Silent installation of rclone config and mount

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I don't have a problem as such. Rclone is a great tool. it works perfectly. But what I require is some customization. Currently, we have an S3 bucket in AWS that contains the user's archival data.
We are trying to mount this bucket as a drive on multiple user workstations. The user should only have the ability to read data from the drive.
I personally followed the instruction to mount it on a single workstation and it worked but I would like a way of automating this installation on multiple user workstations. I am not a script guy so this is a bit difficult for me to achieve. :frowning:

What is your rclone version (output from rclone version)

v1-55-1

Which OS you are using and how many bits (eg Windows 7, 64 bit)

Windows 10, 64 bits

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

AWS S3

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

 \rclone mount s3-XXXXX:s3-XXXXX/ S: --vfs-cache-mode full '''

The rclone config contents with secrets removed.

[s3-XXXXX]
type = s3
provider = AWS
access_key_id = 
secret_access_key = 
region = eu-central-1
location_constraint = EU
storage_class = STANDARD

A log from the command with the -vv flag

Paste  log here

hello and welcome to the forum,

rclone.exe is a portable app, does not need to be installed.
and rclone will look for the config file in the same folder as the rclone.exe
copy those two files to a new machine.

as for the mount, you need to install winfsp and that can be installed in /quiet mode, so no user interaction required.

if you will be installing it on many computers, you cannot be sure that the S: drive is not in use:

  • as documented, "Using the special value * will tell rclone to automatically assign the next available drive
    letter, starting with Z: and moving backward"
    or
  • mount to a folder such as c:\rclone\mount

as for "only have the ability to read data from the drive."

  • use --read-only
    and/or
  • create a bucket policy to prevent put or delete of objects.

to create an install script, use free, open source, fantastic NSIS

Hi. Thanks for your suggestion.
I have one final question.
I have currently mounted the S3 bucket as a network drive.
Do you know how can I create a share from that network drive, just like how Tntdrive does?
Regards,
Karthik

i do it this way

on server - named server

  1. rclone mount remote:bucket b:\mount\rclone\bucket
  2. net share b:\mount\rclone as name rclone

on client

  1. net use x: \\server\rclone\bucket

Hi,
Thank you.
I am looking for a share option while I am mounting it as a Network drive rather than a fixed drive :slight_smile:
Regards,
Karthik

why do you need to rclone mount as a network drive?
my solution does not use a network drive or a fixed drive, does not use a drive letter

Hi,
There was this instruction on the "rclone mount" page,

"In most cases, rclone will mount the remote as a normal, fixed disk drive by default. However, you can also choose to mount it as a remote network drive, often described as a network share. If you mount an rclone remote using the default, fixed drive mode and experience unexpected program errors, freezes or other issues, consider mounting as a network drive instead."

Regards,
Karthik

my solution works with --network-mode, tho i never had need to use it.

Hi,
I have been fighting with this for a week now and it doesn't work :frowning:
I am using the following syntax,

mount s3:s3-XX * --volname \\server\archive --config "C:\rclone\rclone-v1-55-1\rclone.conf" --read-only --no-modtime --vfs-read-chunk-size 16M --vfs-read-wait 20ms --vfs-cache-mode minimal

There is no way for me to share the drive mounted as a network drive. As you can see from the image below, there is no such option as sharing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

image

Regards,
Karthik

i gave you a solution, what was wrong with that?

Hi,
I have no issues in mounting the drive.
It mounts as a Network drive. But from here, I am unable to create a share from the mounted network drive.
Regards,
Karthik

not sure what to tell you, but again, i shared a solution that i know works.
if there some reason you are unable to try it?

Hi,
When I use the parameter you posted, rclone mount remote:bucket b:\mount\rclone\bucket the drive will be mounted as a fixed disk.
This is available in your documentation itself.

So your solution was about mounting the drive as a fixed drive. I know I can share the fixed network but my problem was sharing it as a network drive.

Also, --network-mode will be taken as default when I use the parameter, --volname This is again available in your documentation.

So, in a way, I have used your solution but still I am unable to share my Network drive.

Regards,
Karthik

to share a rclone mount over a lan, --network-mode is not required, repeat, it is not required.

I guess that is the conclusion: It is not possible. Not with network mode. You must mount as fixed disk.

If you are not able to share it when mounted as a drive letter in fixed disk mode (I get an error when trying to do that), you will have to mount to directory and possibly share from the parent directory. As @asdffdsa shown in an example.

Hi
Thanks for your reply.
We used to have TnT drive. It works similar to the rclone. It can create a share from the network drive. I know rclone can do that. Its just that I am unable to figure it out.
But thanks for your efforts to help me out.
Regards,
Karthik

let's start with the server first

  1. create the folder on the computer, such as C:\mount\rclone
  2. run a rclone mount command such as rclone mount remote: c:\mount\rclone\remote
  3. net share c:\mount\rclone

Hi,

I want it to be mounted as a Network drive.

This is what I have with the TnTdrive,

image

Regards,
Karthik

Hi @asdffdsa
I think you didn't understand my initial request.
I wanted to mount the S3 bucket as a "NETWORK DRIVE" and not as a "FIXED DISK". Using the mount options you have mentioned will mount the s3 bucket to a path representing a non-existent subdirectory of an existing parent directory. This is again equivalent to that of the mount as a "Fixed disk".
Regards,
Karthik

i thought that you wanted to share the rclone mount over a local lan?

is there a specifc reason you cannot use a fixed disk and must use NETWORK DRIVE