" which runs entirely as a single initramfs containing a full Alpine Linux system. This "diskless mode" approach runs everything from memory, which is fast and reduces wear on system storage (often SD cards), while dedicated drives are used for the ZFS pool. The article explains the rationale, benefits, and technical implementation of this unconventional but delightful NAS configuration.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledIt's just one big initramfs containing a whole Alpine Linux system. It's delightful and I am not sure why it's not more common.
I've always liked running systems from memory: it's fast and prevents wear on the system storage device, which is often some janky SD card, because the good drives are dedicated to the ZFS pool.
Alpine's answer to this is 'diskless mode'
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