Enterprise File Fabric™
In the previous article, we discussed setting up a mapped drive letter using Rclone and the SME EFF API. This mount does not persist across reboots. Persisting this mount across reboots for a user or for use on a Windows Server running applications is possible using a service manager. This article will cover setup of NSSM as the service manager.
Continue reading “Running Windows Rclone Mount as a Service”
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Rclone
v1.54 now supports the Enterprise File Fabric (EFF) v2006.03 for copying, moving, syncing and listing of files/objects. Did you know Rclone also supports mapping drives in Windows or mounting in OSX/Linux?
Continue reading “Mounting the File Fabric with Rclone in Windows”
by One of the predominant use cases that many companies have is to enable file access to SMB file shares that live behind the corporate firewall , or indeed are hosted on IaaS infrastructures (such as Amazon FSX or Azure Files), without the need for a VPN and without reconfiguring permissions whilst using Active Directory or LDAP for authentication and also ensuring that data is secure and compliance legislation is satisfied.
This has of course become even more of a requisite during the recent Covid-19 pandemic in which there is a pressing need to enabled. such access for remote workers.
Accessing files over CIFS/SMB network over VPN using a mobile network is possible but access can be patchy, clients apps limited and it is often extremely slow.
The File Fabric enables this using its built in CIFS / SMB connector. This blog post will step through how to web enable SMB file shares.
Continue reading “How to securely web enable access to CIFS / SMB File Shares”
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Windows RT Surface is a great tablet but the non-pro edition is pretty locked down and getting access to files from the integrated Apps can be an issue. Enter SME Personal Cloud.
Amongst other desktop tools the SME Personal Cloud comes with what we refer to as CloudDav and provides WebDav access to any of the Cloud Storage Accounts that you have mapped to your Account.
Enabling WebDav on the Windows Surface Tablet can be done simply with a batch file in the following format:
NET USE * \\webdav.storagemadeeasy.com@SSL\DavWWWRoot
pause
(or NET USE * \\webdaveu.storagemadeeasy.com@SSL\DavWWWRoot for the SME EU Server)
Once this is done you have a fully functional cloud drive on your Surface Tablet to get to all your public / private cloud files !
by SMEStorage Cloud File Server now supports HP Object Storage which is in public beta. You can sign up for HP Object Storage from HP Cloud Services here.
To add HP Object Storage to your account after sign up please take the following steps:
Navigate to your DashBoard and choose to add a new Cloud Provider and choose the HP Cloud:
Next follow the wizard to enter the correct information:
When you are authenticated, if there are existing buckets then you can choose to index them to make them available via the SME Cloud File Server and/or you can create a new bucket name:
Next your can choose to sync or index your data. All this does is find out information about your data such as filename, date, size etc.
Once done your data is available to work with through the web rich client as well as other mobile and desktop tools:
In a future blog article we will look at how you can use HP Cloud Storage to implement a full fledged multi-tenant Cloud File Server in which you can assign user permissions and governance controls to data.
by [** Please note – This cloud connector is deprecated]
We recently added support for the BaseCamp cloud which is a more non-traditional type of information Cloud focused on Project or Task Management. As with Other Cloud Providers the BaseCamp Cloud is invoked by choosing to add a provider from the Cloud DashBoard after login:
Choosing this option invokes the Cloud Wizard:
Enter your authentication details and your BaseCamp company endpoint either in classic BaseCamp Classic format (https://yourcompany.basecamphq.com/) or in the newer Basecamp API format (https://basecamp.com/111122111). Which you use will be dependent on your account.
Once the required authentication details have been completed you can choose to index or sync the meta-data associated with your BaseCamp Projects and files:
Once the meta-data is indexed then the BaseCamp files appear in the consolidated files view through any desktop, mobile or web access client:
You can then easily move other assets into BaseCamp folders form other Clouds, or even work directly on documents or share files using the build in integrations with services such as Google Docs and Zoho:
Files can also be accessed directly from integrated Desktop Cloud Drives on the Mac, Windows or Linux. You can see an example of this with a Mac below (personal lifetime or business account needed)</s,all>:
You can also edit your BaseCamp documents directly on your iPad using iWork, or even using a standard FTP client (personal lifetime or business account needed).
We hope you enjoy the BaseCamp integration which has been frequently requested. It works with the older BaseCamp API accounts and also the new API and we welcome any feedback.
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We’ve updated our Windows Cloud Tools which are available to purchase by free users or as part of the Personal Lifetime and Team Cloud File Server Plans. The tools integrate the Cloud directly in the desktop via the means of a Cloud Drive with a drive letter that you can control, and also come with sophisticated sync tooling and a Cloud Management DashBoard
These are now available to all existing users of the Cloud Tools that are under support by logging into their DashBoard and navigating to Cloud Add In’s.
Updated include:
– Fixed a Sync Centre ordering bug that could occur on scheduled sync
– Added speed (byte rate) limits.
– Sync Center – fixed windows system function GetLastWriteTimeUtc bug that cause an issue with some timestamps.
– saves endpoint when credentials are not saved.
– Added new endpoint MyCompany.FileServerApp.com/api, to be easier for appliance users to manage their private Clouds.
– Sync Center: Now runs in background when launched by schedulers. Shows a log at the end, if there were sync errors, or if “Don’t close” was checked when scheduled.
– Retries failed HTTP requests (3 times, at 3 seconds interval).
– Skip folders that failed to create.
– Logs more info on failed folders.
– Virtual Drive performance improvement
– WIndows 64 bit IFS Virtual Drive Driver update :resolves issue for some 64 bit machines
– other Minor fixes.
by One of the issues that becomes apparent with more users choosing to work from mobile phones and tablets is the issue of security. Sometimes these devices can end up in the wrong hands and when that happens it is reasonable to take precautions about how can open and gain access to files you have stored in the Cloud.
The secondary security concern can be with Cloud the Providers themselves. Users often want to protect certain files on the actual Cloud where they reside, and to that end they can want to use encryption independent of the Cloud Provider.
This particular use case can be solved by using the Cloud encryption service that SMEStorage provides. This features is provided to free, personal, and Cloud File Server users.
Encryption works when users upload files from SMEStorage web or desktop access Client, to any of the 35 Cloud Storage and Saas Providers that SMEStorage supports. Users connect over SSL and assign files a key phrase to file that are uploaded. This key phrase is not stored anywhere on the SME service, and files are encrypted as they stream through the SME service to the remote Cloud Provider.
When web, windows / Mac / Linux, or iOS, Android, WP7 or BlackBerry mobile clients are used to try and access an encrypted file then a password prompt will be presented and the file will be unable to be accessed until this key phrase is entered. If the files is share using a file share link then anyone who then tries to open the file will also be required to enter the key phrase before accessing the file.
SMEStorage uses AES-256 encryption using the Rijndael cipher, with Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) where the block size is 16 bytes. The cipher Rijndael consists of:
– an initial Round Key addition
– Nr-1Rounds
– a final round.
The chaining variable goes into the “input” and the message block goes into the “Cipher Key. The likelihood of recovering a file that has been encrypted using our encryption is fairly remote. The most efficient key-recovery attack for Rijndael is exhaustive key search. The expected effort of exhaustive key search depends on the length of the Cipher Key and for a 16-byte key, 2 to the power of 127 applications of Rijndael.
Any AES-256 decryption tool that supports the Rijndael cipher with 16 byte blocksizes can be used to un-encrypt files. For example the popular freeware file manager Total Commander has a free plugin to handle such decryption.
by We’ve added support for three new clouds to the SMEStorage Open Cloud Platform. These are:
Office365: Office 365 includes the Microsoft Office suite of desktop applications and hosted versions of Microsoft’s Server products (including Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Lync Server), delivered and accessed over the Internet.
Alfresco: Alfresco is a general purpose content repository with content management services.
Open S3: Support for S3 compatible Clouds in which you can specify you own endpoint, such as Eucalyptus.
All Clouds are available to free and business accounts and Clouds are accessible from Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 Clients.
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We are really pleased to announce that we have added OpenStack Swift object Storage support to the SME Open Cloud Platform. Swift is a sub project of OpenStack and provides a highly scalable redundant unstructured data store. Swift is 5 separate services, object, container, account, auth and proxy. Although each of these can be scaled separately, in practice they run together.
Never heard of Swift? it’s the underlying distributable object store that supports RackSpace Cloud Files. It’s akin to Amazon’s S3 implementation but unlike implementations such as Eucalyptus, which clone S3 API’s, but are not sponsored by Amazon, openStack and Swift has RackSpace firmly onboard, and have proven scale.
As Swift is used by Rackspace Cloud Files. Swift RackSpace claim it is production-ready code that is scalable to massive levels (100-petabyte clusters and 100000 requests per second). Swift sacrifices C for A and P from a CAP theorem perspective. Although most operations happen synchronously consistency is sacrificed in failure scenarios.
From our perspective we have seen ISP’s and larger SMB users of our on-premise Cloud Gateway appliance expressing interest in SME supporting this, and we supply this as VMWARE Appliance (OR XEN, KVM) or as a dedicated hardware appliance for smaller companies who wish to embrace their own private Cloud infrastructure.
As with our S3 API endpoint support SME will overlay a more traditional file store on top of Swift layered with the business functionality we provide in our Cloud File Server, which includes virtual drives and clients for Mac, Windows and Linux, and feature rich mobile clients for iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, as well as value added features to Swift such as Webdav and FTP support.
Setting up Swift with SME is easy. First you need to add a new Cloud Provider and then the Cloud Wizard will be invoked. The first step is to enter your OpenStack details:
When entering the endpoint URL you should be sure to include the Port. An example URL is: http://<IP Address>:11000/v1.0.
Next you will need to choose which containers you want to work with and which should be the default container for any uploads to smart folders.
Once you have done this you will be ready to start the meta-sync which pulls in and caches all the information about containers and files.
If you have any issues connecting please refer to this advanced post on using SME with OpenStack 1.60 and SWAuth.
Once complete you will be able to access/amange your OpenStack files from the SME Web clients, as well as using a Cloud Drive on Windows, Mac or Linux, and mobile clients for Android, iOS, and BlackBerry, and the plethora of other tools and clients that SME provides. We’v e posted some screenshots below of this.
Web File Manager
iOS OpenStack
Android OpenStack
Firefox Plug-In OpenStack
Chrome OpenStack Plug-In
Mac Cloud Drive OpenStack
The OpenStack Swift API’s also get embedded for use within our own feature rich multi-cloud API framework in which we add many business driven features.. You can find details about that on our developer page
by **Please note this is an old post – Amazon Cloud Drive is no longer supported
We’ve now added support for Amazon Cloud Drive as a Cloud Storage Provider that can be used with SMEStorage.
Amazon providers every Amazon customer, even new customers without purchases, 5 Gigabytes of online storage. Customers in the US, who have purchased at least one digital music album on Amazon get, 20 Gigabytes of extra space for the first year. Paid Storage plans start at 20 Gigabytes and go up to 1000 Gigabytes. Each Gigabyte costs $1 per year with no additional costs (ie. no data transfer rates that are normally charged with the use of storage such as Amazon S3).
Let step through adding the Amazon Cloud Drive to your account:
1. First sign up for a new Amazon Account. Even if you have an Amazon Account it can be worth separating your main Amazon account from your Storage Account as Amazon does not provider separate token authentication for Cloud Drive, so the details you use will be the same details you use to login into Amazon, and you may wish to keep these private.
2. Once registered you will be taken to the Cloud Drive home screen, but it is important that you at least attempt to upload a file so that you can agree to the Amazon Terms and Conditions of Cloud Drive (if you are interested, you can review the terms and condition here).
3. Once you have done this your Amazon Cloud Drive will be ready
4. You can now either choose to add the Amazon Cloud Drive to your existing SMEStorage Account (got to My Account->Providers tab and choose “Add new Provider‘ Link) or you can sign up for a new free SMEStorage account. In either case you will need to enter your Amazon Cloud Drive authentication details at the first step of the wizard.
5. After your authentication has been verified you will be required to sync your meta data to create your cloud view within SMEStorage.
6. Once this has completed your CloudDrive files will be mapped and accessible via SMEStorage.
7. If you use the files via our Web Portal then you get all the integrations that are available to all clients such as integration with Zoho office for editing office docs, with Google Viewer for viewing files, ScribD for viewing PDF files, and Picnik for editing images.
8. All other SMEStorage clients will also be able to use with the Amazon Cloud Drive. These include, our Firefox Plug-In, Chrome Extension Plug-In, iPhone/iPad client, Android client, BlackBerry client, Windows Cloud Tools + Virtual Drive, Mac Cloud Tools + virtual Drive, Linux Cloud Tools + Virtual Drive.
Some examples of Clients using the Cloud Drive can be seen below:
iPhone Client
Firefox Client
Mac Client
Free Windows Cloud Explorer
Windows Virtual Drive
UPDATE: This is an old Blog Post – Amazon now prevent access to Cloud Drive and it is no longer supported.
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As well as updating our main site today, we also released a Windows Cloud backup / upload tool for the Amazon S3, Google Storage, and the RackSpace Cloud Files Storage platforms.
The Cloud Backup Tool also supports the Swift Storage framework as well as the Eucalyptus Walrus platform which enable users and ISP’s to implement their own private object storage cloud implementations.
We had many of our users who wanted a simple tool to upload large volumes of files from their windows desktop to clouds such as RackSpace, Google Storage and S3. They wanted such a tool to automatically check and update prior versions of files the next time they uploaded the same structure. It got to the point where we actually built such a tool for one of our customers that uses RackSpace and then we extended it for another customer that used Amazon S3. At this point we decided to broaden it to use other clouds and make it commercially available.
It is a fairly simple tool but it seems to fill a niche in that it can be used to get large volumes of files into the Cloud for these providers.
As we were getting so many requests for users who wanted to use private cloud implementations we decided to add in the support for these also, as both Walrus and Swift are basically the same API implementation as Amazon S3 and RackSpace Cloud Files with the exception of a user definable endpoint.
The Enterprise Cloud Backup tools is available to purchase from the SMEStorage website for $9.99 and works only on the Windows Operating System.
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