Network Attached Storage

There are plenty of network‑attached storage solutions out there, both free and open source. But why would we want to build one from scratch?

Understanding how these tools work gives you insight into their inner workings and opens the door to customisations that off‑the‑shelf solutions can’t provide.

Starting with Samba

I prefer to run on Ubuntu, so I’m using the current LTS (24.04.3) for this guide. The server is named vault.

First, update the system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade

Next, create the parent directories:

sudo mkdir -p /srv/{samba,nfs}

Install Samba

sudo apt install -y samba

Create shared directories

sudo mkdir -p /srv/samba/{public,ISOs}

Edit the configuration

Open the Samba configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

Add the following sections (replace or append as appropriate):

[homes]
  comment = Home Directory
  browsable = no
  read only = no
  create mask = 0700
  directory mask = 0700
  valid users = %S

[ISOs]
  comment = ISO files
  path = /srv/samba/ISOs
  browseable = yes
  read only = no
  create mask = 0700
  directory mask = 0700
  guest ok = yes

[public]
  comment = Public Share
  path = /srv/samba/public
  browseable = yes
  read only = no
  create mask = 0766
  directory mask = 0766
  guest ok = yes

Tip: Granting guest ok = yes allows unauthenticated access. Use it only for truly public data.

Add user accounts

sudo smbpasswd -a $USER

Restart services

Restart the Samba daemons whenever you add a share or create a new user:

sudo systemctl restart smbd nmbd

Open the firewall

sudo ufw allow samba

NFS Installation

sudo apt install -y nfs-kernel-server

Create shared directories

sudo mkdir -p /srv/nfs/{common,k8s}

Setup permissions

sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /srv/nfs/
sudo chmod -R 755 /srv/nfs/

Edit the NFS export list

Open /etc/exports:

sudo vi /etc/exports

Add the following lines (modify subnets as appropriate):

/srv/nfs/common 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash)
/srv/nfs/k8s 10.0.0.0/26(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash)

Export the shares

sudo exportfs -a

Restart the NFS service

sudo systemctl restart nfs-kernel-server

Configure firewall rules

Adjust for your network.

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port nfs
sudo ufw allow from 10.0.0.0/26 to any port nfs

For more detailed information, refer to the Samba documentation and the NFS manual pages.

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