Configuring Shares

Almagamated Widgets
Imagine that Almagamated Widgets, Inc. has an NAS server with two RAIDs: RAID1 and RAID2. RAID1 has a volume named /SALES. This volume contains two more volumes: /USA and /CANADA. RAID2 has a volume named /CORP. This volume contains three volumes: /ACCNT, /ENG, and /IS. There is no share configured for the root of the RAID; in other words, there is not share pointing directly to /RAID1. The first level of shares (SALES and CORP) point to a volume on the RAID.

Remember from the previous discussion that the volume and the share aren't the same thing. The volume is identified as /volumename. An identically named share has been assigned to each volume.

Security
Notice that the top level shares allow access to all of their subdirectories. What if you don't want the sales staff in Canada to access the US sales data? Or you want to prevent everyone except for the business office staff from accessing the data in the ACCT share? How do you prevent this?

You can hide a share by assigning the Hidden attribute to a share. But that action alone won't create a secure system. Greater security is achieved by applying access rights to shares using individual user accounts or group assignments. Assigning rights will restrict who can access a share. If you are using firmware version 3.0 or higher you can assign rights to a file or folder as well as to the share.

You can also apply a User Quota to a share. A quota limits the amount of storage space a user is allowed in the designated share of the NAS server.

Top level shares
What would happen if the example NAS server was configured with two shares directly to the top level of the RAID (SHARE1 points to RAID1, and SHARE2 to RAID2) and no shares were hidden? The tree would look like the sample on the right.

Notice that everything is available under the top level shares (SHARE1 and SHARE2). These shares point directly to the RAID. The CORP and SALES shares are not hidden, so all the shares beneath them are visible to all users.