Remote File System Volumes

The hardserver (Linux) or nFast Server (Windows) service restricts the paths that can be shared as RFS (Remote File System) volumes using the remote_file_system section of the config file or using the rserverperm --accessfiles command-line configuration.

By default, the following paths are permitted:

  • /opt/nfast/kmdata (Linux).

  • %NFAST_KMDATA%, typically C:\ProgramData\nCipher\Key Management Data (Windows).

  • Any path that was created by the rfs-setup utility and associated with RFS volumes to prepare an RFS for an nShield HSM or for use with the rfs-sync utility.

  • Subdirectories of permitted paths.

If you want to add custom paths not included in this list as RFS volumes, you must add them to the list of permitted paths before starting the hardserver (Linux) or nFast Server (Windows) service. If you make these changes after starting the service, you need to restart it for the changes to take effect.

You can update the list of permitted paths by either setting the NFSERV_RFS_ALLOWED_PATHS environment variable (see Allow custom RFS paths with an environment variable) or by creating an additional config.secure configuration file (see Allow custom RFS paths with a configuration file.)

Allow custom RFS paths with an environment variable

Linux

  1. If the /etc/nfast.conf file does not already exist, create it.

    This file must only be writable by root. This is enforced by nShield start-up scripts.

  2. Add the NFSERV_RFS_ALLOWED_PATHS environment variable to the nfast.conf file with a colon-separated list of paths (/<path>/share).

    For example, to share path1 and path 2 (spaces are permitted):

    export NFSERV_RFS_ALLOWED_PATHS=/path1/share:/path 2/share
Windows

Create the NFSERV_RFS_ALLOWED_PATHS environment variable in the global system environment variables with a semicolon-separated list of paths (\<path>\share).

For example, to share path1 and path 2 (spaces are permitted):

C:\path1\share;D:\path 2\share

Allow custom RFS paths with a configuration file

  1. Create the config.secure in /opt/nfast/hardserver.d (Linux) or the %PROGRAMDATA%\nCipher\hardserver.d directory, which is typically C:\ProgramData\nCipher\hardserver.d\config.secure.

  2. Add the paths as values in an rfs_allowed_paths JSON array. The JSON must be valid.

    For example, to share path1 and path 2 (spaces are permitted):

    Linux
    {
  "rfs_allowed_paths" : ["/path1/share", "/path 2/share"]
}
    Windows
    {
  "rfs_allowed_paths" : ["C:\\path1\\share", "D:\\path 2\\share"]
}
    You must use a backslash (\) to escape the backslashes in the path.