How do you manage your server files?

Submitted ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨legoraft@reddthat.com⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

I’m currently debating on how to manage files on my servers. I have a jellyfin and a minecraft server on which I need to add, remove or download files quite often. I don’t really want to use scp for everything, so I was wondering what everyone uses.

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Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Linux?

I just use sshfs to mount ssh shares and move files between them like any other folder.

Same with samba shares (windows).

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- Klajan@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You can do the same on Windows (mount ssh shares), there is an Fuse like project for Windows: WinFsp.
  
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  - theRealBassist@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    SSHFS also has a windows release.
    
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kevincox@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
IDK what OS you are on but on Linux most file managers have support for remote filesystems. SFTP (SSH-FTP, not to be confused with FTPS which is FTP-secure) is ubiquitous and if you use scp then you already have SSH set up.

If you need Windows support it is more of a pain. You may need to set up Samba or WebDAV and permissions can suck. But you can also download a third-party file browser that supports remote protocols.

So basically SFTP, and I fairly regularly just use a graphical file manager when I am doing one-off operations.

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- legoraft@reddthat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m using debian, so sftp would be an option, do you use a graphical client?
  
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  - kevincox@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Right now I am just using nautilus (default GNOME file manager) but in past I was using Thunar (default XFCE file manager). I’d be pretty surprised if whatever file manager you are currently using doesn’t support SFTP out of the box. Typically you can just enter something like sftp://myhost.example into the location bar. They may also have a dedicated network connection section with a wizard to add it.
    
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  - SomeBoyo@feddit.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    nemo for a gui, or midnightcommander after logging in via ssh for managing/moving files on the server.
    
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Illecors@lemmy.cafe ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
NFS comes to mind, naturally.

I remember some years ago scp had a big issue, can’t recall what, though. But that made me have a look at rsync, and I’ve been using that ever since. Flags are a bit atteocious, but I’ve aliases rsync -avz status=progress to copy and it’s been happy days. One other benefit - incremental copy. Helps in cases where a copy procedure had been stopped for whatever reason.

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- kevincox@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I wouldn’t really recommend NFS unless you need to remote mount as a “true filesystem” with full support for things like sockets, locking and other UNIX filesystem features or you need top performance. It is so difficult to do authentication and UID mapping that it typically isn’t worth it for simpler use cases like “add, remove or download files”.
  
  scp can be slow with large numbers of small files. rsync is much better at that and can do differential transfers if you need that. Since rsync can also run over SSH it can be very easy to just use it as a default.
  
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eletes@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Sftp using the KDE file browser Dolphin. Keeps it simple for my monkey brain as if I’m accessing the drive locally.

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MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Plex/Jellyfin is automatically managed by Sonarr/Radarr so I don’t touch those.

But for game servers I use Pterodactyl which has a nice WebUI to manage the server and its files, and has automated backups.

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- legoraft@reddthat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  pterodactyl looks really neat, will definitely look into that. I have a manual system for my media library, so I want to add the directories with artwork and movies manually to the directory which jellyfin reads.
  
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  - MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    github.com/filebrowser/filebrowser might be what you want for that, just a basic web based file management tool.
    
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ptz@dubvee.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
NFS, SMB, and/or sshfs

NFS for my media shares between servers (Emby, MPD, etc)

SMB for accessing from workstations

sshfs when I need a quick, one-off file session (or if I’m accessing remotely)
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- matcha_addict@lemy.lol ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sshfs is also a good candidate if for whatever reason you want security / encryption
  
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- legoraft@reddthat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I mostly want to upload to a media server from my desktop, as that is where I download and manage the files before they go on the server
  
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  - JASN_DE@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Use Filezilla and SFTP.
    
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crony@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I tend to use rsync 99% times.

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- legoraft@reddthat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  how would you do that with a large media library?
  
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  - crony@lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I would just use rsync on the whole folder.
    
    Rsync is smart enough to be able to only send files you didnt’ have previously like a regular mv command.
    
    Or you can sync the whole directory and have it also delete removed files.
    
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matcha_addict@lemy.lol ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Can you tell us what’s your issue with scp? It’ll help us make better recommendations.

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- legoraft@reddthat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I mostly want some sort of graphical way, I’m often moving a bunch of loose files and seeing them is a lot easier for me when transferring
  
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  - vegetaaaaaaa@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    sftp://USERNAME@SERVER:PORT in the address bar of most file managers will work. You can omit the port if it’s the default (22), you can omit the username if it’s the same as your local user.
    
    You can also add the server as a favorite/shortcut in your file manager sidebar (it works at least in Thunar and Nautilus). Or you can edit ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks directly:
    
    file:///some/local/directory file:///some/other/directory sftp://my.example.org/home/myuser my.example.org sftp://my.example.net/home/otheruser my.example.net
    
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  - matcha_addict@lemy.lol ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I would recommend you mention “graphical” or “GUI” in your main post. Most suggestions to be assuming CLI.
    
    Some suggestions mentioned NFS / SSHFS. Those would allow you to use any GUI file manager for moving stuff over.
    
    Sorry I can’t help more. Don’t have a lot of knowledge in gui tools
    
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  - agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    How exactly are you “losing” files?
    
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drkt@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
rsync for backups. SMB / NFS for things I need on a daily basis. SSH FTP (use whatever client you want) for things I need rarely but don’t wanna bother with SCP and I especially don’t bother ever bother setting up vsftpd for ‘real’ FTP.

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blotz@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Nautilus/most file explorers have a remote server option. For nautilus, “Files > Connect to server”. Once configured, you should be able to view your server files from your file explorer and uploading files should be as easy as drag and drop.

It’s not the best for security because if someone gets your computer, they can access your server through the file explorer. But it’s fast and convenient and great for a Minecraft server.

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- kevincox@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Generally you can even just type it into the location bar, no need to find a specific dialog. For example if I type CTRL+l then sftp://myserver.local into Nautilus it pops up a username+password dialog (or just logs in using my keys).
  
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normalexit@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s not very sexy, but I just use SFTP and filezilla. Filezilla is available for all the major operating systems, and an ssh server is basically required anyways.

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cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I use rsync and SFTP to transfer files to a remote server and NFS over the LAN.

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gravitywell@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I use samba for normal usage and rsync for backups.

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- legoraft@reddthat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Do you automate your backups in some way? And can you also use samba remotely
  
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  - gravitywell@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    For automatic stuff I use synching to keep my home an documents in sync.
    
    I don’t normally use samba remotely but I have a wire guard VPN that I connect to if I’m not at home and that gives me access to samba or any other “local” services I might need when away
    
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originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
docker, persistent shared storage

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halm@leminal.space ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
SCP?

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- legoraft@reddthat.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  sorry, should’ve clarified: secure copy, it’s an ssh kind of way of copying files to a server
  
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  - halm@leminal.space ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, I had to look it up but the above was the first search result 🙂
    
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jaykay@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Wouldn’t FileBrowser work? Idk if you’re on docker or not though

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slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Being the weirdo I am I have 2 things I use.

WinSCP to get that classic FTP look of file transfers and VS Code when working on smaller compose files.

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Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
SSH	Secure Shell for remote terminal access
SSL	Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption
TLS	Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL

[Thread #576 for this sub, first seen 5th Mar 2024, 18:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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FabianRY@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
[deleted]
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- kevincox@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  ftp ans sftp are completely different things. ftp is a very old protocol and can be run encrypted as ftps. sftp runs over SSH and is pretty common to use.
  
  Naming is truly one of the hardest problems in computer science.
  
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  - FabianRY@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Thanks😅. I wasn’t aware, and until today thought that sftp is just like “the secure version of ftp” (never heard of ftps), and not different things at all. I have still a lot to learn in this field.
    
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  - blotz@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    what! thats so dumb xD. so ftps stands for file transfer protocol secure, and sftp stands for ssh file transfer protocol? we have reached recursive acronyms.
    
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