Can't delete existing files; permissions lost or volume locked.

[williah]

I am new to managing a FreeNAS system. I inherited a home made server. It has 8 Tb of storage, 8 Gb of ram, running version 8.03 FreeNAS. It is connected to and accessed through a 2013 iMac, running Sierra. I connect as Guest.

I was moving some files around, not paying careful attention , and filled the NAS to a couple of Kb of free space. That was a few days ago. I just went back in to delete older files when I discovered a problem. The system reads Zero bytes available, and when I try and delete anything from it I get an error:
"Some files can’t be processed, either because you don’t have permission to modify them, or because they are on a locked volume."

I'm not sure how to proceed. When I check permissions through Mac-Finder, everything seems in order. When I enter freeNAS using a browser (Chrome), and check the Permissions tab, I see Read, Write and Execute are all checked off. I read somewhere about accessing freeNAS using ssh, but I am concerned about causing greater damage.

I assume I locked the volume somehow by bring the space down so low, but I don't know how to proceed to clear the problem. Any advise on how to fix? I am very unskilled at managing the NAS, so the more details given the better (and more appreciated).

 

[Ericloewe]

running version 8.03 FreeNAS

Holy crap.

Your problem does not sound like a permissions problem at all, just a crap OS X error message.

Your problem is that the pool filled up, which is a huge no-no. If you search the forums, you'll find how to deal with this specific situation by truncating some large file you don't need.

 

[williah]

"Holy crap."

I know, not a good situation. I found one thread discussing the problem with a brief description on truncating old files. Unfortunately I can't get it to work.

I am connecting to the server directly, opening a shell and trying some simple commands for truncating, but its not working. I can't walk through the directory in shell to find the volume files, so I'm even sure if I'm working in the right place.

Any detailed advice on how to access the files in the volume and truncate some files?

 

[williah]

Some progress.

I opened shell and found my way into my file folder. I began using the echo > "filename" command to truncate several large (Gbs) files to make space.

My NAS is 8 Tb large, and I've cleared out 50 Gb of space: not quite 1%. It's still locked, but this seems to be the way to clear it.

Would anyone know the whether the Volume will open up again once I've cleared enough space or if I need to do something else to free it?

 

[williah]

Got it.

I directly connected to the server and opened Shell (option 9). I then changed directory to where my old files where and used the echo command I found in this forum to truncate the files to 1 byte:
echo > "filename.ext".

I actually used the quotes on the filename as some of my filenames had blank spaces in them, and weren't recognized.

I cleared about 50 Gb of space this way then rebooted. I was able to access and delete files normally again.