Mounting Storage to Your Rhino Client

This article explains how to use the Rhino FCP GUI to easily perform the mount process to the following types of storage:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 Bucket
• Google Cloud Platform's (GCP) Cloud Storage (CS) Bucket
• Server Message Block (SMB) network file sharing protocol directories

"Mounting" is the process that an operating system follows to make files and directories in storage (such as a hard drive, network share, or a cloud-based bucket) easily accessible through a system's directory tree.  Once mounted, you can easily access the items in the bucket or directory using a client mount path that starts with /rhino_data. 

In addition to mounting storage, this article also explains how to: 

• View mount storage configuration
• Test connection and access to the client-mounted storage
• Perform basic troubleshooting for connection and access problems
• How to unmount storage

Prerequisites

Before you complete these steps, you should have:

• An AWS S3 Bucket, Google Cloud Bucket, or an SMB directory already created
• Credentials to connect to the bucket or directory
• Read or Read-Write access for the bucket or directory you want to mount

We highly recommend that you verify your access credentials and permissions before completing the steps below.

Mounting an AWS S3 Bucket

To mount an AWS S3 bucket, do the following.

1. Select the sprocket from the bottom left corner of the Rhino FCP main page, then select Client Mounted Storage from the Settings menu.

2. In the Client Mounted Storage page, select the Mount Storage button from the upper right side of the page.  

3. The Mount Storage page opens.  The Type field has AWS S3 chosen by default.

4. Enter the S3 bucket name in the Bucket Name field.
5. Enter a description.  This is optional, but it can help you to remember details about the bucket in the future.
6. Indicate the path in the Client Mount Path field that includes the subfolder to access your cloud data within the Rhino Client (if needed), such as my_cloud_storage_folder. The provided bucket will be mapped to the following path: /rhino_data/external/file storage type/my_cloud_storage_folder.
7. Next, indicate the credentials needed to access the AWS S3 bucket.  Note that storage hosted in the same VPC as your Rhino Client might not require credentials.  You have two choices:
   • enter an access key if you've set one up
   • access the AWS Profile
8. If you choose access key, enter the Access Key ID and the Secret Access Key.  You can click the eye icon next to each field to see what you've entered.
9. Finally, indicate the access permissions by selecting the radio-button: Read-write or Read-only.
10. When finished, click Create.  An entry appears that shows the Client Mount Path, Access Permission, and Test Results.  If there is a problem, an error message will appear.   

    

Mounting a Google Cloud Storage Bucket

To connect to the Google Cloud Storage bucket, do the following.

1. Select the sprocket from the bottom left corner of the Rhino FCP main page, then select Client Mounted Storage from the Settings menu.

2. In the Client Mounted Storage page, select the Mount Storage button from the upper right side of the page.  

3. The Mount Storage page opens.  The Type field has AWS S3 chosen by default.

4. Select Google Cloud Storage in the Type field. 

5. Enter the Google Cloud bucket name in the Bucket Name field.
6. Enter a description.  This is optional, but it can help you to remember details about the bucket in the future.
7. Indicate the path in the Client Mount Path field that includes the subfolder to access your cloud data within the Rhino Client (if needed), such as my_cloud_storage_folder. The provided bucket will be mapped to the following path: /rhino_data/external/file storage type/my_cloud_storage_folder.
8. Next, indicate the credentials that are needed to access the Google Cloud bucket.  Note that storage hosted in the same VPC as your Rhino Client might not require credentials.  You can click the eye icon next to the field to see what you've entered.
9. Finally, indicate the access permissions by selecting the radio-button: Read-write or Read-only.
10. When finished, click Create.  An entry appears that shows the Client Mount Path, Access Permission, and Test Results.  

     

Mounting an SMB Directory

To connect to an SMB directory, do the following.

1. Select the sprocket from the bottom left corner of the Rhino FCP main page, then select Client Mounted Storage from the Settings menu.

2. In the Client Mounted Storage page, select the Mount Storage button from the upper right side of the page.  

3. The Mount Storage page opens.  The Type field has AWS S3 chosen by default.

4. Select SMB in the Type field. 

5. Enter the name of the SMB Host device.
6. Enter the shared folder path. 
7. Enter a description.  This is optional but can help you remember details about this storage option in the future.
8. Indicate the path in the Client Mount Path field that includes the subfolder to access your data within the Rhino Client (if needed), such as my_smb_storage_folder. The provided bucket will be mapped to the following path in rhino_data: /rhino_data/external/file storage type/my_smb_storage_folder.
9. Next, indicate the credentials if needed.  Storage hosted in the same VPC as your Rhino Client might not require credentials.  Enter the username and password in the text fields.  You can click the eye icon next to the fields if you want to see what you've entered.
10. Finally, indicate the access permissions by selecting the radio-button: Read-write or Read-only.
11. When finished, click Create.  An entry appears that shows the Client Mount Path, Access Permission, and Test Results.  If there is a problem, an error message will appear.  

Showing Configuration

To show the configuration for the client mount storage, do the following.

1. Select the three-dot menu on the right side of the entry.

2. Select Show Configuration to show the Mount Storage Configuration page.

 

Testing Data Access

To test access to the client mount storage point, do the following.

1. Select the three-dot menu on the right side of the entry.

2. Select Test Access to start the test.   The test results are updated.  Results can be one of the following.

• The green circle with a checkmark, as shown below, indicates that Rhino FCP can connect to the bucket or folder.  It also indicates that it can access file data at the level of permission you indicated (either read or read-write). 

• The yellow circle with an exclamation mark, as shown below, indicates that Rhino FCP can connect to the bucket or folder.  But, it cannot access that bucket or folder's file data at the level of permission you indicated (either read or read-write).  

• The red circle with an exclamation mark, as shown below, indicates that Rhino FCP cannot connect to the bucket or folder.  

Troubleshooting

Here are some steps for troubleshooting connection and permissions issues.

1. 1. Select the three-dot menu to the right, then select Show Configuration.  Ensure that the bucket or folder name is correct.  If it is incorrect, follow the instructions to unmount client storage then mount the bucket or directory again.
   2. Test your credentials.  Using the credentials you entered in Rhino FCP, use another method to access the bucket or folder.  For example, use Amazon CLI or the Amazon and the credentials that you provided to access an S3 bucket or use the Google Cloud Console or CLI and the credentials you provided to access a Google Cloud bucket. 
      • If you cannot connect, verify the credentials, then try to access it again.
      • Next, check permissions.  Try reading a file once you have connected, then if you want to write to mounted storage, try writing to a file.  
   3. Once you have successfully completed these steps, follow the instructions to mount the bucket or directory again, updating your configurations based on your findings in the first and second steps.  Note that you will need to follow the instructions to unmount client storage.  Then, you will need to mount the bucket or directory again.
   4. Other troubleshooting references are:
      • Troubleshooting Google Cloud Platform, Google Cloud bucket connection issues:
        https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/troubleshooting.
      • Troubleshooting AWS S3 bucket connection issues:
        https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/troubleshoot-403-errors.html.
      • You can also contact Rhino Support for more help.

Unmounting Storage 

To remove the mount to the storage, complete the following steps.

1. Select the three-dot menu on the right side of the entry.

2. Select Unmount to remove the mount point for the storage.

Next Steps

To import a dataset, see this article.