Efficiently Manage Folders from Different Sources with Folder Aggregation
If a task involves multiple folders, or even from multiple NAS, it can be cumbersome to manage and provide access to these decentralized sources. Folder Aggregation provides a portal folder that contains shortcut links to shared folders, so that data can be presented in a logical and easy-to-access way.
Scenario:
Bob just returned from a family vacation to Hawaii. He wanted to collect and archive the photos and videos from the journey, including recording all of his shopping receipts for future reference. Now he asked his family to share their vacation photos and videos and store them on one of the home NAS.
There are two NAS at home. The newer “NAS A” has larger storage capacity and a better CPU than the older “NAS B”. NAS A will store all the video media, while NAS B only preserves documents and photos.
1. Create Shared Folders
In NAS A, Bob goes to File Station and creates a shared folder called “202112_hawaii_video”. In older NAS B, he creates two shared folders, named “202112_hawaii_photo” and “202112_hawaii_receipt”.
2. Configure Permissions of Access
To enable his family to access both NAS with one account, Bob enables the LDAP Server in NAS A (Control Panel > Applications > LDAP Server). He creates LDAP users and lets both NAS A and NAS B join it (Control Panel > Privilege > Domain Security) under the same domain. (For domain accounts another option is to let every NAS join a domain controller.)
He then accesses both NAS and uses Control Panel > Privilege > Shared Folders > Edit Shared Folder Permission to grant Read/Write permission for his family’s domain accounts.
(NAS A)
(NAS B)
3. Informational Structure
The expected structure is as follows:
There is a portal folder “2021Dec_Family_Travel”, and it contains three links to the folders as “Video”, “Photo”, and “Receipt” respectively. This structure is obvious and there is no need to be aware of the different NAS.
4. Configure Folder Aggregation
- Bob logs into NAS A and goes to Control Panel > Privilege > Shared Folders > Folder Aggregation.
- He checks Enable Folder Aggregation then clicks Create a Portal Folder;
- He names this portal folder “2021Dec_Family_Travel” and clicks Apply.
- On the Folder Aggregation page, he then clicks the Link Configuration icon under the Action section.
- He then adds the expected names, NAS IP, and destination shared folders.
- With these settings configured, he then clicks Apply.
Connect and Access
To access the folders, the family can connect to NAS A with their own accounts.
In Windows, they can open Windows Explorer and enter the NAS A IP address (for example: \\172.17.30.59) then enter their account credentials. Once connected, the portal folder is listed alongside the contents of NAS A.
In macOS, they can open Finder > Go > Connect to Server. Enter smb://NAS_A_IP_ADDRESS (for example: smb://172.17.30.59) and connect. After entering their account credentials and connecting, the portal folder is listed alongside the contents of NAS A.
Everyone in the family can now access the aggregated folder structure via NAS A without needing to be aware that NAS B stores some of the content.
Level and Modification
Bob’s family decide to go for a second vacation. The storage of photos and videos from this vacation can be configured as before. But Bob wanted to group them together, so he added another portal as “family_travel”, then linked the two portal folders respectively. With such quick and flexible configuration, they can find the first level portal, and link to the second level portal, then to the destination folders.
Folder Aggregation provides an easy way to organize a folder structure from different sources.
If you want to connect to folders on remote file servers or cloud storage, QNAP HybridMount is a convenient app worth considering.
