Can Ubuntu Desktop function as a NAS server?
Can Ubuntu Desktop function as a NAS server?
Hello, I'm working on setting up a local backup server using an old computer with Ubuntu Desktop. The main goal is to allow access and sharing across different operating systems—Windows and Mac—while ensuring each user has their own isolated access. For example, the 1TB SSD holds three folders named "User1", "User2", and "User3". I need separate login credentials or passwords for each folder so that one user can't read another's files. Currently, mounting the drive in NTFS doesn't support user groups, but I can mount it on other systems. If I switch to ext4, user groups work, but I can't share the mounted folders between platforms. I'm looking for a GUI tool that simplifies this setup.
for personal taste it can feel a bit overwhelming, but xubuntu has proven quite dependable as a home server OS. the ubuntu desktop works well for everyday use, yet on the server side it tends to come with unnecessary bloat. regarding file systems and permissions, when dealing with a removable USB drive that moves between devices, folder-based security won’t work properly. any filesystem must reference users and groups from the host OS, which changes with each system, leading to inconsistent protection. if you’re not concerned about security during transfers, you can use samba shares to capture permissions instead of sharing the whole drive and managing access at the folder level.
the backup drive is meant to stay put on one computer, only shifting when the ubuntu system fails and I need to transfer the disk elsewhere until a new setup is ready. I want to read from and write to it across several devices with fast performance. I picked ubuntu instead of windows because it’s lighter and file copying/unzipping works much quicker, especially with thousands of small files. I’m not sharing the whole drive but the folders inside, and I’m having trouble setting up multiple shares and managing access rights.
You might want to explore configuring SMB shares. After a few years, the specifics have faded from memory, but before adopting Unraid I operated a NAS on Ubuntu with SMB shares to connect it to Windows. It remains the method my Unraid shares use for access control across devices.
i know you're looking for a GUI solution, but really, smb.conf is your best bet here. it's probably also the easiest to learn config file in all of linux, when it comes to configuring shares at least. here's a snippet from my server's smb.conf, with some explanation alongside: note that a lot of stuff is 'optional', so if you dont need it, you dont add it. [storage1] ;name of the share, between square brackets []. comment = HDD array ;a comment that is presented along with the share's name, for SMB clients that present it to the user. path = /RedDrive ;the path the share maps to. browseable = yes ;wether the share is visible or not read only = no ;wether the share is read only guest ok = no ;wether 'guest' (no login given) can access the share valid users = @members ;which users or group can access the share, because there is an @ here that means it's a group. force group = members ;this forces any interaction with the drive to be done with group "members". [saucer] ;name of the share, between square brackets []. comemnt = saucer directory ;a comment that is presented along with the share's name, for SMB clients that present it to the user. path = /KingsRock/saucer ;the path the share maps to. browseable = yes ;wether the share is visible or not read only = no ;wether the share is read only guest ok = no ;wether 'guest' (no login given) can access the share valid users = mani ;which users or group can access the share, this time there's no @, so this is a user. force user = saucer ;this forces any interaction with the drive to be done with user "saucer", despite that it's accessed by another user. force group = saucer ;this forces any interaction with the drive to be done with group "saucer". ;in this case, "saucer" is the very non-privileged user that i run some services under, and the file share serves as file storage for these services, which i may want to access from my own user. (eg. game server's map data)
Thank you, I'll give it a shot. If I set up FTP accounts, I could reach the files using an FTP client.
I've attempted the samba method but continue facing challenges. Initially, the secondary disk wasn't reachable by other users, so I switched the mount point to /mnt/xxxx and adjusted the configuration file. Now, non-root users still encounter permission errors despite both being admins. It's unclear how to resolve this.
I shared my own experience with this setup. I used a NAS LAN server because of its storage capabilities. It was expensive, had limited space, and didn’t offer the fast CPU or RAM you’d expect. It worked well for data storage, and I ran Linux. The main issue was that Linux doesn’t support NTFS natively. Using ext4 would have improved performance, but Windows and macOS don’t recognize it. So I built my own solution: a dedicated NAS with 12 HDDs and a case, paired with Windows 10. It felt more flexible when connecting various devices.