NAS SSH, SFTP, SMB, and NFS Configuration Challenges

[mhumm2]

I can ssh into my NAS so that's taken care of. Next is SFTP. I followed a Quitips guide which I like a lot. Of course it's not working. I installed vsftp into the NAS. I removed most of the commented text out for brevity. Here's the config file:

# Example config file /etc/vsftpd.conf
#
            listen=NO
#
           listen_ipv6=YES
#
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Disabled by default).
          anonymous_enable=NO
#
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
         local_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
        write_enable=YES
#
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
      local_umask=022
      local_umask=020
#
# Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they
# go into a certain directory.
     dirmessage_enable=YES
#
# If enabled, vsftpd will display directory listings with the time
# in  your  local  time  zone. The default is to display GMT. The
# times returned by the MDTM FTP command are also affected by this
# option.
     use_localtime=YES
#
# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.
     xferlog_enable=YES
#
# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
    connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# chown_uploads=YES
# chown_username=whoever
#
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
# (Warning! chroot'ing can be very dangerous. If using chroot, make sure that
# the user does not have write access to the top level directory within the
# chroot)

                 chroot_local_user=YES

# chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
# chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
#
#
# This option should be the name of a directory which is empty. Also, the
# directory should not be writable by the ftp user. This directory is used
# as a secure chroot() jail at times vsftpd does not require filesystem
# access.

secure_chroot_dir=/var/run/vsftpd/empty

# This string is the name of the PAM service vsftpd will use.
pam_service_name=vsftpd

# Added lines from Vsftp guide at https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/ubuntu-vsftp/
pasv_enable=YES
pasv_min_port=10000
pasv_max_port=1100
user_sub_token=$USER
local_root=/home/vsftp
userlist_enable=YES
userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.userlist
uerlist_deny=NO

I'm unable to ftp into the server using a browser, but I can use Filezilla to log in. When I use Filezilla, every command to upload a file is denied.

[mhumm2]

Okay, I figured out the vsftp configuration file. I had a couple of typos and some commands that should have been commented out. Once that was taken care of, I was able to upload my entire 15GB of music to the NAS.

VSFTP and Filezilla are fine to upload all the files I want to get onto the server quickly, but once that's done, I have to make a decision between NFS and SMB. I want each user (3 of us) to have our own directories on the nas and only we can RW to. The only other directory on the nas is the directory called, "Share." Share can be RW by any user. It will also be the repository for sub-directories containing media for streaming.

That means I'll need an application to manage the streaming of that media. I'm leaning towards Plex thanks in no small part to Oshunlvr's recommendation. So here's my priorities todo list:

1. File sharing with NFS or Samba, (and PUTTY for windoze machines)
2. Setup OpenVPN so I can access media on the nas to my other devices when I'm away from home.
3. Media streaming (Plex, Media Tomb, etc)

Any advice or comments from experience would be appreciated. Thanks.

[oshunluvr]

Use SMB if you need Windows access, otherwise no need. I have both configured. If you set up NFS do some research. There'a a lot of tweaking that will help with speed and boot time, etc.

I don't use OpenVPN (or any other) at home.

Plex is mostly awesome. There's a couple things you have to figure out but they have a good forum and I almost always get a reply within minutes if I post there. Most of the Plex issues I have are a preference difference between me and the developers. Mind you, I bought a lifetime Plex-pass 4 years ago for $79 and it was well worth the money. Heck, it's easily worth 4 times that. I tried a few others back in 2011-2013 but once I tried Plex I was done shopping. If you want to see what the client looks like, PM me your email address (I don't use my Admin powers to invade peoples' accounts ) and I'll send you an access invite to my server. I have a ton of stuff so it's a good review to see what the interface looks like. Keep in mind that every client looks different so a web interface won't look like a Roku interface and neither looks like a Samsung interface. They aren't wildly different, but there are differences. Once you have a log in, you can try all your potential devices on my server and decide for yourself if it worth the cash. Right now it's $149 for lifetime. Still a deal IMO.

Honestly, I can't imagine why anyone use FTP on their own private network. You can file copy using ssh (pull and push) and file sharing is really simple (except for samba... )