Setup

ExpanDrive Server edition is configured through a locally hosted web server running at http://localhost:28080

If you are connecting remotely to a headless instance, you probably want to connect via SSH port forwarding using a command such as:

ssh -L 28080:127.0.0.1:28080 yourserver.com

Windows

On Windows you can start the server by running the shortcut from the start menu or by running exfs.exe --config from an Administrator command-prompt. The build-in web server listens on http://localhost:28080 - so you will probably want to connect via RDP for setup.

Linux

ExpanDrive Server edition installs to /opt/local/bin/exfs and is generally already in the user's path. Start the built-in web server by running:

exfs --config

If you are connecting remotely to a headless instance, you probably want to connect via SSH port forwarding using a command such as:

ssh -L 28080:127.0.0.1:28080 yourserver.com

Remote configuration

Currently ExpanDrive Server edition only listens on localhost, as it is not currently designed to be a hardened service exposed to the public internet. Additionally, cloud storage providers like Google, Dropbox, Box, Microsoft all require the OAuth flow to have a well-known redirect URL to land on with an authorization code at the end of the OAuth flow. Since localhost is the only well-known URL each machine shares, the redirect must land there. Using the port forwarding solution described above, you can redirect to your local machine and have the result captured by ExpanDrive running on your server.

Trial or license activation

Drive Setup and configuration

Windows Configuration Options

On Windows there are a few extra configuration options available.

Mount Type

Your mount type can be a network drive (default), or a removable disk (appears as a removable storage device). If you don't have a particular reason to change this, leaving it as a network drive generally yields the best performance.

No Drive Letter

You can select to not mount the drive using a drive letter, but instead have it only be accessible via UNC. You would access the storage by browsing to \\computername

Share on Network

ExpanDrive Server Edition has a unique feature on Windows that allows you to automatically share your mount on the network, so other computers can connect to your computer and access the storage.

Please note that they would all be sharing the same credentials you configured the drive for, so this isn't always optimal for a multi-user/multi-tenant setup.

If you're looking to deploy into a Citrix or Terminal Services environment, you probably want to use the regular installer that installs for all users, and allow each user to have their own isolated process/drive mappings.

You can ease configuration for the group by setting it up using the Web Management Console.