Mounting OBS Bucket on Windows using Rclone

V1.0 – July 2025

Version	Author	Description
V1.0 – 2015-08-15	Fernando Gabriel Chacon 50037923	Initial Version
V1.0 – 2015-08-15	Gabriel Gutierrez 00817435	Document Review

Mounting OBS Bucket on Windows using Rclone

Introduction

Object Storage Service (OBS) is a scalable and secure cloud storage solution provided by Huawei Cloud. In many scenarios, users may want to access their OBS buckets directly from a local file system, especially on Windows machines. This is useful for browsing, reading, and even uploading files as if they were stored locally.

Rclone is a powerful open-source command-line tool that supports mounting cloud storage services as virtual drives. This guide will walk you through the process of mounting an OBS bucket on Windows using Rclone, enabling seamless access to your cloud storage directly through the Windows Explorer.

Creating an IAM User

It’s recommended to create an exclusive IAM User for mounting in order to restrict access to OBS only.

https://console-intl.huaweicloud.com/iam/#/iam/users/create

Select Access Type: Programmatic access, and Credential Type: Access key.

Create a new user

Do not create or add user to any user group.

Click create.

Download the Access Key (this is the only time it’s available). File credentials.csv will be saved.

Download the Access Key

example of AK

Granting Read/Write Permissions to an IAM User via Bucket Policy on OBS

Instead of adding the user to a group and assigning permissions there, you can grant read/write access directly to the IAM user by creating a bucket policy.

Go to OBS Console → Select your bucket → Permissions → Bucket Policies → Create.

create new bucket policy

Type a Policy name (e.g., obs-rw-user-policy).
Choose Current Account as the principal type.
Select the IAM user you just created.
Mark the "Entire Bucket" checkbox to apply the policy to all objects in the bucket.
select "Bucket Read/Write" in the actions section.
Click Create to save the policy.

Create new policy window

Getting OBS Bucket Name and Endpoint

In the OBS Bucket details page, get the Bucket Name and Endpoint properties values:

Getting bucket param

Download and install WinFSP and Rclone

Download and install latest release of WinFSP (only Core feature is needed when installing): https://github.com/winfsp/winfsp/releases/
Download Rclone for Windows: https://rclone.org/downloads/
Extract Rclone program files to C:\rclone
Create two folders inside it: C:\rclone\conf and C:\rclone\logs

Final folder structure

Creating configuration file

Create the configuration file with Notepad: C:\rclone\conf\rclone.txt.

Add the following content:

[obs]
type = s3
provider = HuaweiOBS
access_key_id = {ak}
secret_access_key = {sk}
region = {region}
endpoint = {endpoint}
acl = private

Replace {ak} and {sk} with values obtained in credentials.csv file

Replace {endpoint} with OBS bucket endpoint

Replace {region} with endpoint information between obs. and .myhuaweicloud.com
(e.g. if endpoint is obs.sa-brazil-1.myhuaweicloud.com, replace {region} with sa-brazil-1)

config file created

Test OBS Bucket mounting

Open PowerShell and run the following command (replace {bucket-name}):

C:\rclone\rclone.exe mount "obs:/{bucket-name}" X: --config C:\rclone\conf\rclone.txt

The OBS Bucket should be mounted to the X: drive and it will stay mounted until the command is running in PowerShell.

Press Ctrl+C in PowerShell to unmount.

Testing mount command

Mount at Windows startup

If you wish to mount the OBS bucket at Windows startup:

Download NSSM: https://nssm.cc/download

Open the ZIP file and extract the nssm-x.xx\win64\nssm.exe file into the C:\rclone folder
Open PowerShell and run the following command: C:\rclone\nssm.exe install Rclone-OBS

In the Window that opens, configure the following parameters (Application tab):