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Overview

This document explains how to create a workspace that allows to create a share that can be mounted to other workspaces (windows/linux).
The overall setup is illustrated in the diagram below.

Prerequisites


No symbolic links

Symbolic links on shared storage will not work. This is why, by default, symbolic links are disabled on shared storages like Samba.

A symbolic link could only be resolved by the instance that created it, which defeats the purpose of shared storage.

Creating a workspace with Samba share

  1. Create and start a workspace with the application Application with SAMBA port with an external storage attached.

  2. Make sure the the folder has the correct permissions. You can change the folder permissions by:

    sudo chmod -R 777 <path of the mounted external storage eg. "/data/volume_2">

  3. Install samba server

    $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y samba

  4. Append the following lines to the file /etc/samba/smb.conf (e.g. with vim):

    [volume-ceph]
   comment = Samba on Ubuntu
   path = <path of the mounted external storage eg. "/data/volume_2">
   read only = no
   browsable = yes

  5. Restart the Samba service to apply the config

    sudo service smbd restart

  6. Enable the UFW firewall and add the external ip addresses that need to have access. Replace the "[IP of IP object in workspace X/Y]" with the IP address of the workspace(s) that you wish to mount the storage on.

    sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw allow from [IP of IP object in workspace X] to any port 445
sudo ufw allow from [IP of IP object in workspace Y] to any port 445
sudo ufw enable

    You can add more of these firewall rules if you want to mount the storage on more workspaces.

    If your workspaces are connected to the same private network, you can even skip this step. Use the samba-server's private ip-address when configuring the clients.

  7. Create an useraccount that can access the share.

    sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -d /home/smbuser/ -m -G sudo smbuser
sudo passwd smbuser
sudo smbpasswd -a smbuser
sudo chown smbuser:smbuser <path of the mounted external storage eg. "/data/volume_2">

The storage can now be mounted on any Linux and/or Windows machine.

Mounting storage on Linux


  1. Install the cifs-utils service

    sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

  2. Create a folder that the external storage can be mounted on

    sudo mkdir /volume-ceph

  3. Append the following lines to the file /etc/fstab to mount the folder on boot

    //<IP of samba machine>/volume-ceph /volume-ceph cifs username=smbuser,password=<PASSWORD>,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777

  4. Mount the folder 

    sudo mount -a

    You should be able to see the shared files in the created folder.

Mounting storage on Windows

  1. Run the following command in an elevated command prompt

    net use V: \\<IP of samba machine>/volume-ceph /user:smbuser <PASSWORD> /PERSISTENT:YES

    The drive letter V: should be mounted to the external storage


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