Improving the shared folder module

Feature
1

I think that this topic deserves a separate discussion.

Continuing the discussion from January Community Hangout - 27 Wed 2016 at 9:00 GMT - Developer Session:

2

I agree with @robb that we need one solution ore maybe more solution.
The question is what is the requirement for a home application, small business or a medium business?

In the mean time some people setup a server at home because for their own work, for the family to store there data, stream music and videos. Easy to integrate a backup. Some right management would be nice.

Small business. Lets say a startup with 3 people need a central storage space for the workgroup, space for their data, printer pool, email and backup. They grow and get employees and need the right management for company data, HR files, etc. Maybe they wont to host their own web page or need secured space to share data with their external clients.

Medium business with different departments, management, HR, production and/or sales. I don’t know exactly what they need but what comes in my mind are:

  • Email
  • SQL data for web shop
  • R&D and production, CAD, CAM
  • Management
  • Different server for firewall, data, email, etc.

With this different requirement do you think it is possible to use one solution which is easy to setup, has the flexibility and can grow?
Maybe different solution for different application could be better?

I would say that with the different complexity the level for the admin will increase as well. What he has to know and his experience he should have.

3

What clearly is important, is that independent from the technique used, the userinterface to manage the storage nodes must be easy to use. Easy as in: even without knowledge of the technique behind it, it must be intuitive enough to create new shares/nodes and set ACL’s on the nodes.

What kind of technique should be used is another discussion, but also a valid one. Sharing files is an important functionality and it must be safe to put (classified) files on a share and be sure only authorized people can access the files.

A second thing to consider is data availability and disaster management. There are several scenario’s you can think of and depending on what you accept as a risk as a user, you can take countermeasures. Then NethServer should provide the options to make these countermeasures possible.
think about:

  • network problems
  • disk failure
  • server failure

Each ‘problem’ can have multiple solutions. For NethServer it means that solutions should be implemented and documentation should be prepared so based on the documentation even a ‘non-technical’ user can decide what solution should be used. Then the intuitive configuration page must provide enough clues to configure the needed solution: Just select a solution (for instance, if you have 2 or more fileservers, GlusterFS, and the configuration script does its job and creates a GlusterFS store that can be used for shares.

3 Likes
4

@robb Great summarise

5

Why are you referring to nodes? We’re speaking only about shared folder here.

I think that’s it’s a bit off topic here, we should address it with a new one about backup improvement or how to keep synced another NethServer as backup

I think that split shared folder and web access (improving the latter) in two separated modules may be a great idea by @davidep

6

@davidep has already implemented many of the features come up in this discussion.
@WillZen @robb would you like to help to improve it? Can i close this topic?

3 Likes