R-Pi NAS

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Raspberry Pi Network Attached Storage

These instructions have not been tested on a Raspberry Pi yet.

These instructions were tested in a Debian environment. They will probably need to be changed slightly for a Fedora environment.

If you wish to test these instructions in Ubuntu, remember that you must enter superuser mode first, by entering the command sudo -i

=What does it do?=

This project configures your Raspberry Pi to share files with any other computer on the network. You can add a large hard disk to the RPi and use this to store your important files/photos/videos in a central location.

The files on your RPi can be easily accessed from any type of computer which is connected to your network, for example a Windows PC, a Linux PC, A Mac, a smartphone, etc.

Warning: Make sure that you store your important files in more than one location. If the hard disk connected to the RPi becomes faulty, you may not be able to access your files.

=What do you need?=


 * A Raspberry Pi, model B.
 * A boot SD card for the Raspberry Pi.
 * A large USB-connected hard drive.
 * An Ethernet cable to connect to the local network.

=What skill level is required?=

This project does not require and coding or compilation. Very basic Linux and networking knowledge would be useful, but not essential.

You need to...
 * Edit configuration files on the RPi
 * Enter basic Linux commands to configure users and passwords
 * Use standard tools (Windows/Linux/Mac) to add a network drive to your PC
 * Join computers together using ethernet cables

=How does it work?=

The RPi is configured as a Samba server and can expose its files to any Samba client. Samba was originally a Windows-only protocol named Server Message Block (SMB), but has become popular for other operating systems.

There are other methods possible (for example ftp) but Samba is very popular because it is built into Windows and Mac OS X, and is very easy to install in all versions of Linux.

The end effect is that the PC user will be able to read and write to a new drive which appears to be locally-attached but is actually attached to the RPi.

=Overview of this project= This project includes instructions to configure the Samba server (where the files are stored centrally) and the Samba client (the user's computer). You must follow the instructions for one of the following servers and at least one of the following clients.


 * 1) Configure a Samba server on Fedora RPi
 * 2) Configure a Samba server on Debian RPi
 * 3) Configuring the Samba client on a Windows PC
 * 4) Configuring the Samba client on a Linux PC
 * 5) Configuring the Samba client on a Mac
 * 6) Configuring the Samba client on an Android smartphone

=Configure a Samba server on Fedora RPi= Not available yet. Anybody is welcome to copy the Debian instructions into this section and edit as necessary.

=Configure a Samba server on Debian RPi=

Move home directory to a large USB disk
'''This section has not been decided yet. Only important if the user wishes to use a large external disk'''

How to do this easily? Lots of ways, but we need one that is guaranteed to work for an absolute beginner.

See the "discussion" tab for more details.

Connect the RPi to a network
Check that you have an internet connection.

Command: ping www.google.com Expect something like 64 bytes from a.b.c.d: icmp_seq=n ttl=n time=n 64 bytes from a.b.c.d: icmp_seq=n ttl=n time=n 64 bytes from a.b.c.d: icmp_seq=n ttl=n time=n Press Control-C to stop the ping program

If you do not see the above response, you do not have an internet connection, so this must be fixed before you can continue.

Install the samba software
Command: apt-get install samba

Expect: Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Answer by pressing "y", then the [enter] key.

Check if the RPi has a network host name defined
Command: cat /etc/hostname

Expect something like: RaspberryPi

If there is no hostname defined, or if you want to change the hostname Command: echo big_disk > /etc/hostname

Note: Be very careful not to use special characters in your host name. To be safe, only use letters, numbers and the underline "_" symbol. Never use a character like "'" or spaces in an example like "John's Disk".

Note: Using a network host name is optional, you could use an IP address instead. However, you must use a static IP address which is not guaranteed to change. It is easier to use a host name instead.

Examples later use a host name of "big_disk". If you select a different host name, please remember this when using the later examples.

Restart the RPi to force it to use the new host name. Warning: First, close any other programs that you may have running on the RPi.

Command: init 6

Enable security on the Samba server on the RPi
'''Note: This section is optional, but highly recommended. It forces the samba server to ask for a username and password before allowing another computer to connect.'''

Edit the samba configuration file nano /etc/samba/smb.conf Search for the section marked ##### Authentication #####

Change the text ; security = user to security = user Note that you must use the arrow keys to move around in the nano editor, you cannot use the mouse.

Save the edited file Press Control-X Press y Press [enter]

Restart samba to use the new configuration file. restart smdb

Expect: smdb start/running, process n

Configure private storage areas on the RPi
Configure samba to allow each user to access his home directory. nano /etc/samba/smd.conf Search for the section starting [homes]

For each line in this section which begin with the ";" character, delete the ";" character.

The important lines should now look like

[homes] comment = Home Directories browseable = no  read only = yes create mask = 0700 directory mask = 0700 valid users = %S

In the [homes] section, change from read only = yes to read only = no

Save the edited file Press Control-X Press y Press [enter]

Restart samba to use the new configuration file. restart smdb

Expect: smdb start/running, process n

If the required user does not already exist, add a new user useradd john -m -G users passwd john You will be asked to enter the new password twice.

Allow this user to be a samba user smbpasswd -a john You will be asked to enter the new password twice.

Configure a public storage area on the RPi
'''This section is optional. If you have more than one user, you may wish to define a public area where everybody can share files.'''

Create a directory to store public files mkdir /home/shares mkdir /home/shares/public chown -R root:users /home/shares/public chmod -R ug+rwx,o+rx-w /home/shares/publicAt the end of the file, add the following lines [public] comment = Public Storage path = /home/shares/public valid users = @users force group = users create mask = 0660 directory mask = 0771 read only = no Save the edited file Press Control-X Press y Press [enter]

Restart samba to use the new configuration file. restart smdb

Expect: smdb start/running, process n

=Configuring the Samba client on a Windows PC= A Windows PC uses Samba automatically, no extra software is required.

In Windows, Network Attached Storage is known as a "network drive". Open up the Windows help and search for the term "network drive", you should see something like



If you follow the instructions, you will be asked to select a drive letter (Z: is default but you can select anything available) and the path to the network drive. (The following screen may be slightly different depending on your version of Windows)



Enter the path to the RPi and click on "Finish". The path is in the format \\computer_name\directory. In this example, the computer name is "big_disk" and the user wishes to attach to the directory "john". Note that the computer name may be also be in IP address format, such as "192.168.0.2".

If you enabled security on the RPi server, you will be asked for a username and a password. This must be a valid username and password on the RPi server. To access a public area, any username is acceptable. To access a private area, the username must match the last part of the folder path (the part after the \ character).

Note that a Windows user can attach to multiple network drives at the same time. It is quite common for a user to attach to his private files (commonly drive H: is used to represent a home directory) and also attach to a public storage (commonly drive P: is used to represent a public drive).

=Configuring the Samba client on a Linux PC= Not started yet.

=Configuring the Samba client on a Mac= Not started yet.

=Configuring the Samba client on an Android smartphone= Install the app "FileExpert".

Open the app "FileExpert"

Click on "Network"

Click on "Create new account"

Leave server domain empty

Set computer name to "big_disk"

Set nickname to "John"

Set username to "John"

Set password to the password for John's account

Click on "Okay"