Mini Server with TB3 Areca RAID File Share... Won't work until I log into the servers macOS?

[pauljacobevans]

Sorry... I'm pretty new to running Macs as a network resource. But where I'm from, you can share a drive on a computer, and access said share from another computer without having to locally log into the first computer and stay logged in. /sarcasm.

Mini M1 -> Thunderbolt 3 -> Areca 12-bay RAID6 20TB (Main share drive)
Mini WD 6TB -> USB3 on TB3 -> Western Digital Elements 6TB (Dedicated Time Machine share (had to move to another dedicated drive as BackBlaze won't touch any whole drive that has any TM setup share within it, even if it's excluded.)

All I want...

1.) Restart the mini
2.) Mini reboots
... and without any other action, such as me logging into the mini...
3.) My 2 shares work and are accessible from another device.

Everything works flawlessly ONCE I log into the mini, which I clearly don't want to be forced to do.

 

[chrisn123]

I have same exact set up, although I upgraded to a Mac Studio recently. I run a headless Mac Studio as an NVR for lots of CCTV cameras among other server-y tasks. Since it is a "server" I simply set it to auto-login. You have to turn File Vault off to do that, but I don't view this as a particular security risk since it's just a boot drive and there's no keyboard, monitor or mouse connected to server. You can run encryption on the Areca as long as you allow Mac to store PW in keychain (otherwise you'd need to remote-in and enter the volume password-- not really viable).

Not a specific answer to your Q (and I honestly never noticed if the volumes mount / shares come on line without logging in). Also, I've found that remote screen sharing seems to work better once logged in, so that's a bonus.

Anyway. Food for thought.

 

[pauljacobevans]

I have same exact set up, although I upgraded to a Mac Studio recently. I run a headless Mac Studio as an NVR for lots of CCTV cameras among other server-y tasks. Since it is a "server" I simply set it to auto-login. You have to turn File Vault off to do that, but I don't view this as a particular security risk since it's just a boot drive and there's no keyboard, monitor or mouse connected to server. You can run encryption on the Areca as long as you allow Mac to store PW in keychain (otherwise you'd need to remote-in and enter the volume password-- not really viable).

Not a specific answer to your Q (and I honestly never noticed if the volumes mount / shares come on line without logging in). Also, I've found that remote screen sharing seems to work better once logged in, so that's a bonus.

Anyway. Food for thought.

That's just really unfortunate that that is the answer to this. Sigh. Thanks for sharing, makes me feel like I'm not insane at least. lol. I love everything about the setup, it's just that it really doesn't sit well with me that it has to be logged into for all of these services to work. But yeah, it's helpful to hear that this is what people are doing I guess.

 

[McScooby]

That's just really unfortunate that that is the answer to this. Sigh. Thanks for sharing, makes me feel like I'm not insane at least. lol. I love everything about the setup, it's just that it really doesn't sit well with me that it has to be logged into for all of these services to work. But yeah, it's helpful to hear that this is what people are doing I guess.

No probs, just set-up a dummy a/c that has the sole purpose of being an empty user apart from the drives, that's how I do it.

 

[pauljacobevans]

No probs, just set-up a dummy a/c that has the sole purpose of being an empty user apart from the drives, that's how I do it.

Still doesn't nor will it ever feel right. Sigh. It's alright... we'll see.

 

[pauljacobevans]

Thank you both.