Admin Server (Enterprise)

admin.flexfs is the central management server for flexFS Enterprise. It stores volume definitions, accounts, block stores, metadata stores, proxy groups, and volume tokens in its database. Mount clients and metadata servers connect to it for configuration and binary updates, and configure.flexfs uses its REST API to manage resources.

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
`start`	Start the admin server
`init creds`	Initialize the credentials file
`init systemd`	Create and enable a systemd service unit
`deinit creds`	Remove the credentials file
`deinit systemd`	Remove the systemd service unit
`version`	Print the build version
`license`	Print license information

Starting the Server

admin.flexfs start

The start subcommand launches the admin server and begins listening for API requests. All configuration is provided through flags or the credentials file.

Start Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--bindAddr`	`0.0.0.0:443`	Address and port to bind
`--dbFolder`	`~/.flexfs/admin`	Database folder path
`--deployFolder`	`~/.flexfs/admin/deploy`	Folder for mount client deploy binaries
`--noSSL`	`false`	Disable TLS for the REST API
`--sslCert`	`~/.flexfs/ssl/cert`	TLS certificate file path
`--sslKey`	`~/.flexfs/ssl/key`	TLS private key file path
`--verbose`, `-v`	`false`	Enable verbose logging
`--credsFile`	`~/.flexfs/admin/creds`	Credentials file path (persistent flag)

On startup, the server reads the credentials file (TOML format), opens its database, generates a self-signed TLS certificate if none exists at the configured path, and binds to the specified address.

Credential Initialization

Before starting the server for the first time, initialize the credentials file:

admin.flexfs init creds --token $TOKEN

If --token is omitted, the command prompts interactively. The token must be a valid UUID.

init creds Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--token`	(prompt)	Admin server auth token (UUID)
`--statAddr`	`stat.flexfs.io`	Statistics server address
`--force`	`false`	Overwrite an existing credentials file

The credentials file is written with 0600 permissions to the path specified by --credsFile. It is a TOML file containing the token and, if non-default, the stat server address.

Credential File Format

token = "$TOKEN"

Systemd Integration

Create and enable a systemd service unit for the admin server:

sudo admin.flexfs init systemd --now

init systemd Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--now`	`false`	Start the service immediately after enabling
`--startFlags`	(empty)	Additional flags to pass to the `start` command
`--force`	`false`	Overwrite an existing systemd unit file

This creates the unit file flexfs-admin.service and enables it. The --now flag additionally starts the service immediately. Requires root.

Teardown

Remove Credentials

admin.flexfs deinit creds

Removes the credentials file. If the file is referenced by a systemd unit, the command refuses unless --force is passed, in which case the referencing units are also removed.

Flag	Default	Description
`--force`	`false`	Remove credentials even if referenced by systemd units

Remove Systemd Unit

sudo admin.flexfs deinit systemd

Stops and removes the flexfs-admin.service unit. Requires root.

TLS

By default the admin server listens over TLS. If no certificate exists at the configured paths, a self-signed certificate is generated automatically. To use custom certificates, provide --sslCert and --sslKey pointing to your certificate and private key files.

Use --noSSL only for testing behind a TLS-terminating load balancer.

Deploy Folder

The admin server serves mount client binaries from its deploy folder. Mount clients poll the admin server for updates and download new versions from the /deploy/ endpoints. Use manage.flexfs deploy to populate the deploy folder with the latest binaries for staging and production channels.

License Validation

The admin server continuously validates the Enterprise license grant file located in the database folder (grant.json). If the grant is missing or expired, all volumes are flagged read-only until a valid grant is restored.