NAS (Network Attached Storage) Ansible Role

A comprehensive Ansible role for configuring and managing Network Attached Storage (NAS) servers with NFS exports, RAID monitoring, network bonding, and performance optimization.

Features

• NFS Server Configuration: Complete NFS server setup with selective directory exports
• RAID Management: mdadm RAID array creation, monitoring, and alerting
• Network Bonding: Support for bonded network interfaces (LACP/802.3ad)
• Storage Management: Automated mounting and filesystem management
• Performance Optimization: Network and storage performance tuning
• Health Monitoring: Comprehensive system health checks and alerting
• Security: Secure NFS settings
• Backup Integration: Automated configuration backups
• SMART Monitoring: Disk health monitoring with smartmontools

Supported Platforms

• Debian: 11 (Bullseye), 12 (Bookworm)
• Ubuntu: 20.04 (Focal), 22.04 (Jammy), 24.04 (Noble)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8, 9
• CentOS: 8, 9, Stream

Requirements

• Ansible 2.9 or higher
• Root access (via sudo) on target hosts
• Network connectivity between Ansible controller and target hosts

Role Variables

Basic NFS Configuration

# Enable/disable NFS server
nas_nfs_enabled: true

# NFS exports configuration
nas_nfs_exports:
  - path: "/mnt/storage/shared"
    clients: "192.168.1.0/24"
    options: "rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash"
  - path: "/mnt/storage/media"
    clients: "192.168.1.100(rw,sync) 192.168.1.101(ro,sync)"
    options: "no_subtree_check"

# Security settings
nas_nfs_secure_ports: true
nas_allowed_networks:
  - "192.168.1.0/24"

RAID Configuration

# Enable RAID support
nas_raid_enabled: true
nas_raid_monitoring: true

# RAID device configuration
nas_raid_devices:
  - device: "/dev/md0"
    level: "raid5"
    members:
      - "/dev/sdb1"
      - "/dev/sdc1"
      - "/dev/sdd1"
    mount_point: "/mnt/storage"
    filesystem: "ext4"

Network Bonding

# Enable network bonding
nas_network_bonding_enabled: true

# Bond configuration
nas_bond_interfaces:
  - bond_name: "bond0"
    mode: "802.3ad"  # LACP
    slaves:
      - "eth0"
      - "eth1"
    ip: "192.168.1.100"
    netmask: "255.255.255.0"
    gateway: "192.168.1.1"

Storage Mounts

# Storage mount points
nas_storage_mounts:
  - device: "/dev/md0"
    mount_point: "/mnt/storage"
    filesystem: "ext4"
    options: "defaults,noatime"
    dump: 0
    pass: 2
    mode: "0755"
    owner: "root"
    group: "root"

Performance Tuning

# Enable performance optimizations
nas_performance_tuning_enabled: true

# Network performance settings
nas_tcp_window_scaling: true
nas_tcp_congestion_control: "bbr"

# Custom sysctl settings
nas_sysctl_settings:
  net.core.rmem_max: 16777216
  net.core.wmem_max: 16777216
  vm.dirty_background_ratio: 5
  vm.dirty_ratio: 10

Monitoring and Alerting

# Enable monitoring
nas_monitoring_enabled: true
nas_smartmontools_enabled: true

# Email notifications for alerts
nas_email_notifications: "[email protected]"

Backup Integration

# Enable backup of NAS configurations
nas_backup_integration: true

# Paths to include in backups
nas_backup_paths:
  - "/mnt/storage/critical"
  - "/etc/exports"
  - "/etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf"

Example Playbooks

Basic NAS Server

---
- hosts: nas_servers
  become: true
  roles:
    - role: nas
      vars:
        nas_nfs_enabled: true
        nas_nfs_exports:
          - path: "/srv/nfs/shared"
            clients: "192.168.1.0/24"
            options: "rw,sync,no_subtree_check"
        nas_storage_mounts:
          - device: "/dev/sdb1"
            mount_point: "/srv/nfs/shared"
            filesystem: "ext4"
            options: "defaults,noatime"

Advanced NAS with RAID5 and Bonding

---
- hosts: advanced_nas
  become: true
  roles:
    - role: nas
      vars:
        # NFS Configuration
        nas_nfs_enabled: true
        nas_nfs_exports:
          - path: "/mnt/raid/shared"
            clients: "192.168.1.0/24"
            options: "rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash"
          - path: "/mnt/raid/media"
            clients: "192.168.1.0/24"
            options: "ro,sync,no_subtree_check"

        # RAID Configuration
        nas_raid_enabled: true
        nas_raid_monitoring: true
        nas_raid_devices:
          - device: "/dev/md0"
            level: "raid5"
            members:
              - "/dev/sdb"
              - "/dev/sdc"
              - "/dev/sdd"
            mount_point: "/mnt/raid"
            filesystem: "ext4"

        # Network Bonding
        nas_network_bonding_enabled: true
        nas_bond_interfaces:
          - bond_name: "bond0"
            mode: "802.3ad"
            slaves:
              - "enp1s0"
              - "enp2s0"
            ip: "192.168.1.100"
            netmask: "255.255.255.0"
            gateway: "192.168.1.1"

        # Monitoring
        nas_monitoring_enabled: true
        nas_email_notifications: "[email protected]"
        nas_performance_tuning_enabled: true

        # Security
        nas_allowed_networks:
          - "192.168.1.0/24"
          - "10.0.0.0/8"

Directory Structure

roles/nas/
├── README.md
├── defaults/
│   └── main.yml          # Default variables
├── handlers/
│   └── main.yml          # Service handlers
├── meta/
│   └── main.yml          # Role metadata
├── tasks/
│   ├── main.yml          # Main task orchestration
│   ├── backup.yml        # Backup configuration
│   ├── bonding.yml       # Network bonding setup
│   ├── monitoring.yml    # Health monitoring setup
│   ├── mounts.yml        # Storage mounting
│   ├── nfs.yml           # NFS server configuration
│   ├── performance.yml   # Performance tuning
│   └── raid.yml          # RAID management
├── templates/
│   ├── bond-interface.j2         # Bond interface config
│   ├── bond-network.j2           # Bond network config
│   ├── bond-slave.j2             # Bond slave config
│   ├── exports.j2                # NFS exports file
│   ├── mdadm-monitor.j2          # RAID monitoring config
│   ├── nas-logrotate.j2          # Log rotation config
│   └── smartd.conf.j2            # SMART monitoring config
└── vars/
    └── main.yml          # Internal variables

Monitoring and Maintenance

The role sets up basic monitoring via system services:

System Monitoring

• RAID Monitoring: mdadm monitoring service
• SMART Monitoring: smartmontools for disk health
• Service-based: No custom scripts (will be replaced by netdata)

Log Files

• Main log: /var/log/nas-role.log
• System info: /var/log/nas-system-info.txt
• Rotation: Configured via logrotate

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. NFS exports not accessible

   • Verify exports: exportfs -v
   • Test connectivity: showmount -e <nas_ip>

2. RAID array degraded

   • Check status: cat /proc/mdstat
   • View details: mdadm --detail /dev/md0
   • Monitor logs: tail -f /var/log/nas-role.log

3. Network bond issues

   • Check bond status: cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0
   • Verify interface states: ip link show
   • Review network config: networkctl status

Log Analysis

# Monitor NAS health in real-time
tail -f /var/log/nas-role.log

# Check RAID events
journalctl -u mdmonitor -f

# Monitor NFS activity
journalctl -u nfs-kernel-server -f

# Check network interface status
journalctl -u systemd-networkd -f

Dependencies

This role has no external role dependencies but requires the following system packages (automatically installed):

• nfs-kernel-server / nfs-utils
• nfs-common
• mdadm
• smartmontools
• hdparm
• ifenslave (for bonding on Debian/Ubuntu)

License

MIT

Author Information

Created for personal homelab automation. Contributions and feedback welcome.

For issues or feature requests, please check the project documentation or contact the homelab administrator.