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Can I attach additional external storage to a TetherBox?
Can I attach additional external storage to a TetherBox?

Attaching USB and NAS devices to a TetherBox

Roman Gaufman avatar
Written by Roman Gaufman
Updated over 3 months ago

Introduction

Yes, you can add additional local storage to a TetherBox. The options are:

  1. USB Storage - You can connect any standard USB storage device to your TetherBox.

  2. NAS (Network Attached Storage) - You can connect any NAS that supports either SMB or NFS (which the vast majority of NAS devices do).

Note: The minimum supported size is 64GB

USB Storage

You can connect an external drive to a TetherBox via USB. Please note there are some inherit drawbacks and caveats and your choice of drive is critical:

Note: Some external drives may require an additional power supply which will be provided with the drive.
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Once you connected the drive, you can confirm it was picked up by the unit by going to: Admin > TetherBoxes > TetherBox Name

You will be able to see the external drive under the "Storage" tab:
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Note: If you are using Flash or other Solid State Storage, please refer to the Manufacturer's guidelines as some devices (especially smaller capacities) are not designed for frequent rewrites and can fail quickly.

Drive Recommendations

TetherBox & TetherBox Pico

  • SSDs (Solid State Drives): SSD reliability is generally measured in TBW (Terabytes Written), we commend SSDs that have at least 600TBW per terabyte of storage. For example ADATA SU800 or Patriot Burst. You will find this rating in the drive's data sheet.

  • HDDs (Hard Drives): We recommend Seagate Technology, Toshiba or Western Digital hard drives, preferably ones rated for NAS or Video Surveillance use. Other drives will work but may have a shorter lifespan.

  • USB Sticks: We recommend staying away from USB sticks as they tend to fail quicker under a 24/7 load.

Please refer to our more in depth page on the subject.

TetherBox Giga / Pro

  • HDDs (Hard Drives): While the smaller units will work with any drive, because the larger units typically have more cameras, they can overwhelm certain slower drives. We recommend getting drives rated for NAS or Video Surveillance use that have 7,200RPM spindle speed or higher.

  • SSDs (Solid State Drives): When recording 20 cameras or more, SSDs generally still offer a poor value for money at the larger capacities required, while they can be used please ensure they are rated for 800TBW or higher.

NAS Storage

At present, NAS devices are set up manually by TetherX. Please contact us with your NAS model and connection details: IP address, username, password and protocol.
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Once we have the correct instructions, we will set this up within 1 working day, usually much quicker. You can use any NAS that supports SMB or NFS. This is supported by the vast majority of NAS drive manufacturers and models. Pictured is a Synology NAS as an example:

Image result for NAS Synology

Note: Please ensure that your NAS and network are fast enough and can sustain your number of cameras (multiply the number of cameras by the average bitrate).

Note: Please ensure you disable the Recycle Bin and any indexing features on your NAS or you will likely experience performance problems.

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