May 20, 20242 yr I have a fileserver and I'm in the middle of deciding whether to take my single share with multiple folders or create different shares. It's really only myself accessing my shares along with various devices in the house (Apple TV's, Roku, etc) accessing media through Plex. But, it would be nice to have flexibility. For example, to provide my wife access to a folder called "Wife's folder" or the kids to have access to their own folders. Currently, I have a share called "Shared" and within that are main folders. Backups Family Finances Other Media Work Inside the Family folder, I have folders for each family member with documents, report cards, etc. I'd like to be able to make those folders accessible, but not the parent. Not too sure if that's possible. So I'm curious how others with a family have structured their shares/folders?
May 20, 20242 yr Community Expert 1 hour ago, csimpson said: Inside the Family folder, I have folders for each family member with documents, report cards, etc. I'd like to be able to make those folders accessible, but not the parent. Not too sure if that's possible. You can but it has issues with who can access those folders (and permissions). Here is a link to a thread on how to set it up: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/137806-creat-a-user-share-containing-a-portion-of-another-user-share/#comment-1251067 Be sure to read it carefully and that you fully understand exactly who has access to those folders that you share using this method. (You may need to create a "super user" for the 'Family' folder and only turn-on access to that base folder only when it becomes necessary for administrative reasons!) Now about the other issue. I, personally, would make the Media folder its own share. Same way with Backups. Probably the same with Family. The other stuff would depend on you want to have access to it. (I can't believe your boss would be happy if anyone on your LAN-- except you -- would have access to the contents of the Work folder...)
May 20, 20242 yr Author 28 minutes ago, Frank1940 said: You can but it has issues with who can access those folders (and permissions). Here is a link to a thread on how to set it up: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/137806-creat-a-user-share-containing-a-portion-of-another-user-share/#comment-1251067 Be sure to read it carefully and that you fully understand exactly who has access to those folders that you share using this method. (You may need to create a "super user" for the 'Family' folder and only turn-on access to that base folder only when it becomes necessary for administrative reasons!) Now about the other issue. I, personally, would make the Media folder its own share. Same way with Backups. Probably the same with Family. The other stuff would depend on you want to have access to it. (I can't believe your boss would be happy if anyone on your LAN-- except you -- would have access to the contents of the Work folder...) Right now I'm the only one with access to the single share with the folders. I'm not sure if there's a better way to set up shares/folders for families than what I've done?
May 20, 20242 yr Community Expert 39 minutes ago, csimpson said: I'm not sure if there's a better way to set up shares/folders for families than what I've done? When it all boils down, it is your choice and should be based on how you want to work and access your shares....
May 20, 20242 yr Author 1 hour ago, Frank1940 said: When it all boils down, it is your choice and should be based on how you want to work and access your shares.... Yes, I understand that. But I'm curious what others have done after organizing folders for 30 years. My current method has worked well for the last 10 years on my old server. But I do find I make it more efficient by shuffling things around from time to time. For example, I have several thousand scanned and digital documents. Bank statements, report cards, insurance documents, Home listings, lawyers documents, etc. I'm curious if others sort things into archival folders for older documents or if they order things by subject matter. For home videos and photos, I have 36,000 videos and photos (1.4TB) since 1988. I just fonished scanning in about 5000 photos from photos boxes from the early to mid 90's. There's also a bunch of DVDs I still need to rip from the early to mid 2000's. So... I have a "Family Photos" and "Family Videos" in my Media folder (not Share). They're organized by: <date> <contributor> <media> So for example: <Media> <Family> <Photos> <2023> <Mom> < Ipad> <IPhone> <Dad> <Ipad> <IPhone> <Kid 1> <Ipad> <IPhone> etc. The reason for separating is because Apple stores things as img_0001 and img_0002 and files can be overwritten from different people and devices. Plex has indexed Home videos and Photos and plays back on all the various household devices. There's 9 tv's, 4 phones, 4 ipads in the house and all of them are connected to Plex. This seems to work well for now. And that's when it comes to shares. having a separate media share would also give access to family photos and videos. That's not so much of an issue, but then I'm also curious why to have a separate media share rather than a folder in a "shared" share? Edited May 20, 20242 yr by csimpson
May 20, 20242 yr Community Expert I use a raidz1 ZFS disk setup and use zfs as my main shares in smb. *waiting on unraid to finish and fix smb. I almost don't have to edit the defaults anymore... https://forums.unraid.net/topic/151422-feature-request-custom-smb-with-out-unraids-default-config-options/?do=findComment&comment=1365921 ^Which is one reason why I would want to edit the smb conf manuly ... So I start with a zfs data set and go into shares tab and fix/make sure the dataset created is set to the correct pool for data storage. Depending on application / samba / etc structure of data. I then use sub folders within my datasets I like zfs as my primary as there are some fun things you can do such as setup shadow copies and backups within samba... This is done through unriad with zfs snapshots. This is done more with snapshots and a script and small edits to smb shares. Example documentation: https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/scaletutorials/shares/smb/addsmbshadowcopies/#:~:text=About SMB Shadow Copies&text=By default%2C all ZFS snapshots,within the SMB share path. its all in the smb per share setting to enable this options with smb https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php?thread/43915-install-zfs-snapshot-and-enable-samba-shadow-copy-previous-versions-for-windows/ I use a user script and snapshot plugin to accomplish this: Script is a compilation of others forum users works to make zfs snapshots: #!/bin/bash #v0.2 ########################simple-snapshot-zfs####################### ###################### User Defined Options ###################### # List your ZFS datasets. You can add/remove sets DATASETS=("vm-zfs/Brandon" "vm-zfs/CCTV" "vm-zfs/DLNA" "vm-zfs/DnD" "vm-zfs/Elliott" "vm-zfs/ISO" "vm-zfs/Logan" "vm-zfs/Nextcloud" "vm-zfs/Program-Installers-PCRepair" "vm-zfs/William") # readarray -t DATASETS < <(zfs list -o name -H) # when replacing DATASETS above, should return all pools/Datasets, but not thouroughly tested yet # Set Number of Snapshots to Keep SHANPSHOT_QTY=10 ###### Don't change below unless you know what you're doing ###### ################################################################## timestamp=$(date "+%Y-%m-%d-%H:%M") echo "Starting Snapshot ${timestamp}" echo "_____________________________________________________________" # Function to create snapshot if there is changed data create_snapshot_if_changed() { local DATASET="$1" local WRITTEN WRITTEN=$(zfs get -H -o value written "${DATASET}") if [[ "${WRITTEN}" != "0" ]]; then local TIMESTAMP TIMESTAMP="$(date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H%M')" zfs snapshot "${DATASET}@${TIMESTAMP}" echo "Snapshot created: ${DATASET}@${TIMESTAMP}" else echo "No changes detected in ${DATASET}. No snapshot created." fi } # Function to prune snapshots prune_snapshots() { local DATASET="$1" local KEEP="${SHANPSHOT_QTY}" local SNAPSHOTS=( $(zfs list -t snapshot -o name -s creation -r "${DATASET}" | grep "^${DATASET}@") ) local SNAPSHOTS_COUNT=${#SNAPSHOTS[@]} echo "Total snapshots for ${DATASET}: ${SNAPSHOTS_COUNT}" local SNAPSHOTS_SPACE SNAPSHOTS_SPACE=$(zfs get -H -o value usedbysnapshots "${DATASET}") echo "Space used by snapshots for ${DATASET}: ${SNAPSHOTS_SPACE}" if [[ ${SNAPSHOTS_COUNT} -gt ${KEEP} ]]; then local TO_DELETE=$((SNAPSHOTS_COUNT - KEEP)) for i in "${SNAPSHOTS[@]:0:${TO_DELETE}}"; do zfs destroy "${i}" echo "Deleted snapshot: ${i}" echo "_____________________________________________________________" done else echo "_____________________________________________________________" fi } # Iterate over each dataset and call the functions for dataset in "${DATASETS[@]}"; do create_snapshot_if_changed "${dataset}" prune_snapshots "${dataset}" done echo "----------------------------Done!----------------------------" and paths are viewable for smb in snapshot plugin: extra smb share setting example: [Brandon] vfs objects = shadow_copy2 shadow:snapdir = .zfs/snapshot shadow:sort = desc shadow:format = zfs-auto-snap_monthly-%Y-%m-%d-%H%M my shadow snap dir would become: vm-zfs/Brandon(Snapshots)/%Y-%m-%d-%H%M and fill in and fix the above... for Plex - DLNA: I separate picture form tv shows form movie. But this starts at the dataset level first then sub folders with in the data set. Edited May 20, 20242 yr by bmartino1 forum hickup and strue with data - spelling
May 20, 20242 yr Community Expert 5 hours ago, csimpson said: I have a fileserver and I'm in the middle of deciding whether to take my single share with multiple folders or create different shares. It's really only myself accessing my shares along with various devices in the house (Apple TV's, Roku, etc) accessing media through Plex. But, it would be nice to have flexibility. For example, to provide my wife access to a folder called "Wife's folder" or the kids to have access to their own folders. Currently, I have a share called "Shared" and within that are main folders. Backups Family Finances Other Media Work Inside the Family folder, I have folders for each family member with documents, report cards, etc. I'd like to be able to make those folders accessible, but not the parent. Not too sure if that's possible. So I'm curious how others with a family have structured their shares/folders? Since the folders are sub folders with in a folder you would need to use the smb extra config and make the sub folder shares. *note the array has to be stopped to edit this... settings > smb: Here you would make your own smb share: example: [appdata] path = /mnt/user/appdata comment = Docker Data on Cache Drive browseable = no # Public public = yes writeable = yes case sensitive = auto preserve case = yes short preserve case = yes vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr fruit:encoding = native So make a share name: Wife: [Wife] path = /mnt/user/shared/wife comment = Wife Folder Share browseable = no # Public public = yes writeable = yes case sensitive = auto preserve case = yes short preserve case = yes vfs objects = catia fruit streams_xattr fruit:encoding = native
May 21, 20242 yr Community Expert https://www.suitefiles.com/folder-structures-guide/ and back 321 rule: https://www.unitrends.com/blog/3-2-1-backup-sucks#:~:text=The 3-2-1 backup strategy simply states that you,off-site for disaster recovery. usual 321 with 1 offsite
May 21, 20242 yr Author Great responses, thank-you! What are the community's thoughts on storing Family Photos and Videos in the Media folder? I'm not sure if it belong there or in the "Family" folder?
May 21, 20242 yr Community Expert I personally separate them. its personal preference. While it can make duplicates. I usual reserve media content for public facing, while other content as private. So in my use case, dlna is my media folder. While pictures are in individual user data folder, similar to old nt style roaming profiles. That I map per user when they log in. I can see a structure folder with media contain media files of picture/ movies. But for my use case, I didn't want some file to be public facing. And in the even of a Plex memory leak / error in server I didn't want those files accessible. I would keep family photo together in the family folder. and only put them in media if you want them public to the world.
May 22, 20242 yr Author 17 hours ago, bmartino1 said: I personally separate them. its personal preference. While it can make duplicates. I usual reserve media content for public facing, while other content as private. So in my use case, dlna is my media folder. While pictures are in individual user data folder, similar to old nt style roaming profiles. That I map per user when they log in. I can see a structure folder with media contain media files of picture/ movies. But for my use case, I didn't want some file to be public facing. And in the even of a Plex memory leak / error in server I didn't want those files accessible. I would keep family photo together in the family folder. and only put them in media if you want them public to the world. Hmmm, that makes sense. Currently, I have my family photos and videos in my media folder. It's mainly because it makes it easier to have Host Path 3: /mnt/user/Shared/Media/ mapped to: Container Path: /data But if I were to have a separate share for Media and the family photos/videos were in the Family Folder (outside of the Media share), how would I add them to Plex? Currently, I could just change: Host Path 3: /mnt/user/Shared/ and then add the folders in the Plex Library to be /data/Family/Photos But that would allow Plex to have access to everything. Not a big deal because I don't serve up content outside of my home and there's no remote access through Plex, but... when my 17 year old goes off to school, I may want to change it so she can access it externally. Maybe...
May 22, 20242 yr Community Expert to add more path to plex you make a docker path variable for file access and then go to setting and add the path in docker. SO edit the plex docker tempalte and click example data fill in: then go to plex wrench(setting) > Manage > Libraries > add library now you have that folder public facing in Plex media library Edited May 22, 20242 yr by bmartino1
May 22, 20242 yr Community Expert you can make sub folders within plex as well and have a /photo main folder then use container path /photo/%users% this way Plex only needs a single library of /photo added to generate.
May 22, 20242 yr Author Beautiful! Thank-you @bmartino1 - I'll try this when I'm back home! This is awesome! [ADDED]: Worked perfectly!!! Edited May 22, 20242 yr by csimpson
May 23, 20242 yr Author 8 hours ago, bmartino1 said: you can make sub folders within plex as well and have a /photo main folder then use container path /photo/%users% this way Plex only needs a single library of /photo added to generate. Sorry, I’m not quite following this?
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