What is Folder Aggregation & How to Use?

Shared Folder Aggregation How-to Guide

Introduction

The Shared Folder Aggregation is used to build a hierarchical view of multiple file servers and shares on the network. This function can aggregate all shared folders in local network into a “portal folder” on our NAS. Instead of having to think of a specific machine name for each set of files, users can easily access all shared folders by accessing the “portal folder”.

Note:
This function is provided by Samba. Therefore, you can use this function ONLY in Microsoft Networking Service.

This HOWTO presents a sample configuration of Shared Folder Configuration on QNAP Turbo NAS. The test environment is set as figure 1 and Table 1.

Assumptions:

For illustration, guests have full access rights to all remote shared folders. If you have permission controls on remote shared folders, you should consolidate with Microsoft Active Directory in your production environment.

System	Host Name	IP address
QNAP NAS	mynas	192.168.1.10	Portal Folder Name: ShareRoot Link name: linka: link to the share folder on host A linkb: link to the share folder on host B
Host A (Windows XP)	Appolo	192.168.1.100	Remote Share Name: shared_software
Host B (Windows 2003)	Diana	192.168.1.200	Remote Share Name: public_software
Client PC	Pcman	192.168.1.120

Table 1: Test Environment

Figure 1: Test Environment

Configuring details

#1: Login NAS web management interface. Go to “Access Right Management” > “Share Folders” > “Folder Aggregation”.

#2: Create a Portal Folder
Click “Create A Portal Folder”. A dialog box is displayed. Enter “ShareRoot” in the “Folder Name”. Select not to hide the portal folder. Click “APPLY”.

#3: Create links for remote share
Click “Link Configuration” in the “Action” field. Enter the following settings for link 1 and link 2.

Link	Name	Host Name	Remote Share Folder
1	linka	Appolo	shared_software
2	linkb	192.168.1.200	public_software

Figure 2

Click “APPLY” to finish the configuration.

Note:
1. Make sure you have created share folders on both host Appolo and Diana.
2. You can enter either NetBIOS name or IP address in the host name field.

Verify Shared Folder Aggregation

To verify the configuration is successful, we create a plain text file in the share folder on each host, Appolo and Diana. Let’s set the file name as “host_appolo.txt” on host Appolo and “host_diana.txt” on host Diana.

Now, use our client PC “Pcman” to connect to QNAP NAS.
#1: Login QNAP NAS by \\mynas or \\192.168.1.10
#2: You will see a folder name “ShareRoot”. You can see two sub-folders, “linka” and “linkb” after entering “ShareRoot”.
#3: When you click “linka”, you will see “host_appolo.txt” and you will see “host_diana.txt” after entering the “linkb” folder.

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