How to Share Files from Backblaze B2 Storage
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage is a cloud service for storing large amounts of files in the cloud. In this document, we will discuss how to install NirvaShare and share files/folders from Backblaze B2 object storage with external users using a simple form-based authentication. NirvaShare can be installed in any operating system and has advanced features to integrate with external identity providers, but in this tutorial, we shall consider Linux Ubuntu operating system with a simple form-based authentication while sharing files from object storage. You can create a virtual machine in any of the cloud platforms or on-premise.
As a prerequisite, make sure you have access to Backblaze B2 Storage account and for a new account sign up HERE.
Installation
Make sure you have a virtual machine in any of the cloud platforms or on-premise having operating system with Linux Ubuntu 20.04. Refer to below documentation on how to install NirvaShare on a Ubuntu box.
Storage Credentials
Application API keys from your Backblaze account are required to configure NirvaShare for storage. To create application keys, follow steps below.
- Login to Backblaze account and from the left menu list, click on App Keys
- Click on Add a New Application Key
- Provide any name and click on Create New Key
- This will generate new keys, copy the KeyID and application Key
- Note – In the further documentation, KeyId is referred as Access Key
- And ApplicationKey as Secret Key
Endpoint URL
You will also require Endpoint URL of the bucket storage to configure NirvaShare. To know your account’s end point URL, click on Buckets from the left menu list and make a note of the Endpoint URL.
Now that you have Access key, Secret key and Endpoint URL, next step is to proceed with the configuration of NirvaShare.
Configuration
With the installation being ready and having both access and secret keys, the next step is to configure NirvaShare to point to your Backblaze B2 storage and share file/folder using a Form-based authentication.
Assuming, deployment was successful, please open the Admin Console URL -> http://(your ip):8080
Login to admin console with default credentials as admin/admin . It is advisable to change the password after your first login. To change the password, please refer to the documentation Change Password. You can also create more than one admin user under Delegated Admin tab given full access to reset another admin user password. To reset forgotten password refer to Password Reset.
NOTE: Please note that the default in-built user store does not support password reset functionality for AdminConsole. For a proper production deployment, you can integrate with any of your identity stores such as keycloak, Active Directory, etc for better password management policy.
- After login into the application, click on Settings at the left menu tab.
- Click on edit File Storage, select a storage type as Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage and provide your storage Access Key and Secret Key.
- Save it.
- Go to the next section, edit User Application URL and provide the user application URL as http://(you ip):8081, and save it.
Note – During production use, a proper domain with HTTPS is required here. - Other settings such as email, audit, etc can be configured later and is optional for now. For more detail, refer to Settings
File Sharing with Form based Authentication
To Share a folder with form based Authentication, please refer to Setup Form based Authentication.