📁 Proxmox NAS

(Written May 2025)

Abstract

How to setup Proxmox as a NAS in a simple way. To accomplish this we will setup a LXC and install Cockpit

Prerequisites

• Proxmox VE cluster installed and setup

Installation

Step 1: Proxmox LXC

Create an LXC container: For this installation Ubuntu 20.04 is recommended: I have installed the OS on SSD storage: I have created a separate disk that will be used to store the file shares on spinning hard drives: 1 core is enough: 512Mb is enough: Give your LXC a static IP:

Step 2: Install Cockpit

Update your LXC to the latest version:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install cockpit:

sudo apt install cockpit -y

Start Cockpit:

sudo systemctl start cockpit

Check the status of Cockpit:

sudo systemctl status cockpit

Step 3: Cockpit dashboard

Go to

https://yourIP:9090

Use your root account to login

Step 4: Fix the update error

In the cockpit dashboard, we are currently unable to fetch any updates. To fix this go to the console and:

cd /etc/netplan/

sudo nano 01.netcfg.yaml

Paste:

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: NetworkManager

Apply the changes

sudo netplan apply

Reboot the LXC

sudo reboot

Step 5: Cockpit Identities

To make our management a bit easier, we will install a User and group management plugin called Cockpit Identities

sudo apt install curl

curl -sSL https://repo.45drives.com/setup | sudo bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install cockpit-identities

Step 6: Navigator

Next, we will install Navigator which is a file system browser for Cockpit.

sudo apt install cockpit-navigator

Step 7: File sharing

And lastly we'll be installing Cockpit File Sharing, a plugin for managing Samba and NFS shares

curl -sSL https://repo.45drives.com/setup | sudo bash
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install cockpit-file-sharing

Go to the dashboard, and click the new tab 'File sharing'. You'll see an error:

Samba is Misconfigured
'include = registry' is missing from the global section of /etc/samba/smb.conf, which is required for File Sharing to manage shares.

Click on Fix now.

Step 8: Create a user

Create a group In the dashboard, go to Idententities, Groups

Click the '+' icon

Give it a name:

Now go to Users:

Create a new user, with the group that you created:

If not needed, don't give the user login rights to the server itself and cockpit.

Give the user a password:

We need to set a separate password for samba:

Step 9: Create a share

Create a share

Fill in the name for the share and give it a description. In path, we fill in the path that we created during the LXC setup. This was

/mnt/data

If you would like, you can add additional directories, example '/mnt/data/music'. Be sure to click the button 'Create directory' to create that directory called 'music'.

Give the group that you created the permission to access this share:

Turn on Windows ACLs:

Step 10: Test your share

Open file explorer on a Windows machine and navigate to:

\\<youIP>\<sharename>