Configuring JFileServer

The JFileServer file server is configured using a simple XML file, the same configuration format is used by the Enterprise version of the file server.

The configuration is contained within the <fileserver> main section with various sub-sections to configure which file server protocols are enabled, configuration for each protocol, security and debug logging. Here's an overview of the XML configuration file :-

<fileserver>
    <server>...</server>
    <SMB>...</SMB>
    <FTP>...</FTP>
    <NFS>...</NFS>
    <shares>...</shares>
    <debug>...</debug>
    <security>...</security>
    <licence>...</licence>
</fileserver>

Environment variables may be used in attributes and values within the XML configuration using the syntax '${env-var-name}'.

Some configuration settings allow an optional platforms="..." attribute, this allows a configuration to be used on multiple platforms. If the current platform that the JFileServer is running on is not listed in the platforms="..." list then the setting will be ignored.

The available platform values are Windows, Linux, MacOSX and Solaris. The platforms value is a comma delimited list of valid platforms for the current setting.

The <server> configuration section is used to enable or disable which file server protocols are available. The syntax has changed from the JLAN configuration as each protocol now has an enable="true|false" attribute, this makes it easier to use an environment variable to control whether a particular file server protocol is enabled.

The <servers> configuration section has the following syntax :-

<servers>
    <SMB enable="true|false">
    <FTP enable="true|false">
    <NFS enable="true|false">
 </servers>

SMB Server Configuration

The <SMB> configuration section is used to configure the SMB protocol server that allows a drive or mount to be mapped to the JFileServer file server which can then be accessed as if it were a local drive on the client system.

The <SMB> configuration section has the following syntax :-

<SMB>
    <host>
        <broadcast>...</broadcast>
        <smbdialects>...</smbdialects>
        <comment>...</comment>
        <netBIOSSMB .../>
        <tcpipSMB .../>
        <hostAnnounce .../>
    </host>
    <authenticator ...>
        ...
    </authenticator>
    <sessionDebug .../>
 </SMB>

Note: The JLAN XML configuration has <Win32NetBIOS/> and <Win32Announce/> configuration options, these are currently ignored by JFileServer as the Win32 NetBIOS legacy code has been moved out into a seperate add-on project. With most clients using native SMB connections on port 445, and SMB2/SMB3 connections requiring native SMB connections, there are only a small number of special cases where the Win32 NetBIOS interface is of use.

The <host> Configuration Section

The <host> sub-section contains the main networking and protocol configuration settings.

The <broadcast> setting specifies the network broadcast mask that is required to send broadcast datagrams, used by the NetBIOS protocol and host announcement. JFileServer now accepts the setting of 'AUTO' where the broadcast mask will be determined automatically. In some cases this may not work, you will then need to specify the broadcast mask. For eample if your network addresses are in the 192.168.1.x/8 range the broadcast mask would be 192.168.1.255.

The <smbdialects> setting configures which SMB dialects the file server will negotiate with a client. The value should be a comma delimited list of dialect names. The high level dialect names available are SMB1 for the standard server, plus SMB2 and SMB3 for the Enterprise server.

The <comment> setting provides a comment that is visible to clients when displaying the server properties.

The <netBIOSSMB .../> setting configures the SMB file server to use the TCPIP socket based NetBIOS protocol. The default setting of <netBIOSSMB/> will enable the TCPIP NetBIOS interface using TCP port 139 and UDP ports 137 and 138. These settings can be overridden using the sessionPort="...", namingPort="..." and datagramPort="..." attributes. For example, if running the JFileServer on a linux or Mac system as a normal user the server will not be able to bind the privileged ports 137/138/139, so we may use the following configuration and use firewall rules to forward the network traffic to the unprivileged ports :-