Cloud backup support Alibaba Cloud OSS

[alphaAE]

Problem/Justification
I use TrueNAS in China. My current cloud backup provider has slow access speeds. I hope to add cloud backup credentials for Alibaba Cloud OSS. As far as I know, Rclone fully supports Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun) Object Storage System (OSS) internally. I currently modify cloud_sync.py and only need to add one parameter to achieve this.

Impact
The backup speed and reliability of all TrueNAS users in China will be greatly improved

User Story
You can refer to my blog post “TrueNas Cloud Synchronizes Data to Alibaba Cloud OSS”. I modified the /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/middlewared/plugins/cloud_sync.py script to use Alibaba Cloud OSS like Amazon S3 service. However, the script will be overwritten after each system update. I hope to add new features. and I know this doesn’t fit the development architecture, but I just want to show that this feature should be simple to develop.

[NugentS]

Wouldn’t this be better as a pull request?

[alphaAE]

Thank you for the suggestion! My current approach is more of a temporary injection and not aligned with the overall architecture. I agree that adding a new credential type would be a more proper and maintainable solution. I’ll try refactoring and modifying more of the related code, and if I can come up with a clean and reasonable implementation, I’ll consider submitting a proper pull request.

[alphaAE]

I’ve completed the development and testing of a new feature that spans both the middleware and the WebUI. How should I submit an PR?
Should I simply create a “Help Wanted” and submit an PR against it, or is there another process I need to follow?

[dan]

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[alphaAE]

thanks for your help!

I tried following the process and went to https://ixsystems.atlassian.net/issues to create a new issue, but I ran into an error:

“User doesn’t have the ‘Close Issues’ permission”

I’m not sure what I did wrong — I was just trying to submit a new issue, not close it.
Could you please let me know if I’m missing a step, or if there’s a different place I should be submitting new issues?

[alphaAE]

Thanks for the guidance and replies so far

After reviewing the official documentation, I confirmed that this is indeed a Feature Request, and should be initiated in the Feature Requests forum category — not directly filed as a Jira issue

If the iXsystems team approves this enhancement and would like me to contribute the implementation, please let me know — I’m ready to prepare code in both middleware and WebUI and submit PRs.

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Here is the feature description for further discussion and clarity:

adds support for using Alibaba Cloud OSS (Aliyun OSS) as a remote target in Cloud Sync Tasks within TrueNAS SCALE, implemented via Rclone integration.

Motivation:

Alibaba Cloud OSS is a widely adopted cloud storage platform in China and Asia-Pacific. Many users deploying TrueNAS in these regions require seamless integration with OSS.

Summary of Implementation:

WebUI:

• Added a new cloud sync provider form: alibaba-oss-provider-form

• Includes UI fields for Access Key, Secret Key, Endpoint, Maximum Upload Parts

• Tooltips and help texts are provided for user guidance

• Follows the pattern and layout of existing providers like AWS S3

Middleware:

• Introduced new BaseRcloneRemote type: AlibabaOSSRcloneRemote

• Added AlibabaOSSCredentialsModel credentials model in api/v25_10_0/cloud_sync_providers.py