Using the JFileServer Docker Images

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Revision as of 17:11, 3 January 2019 by Tommygonk (talk | contribs)

There are a number of Docker images available with various configurations of the JFileServer. The following Docker images are available :-

Image Description
filesysorg/jfileserver JFileServer file server configured with the SMB server enabled
filesysorg/jfileserver-db-postgres JFileServer file server plus the PostGres database filesystem add-on
filesysorg/jfileserver-enterprise JFileServer file server plus the Enterprise add-on to add support for SMB2 and SMB3

Using the filesysorg/jfileserver Docker Image

The filesysorg/jfileserver Docker image contains a core JFileServer setup. The default setup enables the SMB server with support for SMB1.

To run the default JFileServer setup use the following command :-

docker run -d --rm --name jfileserver -p 445:445 filesysorg/jfileserver

The Docker image will be downloaded from the Docker hub if you have not already downloaded it. This will start a JFileServer running the SMB server on the native SMB port 445. On linux, macOS and other Unix systems you should be able to connect to the SMB file server by using the host name or IP address in the UNC path when mapping the shared drive path. For example, if the host IP address is 192.168.1.2 you would use a UNC path of \\192.168.1.2\jfileshare to map to the default shared path of the JFileServer. There are two users configured for the file server, an administrator user with the username admin password jfilesrv, and a normal user with username user password java. You will need to use either the admin or normal username and password when connecting to the file server.

To stop the JFileServer use the command :-

docker stop jfileserver

Using Volume Mapping To Override The Configuration

The JFileServer Docker image has the following files and folder layout :-

/jfileserver
 |
 +- /jfileShare
     |
     +- sharedFile.txt
 +- /lib
     |
     +- bcprov-jdk5on-1.48.jar
     +- hazelcast-3.10.1.jar
     +- jfileserver-1.1.0.jar
     +- jna-5.1.0.jar
     +- jna-platform-5.1.0.jar
 +- /logs
     |
     +- jfileserver.log
 +- fileSrvConfig.xml
 +- runsrv.sh

We can use Docker volume mapping to override the default paths and map them to paths on the host system. To override the default shared folder to a folder on the host system we could use the command :-

docker run -d --rm --name jfileserver -p 445:445 -v <path-to-host-folder>:/jfileserver/jfileShare filesysorg/jfileserver

To have the JFileServer log written to a file on the host we can use the command :-

docker run -d --rm --name jfileserver -p 445:445 -v <path-to-host-folder>:/jfileserver/logs filesysorg/jfileserver

To override the default JFileServer configuration we can map the /jfileserver/fileSrvConfig.xml to a configuration file on the host system :-

docker run -d --rm --name jfileserver -p 445:445 -v <path-to-host-config-file>:/jfileserver/fileSrvConfig.xml filesysorg/jfileserver

You can use multiple volume maps on the command line, so the above examples could be combined into the command :-

docker run -d --rm --name jfileserver -p 445:445 -v <path-to-host-folder>:/jfileserver/jfileShare -v <path-to-host-folder>:/jfileserver/logs
 -v <path-to-host-config-file>:/jfileserver/fileSrvConfig.xml filesysorg/jfileserver

Another way to extend the JFileServer image would be to use a Docker file that extends the JFileServer image and copies a new configuration file over the original file.

Using Environment Variables To Override The Configuration

The default configuration can be overridden using environment variables. Also the shared folder and the logs folder can be redirected to use host folders via volume mapping.

As the JFileServer is running in a Docker container it can use the default privileged ports for the various file servers. The SMB server will use TCP ports 139 and 445, and UDP ports 137 and 138, by default. The FTP server will use port 21 by default.

The following environment variables are used :-

Variable Name Description Default Value
JFSRV_SMB_ENABLE Enable the SMB server true
JFSRV_FTP_ENABLE Enable the FTP server false
JFSRV_NFS_ENABLE Enable the NFS server false
JFSRV_SMB_SERVERNAME Name of the SMB server, for NetBIOS connections jfilesrv
JFSRV_SMB_DOMAIN Domain or workgroup that the SMB server belongs to domain
JFSRV_SMB_DIALECTS SMB dialects that the SMB server will negotiate SMB1
JFSRV_SMB_DEBUGFLAGS SMB debug flags Negotiate,Socket,State
JFSRV_FTP_PORT Port that the FTP server listens on 21
JFSRV_FTP_DEBUGFLAGS FTP debug flags File,Search,Error,DataPort,Directory
JFSRV_NFS_DEBUGFLAGS NFS debug flags File,FileIO
JFSRV_SHARE_NAME Shared filesystem name jfileshare
JFSRV_SHARE_COMMENT Comment for the shared filesystem Test shared filesystem
JFSRV_ADMIN_USER Administrator user name admin
JFSRV_ADMIN_PASSWORD Administrator user password jfilesrv
JFSRV_NORMAL_USER Normal user name user
JFSRV_NORMAL_PASSWORD Normal user password java
JFSRV_DEBUG_OUTPUT Debug output destination, 'File' or 'Console' File
JFSRV_DEBUG_LOGPATH Log file path when using 'File' debug output /jfileserver/logs/jfileserver.log

We can specify overrides for the environment variables on the Docker command line, for example, to enable the FTP server we would use :-

docker run -d --rm --name jfileserver -e JFSRV_FTP_ENABLE=true -p 445:445 -p 21:21 filesysorg/jfileserver

If you are having problems with the JFileServer you can redirect the log output to the console and run the Docker image interactively using :-

docker run --rm --name jfileserver -e JFSRV_DEBUG_OUTPUT=Console -p 445:445 filesysorg/jfileserver

You should then see the debug log output to the console, and the JFileServer waiting for a client to connect or any errors from the file server startup :-

JFileServer starting, enter 'x' to shutdown server, 'r' to restart server ...
Starting server NetBIOS ...
Starting server SMB ...
[SMB] SMB Server JFILESRV starting
[SMB] Version 1.0.0, Java VM 25.181-b13, OS Linux, version 4.9.125-linuxkit
[SMB] Using authenticator org.filesys.server.auth.EnterpriseSMBAuthenticator, mode=USER
[SMB] Server timezone offset = 0hrs
[SMB] Dialects enabled = [Core,CorePlus,DOS LANMAN 1.0,LANMAN1.0,DOS LANMAN 2.1,LM1.2X002,LANMAN2.1,NT LM 0.12]
[SMB] Shares:
[SMB]  [jfileshare,DISK,,[/jfileserver/fileShare]] [/jfileserver/fileShare]
[SMB] Added NTServer flag to host announcement
[SMB] Binding TCP-SMB session handler to address : ALL
[SMB] Binding NetBIOS session handler to address : ALL
[SMB] Request handler SMBRequestHandler_1 waiting for session ...
[SMB] Listening for connections on [SMB,TCP-SMB,ALL:445]
[SMB] Listening for connections on [SMB,NetBIOS,ALL:139]
[SMB] Waiting for new connection ...

To stop the JFileServer when running in interactive mode use <Ctrl-C>, the file server should shutdown cleanly, this may take from a few seconds to a minute or so.

Using the filesysorg/jfileserver-db-postgres Image

The filesysorg/jfileserver-db-postgres image extends the core JFileServer image by adding the PostGreSQL database filesystem driver. Instead of the shared filesystem being mapped to a folder in the container image, or the host filesystem, the shared filesystem is held within a set of PostGres database tables.

The filesysorg/jfileserver-db-postgres Docker image does not contain the PostGres database server. A Docker compose file is used to run the PostGres database server and JFileServer file server images as two seperate containers that work together. Here is a sample docker-compose.yml that can be used to run the JFileServer and PostGres servers :-

version: "3"

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres
    restart: always
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: jfileserver
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: fileserver
      POSTGRES_DB: jfileserver
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"

  file_server:
    image: filesysorg/jfileserver-db-postgres
    links:
      - postgres
    environment:
      JFSRV_DEBUG_OUTPUT: console
    ports:
      - "445:445"

As well as the environment variables defined for the JFileServer core Docker image the following environment variables are also used :-

Variable Name Description Default Value
JFSRV_DB_DSN The PostGres JDBC driver data source name for the JFileServer database tables jdbc:postgresql://postgres/jfileserver
JFSRV_DB_USER Database user name for the PostGres connection jfileserver
JFSRV_DB_PASSWORD Database password for the PostGres connection fileserver


Using the filesysorg/jfileserver-enterprise Image

The filesysorg/jfileserver-enterprise Docker image extends the core JFileServer image by adding the JFileServer Enterprise add-on that enables support for the newer SMB2 and SMB3 protocols to the SMB server. SMB2 is a more efficient and higher performance version of the SMB protocol, SMB3 adds full encryption support to the SMB traffic to prevent snooping and relay attacks.

The default configuration of the JFileServer Enterprise file server is similar to the JFileServer but the SMB server is configured to negotiate the SMB2 protocol.

Using the SMB Server On Windows

To use the JFileServer Docker image to run an SMB server on Windows requires some additional work to access the SMB server. A Windows host uses the native SMB port 445 to run a local file server as well as to access various services such as remote registry editing, access to the event log manager and service manager and many other functions. When running the JFileServer Docker image on Windows we cannot map the native SMB port 445 from the Docker container to the host system as the port will already be in use. Instead we need to setup a network route to the Docker VM that is running the JFileServer image.

To setup a network route to the JFileServer Docker container :-

  • Get the Docker VM IP address using 'docker-machine ip default'
  • Start the JFileServer container without a port mapping using :-
docker run filesysorg/<jfileserver-image-name>
  • Get the IP address of the JFileServer container using :-
docker inspect <container-id-or-name> | findstr IPAddress
  • Add network routing to the JFileServer container :-
route add /P <container-network-IP> MASK 255.0.0.0 <docker-machine-IP>

For example if the container IP address is 172.17.0.2 and the Docker machine IP is 192.168.99.100 the routing command would be

route add /P 172.0.0.0 MASK 255.0.0.0 192.168.99.100
  • Map a network drive from the Windows host using a UNC path of \\<docker-machine-IP>\jfileshare using the admin or normal user name and password configured.