Mounting/Unmounting Network Shares Before or After Backup

This article cantaons information for computers running Linux and macOS.

Linux

The case described in this article is:

• There is a domain shared folder that serves as a file share
• This shared folder is used for backup (whether as the source or the destination, does not matter)
• The backup will be performed by Backup for Linux

Also, the commands syntax may differ for various Linux distributions and/or SMB configurations (in case it's a Linux-based NAS device). This article is based on Ubuntu 18 and a Windows 2012R2 domain network share.

So, let's start.

1. Change the backup plan ownership to the user who is allowed to mount network shares:

sudo chown root:root /opt/local/CloudBerry\ Backup/etc/plans/*

Note: If you choose to use another user:group, make sure to set the same user:group in step 2

2. Create a file with the access credentials to the network share:

echo "username=USERNAME" >  /path/to/credentials-file
echo "password=PASSWORD" >> /path/to/credentials-file
echo "domain=DOMAIN" >> /path/to/credentials-file

Note: No need to escape any special symbols in your password with the backslash

Note: The third line is not required for a workgroup shared folder or a Linux-based NAS device

3. Assign the desirable access permission to the credentials file

chown root:root /path/to/credentials-file
chmod 600 /path/to/credentials-file

4. Add the mount point to /etc/fstab

sudo echo "//SHARE-DOMAIN-NAME/SHARED-FOLDER-PATH /mnt/SHARE cifs credentials=/path/to/credentials-file,iocharset=utf8,sec=ntlmssp 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

5. Create a script to mount the share

echo "#!/bin/bash" > /path/to/script-mount.sh
echo "mount /mnt/SHARE" >> /path/to/script-mount.sh
echo "exit 0" >> /path/to/script-mount.sh
chmod 711 /path/to/script-mount.sh

6. Create a script to unmount the share

echo "#!/bin/bash" > /path/to/script-umount.sh
echo "umount /mnt/SHARE" >> /path/to/script-umount.sh
echo "exit 0" >> /path/to/script-umount.sh
chmod 711 /path/to/script-umount.sh

Pre-/Post actions

Set the two scripts as the pre-backup action and the post-backup action.

/opt/local/CloudBerry\ Backup/bin/cbb editBackupPlan -n "Backup plan name goes here" -preAction yes -preActionPath "/path/to/script-mount.sh" -postAction yes -postActionPath "/path/to/script-umount.sh -postActionRunAnyway yes"

This can be also done in the GUI or in the Web Interface, on the Pre-/Post actions step of the backup plan wizard.

macOS

Mount Network Share

You can mount a network share using Finder or Terminal.

Option 1: Using Finder (GUI)

1. Open Finder.

2. Press Cmd + K or go to Go > Connect to Server.

3. In the Server Address field, enter:

smb://SERVER_ADDRESS/ShareName

Example:

smb://192.168.1.100/shared-folder

4. Click Connect. Enter your username and password if prompted.

Option 2: Using Terminal

1. Create a mount point:

mkdir ~/mnt/myshare

2. Mount the share. You will be prompted for the password.

mount_smbfs //username@server_address/sharename ~/mnt/myshare

Example:

mount_smbfs //user@192.111.1.100/shared-folder ~/mnt/myshare

Unmount Network Share

You can unmount a network share using Finder or Terminal.

Option 1: Finder

1. Right-click the mounted network drive on the Desktop or in Finder sidebar.
2. Select Eject.

Option 2: Terminal

umount ~/mnt/myshare

Pre-/Post actions

Set the mount and unmount bash scripts as the pre-backup action and the post-backup action on the Pre-/Post actions step of the backup plan wizard - the procedure is quite obvious so no additional description here.

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