Make a Proxmox NTFS HDD accessible under Windows network (Windows Explorer)

[Hamlet]

Hello,
please forgive me as I am very little knowledgeable on Linux and Proxmox, and for the fact my thread will likely be full of incorrect technical references.

I used to have a MiniPC with 2 data HDD under NTFS (movies and media) connected from external USB dock, because the MiniPC didn't have SATA ports.
My configuration was :
-1 : Proxmox on bare MiniPC
---1.1 : OpenMediaVault ("OMV") as a VM, accessing the 2 HDDs and configured to share them under both "NFS" and "SMB" systems
---1.2 : Jellyfin as a container

Basically, I could then have both HDD mounted in Proxmox so Jellyfin LXC could access them. And I could, at the same time, have both HDD appear on my Windows PC, in the "network", thanks to the SMB filesharing that I had created under OMV.

I have now replaced my MiniPC with a fully-fledged PC, so I can directly connect the 2x HDDs through SATA rather than external USB dock.
Is it possible to simplify the software side of my configuration (remove OMV) and keep having access to the HDD both under Proxmox and Windows ?

Right now, I was able to permanently mount the HDDs under Proxmox (fstab file), and Jellyfin can access the media library as before.
However, I am stuck into finding a way to share HDDs towards Windows network as before.

Can it be done through Proxmox or do I have to reinstall OMV ?

Thank you very much for your patience and explanations,
Hamlet

 

[alexskysilk]

Is it possible to simplify the software side of my configuration (remove OMV) and keep having access to the HDD both under Proxmox and Windows ?

Yes. In your use case, you have the option to have samba served either at the PVE level or in a container/vm. having PVE serve samba works well in a homelab environment, BUT you will need to manage users and access by hand. having a "NAS" distro like omv makes the user management convenient, but sharing pve storage with a VM is not advantageous; the ideal middle ground would be to use the TurnKey GNU/Linux File Server availabile in your lxc templates. see https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/easiest-way-to-share-storage-across-lxc-containers.130968/ for technical discussion on passing the folder to the container.

 

[Hamlet]

Yes. In your use case, you have the option to have samba served either at the PVE level or in a container/vm. having PVE serve samba works well in a homelab environment, BUT you will need to manage users and access by hand. having a "NAS" distro like omv makes the user management convenient, but sharing pve storage with a VM is not advantageous; the ideal middle ground would be to use the TurnKey GNU/Linux File Server availabile in your lxc templates. see https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/easiest-way-to-share-storage-across-lxc-containers.130968/ for technical discussion on passing the folder to the container.

Thank you very much Alexskysilk !
I am sorry for asking, I have been trying to understand but I cannot see how to to serve SMB at the PVE level.

Here is my current situation : I basically used /etc/fstab to UUID mount my two HDDs (Chuwi_2TB and Exo12), then I used the Datacenter->Storage->Add Directory to have each appear under the PVE01 node (the "cylinder" icons). I thought maybe it would be a starting point for then giving SMB access on them.

But when I do "Datacenter->Storage->add SMB/CIFS", it asks me an IP address so I am not sure I am doing the right thing.

I hope I make sense in what I am saying ? My apologies if I am confusing in my writings. Thank you !