Configuring CTERA Edge Filer Shares

Files on a CTERA Edge Filer can be shared by users both over a LAN and WAN and are synced to each CTERA Edge Filer using a CTERA Portal.

Configuring file sync and share requires that the CTERA Portal is configured before the CTERA Edge Filer. For details, see Configuring the CTERA Portal as a Precondition to Setting Up the CTERA Edge Filer.

To configure CTERA Edge Filer shares:

1. Verify that the CTERA Edge Filer is connected to Active Directory.
   1. Log in to the CTERA Edge Filer as an administrator.
   2. In the Configuration view, select Shares > Windows File Sharing in the navigation pane.
      The Windows File Sharing page is displayed.
      
   3. In the Domain/Group section, verify that the Operation Mode is Domain and that the Status is OK. Otherwise, click Connect to Domain/Workgroup to connect to an Active Directory domain.
2. In the Configuration view, select Cloud Drive > Cloud Drive in the navigation pane.
   The Cloud Drive page is displayed.
   
3. Click Settings.
   The Cloud Drive Settings window is displayed.
   
4. Select the Advanced option and make sure the Operation Mode is Caching Gateway.
   
5. Click Save.

To work with Windows ACL, the sharing protocol must be Windows ACL Emulation Mode. Windows ACL enabled folders on the CTERA Portal cannot be synced unless the cloud share is defined as Windows ACL Emulation Mode.

To configure CTERA Edge Filer shares with ACL support:

1. In the Configuration view, select Shares > Shares in the navigation pane.
2. Click the cloud share that was automatically created when it synced to the CTERA Portal.
   The Select a Folder to Share window is displayed.
   
3. Drill-down to display the volumes and folders on the edge filer and select the volume, folder, or subfolder on which you want to define the share.
   
4. Select the cloud folder to share and click Next.
   The Specify the Network Share Name window is displayed.
   
5. Optionally, change the Network Share Name and click Next.
   The Sharing Protocols window is displayed.
   
   Users access the shared files and folders through standard Windows client computers; for example, using Windows File Explorer through the SMB access provided by the CTERA Edge Filer.
   Note

   Windows File Sharing is checked by default and cannot be deselected.

   From the drop-down, select Windows ACL Emulation Mode. The share will be a Windows ACL emulation mode share.
   To copy the files with their ACLs to the CTERA Edge Filer, see Copying Files From an External File Server to the CTERA Edge Filer.
6. Specify how you want to share the files.
   FTP – Users will be able to access and download files on this share from the FTP site. To configure the FTP server, go to Shares > FTP Server.
7. Click Next.
   The Block File Types window is displayed.
   
8. Check Enable Blocking File Extensions to block file extensions.
   Enter the file extensions per user and group:
   1. In the Local Users drop-down list, select one of the following:
      Local Users – Search the users defined locally on the CTERA Edge Filer.
      Domain domain Users – Search the users belonging to the domain called domain.
      Local Groups – Search the user groups defined locally on the CTERA Edge Filer.
      Domain domain Groups – Search the user groups belonging to the domain called domain.
   2. In the Quick Search field, type a string that is displayed anywhere within the name of the user or user group you want to add, or click ... to list the users.
      A list of users or user groups matching the search string is displayed.
   3. Select the user or user group in the table.
      The user or user group is added to the list of users and user groups for who, you want to block some file extensions.
   4. For each user and user group, click in the Extensions field, and then specify the extensions to block, with each extension separated by a comma (,). List only the letters of each file extension. For example, to block EXE files, list the exe file extension; to block PDF files, list the pdf file extension. To block both EXE and PDF files, list them as exe,pdf. Blocked extensions are not case sensitive.
      Wildcards (for example, *.exe) are not supported.
9. Click Next.
   The NFS (UNIX File Sharing) window is displayed.
   
   Note

   The NFS mount path for the share, when NFS access is enabled, is displayed.

10. Check the Enable NFS Access option to enable NFS clients to access the share. Both NFS versions 3 and 4 protocols are supported, depending on the protocol used by the client.
11. Click New to configure each client to which you want to grant access. A row is displayed in the table:
    1. Enter the client's IP address in the Host field and the netmask in the Netmask field.
    2. Select the permitted level of access to the network share via NFS. Options are None, Read Only, or Read/Write.
    Note

    All shares on all edge filers for the same portal cloud folder must be NFS enabled.

12. Click Next.
    The Configure Permissions window is displayed.
    
13. Specify the share permissions.
    Note

    These permissions are not inherited from the CTERA Portal.

14. Click Next and then click Finish.
15. Repeat for all the shares you want to work with Windows ACLs.

The shares are displayed in the Shares page.

Users can access their files directly with SMB by mapping the share name in the file manager. Both Windows File Explorer and macOS Finder report that the total space and available free space for the mapped drive is a very high number to simulate the caching ability of infinite storage.

You can achieve the nested sharing without imposing Windows ACLs.

To configuring CTERA Edge Filer shares without ACL support:

• When configuring the CTERA Portal, on each cloud drive folder group that you do not want ACL support, uncheck Enable Windows ACLs.
• When configuring the CTERA Edge Filer, set Only Authenticated Users and not Windows ACL Emulation Mode, which is set by default.