Uploading digital objects to an external server

[Mario Villar]

Hi all,

By default, AtoM saves the digital objects that we upload in the server's own storage unit where it is hosted, in the "uploads" directory.
Sooner or later when we handle audio files as is my personal case, the disk capacity will fill up.

While there is the option of CSV importing digital objects pointing to an external path, or linking to an external server, many users are more comfortable using the built-in GUI.

In order to get the digital objects to be stored on an external network drive, in my case a NAS, I followed the following steps that I share with you in case someone finds it useful :

1 - Mount network drive via "mount" command, for example in /media /SHARED

(It's up to you the syntax used in the command)

2 - Add to / etc / fstab:

//IPOFEXTERNALSERVER / media / SHARED cifs uid = 33, username = YOURUSERNAME, vers = 1.0, password = YOURPASSWORD, sec = ntlm, iocharset = utf8, gid = 33 0 0

I'm using v 1.0 of cifs to maximize compatibility with older NAS boxes, as my case. For newer boxes, you can use 3.0

3 - Rename the "uploads" folder within the AtoM working directory to "uploads_old" for example.

4 - Create a symbolic link called "uploads" that points to where we mount the network drive.

5 - Give 755 permissions to the destination network drive, and change the owner of it to "www-data (33)", as well as the group. Do it recursively.

1 - Mount network drive via mount command, for example in / media / SHARED

2 - Add to / etc / fstab:

//IPOFEXTERNALSERVER  / media / SHARED cifs uid = 33, username = YOURUSERNAME, vers = 1.0, password = YOURPASSWORD, sec = ntlm, iocharset = utf8, gid = 33 0 0

ADVICE : BE CAREFUL MODIFYNG fstab!!! Any errors can make a system unable to boot. Is highly recommend to make a backup copy.

3 - Rename the "uploads" folder within the AtoM working directory to "uploads_old" for example.

4 - Create a symbolic link called "uploads" that points to where we mount the network drive.

6 - Regenerate the derivatives of digital objects.

Tested on Ubuntu 18.04 running AtoM 2.6
It is recommended for ease of use to install Webmin, and go to the part of "Disk And Network Filesystem" in the "System" section.
In my particular case the type of mount point corresponds to the CIFS protocol. We can also using Webmin select which type of protocol or file system we prefer.

[Mario Villar]

You also should copy the contents of the original "uploads" folder to the previously selected folder of the external server.