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How to create SMB-shares and mount it to Nextcloud in one go?

The big advantage is, that you can create a SMB-share and mount the same location to Nextcloud in one go.

If you have followed this guide, you should have set up a sensible folder structure on the external data SSD/HDD by now. Based on this structure, you should share the user folders with the corresponding user that you just created. The data exchange folders should get shared with the users that shall have access to those folders.

If you have mounted the external data SSD/HDD in /mnt/data as recommended, is here one example: Your data folder should be now found in /mnt/data/your data folder. One of your user folders and data exchange folders might be /mnt/data/your data folder/user1 folder and /mnt/data/your data folder/Data exchange folder now. You should then share the /mnt/data/your data folder/user1 folder with user1 and the /mnt/data/your data folder/Data exchange folder with all users that shall get access to this folder. As you now see, best case is, if the user folders on your external data SSD/HDD match exactly the user count of newly created users.

tip

BTW: you can at this point still shutdown your server, disconnect the external data SSD/HDD, connect it to your PC, open it with Veracrypt and change the folder structure there. (see this link for further instructions). Afterwards you can connect the drive to your server again and power it back on.

Based on the example above, you should now create a list how do you want to share your data with your users.

Here is how to work off this list technically:

  1. Go back to the SMB-server Main Menu and select Open the SMB-share Menu
  2. Choose Create a SMB-share
  3. You will see now a list of valid directories you can type in
  4. Type in one directory that you want to share. Based on the example above, it could be e.g. /mnt/data/your data folder/user1 folder or /mnt/data/your data folder/Data exchange folder
  5. Type in the Share name that you want to use. It should most likely have the same name like the folder that you want to share. Please note, that spaces are not supported. For e.g. user1 folder you would thus need to use user1_folder or user1-folder as name
  6. Now select the SMB-users that shall get access to the share. If it is a user folder, you should only share it with the corresponding user. If it is a Data exchange folder, you should share it with all users that shall get access to the folder.
  7. Now select if the share shall be writeable, which you should most likely answer with Yes
  8. After restarting Samba, the SMB-share should be successfully created!
  9. Select that you want to mount the same directory to Nextcloud as local storage (you are making the path that you've chosen in the beginning accessible in Nextcloud this way)
  10. user-folders

    In the case of a user folder, you will now be asked if you want to make the selected directory the root folder in Nextcloud for the selected user, which you should in most cases confirm by pressing [ENTER].

    (This will only be shown to you in the case of a user folder, not for Data exchange folders and also not if you've made the directory read only. Only select [NO] here if you've already made another directory the root folder for the selected user before.)

  11. Now everything should get set up automatically
  12. Enabling Inotify is not recommended and normally not necessary

Now repeat that method for the whole list that you've made, starting at point 2.

After you've done with all shares, you can exit the SMB-server script by selecting Return -> Exit

note

Please note that you can always change the settings for your mounts in Nextcloud by opening https://yourdomain-or-ipaddress/settings/admin/externalstorages with your Nextcloud admin account afterwards.

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Your users should now be able to access their files and folders using SMB over the local network.
Here are instructions how to do this in detail: click here