Even though Unraid as a NAS operating system is often the central network storage itself, it can happen that we need data from another system such as a Synology NAS. Fortunately there is a plugin that lets us mount a network share from another server on our Unraid server. The mounted shares can also be used for Docker, so for example my media collection is mounted as an NFS share in Plex.
To be able to mount an NFS or SMB file share under Unraid, we first need the Unassigned Devices plugin, which can be downloaded using the Community Applications plugin.
Step by step: mount a remote NFS / SMB share
- Install the Community Applications plugin for Unraid — follow the instructions to install the Community Applications plugin in Unraid.
- Install the Unassigned Devices plugin — once the Community Applications plugin is installed, search for “unassigned devices” in the “Apps” tab and click “Install”.
- Mount the NFS / SMB share on the Unraid server — once the plugin is installed, you will find a new section under the “Main” tab called “Unassigned Devices”. There, click the “ADD REMOTE SMB/NFS Share” button.
- Choose the protocol — now you are asked to specify the protocol: the Linux penguin (NFS) or the Windows logo (SMB). If possible, always use NFS, because the protocol is usually a good deal faster than SMB.
- Choose the server — now you are asked to select the server. Either type the corresponding IP directly, or click the “Search for Servers” button. If the automatic search does not find anything, type in the IP manually.
- Choose the share — now select the share, which of course must be shared on the corresponding server. You can also load the shares automatically and then pick from a list. When you click “Done”, depending on the settings, you are asked for a user and password, after which the share is mounted.
- Turn on automount — if you want the remote share to be mounted automatically after every reboot, activate the “Automount” option. To do this, click the cogwheel in the share’s column and enable “Automount”.
- Use the remote share in Docker — to use a remote share in a Docker container, mount it like a local folder using the path
/mnt/remotes/Sharename.