rclone

A step-by-step guide for setting up rclone with renterd for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

What is rclone?

Rclone is a command-line program to manage files on cloud storage. Rclone is very feature-rich and integrates with dozens of cloud storage providers, including any S3-compatible object stores like Sia renterd.

Users call rclone "The Swiss army knife of cloud storage", and "Technology indistinguishable from magic".

Rclone mounts any local, cloud, or virtual filesystem as a disk on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and FreeBSD and serves these over SFTP, HTTP, WebDAV, FTP, and DLNA. The mount lets us interact with our Sia renterd storage as a regular filesystem. We can mount renterd storage to a server’s filesystem or even a local laptop’s filesystem.

Step 1: Install renterd and configure S3

This guide requires that you have a working installation of renterd. If you have not already installed renterd, you will need to do so before continuing.

Make sure to configure S3 when installing renterd, as this will be required later.

Installing renterd | Sia Docsdocs.sia.tech

Step 2: Install rclone

Please note that only rclone versions 1.56.0 and above are supported.

Install rclone for your system using the official rclone install guide.

InstallRclone

Step 3: Configuring rclone

Now rclone has been installed, you can use the interactive configuration wizard to set up a new remote. To do so, run the following command from the Terminal.

rclone config

When the configuration wizard loads, enter n to create a new remote.

n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q> n

Next, name your remote. You can name it anything you want, but for this guide, we will be naming it renterd.

Enter name for new remote.
name> renterd

You will now be given a list of Storage options. Type in s3 and press Enter.

Option Storage.
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value.
...
Storage> s3

Next, you will be asked to select a Provider. Type in other and press Enter

Option provider.
Choose your S3 provider.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value.
...
provider> Other

You will now be asked to select how you would like to supply your S3 credentials. Since we are supplying an access_key_id and secret_access_key, we will not be using environment variables. Type in false or simply press Enter to use the default.

Option env_auth.
Get AWS credentials from runtime (environment variables or EC2/ECS meta data if no env vars).
Only applies if access_key_id and secret_access_key is blank.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own boolean value (true or false).
Press Enter for the default (false).
...
env_auth> false

For the next two questions, you will be prompted for your access_key_id and secret_access_key that you set in Step 1.

Option access_key_id.
AWS Access Key ID.
Leave blank for anonymous access or runtime credentials.
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
access_key_id> your_renterd_access_key

Option secret_access_key.
AWS Secret Access Key (password).
Leave blank for anonymous access or runtime credentials.
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
secret_access_key> your_renterd_secret_key

When prompted for your Region, press Enter to leave it blank.

Option region.
Region to connect to.
Leave blank if you are using an S3 clone and you don't have a region.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value.
Press Enter to leave empty.
...
region>

You will now be asked to enter an Endpoint. This should be the same as the address parameter we configured in our renterd.yml for Step 1.

Option endpoint.
Endpoint for S3 API.
Required when using an S3 clone.
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
endpoint> http://localhost:8080

When asked for a Location constraint press Enter to leave it empty.

Option location_constraint.
Location constraint - must be set to match the Region.
Leave blank if not sure. Used when creating buckets only.
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
location_constraint>

Next, you will be asked to select an ACL from the list provided. Type in private and press Enter.

Option acl.
Canned ACL used when creating buckets and storing or copying objects.
This ACL is used for creating objects and if bucket_acl isn't set, for creating buckets too.
For more info visit https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/acl-overview.html#canned-acl
Note that this ACL is applied when server-side copying objects as S3
doesn't copy the ACL from the source but rather writes a fresh one.
If the acl is an empty string then no X-Amz-Acl: header is added and
the default (private) will be used.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value.
Press Enter to leave empty.
...
acl> private

When asked if you would like to edit the advanced config, type in n and press Enter.

Edit advanced config?
y) Yes
n) No (default)
y/n> n

You will now be given a summary of your new remote. If they are correct, you can type in y and press Enter to save your remote.

Configuration complete.
Options:
- type: s3
- provider: other
- access_key_id: your_renterd_access_key
- secret_access_key: your_renterd_secret_key
- endpoint: localhost:8080
- acl: private
Keep this "renterd" remote?
y) Yes this is OK (default)
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

You have now successfully created a remote for renterd. You can now type in q and press Enter to quit the configuration wizard.

Step 4: Mount the filesystem

Now that your renterd remote has been configured, it can be mounted on your computer's filesystem.

rclone mount renterd:/default /path/to/mount/point/ --s3-chunk-size 120MiB --fast-list --vfs-cache-mode full --daemon

All done.

renterd should now be successfully mounted on your computer's filesystem. For more details and system-specific instructions, visit the official rclone documentation

rclone mountRclone