Great Private File Server for Medium to Small Environments

Use Open Indiana with ZFS to Create a Somewhat Locked Down File Server

Install OpenIndiana v148 with SSH

You will need a system with at least four(4) disks for this example

• The system disk
• This disk is to put the operating system on.
• I recommend at least 30GB
• The faster the better
• The first data disk
• This the first disk of a pair.
• Reliablilty is paramount
• Buy as big as you can afford
• The second data disk
• This the second disk of a pair.
• Reliablilty, again, is paramount
• And buy as big as you can afford
• AT LEAST ONE BACKUP DISK
• RAID, ZFS, OTHER... their purpose is to help with uptime
• ZFS also assists in somewhat painlessly growing your storage capacity
• Backup is backup, redundant disk strategies are for use and failure
• Buy as big as you can afford

Follow the prompts, turn on SSH, use the whole system disk.

Update the system via CLI

pkg image-update --require-new-be

The GUI tools are not working in release 148 upon installation.

Find the disk names

format

Use [CTRL + C] to exit the format command

Create the mirrored zpool

zpool create newpool mirror c2t2d0 c2t3d0

Check out your handiwork

zpool status
df -h

Create a base directory structure

newpool|-business
       |-hobby
       |-books
       |-users|-admin01
       |      |-asmith|-shared
       |      |-lsmith|-shared
       |-misc

mkdir /newpool/business/
mkdir /newpool/hobby/
mkdir /newpool/books/
mkdir /newpool/users/
mkdir /newpool/users/admin01/
mkdir /newpool/users/asmith/
mkdir /newpool/users/asmith/shared/
mkdir /newpool/users/lsmith/
mkdir /newpool/users/lsmith/shared/
mkdir /newpool/misc/

Create any groups if necessary

groupadd admin01
groupadd internal
groupadd external
groupadd common

Add any non-existing initial users

Please note that I am creating two users with two commands, they are long so the text is wrapping.

useradd -d /newpool/users/asmith/ -c "Adam Smith" -G internal,common -s /usr/lib/rsh asmith
useradd -d /newpool/users/lsmith/ -c "Luanne Smith" -G external,common -s /usr/lib/rsh lsmith

The options are as follows:

• -d is the home directory /newpool/users/username/ in this example.
• -c is the real name, it can really be anything. But it you want it to contain a space then enclose the value in double quotes.
• -G list all the groups of the directories you want the people to have access to separated by commas.
• At the very least I give membership to the common group -G common .
• But maybe I want to give access to the external directory as well -G external,common .
• -s /usr/lib/rsh is the 'restricted shell' to prevent a lot of funny business.

Set passwords for any non-existing initial users

passwd lsmith
passwd asmith

passwd username

(Enter password twice-- tada!)

(passwd: password successfully changed for username)

Modify existing users

usermod -G admin01,internal,common admin01

(UX: usermod: admin01 is currently logged in, some changes may not take effect until next login.)

You can verify user information in the plaintext /etc/passwd file

You can verify group creation in the plaintext /etc/group file

Apply proper owner:group properties

chown admin01:admin01 /newpool/business/
chown admin01:peers /newpool/hobby/
chown admin01:peers /newpool/books/
chown admin01:admin01 /newpool/users/
chown admin01:admin01 /newpool/users/admin01/
chown asmith:admin01 /newpool/users/asmith/
chown asmith:admin01 /newpool/users/asmith/shared/
chown lsmith:admin01 /newpool/users/lsmith/
chown lsmith:admin01 /newpool/users/lsmith/shared/
chown admin01:common /newpool/misc/

Apply proper permissions

(4 read 2 write 1 execute)

(! execute required for non-owner:group on directory to traverse file system)

chmod 700 /newpool/business/
chmod 750 /newpool/hobby/
chmod 750 /newpool/books/
chmod 711 /newpool/users/
chmod 770 /newpool/users/admin01/
chmod 770 /newpool/users/asmith/
chmod 770 /newpool/users/asmith/shared/
chmod 770 /newpool/users/lsmith/
chmod 770 /newpool/users/lsmith/shared/
chmod 750 /newpool/misc/

770 gives writability, readability, traversing to owners and group members, and nothing to others - for regular user directories

750 gives writing to the owner, reading and traversing to the owner and group members, and nothing to others - for read only access to regular users

711 gives all access to the owner, and being able to traverse the directory to everyone - allows regular users to descend deeper into the directory tree where they may have access

700 gives no access to anyone but the owner, can't even open the directory - revoke access to regular users entirely

NFS & Samba

Currently, I don't have any NFS or Samba shares set up for this server.

I will update the instructions should that change.

Set quotas

On my file server I don't plan on having many users and even fewer user groups. So far I have no plans for any quotas.

If I did set a quota, I would likely do it on a user by user basis.

zfs set userquota@username=100G newpool/users/username

However, with version 15 of ZFS user group quotas are available as well.

zfs set groupquota@common=250GB newpool/misc

More users?

Add new directories

mkdir in users /newpool/users/username/ and /newpool/users/username/shared/

Add new users

useradd -d /newpool/users/username/ -c "Fname Lname" -G [comma separated list,]common -s /usr/lib/rsh username

Change owner:group properties to new users directories

Same as above

Apply proper permissions to new directories

Same as above

Set new user password

Same as above