Mounting cloud storage

Instructions on how to mount AWS S3 bucket, Microsoft Azure container or Google Drive as a filesystem.

AWS S3 bucket as filesystem

Ubuntu 20.04

Mount

  1. Install s3fs:

    sudo apt install s3fs

  2. Enter your credentials in a file ${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs and set owner-only permissions:

    echo ACCESS_KEY_ID:SECRET_ACCESS_KEY > ${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs
chmod 600 ${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs

  3. Uncomment user_allow_other in the /etc/fuse.conf file: sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

  4. Run s3fs, replace bucket_name, mount_point:

    s3fs <bucket_name> <mount_point> -o allow_other -o passwd_file=${HOME}/.passwd-s3fs

For more details see here.

Automatically mount

Follow the first 3 mounting steps above.

Using fstab

  1. Create a bash script named aws_s3_fuse(e.g in /usr/bin, as root) with this content (replace user_name on whose behalf the disk will be mounted, backet_name, mount_point, /path/to/.passwd-s3fs):

    #!/bin/bash
sudo -u <user_name> s3fs <backet_name> <mount_point> -o passwd_file=/path/to/.passwd-s3fs -o allow_other
exit 0

  2. Give it the execution permission:

    sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/aws_s3_fuse

  3. Edit /etc/fstab adding a line like this, replace mount_point):

    /absolute/path/to/aws_s3_fuse  <mount_point>     fuse    allow_other,user,_netdev     0       0
Using systemd

  1. Create unit file sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/s3fs.service (replace user_name, bucket_name, mount_point, /path/to/.passwd-s3fs):

    [Unit]
Description=FUSE filesystem over AWS S3 bucket
After=network.target

[Service]
Environment="MOUNT_POINT=<mount_point>"
User=<user_name>
Group=<user_name>
ExecStart=s3fs <bucket_name> ${MOUNT_POINT} -o passwd_file=/path/to/.passwd-s3fs -o allow_other
ExecStop=fusermount -u ${MOUNT_POINT}
Restart=always
Type=forking

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

  2. Update the system configurations, enable unit autorun when the system boots, mount the bucket:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable s3fs.service
sudo systemctl start s3fs.service

Check

A file /etc/mtab contains records of currently mounted filesystems.

cat /etc/mtab | grep 's3fs'

Unmount filesystem

fusermount -u <mount_point>

If you used systemd to mount a bucket:

sudo systemctl stop s3fs.service
sudo systemctl disable s3fs.service

Microsoft Azure container as filesystem

Ubuntu 20.04

Mount

  1. Set up the Microsoft package repository.(More here)

    wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/20.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo apt-get update

  2. Install blobfuse and fuse:

    sudo apt-get install blobfuse fuse

    For more details see here

  3. Create environments (replace account_name, account_key, mount_point):

    export AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT=<account_name>
export AZURE_STORAGE_ACCESS_KEY=<account_key>
MOUNT_POINT=<mount_point>

  4. Create a folder for cache:

    sudo mkdir -p /mnt/blobfusetmp

  5. Make sure the file must be owned by the user who mounts the container:

    sudo chown <user> /mnt/blobfusetmp

  6. Create the mount point, if it doesn’t exists:

    mkdir -p ${MOUNT_POINT}

  7. Uncomment user_allow_other in the /etc/fuse.conf file: sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

  8. Mount container(replace your_container):

    blobfuse ${MOUNT_POINT} --container-name=<your_container> --tmp-path=/mnt/blobfusetmp -o allow_other

Automatically mount

Follow the first 7 mounting steps above.

Using fstab

  1. Create configuration file connection.cfg with same content, change accountName, select one from accountKey or sasToken and replace with your value:

    accountName <account-name-here>
# Please provide either an account key or a SAS token, and delete the other line.
accountKey <account-key-here-delete-next-line>
#change authType to specify only 1
sasToken <shared-access-token-here-delete-previous-line>
authType <MSI/SAS/SPN/Key/empty>
containerName <insert-container-name-here>

  2. Create a bash script named azure_fuse(e.g in /usr/bin, as root) with content below (replace user_name on whose behalf the disk will be mounted, mount_point, /path/to/blobfusetmp,/path/to/connection.cfg):

    #!/bin/bash
sudo -u <user_name> blobfuse <mount_point> --tmp-path=/path/to/blobfusetmp  --config-file=/path/to/connection.cfg -o allow_other
exit 0

  3. Give it the execution permission:

    sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/azure_fuse

  4. Edit /etc/fstab with the blobfuse script. Add the following line(replace paths):

    /absolute/path/to/azure_fuse </path/to/desired/mountpoint> fuse allow_other,user,_netdev
Using systemd

  1. Create unit file sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/blobfuse.service. (replace user_name, mount_point, container_name,/path/to/connection.cfg):

    [Unit]
Description=FUSE filesystem over Azure container
After=network.target

[Service]
Environment="MOUNT_POINT=<mount_point>"
User=<user_name>
Group=<user_name>
ExecStart=blobfuse ${MOUNT_POINT} --container-name=<container_name> --tmp-path=/mnt/blobfusetmp --config-file=/path/to/connection.cfg -o allow_other
ExecStop=fusermount -u ${MOUNT_POINT}
Restart=always
Type=forking

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

  2. Update the system configurations, enable unit autorun when the system boots, mount the container:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable blobfuse.service
sudo systemctl start blobfuse.service

    Or for more detail see here

Check

A file /etc/mtab contains records of currently mounted filesystems.

cat /etc/mtab | grep 'blobfuse'

Unmount filesystem

fusermount -u <mount_point>

If you used systemd to mount a container:

sudo systemctl stop blobfuse.service
sudo systemctl disable blobfuse.service

If you have any mounting problems, check out the answers to common problems

Google Drive as filesystem

Ubuntu 20.04

Mount

To mount a google drive as a filesystem in user space(FUSE) you can use google-drive-ocamlfuse To do this follow the instructions below:

  1. Install google-drive-ocamlfuse:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alessandro-strada/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install google-drive-ocamlfuse

  2. Run google-drive-ocamlfuse without parameters:

    google-drive-ocamlfuse

    This command will create the default application directory (~/.gdfuse/default), containing the configuration file config (see the wiki page for more details about configuration). And it will start a web browser to obtain authorization to access your Google Drive. This will let you modify default configuration before mounting the filesystem.

    Then you can choose a local directory to mount your Google Drive (e.g.: ~/GoogleDrive).

  3. Create the mount point, if it doesn’t exist(replace mount_point):

    mountpoint="<mount_point>"
mkdir -p $mountpoint

  4. Uncomment user_allow_other in the /etc/fuse.conf file: sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

  5. Mount the filesystem:

    google-drive-ocamlfuse -o allow_other $mountpoint

Automatically mount

Follow the first 4 mounting steps above.

Using fstab

  1. Create a bash script named gdfuse(e.g in /usr/bin, as root) with this content (replace user_name on whose behalf the disk will be mounted, label, mount_point):

    #!/bin/bash
sudo -u <user_name> google-drive-ocamlfuse -o allow_other -label <label> <mount_point>
exit 0

  2. Give it the execution permission:

    sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/gdfuse

  3. Edit /etc/fstab adding a line like this, replace mount_point):

    /absolute/path/to/gdfuse  <mount_point>     fuse    allow_other,user,_netdev     0       0

    For more details see here

Using systemd

  1. Create unit file sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/google-drive-ocamlfuse.service. (replace user_name, label(default label=default), mount_point):

    [Unit]
Description=FUSE filesystem over Google Drive
After=network.target

[Service]
Environment="MOUNT_POINT=<mount_point>"
User=<user_name>
Group=<user_name>
ExecStart=google-drive-ocamlfuse -label <label> ${MOUNT_POINT}
ExecStop=fusermount -u ${MOUNT_POINT}
Restart=always
Type=forking

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

  2. Update the system configurations, enable unit autorun when the system boots, mount the drive:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable google-drive-ocamlfuse.service
sudo systemctl start google-drive-ocamlfuse.service

    For more details see here

Check

A file /etc/mtab contains records of currently mounted filesystems.

cat /etc/mtab | grep 'google-drive-ocamlfuse'

Unmount filesystem

fusermount -u <mount_point>

If you used systemd to mount a drive:

sudo systemctl stop google-drive-ocamlfuse.service
sudo systemctl disable google-drive-ocamlfuse.service