Best option for integrating Windows Fileshare with Nextcloud

🏷️ General
#1

OK, we have Nextcloud 20.0.4 as a primary fileshare and use Windows domain VDI desktops at work. Right now, each user uses the Nextcloud Client to download and locally cache “their” files, which include about 100GB of administratively shared data to all users.

Nextcloud is connected to our domain with LDAP and all users authenticate using AD credentials

Since these are VDI sessions, and offline file access is irrelevant, is there a better way if integrating the Nextcloud share with our VDI workstations - and eliminate duplicating the 100GB shared data for all users?

THX,
-JB

#2

There was a virtual drive in development for Nextcloud that worked more like Google drive file stream. I don’t know what the status of the project is.

As an alternative, if you can put the shared data on SMB instead, that share can be mounted and accessed as external storage in Nextcloud (which will not sync to the client by default) but also be mounted as a network drive on the client.

You could also mount it from Nextcloud as a WebDAV drive in Windows, but I would try something else first.

#3

Thanks’ for the reply! I considered using a windows (SMB) share mounted to Nextcloud - but I prefer the security the filesystem on Linux.

I am presently leaning toward WevDAV, if I could integrate it in the users login script, so that “Fred” would automatically be connected to “Freds” share when connected.
Any thoughts?
-JB

#4

I don’t know that the filesystem itself is any more or less secure. NTFS supports very detailed security ACLs.

You can use “NET USE” to map a WebDAV drive. Whether this can be done non-interactively I’m not sure. With SMB it would inherit the login of the current user if none is specified, but I haven’t tried that with WebDAV.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/iis/publish/using-webdav/using-the-webdav-redirector#002b

Windows has been known to require occasional reconnecting of WebDAV mapped drives or to have difficulty/bugs mapping them in the first place. It’s partly for this reason I suggested trying something else first.

#5

IMHO: use the option to connect with your nextcloud via Webdav. Each user can create an indiividual Webdav link in the webinterface and use it to config a regular Netdrive.

#6

I went ahead and mounted the Windows share with SMB. Works perfectly!