S3 Compatible Remote Servers let Files.com integrate with any remote server that speaks the S3 protocol. This covers private cloud and on-premise platforms that Files.com does not integrate natively, including IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and Minio.

For connections to Amazon S3 itself, Wasabi, or Backblaze, use the native integration for those services.

Files.com's Remote Server Mount feature connects a specific folder on your Files.com site to the remote server in real time. That folder becomes a client, or window, into the files stored in your remote server or cloud.

Once you configure a Mount, any operation you perform on or inside that folder acts directly on the remote in real time. Dropping a file into that folder, deleting a file, creating a subfolder, or performing any other file or folder operation your Files.com user has permissions for passes through to the remote.

Use cases include accessing files on a counterparty's cloud (client or vendor) without provisioning individual user access, reducing storage costs by using on-premise or bulk storage, and letting applications access third-party clouds through Files.com's API, FTP, SFTP, or Files.com Apps.

Files.com's Sync feature is the alternative. It pushes or pulls files between your Files.com site and the remote server, leaving copies in both places at the end of the process.

A sync can be a "push", where files from your Files.com site are transferred to the remote server, or a "pull" where files are transferred from the remote server to your Files.com site.

Adding an S3 Compatible Remote Server

Create a new remote server and select the S3 Compatible remote server type.

You must provide an Internal name for this connection. When managing multiple remote servers, make the name clear enough to identify this particular connection.

The Hostname and Bucket are required because they define which bucket Files.com will connect to. The Authentication Information contains the credentials Files.com will use for connecting to the service.

Once your Remote Server is added, you can integrate it to Files.com as either a Remote Server Mount or Sync.

Hostname and Bucket

The Bucket name is the container where files are stored. The exact specification of the bucket name depends on the S3 Compatible server or software you are using.

The Endpoint is the publicly accessible URL to your S3 Bucket that Files.com will connect to for your remote server.

The Region setting specifies the cloud region of the bucket. This setting is optional. Use it only when your bucket provides specific region information for the connection. If in doubt, leave it blank.

Authentication Information

Files.com uses an Access Key and Secret Key to authenticate requests, following the protocol established by AWS for S3. The process to generate the Access Key and Secret Key, and the exact permissions required, differ depending on the S3 Compatible server or software you are using.

You can enter the Access Key and Secret Key directly, or select a saved credential from the Remote Server Credential Manager.

In general, Files.com requires full access to the specified Bucket.

URL Addressing Style

The URL path to S3-compatible storage is either path-style or virtual-hosted-style. Path-style is the original standard. Virtual-hosted-style is becoming more widely adopted and is required for some S3-compatible providers.

Path-style puts the bucket name in the URL path, after the host: https://s3.example.com/my-bucket/path/to/file

Virtual-hosted-style puts the bucket name as a subdomain of the host: https://my-bucket.s3.example.com/path/to/file

Files.com supports both styles. By default, Files.com uses path-style for connections to S3-compatible remote servers. Select the Use Virtual-Hosted-Style URLs option to use virtual-hosted-style for the connection instead.

IP Addresses Used For Connection

When you have a Custom Domain installed on your site, Files.com has provisioned two dedicated IP addresses for your site and uses them by default for outbound connections to the remote server. Provide these two IP addresses to your counterparties and ask them to whitelist them in any applicable firewall.

When you do not have a Custom Domain installed on your site, you do not have Dedicated IP Addresses provisioned, and Files.com uses its entire pool of IP addresses for connecting outbound to the remote server. When your counterparties maintain an IP Address whitelist, you will need to have them whitelist all of the IPs on this list.

Customers often ask for Dedicated IP addresses as a way to avoid asking their counterparty to whitelist a long list of IP addresses.

Files.com offers this for Remote Server connection purposes through a backdoor method: adding a Custom Domain to your site. Having a Custom Domain provides a justification for the dedicated IP address.

Files.com automatically provisions a pair of dedicated IP addresses for every site that has a Custom Domain enabled. This is because FTP, unlike HTTP, requires that every custom domain be hosted on a dedicated IP address in order to have a custom SSL Certificate that matches the domain.

When you have users who restrict outbound access via a firewall, they will only need to whitelist your two dedicated IP addresses, rather than the entire published list of IP addresses (see above).

Dedicated IPs, once provisioned, are used both for inbound connections to your site via your Custom Domain and for outbound connections from Files.com to applicable Remote Servers used for Sync and Remote Server Mount.

By default, Files.com uses your dedicated IP addresses for outbound connections to FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and S3 Compatible remote servers. You can disable the use of your dedicated IP in these circumstances if you need to. You might do that when your counterparty has already whitelisted the main Files.com IP range.

Maximum Number of Connections

Unlike FTP and SFTP remote servers, Files.com does not allow configuring a maximum number of connections to S3 Compatible remotes. Most S3-compatible services support a high number of parallel HTTP requests. If you need to reduce the number of connections made to your remote S3 Compatible server, contact us so we can learn more about your use case.

Managing Incomplete Multipart Uploads

When Files.com connects to an S3-compatible storage provider, it uses the S3 Multipart Upload process for reliability and performance.

When a multipart upload starts but never finishes, most S3-compatible systems behave like Amazon S3 and retain the uploaded parts indefinitely. These parts consume storage space and may incur ongoing costs.

To automatically remove incomplete uploads, check your provider's documentation for how they implement multipart lifecycle rules, or the equivalent feature if your provider uses different terminology.

Add Remote Server Mount

Remote Server Mounts are created by mounting them onto an empty folder in Files.com. We recommend against using the Root of your site as the mount point, though that is supported if you need it.

Add Sync

After creating the S3 Compatible Remote Server, you can use it to perform Syncs between your bucket and Files.com.

Automations

Folders configured with Remote Server Mount to your S3 compatible storage can also be used with automations. This lets you include your storage buckets as source locations or destinations for your automations.

Case Sensitivity

Be aware of case sensitivity differences when copying, moving, or syncing files and folders between S3 compatible storage and other storage locations.

Empty Folders/Directories

S3 object storage is not a hierarchical file system and does not use directories (folders) to organize files. Files and data are stored as objects, but are presented in the illusion of a hierarchical file system.

This becomes most apparent when creating, syncing, or uploading an empty folder to S3 compatible storage.

S3 compatible storage may represent an empty folder as a zero-byte object of the same name. The zero-byte object is presented as a zero-byte file.

S3 manages these zero-byte objects, and their corresponding empty folders, itself. The zero-byte objects may also be visible to other programs, applications, and services that use the S3 bucket. Consider them a normal side effect of using S3 object storage.

Files.com follows the same conventions used by other software to emulate folders on these non-hierarchical file systems, and interoperates with the established conventions and best practices in this space.