Access files on a drive

There are 3 ways for a local instance of a Data-flo server to access the files on user filesystem.

1. Set the file as a Data-flo input that needs to be set by the user each time the data-flo is run. (This is the easiest way).

2. Create a local folder on the server which points or maps the network drive. Create a service account that has access to the network drive and map it locally to the VM (virtual machine) that hosts the Data-flo server. Once that is mapped, there are two ways to expose the map.

   1. Map directly in Data-flo (using the adaptor)

   2. Run a fake network server on the Data-flo server, and use the SMB adaptor. The Data-flo server connects directly to the windows server and asks for the file using the SMB protocol.

Note: Mapping the drive requires configuration on your server, which probably requires your IT department. They need to install a software package on the server, then alter a fstabfile (file system table file) to point the Data-flo linux server to the network drive (and provide the credentials). These options require configuration on the server both inside Data-flo and outside Data-flo itself.

No configuration is required when the file is accessed using Bind to Data-flo input, because the user points at the file directly, so Data-flo doesn't need to find it on its own.