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
Configurable volume quotas	Fixed at 5 TiB / 5M inodes	Configurable
Volume tokens with mount-path scoping	—	Supported
Accounts	1	1

A Community installation can be converted to Enterprise in place, keeping its volume, data, and tokens; see Upgrading a Community installation.

Tip

All CLI utilities — analyze.flexfs, dedup.flexfs, find.flexfs, and manage.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 with --diskQuota) 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
deinit creds	Remove the credentials file
deinit systemd	Remove the systemd service unit
init creds	Initialize the credentials file
init systemd	Create and enable a systemd service unit
license	Print license information
start	Start the free server
version	Print the build version

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. Run it as the user that runs the server; it writes ~/.flexfs/free/creds in that user’s home folder (/root/.flexfs/free/creds for root) unless --credsFile names another path.

free.flexfs init creds \
  --provider aws \
  --region <region> \
  --api s3 \
  --bucket <bucket> \
  --prefix <prefix> \
  --metaAddr meta-host:8443

init creds Flags

See free.flexfs init creds for the full list of init creds flags and their defaults.

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 = "<account-token>"
metaToken = "<meta-token>"
volumeToken = "<volume-token>"
volumeID = "<volume-id>"
provider = "aws"
region = "<region>"
api = "s3"
bucket = "<bucket>"
prefix = "<prefix>"
metaAddr = "meta-host:8443"
retention = 604800
volumeFlags = "admin"

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. Any user can run it; a non-root user needs a --bindAddr port above 1023, since the default is port 443.

Start Flags

See free.flexfs start for the full list of start flags and their defaults.

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

Optionally, to run the free server as a root service that starts at boot, create and enable a systemd service unit:

sudo free.flexfs init systemd --now

init systemd Flags

See free.flexfs init systemd for the full list of init systemd flags and their defaults.

This creates the unit file flexfs-free.service. Requires root. The service runs as root, so it reads /root/.flexfs/free/creds unless --startFlags names another --credsFile; create the credentials with sudo free.flexfs init creds.

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.

See free.flexfs deinit creds for its flags and their defaults.

Restricting API Access

--accessFile names a TOML file of IP addresses and CIDR blocks allowed to reach each endpoint. There is no file by default, so every endpoint is unrestricted; the file is re-read every couple of seconds, so access can be tightened or widened without a restart.

Take care here: mount clients, the metadata server and the CSI driver all call this API directly, so a rule meant to fence off volume administration can cut off the cluster. Whenever it loads a file with a global list, the server logs every endpoint that list gates. See API Access Control.

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.