File sharing between IT Advisor and your network

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Before you can configure remote backups of IT Advisor on your network or migrate data to the IT Advisor server from previous versions, you need to enable file sharing between the IT Advisor server (Linux) and your network. CIFS and NFS protocols are mentioned below. Other file systems are also available.

When you configure a remote backup of IT Advisor in the Webmin server management interface, specify the mounted folder as your backup directory in DC Operation>Backup.

Mounting a Windows share

Security

By default, when you mount a share using the Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol, the password of the share will be saved in clear text on the ITA server in a file that is readable by all local users on the ITA server. The password is also logged to the Webmin log file in clear text. This log file is only readable by privileged users.

If this is not a concern for you, follow these instructions to mount a Windows share.

However, if the share requires a login/password and this security note is a concern for you, the recommended method is to upload a specific file for this purpose to the ITA server and lock it for only root to read. Follow these instructions to save CIFS share credentials in a separate file only accessible to root before mounting the share.

1. Open the Webmin web interface by selecting Administration>Webmin in the ITA web client.
   Alternatively, type the address of your ITA server in a Web browser followed by :10000, <https://>:10000.
2. Log on to Webmin using the credentials created during the server installation.
3. In the left menu, select System>Disk and Network Filesystems.
4. In the Type drop-down list, select Common Internet Filesystem (cifs).
5. Click Add Mount.
6. In Mounted As, browse to the folder on the IT Advisor server that you want to use for sharing the files.
   It is recommended that you create a share folder at /data/share/.
7. Select Save and mount at boot and Mount.
8. In Server Name, type the hostname or IP address of the network server on which the folder resides.
9. In Share Name, type the name of the drive or folder on the network server that you want to share.
10. If needed for accessing the server, type the login credentials.
11. Click Create.

Mounting a Network File System

1. Follow steps 1-3 above.
2. In the Type drop-down list, select the network protocol that matches your system, such as Network Filesystem (nfs).
3. Click Add Mount.
4. In Mounted As, browse to the folder on the IT Advisor server that you want to use for sharing the files.
5. Select Save and mount at boot and Mount.
6. In NFS Hostname, browse the list of NFS servers on your local network and select the IP address of the server that is exporting the folder that you want to mount.
7. In NFS Directory, browse the list of exported folders.
8. Click Create.

If, at any point, you want to delete a mounted system:

1. Reopen the Webmin web interface.
2. In the left menu, System>Disk and Network Filesystems.
3. In the list of file systems, click the one that you want to delete.
4. Select Don't save and Unmount.

Save CIFS share credentials in a separate file only accessible to root

1. On your local machine, create a new empty text file named cifs-cred.txt.
2. Type the following in the file, exchanging USER and PASSWORD with the user and password required to access the CIFS share:
   
   username=USER
password=PASSWORD 


3. Open the Webmin web interface by selecting Administration>Webmin in the ITA web client.
   Alternatively, type the address of your ITA server in a Web browser followed by :10000, <https://>:10000.
4. Log on to Webmin using the credentials created during the server installation.
5. In the left menu, select System>Upload and Download.
6. Click the Upload to Server tab and choose to upload the file you created in steps 1-2, uploading it to /root, and setting owner and group to root.
7. In the left menu, navigate to System>Others>File Manager.

8. Find the root directory in the list and click it.

9. Click the small box next to your cifs-cred file to select it.

10. In the top menu, select the gear icon (Chmod selected).

11. In the permissions popup, ensure only the Owner has Read and Write permissions and click Change to apply the permission restrictions.
    
    The file should now only be accessible to root.

 Webmin interface steps 5-11

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