KB020: Mounting CephRDS Buckets as Local Drives

Scope: UCR Researchers, External Collaborators Audience: All Users Last Updated: March 20, 2026

While graphical clients like Cyberduck (KB019) are great for transferring files, you may want to interact with your CephRDS storage exactly like a USB drive or a local hard drive. This allows you to open, edit, and save files directly from your applications (like Word, Python, or R) into the cloud.

This guide explains how to mount your CephRDS buckets as a local drive for free across all major operating systems using Rclone.

1. Prerequisites (All Operating Systems)

Before mounting, you must have rclone installed and configured with your CephRDS credentials.

1. Get your Keys: You need your provisioned S3 Access Key and Secret Key for CephRDS (rds.ucr.edu).
2. Install Rclone: Download and install the core rclone engine from rclone.org.
3. Configure the Remote: Run rclone config in your terminal to set up a remote named cephrds. Follow the steps in KB013 to complete this.

2. Mounting on Linux

Linux natively supports user-space file systems (FUSE), making mounting extremely simple and robust.

Steps:

1. Ensure FUSE is installed: (Usually pre-installed on modern distros like Ubuntu). If missing, run sudo apt install fuse3.
2. Create a mount point: This is an empty folder where your files will appear.

   mkdir ~/ceph-drive
   

3. Run the mount command:

   rclone mount cephrds:your_bucket_name ~/ceph-drive --vfs-cache-mode writes --daemon
   

   Note: The --vfs-cache-mode writes flag ensures files are cached locally and uploaded in the background, providing maximum performance.

Your files are now available in the ~/ceph-drive directory!

3. Mounting on macOS

To mount drives on macOS, Rclone requires an additional open-source extension called macFUSE.

Steps:

1. Install macFUSE: Download and install it from macfuse.github.io. (Note: You may need to allow system extensions in your Mac’s Security & Privacy settings during installation).
2. Create a mount point: Open your Terminal and create an empty folder.

   mkdir ~/Desktop/CephRDS
   

3. Run the mount command:

   rclone mount cephrds:your_bucket_name ~/Desktop/CephRDS --vfs-cache-mode writes --daemon
   

You will now see a new volume appear on your Desktop named “CephRDS” that you can browse in Finder.

4. Mounting on Windows

Windows requires a proxy file system driver to allow Rclone to create a virtual drive letter (like Z:\).

Steps:

1. Install WinFsp: Download and install the open-source Windows File System Proxy (WinFsp) from winfsp.dev.
2. Run the mount command: Open Command Prompt or PowerShell. You do not need to create a folder first; Rclone will create a new drive letter automatically.

   rclone mount cephrds:your_bucket_name Z: --vfs-cache-mode writes
   

   (Leave the command prompt window open, or run it via a background script).

Open File Explorer, and you will see a new Z: drive containing your CephRDS data!

5. Alternative GUI Wrapper (RcloneView)

If you find configuring the command line intimidating, the community has built a free, graphical interface for Rclone called RcloneView.

It allows you to configure your rds.ucr.edu endpoint and click a visual “Mount” button to connect your drives automatically on startup for both Windows and Mac.