newbie mount error?

OliverSarmy · 08-21-2012, 12:41 PM

I've just bought a NAS, and wanted to backup my linux server to it and after much fiddling around I've succeeded with that. Along the way I tried all sorts of different things and I don't understand if I've done something wrong or not.

As a result of trying to mount the NAS disk, a directory has been created on my linux machine, like this:-

/home/<my username>/.gfs on W.X.Y.Z
(where W.X.Y.Z is the IP address of the NAS)

Is this the normal result of mount?

Also, should there be files within that directory? (I see them being copied from there when using rsync)

Thanks in advance for any help.

mpapet · 08-21-2012, 02:02 PM

Your message doesn't have enough information to help you.

post the output of "mount -l" as root or use sudo if that's how your distro works. How is the NAS device formatted?

What was the stanza used to mount the share?

OliverSarmy · 08-22-2012, 03:16 AM

the output of 'mount -l' is

Code:

/dev/mapper/vg_nrg2011-lv_root on / type ext4 (rw) [_Fedora-14-i686-]
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext4 (rw)
/dev/mapper/vg_nrg2011-lv_home on /home type ext4 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)

I've no idea what sudo is?

The NAS is formatted as ext4 - tho I'm not sure if that's of any relevance, because the 'rouge directory' (if it is that) has been created on the linux server, and then is copied by rsync to the NAS (which says to me it must be a physical directory and not a mount point. But then again I don't understand mount so perhaps I've drawn a wrong conclusion).

OliverSarmy · 08-22-2012, 03:18 AM

I've just realised that there's a slight error in my first post.

The directory that's been created is actually this (with a colon on the end):-

/home/<my username>/.gfs on W.X.Y.Z:
(where W.X.Y.Z is the IP address of the NAS)

SandsOfArrakis · 08-22-2012, 03:26 AM

Nice description of the sudo command

http://linux.about.com/od/commands/l/blcmdl8_sudo.htm

Basically needed to allow users to change their system.

OliverSarmy · 08-22-2012, 03:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SandsOfArrakis

Nice description of the sudo command

http://linux.about.com/od/commands/l/blcmdl8_sudo.htm

Basically needed to allow users to change their system.

thanks - but not needed by me. If I have need to do stuff as root I log in as root in one way or another.

Now, back to my problem...?

mpapet · 08-22-2012, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OliverSarmy

The NAS is formatted as ext4 - tho I'm not sure if that's of any relevance, because the 'rouge directory' (if it is that) has been created on the linux server, and then is copied by rsync to the NAS (which says to me it must be a physical directory and not a mount point. But then again I don't understand mount so perhaps I've drawn a wrong conclusion).

Judging by your fdisk -l output my estimation is your NAS isn't mounted. Rsync is a client-server solution, no disk mounting done by rsync.

Presumably the NAS device has some way to share it's storage either through NFS, iSCSI, SAMBA share. What method does your NAS device support? (ex. NFS)

OliverSarmy · 08-23-2012, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpapet

Judging by your fdisk -l output my estimation is your NAS isn't mounted. Rsync is a client-server solution, no disk mounting done by rsync.

Presumably the NAS device has some way to share it's storage either through NFS, iSCSI, SAMBA share. What method does your NAS device support? (ex. NFS)

Yes, I know my NAS isn't mounted. And yes, I (now) know that rsync doesn't require a remote disk mounting outside of rsync. And nothing of my NAS set-up is relevant for the question I'm wanting an answer to.

(On my linux server; not my NAS) I'm wanting to know what the directory ...

/home/<my username>/.gfs on W.X.Y.Z:
(where W.X.Y.Z is the IP address of the NAS)

...is. And I'm wanting to know if it's safe to remove, and how I can remove it as...

rm -rf "./home/<my username>/.gfs on W.X.Y.Z:"

... doesn't succeed in removing it.

mpapet · 08-24-2012, 12:57 AM

Ok,

Try this then. Is there anything in the directory now? Who owns the directory? ex. ls -lh ./whatever

Why are you so focused on one directory?

OliverSarmy · 08-24-2012, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpapet

Why are you so focused on one directory?

because I'm aware I messed up, and I'm aware that the directory has more than 50GB of data within it that shouldn't be there - and I want to put right what I messed up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpapet

Ok,
Try this then. Is there anything in the directory now? Who owns the directory? ex. ls -lh ./whatever

Yes, there's lots of stuff in the directory - I see it being transfered to my NAS when I do an rsync of '/home/' to my NAS (I haven't as yet finished an rsync [I keep cancelling it] because of that data being there).

The owner is <my username> (the same username that is within "/home/<my username>/.gfs on W.X.Y.Z:").

If I try to move into that directory to try and see its contents with "cd "/home/<my username>/.gfs on W.X.Y.Z:" " it says no such file or directory.

(I'm away for a few days now. I'll pick up on this on Monday or Tuesday).

mpapet · 08-24-2012, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OliverSarmy

If I try to move into that directory to try and see its contents with "cd "/home/<my username>/.gfs on W.X.Y.Z:" " it says no such file or directory.

1. You didn't mess up.
2. if you are on the command line, the cd stanza would be "cd /home/<my username>/.gfs\ on\ W.X.Y.Z\:" no quotes. You should be able to do "cd .gfs<tab>" and then auto-complete should escape it out for you.
3. Are you using rsync on the command line or a gui-helper app? Or maybe an rsync-like application? If it's rsync proper, then I'd let rsync run to conclusion and see what happens. What's the worst that could happen? A home partition gets full and the OS keeps running. No big deal.

I don't ever recall having this issue and I use rsync for biiiig jobs from one near-full expensive array to other storage. The way I do it is mount the remote storage locally, then use the path to that device instead of rsync's server though.

OliverSarmy · 08-28-2012, 08:27 AM

1. oh, I did.

2. thanks, but that doesn't work.

3. As I'm actually successfully using rsync now, on the command line. But I tried a variety of GUI interfaces to it, all without success (their failure was probably my doing).

I've just started rsync running now, so that it works thru that rouge directory. And yep, the worst that could happen is a full disk - which is the last thing I'm wanting, seeing as this new NAS is cos I was filling the disk with my previous (and not-adequate) backup regime.

I guess you don't recall having this issue cos you're not a linux numptie like me who doesn't know what he's doing with rsync, mount, and lots of other stuff .... and while I'm a linux numptie, I've worked with computers long enough to know that I messed up and created this as a real directory on my linux machine.

OliverSarmy · 08-30-2012, 02:57 AM

I've now managed to access that rouge directory, and delete the 50GB+ of content that was there. So I've got it sorted as good as I need to.

Thanks for the suggestions here all the same.