Free Server (Community)

free.flexfs is the admin server for flexFS Community edition. It provides the same core mount client deployment and volume configuration functionality as the Enterprise admin server, but is designed for single-volume deployments without a license key.

Differences from Enterprise

Capability	Community (free.flexfs)	Enterprise (admin.flexfs)
Volumes	1	Unlimited
End-to-end encryption	—	Supported
Proxy groups	—	Supported
configure.flexfs	—	Supported
Dynamic CSI provisioning	—	Supported
Volume quotas	—	Supported
Volume tokens with mount-path scoping	—	Supported
Multiple accounts	—	Supported

Tip

All CLI utilities — analyze.flexfs, dedup.flexfs, find.flexfs, manage.flexfs, and update.flexfs — work with both Community and Enterprise editions.

Tip

Community users who experience high object storage latency can enable local on-disk writeback caching on the mount client (--diskWriteback) to improve write performance. This is available without proxy groups.

The Community edition supports CSI static provisioning for Kubernetes. Dynamic provisioning requires Enterprise.

Subcommands

Subcommand	Description
start	Start the free 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

Credential Initialization

Unlike the Enterprise admin server, free.flexfs init creds configures the entire single-volume deployment in one step. It generates all required tokens (account, metadata, and volume) automatically.

free.flexfs init creds \
  --provider aws \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --api s3 \
  --bucket my-flexfs-bucket \
  --prefix flexfs \
  --metaAddr meta-host:8443

init creds Flags

Flag	Default	Description
--provider	(required)	Cloud provider code (e.g., aws, gcp, azure, oci)
--region	(required)	Cloud region code (e.g., us-east-1)
--api	(required)	Block storage API code (e.g., s3, gcs, azure, oci)
--bucket	(required)	Object storage bucket name
--prefix	flexfs	Key prefix within the bucket
--metaAddr	(required)	Metadata server address (host:port)
--blockAddr	(empty)	Custom block storage endpoint (for S3-compatible stores)
--blockUser	(empty)	Block storage access key / username
--blockPass	(empty)	Block storage secret key / password
--retention	604800	Block retention period in seconds (default 7 days)
--force	false	Overwrite an existing credentials file

The volume ID is derived deterministically from the bucket and prefix, so re-initializing with the same bucket and prefix produces the same volume.

Credential File Format

The credentials file is TOML and contains all tokens, storage configuration, and the metadata server address:

accountToken = "$TOKEN"
metaToken = "$TOKEN"
volumeToken = "$TOKEN"
volumeID = "$TOKEN"
provider = "aws"
region = "us-east-1"
api = "s3"
bucket = "my-flexfs-bucket"
prefix = "flexfs"
metaAddr = "meta-host:443"
retention = 604800

Starting the Server

free.flexfs start

The server reads its credentials file and starts the REST API. The credentials file must be initialized before the first start.

Start Flags

Flag	Default	Description
--bindAddr	0.0.0.0:443	Address and port to bind
--noSSL	false	Disable TLS for the REST API
--noInstaller	false	Disable the /deploy/install-mount.sh installer endpoint
--sslCert	~/.flexfs/ssl/cert	TLS certificate file path
--sslKey	~/.flexfs/ssl/key	TLS private key file path
--credsFile	~/.flexfs/free/creds	Credentials file path (persistent flag)

Note

Unlike the Enterprise admin server, free.flexfs does not have --dbFolder, --deployFolder, or --verbose flags. The Community server is stateless — all configuration lives in the credentials file.

Systemd Integration

Create and enable a systemd service unit:

sudo free.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-free.service. Requires root.

Teardown

Remove Systemd Unit

sudo free.flexfs deinit systemd

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

Remove Credentials

free.flexfs deinit creds

Removes the credentials file. If the file is referenced by a systemd unit, the command refuses unless --force is passed.

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

TLS

The free server has the same TLS behavior as the Enterprise admin server: a self-signed certificate is generated automatically if none exists, and custom certificates can be provided via --sslCert and --sslKey.