Configuring External Storage (Configuration File) — ownCloud 7 Server Administration Manual 7.0 documentation

# ownCloud 7 Server Administration Manual

# Configuring External Storage (Configuration File)

Since ownCloud 4.0 it is possible to configure the filesystem to mount external storage providers into ownCloud’s virtual file system. You can configure these file systems by creating and editing `data/mount.json`. This file contains all settings in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. At the moment two different types of entries exist:

- Group mounts: each entry configures a mount for each user in group.
- User mounts: each entry configures a mount for a single user or for all users.

For each type, there is a JSON array with the user/group name as key, and an array of configuration entries as value. Each entry consist of the class name of the storage backend and an array of backend specific options and will be replaced by the user login. The template $user can be used in the mount point or backend options. As of writing the following storage backends are available for use:

- Local file system
- FTP (or FTPS)
- SFTP
- SMB
- WebDAV
- Amazon S3
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- OpenStack Swift

Note

You need to enable the External storage support app first before you can use the examples below. See the section Configuring External Storage (GUI) how to do this.

Note

A non-blocking or correctly configured SELinux setup is needed for these backends to work. Please refer to the SELinux Configuration.

Please keep in mind that some formatting has been applied and carriage returns have been added for better readability. In the `data/mount.json` all values need to be concatenated and written in a row without these modifications!

It is recommended to use the Web-GUI in the administrator panel to add, remove or modify mount options to prevent any problems!

## Using self-signed certificates

When using self-signed certificates for external storage mounts the certificate needs to be imported in the personal settings of the user. Please refer to this blogpost for more informations.

## Adding files to external storages

In general it is recommended to configure the background job `Webcron` or `Cron` as described in Defining Background Jobs so ownCloud is able to detect files added to your external storages without the need that a users is browsing your ownCloud installation.

Please also be aware that ownCloud might not always be able to find out what has been changed remotely (files changes without going through ownCloud), especially when it’s very deep in the folder hierarchy of the external storage.

You might need to setup a cron job that runs `sudo -u www-data php occ files:scan --all` (or replace “–all” with the user name, see also Using the occ Command) to trigger a rescan of the user’s files periodically (for example every 15 minutes), which includes the mounted external storage.

## Example

    {"group":{
        "admin":{
            "\/$user\/files\/Admin_Stuff":{
                "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\Local",
                "options":{ ... },
                "priority":150
                }
            }
        }
     "user":{
        "all":{
            "\/$user\/files\/Pictures":{
                "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\DAV",
                "options":{ ... },
                "priority":100
                }
            }
        "someuser":{
            "\/someuser\/files\/Music":{
                "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\FTP",
                "options":{ ... },
                "priority":100
                }
            }
        }
    }

## Priorities

An advanced feature is available, only configurable directly in `data/mount.json`, which allows mount configurations to have an associated priority. When two or more valid mount configurations exist for the same mount point, the one with the highest priority (defined by the largest number) will take precedence and become the active mount for the user.

Each backend has a default priority, assigned when a mount configuration with that backend is created. The default priority will be shown in the example section for each backend below. Should a backend not provide a default priority, a value of 100 will be used.

There is also a concept of priority types, to preserve compatibility with previous mount configuration parsing. Mount configurations are evaluated in the following order, with later mount types always overriding a previous mount type:

- user -> all : global mount configurations
- group : group mount configurations
- user (not all) : per-user mount configurations
- `data/$user/mount.json` : personal mount configurations

## Backends

### Local Filesystem

The local filesystem backend mounts a folder on the server into the virtual filesystem, the class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\Local and takes the following options:

- datadir : the path to the local directory to be mounted

#### Example

    { "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\Local",
      "options":{ "datadir":"\/mnt\/additional_storage" },
      "priority":150
    }

Note

You must ensure that the web server has sufficient permissions on the folder.

### FTP (or FTPS)

The FTP backend mounts a folder on a remote FTP server into the virtual filesystem and is part of the ‘External storage support’ app, the class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\FTP and takes the following options:

- host: the hostname of the ftp server, and optionally the port number
- user: the username used to login on the ftp server
- password: the password to login on the ftp server
- secure: whether to use ftps:// (FTP over TLS) to connect to the ftp server instead of ftp:// (optional, defaults to false)
- root: the folder inside the ftp server to mount (optional, defaults to ‘/’)

#### Example

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\FTP",
        "options":{
            "host":"ftp.myhost.com:21",
            "user":"johndoe",
            "password":"secret",
            "root":"\/Videos",
            "secure":"false"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

Note

PHP needs to be build with FTP support for this backend to work.

Note

The external storage `FTP/FTPS/SFTP` needs the `allow_url_fopen` PHP setting to be set to `1`. When having connection problems make sure that it is not set to `0` in your `php.ini`.

### SFTP

The SFTP backend mounts a folder on a remote SSH server into the virtual filesystem and is part of the ‘External storage support’ app. The class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\SFTP and takes the following options:

- host: the hostname of the SSH server
- user: the username used to login to the SSH server
- password: the password to login on the SSH server
- root: the folder inside the SSH server to mount (optional, defaults to ‘/’)

#### Example

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\SFTP",
        "options":{
            "host":"ssh.myhost.com",
            "user":"johndoe",
            "password":"secret",
            "root":"\/Books"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

Note

PHP needs to be build with SFTP support for this backend to work.

Note

The external storage `FTP/FTPS/SFTP` needs the `allow_url_fopen` PHP setting to be set to `1`. When having connection problems make sure that it is not set to `0` in your `php.ini`.

### SMB

The SMB backend mounts a folder on a remote Samba server, a NAS appliance or a Windows machine into the virtual file system. It is part of the ‘External storage support’ app, the class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\SMB and takes the following options:

- host: the host name of the samba server
- user: the username or domain/username to login on the samba server
- password: the password to login on the samba server
- share: the share on the samba server to mount
- root: the folder inside the samba share to mount (optional, defaults to ‘/’) To assign the ownCloud logon username automatically to the subfolder, use `$user` instead of a particular subfolder name.

Note

The SMB backend requires smbclient to be installed on the server.

#### Example

With username only:

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\SMB",
        "options":{
            "host":"myhost.com",
            "user":"johndoe",
            "password":"secret",
            "share":"\/test",
            "root":"\/Pictures"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

With domainname and username:

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\SMB",
        "options":{
            "host":"myhost.com",
            "user":"domain\/johndoe",
            "password":"secret",
            "share":"\/test",
            "root":"\/Pictures"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

### WebDAV

The WebDAV backend mounts a folder on a remote WebDAV server into the virtual filesystem and is part of the ‘External storage support’ app, the class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\DAV and takes the following options:

- host: the hostname of the webdav server.
- user: the username used to login on the webdav server
- password: the password to login on the webdav server
- secure: whether to use https:// to connect to the webdav server instead of http:// (optional, defaults to false)
- root: the folder inside the webdav server to mount (optional, defaults to ‘/’)

#### Example

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\DAV",
        "options":{
            "host":"myhost.com\/webdav.php",
            "user":"johndoe",
            "password":"secret",
            "secure":"true"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

### Amazon S3

The Amazon S3 backend mounts a bucket in the Amazon cloud into the virtual filesystem and is part of the ‘External storage support’ app, the class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\AmazonS3 and takes the following options:

- key: the key to login to the Amazon cloud
- secret: the secret to login to the Amazon cloud
- bucket: the bucket in the Amazon cloud to mount

#### Example

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\AmazonS3",
        "options":{
            "key":"key",
            "secret":"secret",
            "bucket":"bucket"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

### Dropbox

The Dropbox backend mounts a dropbox in the Dropbox cloud into the virtual filesystem and is part of the ‘External storage support’ app, the class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\Dropbox and takes the following options:

- configured: whether the drive has been configured or not (true or false)
- app_key: the app key to login to your Dropbox
- app_secret: the app secret to login to your Dropbox
- token: the OAuth token to login to your Dropbox
- token_secret: the OAuth secret to login to your Dropbox

#### Example

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\Dropbox",
        "options":{
            "configured":"#configured",
            "app_key":"key",
            "app_secret":"secret",
            "token":"#token",
            "token_secret":"#token_secret"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

### Google Drive

The Google Drive backend mounts a share in the Google cloud into the virtual filesystem and is part of the ‘External storage support’ app, the class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\Google and is done via an OAuth2.0 request. That means that the App must be registered through the Google APIs Console. The result of the registration process is a set of values (incl. client_id, client_secret). It takes the following options:

- configured: whether the drive has been configured or not (true or false)
- client_id: the client id to login to the Google drive
- client_secret: the client secret to login to the Google drive
- token: a compound value including access and refresh tokens

#### Example

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\Google",
        "options":{
            "configured":"#configured",
            "client_id":"#client_id",
            "client_secret":"#client_secret",
            "token":"#token"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

### OpenStack Swift

The Swift backend mounts a container on an OpenStack Object Storage server into the virtual filesystem and is part of the ‘External storage support’ app, the class to be used is \OC\Files\Storage\SWIFT and takes the following options:

- host: the hostname of the authentication server for the swift storage.
- user: the username used to login on the swift server
- token: the authentication token to login on the swift server
- secure: whether to use ftps:// to connect to the swift server instead of ftp:// (optional, defaults to false)
- root: the container inside the swift server to mount (optional, defaults to ‘/’)

#### Example

    {   "class":"\\OC\\Files\\Storage\\SWIFT",
        "options":{
            "host":"swift.myhost.com\/auth",
            "user":"johndoe",
            "token":"secret",
            "root":"\/Videos",
            "secure":"true"
        },
        "priority":100
    }

## External Storage Password Management

ownCloud handles passwords for external mounts differently than regular ownCloud user passwords.

The regular user and file share passwords (when you use the default ownCloud user backend) are stored using a strong cryptographically secure hashing mechanism in the database. On a new user account with a new password, the password is hashed and stored in the ownCloud database. The plain-text password is never stored. When the user logs in, the hash of the password they enter is compared with the hash in the database. When the hashes match the user is allowed access. These are not recoverable, so when a user loses a password the only option is to create a new password.

Passwords which are used to connect against external storage (e.g. SMB or FTP), there we have to differentiate again between different implementations:

1. Login with ownCloud credentials

When a mountpoint has this option, for example `SMB / CIFS using OC login`, the password will be intercepted when a user logs in and written to the PHP session (which is a file on the filesystem), and written encrypted into the session with a key from the configuration file. Every time that password is required ownCloud reads it from the PHP session file.

When you use this option, features such as sharing will not work properly from that mountpoint when the user is not logged-in.

Depending on the implementation of the application, this means that the password could get leaked in the `ps` output, as we use `smbclient` for SMB storage access in the community version. There is a bug report on this. Consequently, we’re currently evaluating an alternative approach accessing the library directly, and thus not leaking the password anymore. This is already implemented in the Enterprise Edition in our Windows Network Drive application, and it will get into the community version once we have streamlined the code of the `files_external` application a little bit more.

2. Stored credentials

When you enter credentials into the `files_external` dialog those are stored on the filesystem and encrypted with a key stored in `config.php`. This is required since ownCloud needs access to those files and shares even when the user is not logged-in to have sharing and other key features properly working.

To sum up:

The “login with ownCloud credentials” SMB function in the community edition exposes the password in the server system’s process list. If you want to get around this limitation without waiting for it to be addressed in CE you can get the Enterprise Edition. However, even then the password is stored in the PHP session and a malicious admin could access it. You can protect your PHP session files using protections available in your filesystem. Stored credentials are always accessible to the ownCloud instance.