Samba Shared Folder Locations

Support
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NethServer Version: your_version
Module: Shared Folders

I know that this has been asked before, but all references that I could find are from several years ago so I wanted to check this one as it has got me scratching my head. I have only just started to look at nethserver so I’m assuming that I’m missing something.

My office currently runs a set of ad-hoc servers, services, machines and OS’s and has become unmanageable. I have started to look around for a suitable server system that would give me all the functionality that I require in a coherent easy to manage configuration.

One of the options I am evaluating is nethserver. From the initial look it appeared just the ticket and ticks all the boxes so I fired a VM and started testing.

Domain, good. User configuration good. File server…ah FAIL.

The target server will have four spinning disks (2x2TB and 2x4TB) for file storage (RAID config TBD) and an SSD for OS. But neth only allows shares to be installed on the tiny os disk!.

I have seen various post talking about changing the mounts, creating symbolic links etc but to me that defeats the object of having a web management interface, if every time I have to change/add/remove shares I have to go into the machine and start changing mounts.

To my simplistic way of looking at things, being able to share large storage over the network is a fundamental part of a server, without it you are missing a huge piece of functionality.

So my question boils down to this, does nethserver allow me to easily create and manage shares on a useful/usable drive or am I limited to the boot drive without diving into the command line?

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Hi @chrisjiggs,

welcome to NethServer community.

NethServer saves the shares in /var/lib/nethserver/ibay/* so you may mount /var or /var/lib/nethserver/ibay once to another disk. This way you are able to just use the UI to add shares but have them on a separate disk.

The problem with making such filesystem mounting options available in UI is the danger to destroy something. Additionally Nethserver UI aims to be simple and easy to manage.
I’d generally like to have more “NAS options” (RAID, ZFS, partitioning, mount etc.) but we have to use the command line at the moment. Contributions are always welcome!

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I have been playing with initial disk configs a lot and ran into quite some weird hiccups by anaconda when installing NethServer on multiple disks.
However, it is possible to manually partition disks and add raid volumes during initial install of NethServer.
If you decide to give that a try, make sure you double check your configuration before you give the installer the final go.
I will try to create a example install with multipple disks and a raid volume later today.

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@robb & @mrmarkuz Thank you for taking the time to respond, whilst its not the answer that I was hopping for, its good to know that the support is there in the forum for these sort of queries.

Whilst I can see how I could make it work, the main concern I have is that this must be maintainable by others going forward and I would need to be sure that they could easily update the file shares etc without needing to go to the command line.

So for now I think this might not be quite the solution I need for my current problem. Thanks

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Regarding shared folders location, as others members mentioned, it can be done at install time from anaconda (CentOS) installer by assigning a mount point for /var/lib/nethserver/ibay (or for /var or /var/lib/nethserver); or afterwards by editing fstab adding a bind mount. On most cases this only needs to be done one time (CLI) and shared folders can be created/deleted/managed from the UI.

Another option (haven’t tried but it should be possible), using a separate UI, could be to use cockpit side by side with current UI. Do note it’s a preview module and still to decide if/when/how current modules will be migrated to cockpit.

On the other hand, it’s more than likely that when problems arise (depending on the kind of problem) whoever is in charge of the server will need to use the command line, or get professional support (subscription plan) if that’s a stopping point.

I can understand if neither of those options is quite the solution you’re looking for.

Whichever server solution you finally choose another thing to consider is whether going bare-metal or coupling the server OS with Proxmox (or another virtualisation solution).

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I am almost like a broken record, but do have a look into proxmox as base for your NethServer install(s).

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Interesting, have just been reading about this. If I understand it correctly, using proxmox I can create a VM whose virtual storage can span multiple physical storage. Thus reducing the issue of having all the shares in one location.

I think when I have time I will get it on some test hardware to have a closer look. Amazing the value of a broken record.

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I solved this creating a mount point with a large HDD for /var/lib/nethserver/home, then I created inside this new HDD the folder ibay and then a hardlink in /var/lib/nethserver and works!
As an alternate you can add a new HDD and point directly to /var/lib/nethserver/ibay
Using LVM sou can rezise or add more space if is needed in the future.

1 Like
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hi brother how you make this
i have 2 external units of 2 tb each
and dont can to mount
all shared folder that i make redict for first unit