Configuring External Storage (GUI)
The External Storage Support application enables you to mount external storageservices and devices as secondary IFC Cloud storage devices. You may also allowusers to mount their own external storage services.
IFC Cloud 9.0 introduces a new set of occ commands for managing external storage.
Also new in 9.0 is an option for the IFC Cloud admin to enable or disable sharingon individual external mountpoints (seeMount options). Sharing on such mountpoints isdisabled by default.
Enabling External Storage Support
Warning
Enabling this app will disable the Stay logged in checkbox on the login page.
The External storage support application is enabled on your Apps page.
Storage configuration
To create a new external storage mount, select an available backend from thedropdown Add storage. Each backend has different required options, whichare configured in the configuration fields.
Each backend may also accept multiple authentication methods. These are selectedwith the dropdown under Authentication. Different backends support differentauthentication mechanisms; some specific to the backend, others are moregeneric. See External Storage authentication mechanisms for more detailedinformation.
When you select an authentication mechanism, the configuration fields change asappropriate for the mechanism. The SFTP backend, for one example, supportsusername and password, Log-in credentials, save in session, and RSApublic key.
Required fields are marked with a red border. When all required fields arefilled, the storage is automatically saved. A green dot next to the storage rowindicates the storage is ready for use. A red or yellow icon indicatesthat IFC Cloud could not connect to the external storage, so you need tore-check your configuration and network availability.
If there is an error on the storage, it will be marked as unavailable for tenminutes. To re-check it, click the colored icon or reload your Admin page.
User and group permissions
A storage configured in a user’s Personal settings is available only to the userthat created it. A storage configured in the Admin settings is available toall users by default, and it can be restricted to specific users and groups inthe Available for field.
Mount options
Hover your cursor to the right of any storage configuration to exposethe settings button and trashcan. Click the trashcan to delete themountpoint. The settings button allows you to configure each storage mountindividually with the following options:
- Encryption
- Previews
- Enable Sharing
- Filesystem check frequency (Never, Once per direct access)
The Encryption checkbox is visible only when the Encryption app is enabled.
Enable Sharing allows the IFC Cloud admin to enable or disable sharing on individual mountpoints.When sharing is disabled the shares are retained internally, so that you can re-enable sharingand the previous shares become available again. Sharing is disabled by default.
Using self-signed certificates
When using self-signed certificates for external storage mounts the certificatemust be imported into the personal settings of the user. Please refer toIFC Cloud HTTPS External Mountfor more information.
Available storage backends
The following backends are provided by the external storages app. Other appsmay provide their own backends, which are not listed here. Google Drive and Dropboxwere moved to external apps which are still in development (Github-Repos for Google Drive and Dropbox).
Note
A non-blocking or correctly configured SELinux setup is neededfor these backends to work. Please refer to the SELinux configuration.
Allow users to mount external Storage
Check Enable User External Storage to allow your users to mount their ownexternal storage services, and check the backends you want to allow. Beware, asthis allows a user to make potentially arbitrary connections to other serviceson your network!
Adding files to external storages
We recommend configuring the background job Webcron orCron (see Defining background jobs)to enable IFC Cloud to automatically detect files added to your externalstorages.
IFC Cloud may not always be able to find out what has beenchanged remotely (files changed without going through IFC Cloud), especiallywhen it’s very deep in the folder hierarchy of the external storage.
You might need to setup a cron job that runs sudo -u www-data php occ files:scan --all(or replace “–all” with the user name, see also Using the occ command)to trigger a rescan of the user’s files periodically (for example every 15 minutes), which includesthe mounted external storage.