doubles of datasets in dropdown menus (after upgrade to v.11)

[Mike77]

Hi,

For some reason the dropdown menu's in the GUI show duplicates (in small letters) of a couple of my datasets. Earlier I had the problem that the files in my datasets wouldn't show (could map the drive, open the folder and just saw the json config file).

An extra complication is that I might have trouble with authentication/permisions and I don't seem to be able to run plugins. I just tried installing and running PLEX. It installed, But it can't see the media folder (which is one of the duplicate shares).

 

[dlavigne]

Hi,

For some reason the dropdown menu's in the GUI show duplicates (in small letters) of a couple of my datasets.

Please post a screenshot.

 

[Mike77]

 

[Mike77]

See the HS33-MEDIA dataset. It has a double hs33-media, which shouldn't exist. And the jails folder/dataset, shouldn't exist at all. it used to be a plugin dataset.

 

[Arwen]

You likely created it by accident. Most Unix implementations are case significant.
I just checked my ZFS on Linux, and it let me create 2 datasets that differ only in
case, rpool/Test and rpool/test.

Thus, you HS33-MEDIA is different from hs33-media. Simple figure out if the one
you don't want has any data, if not, destroy it. (Or migrate the data, then destroy.)

 

[Mike77]

It probably is my mistake, but case sensitive shouldn't be the problem. A drop down menu isn't case sensative I'd think. [EDIT] And the strange thing is, that they don't show in the storage tab. I'd think that an extra dataset should be visible, shouldn't it ?

At the moment I'm copying the media to new datasets (which will take about three weeks). But after that I'm planning to destroy the doubles. But seeing that I don't know how to do this (they don't show on my windows machine, and they don't show under storage..) could you please point me in the right direction ?

[EDIT] I've actually never used command line on these machines. So I really wouldn't know how to do it..

 

[Arwen]

It probably is my mistake, but case sensitive shouldn't be the problem. A drop down menu isn't case sensative I'd think. [EDIT] And the strange thing is, that they don't show in the storage tab. I'd think that an extra dataset should be visible, shouldn't it ?

At the moment I'm copying the media to new datasets (which will take about three weeks). But after that I'm planning to destroy the doubles. But seeing that I don't know how to do this (they don't show on my windows machine, and they don't show under storage..) could you please point me in the right direction ?
...

Yes, I would have thought that both datasets would show in the storage tab. Oh, well.

If the GUI is your preference, then you can likely destroy one. Then the other will show up, which can destroy as well.
A reboot might be needed between the destroys to get the second one to show up.

 

[Mike77]

Well the copy went faster then expected. And I destroyed the former media dataset, but the other one doesn't show up in the storage tab. I just found out about the zfs list command (didn't now that it existed), and the two do not show there either.

I just added a smb share to the "hidden" media dataset, after which it can be accessed by a desktop. [EDIT] Just added a directory to the share from my windows machine. This also shows in the dropdown menu. So the double/hidden media folder might be a directory?

Using the zfs list command in the cli, I did find a lot of other things that probably shouldn't be there. .Boot2docker, .VM and jails. The strange thing is that I haven't added jails, the boot2docker must be something that remains from an old Coral install, and I've never used VM's on this machine. I'll add the output of the ZFS list.

Can these be removed, and if so, how can I do this ? And any idea's about where the extra hidden media dataset could be hinding ?

 

[Mike77]

Anyone ?

 

[Arwen]

Well the copy went faster then expected. And I destroyed the former media dataset, but the other one doesn't show up in the storage tab. I just found out about the zfs list command (didn't now that it existed), and the two do not show there either.

I just added a smb share to the "hidden" media dataset, after which it can be accessed by a desktop. [EDIT] Just added a directory to the share from my windows machine. This also shows in the dropdown menu. So the double/hidden media folder might be a directory?

Using the zfs list command in the cli, I did find a lot of other things that probably shouldn't be there. .Boot2docker, .VM and jails. The strange thing is that I haven't added jails, the boot2docker must be something that remains from an old Coral install, and I've never used VM's on this machine. I'll add the output of the ZFS list.

Can these be removed, and if so, how can I do this ? And any idea's about where the extra hidden media dataset could be hinding ?

Basically, if you don't know a dataset's purpose, leave the dataset alone. Most of the Jails, VM and misc. other
datasets take up little space, unless you use that feature. But, you can break things by removal. So, only destroy
datasets you created, (and don't want any data in them).

As for the remaining duplicate, sometimes you have to reboot to clear out stuck references. It's annoying and
problematic at times, but either reboot or potentially live with the results.

So, have you rebooted since you removed one of the duplicate datasets?

 

[Mike77]

Basically, if you don't know a dataset's purpose, leave the dataset alone. Most of the Jails, VM and misc. other
datasets take up little space, unless you use that feature. But, you can break things by removal. So, only destroy
datasets you created, (and don't want any data in them).

As for the remaining duplicate, sometimes you have to reboot to clear out stuck references. It's annoying and
problematic at times, but either reboot or potentially live with the results.

So, have you rebooted since you removed one of the duplicate datasets?

:)

Yes I've rebooted it a couple of times. Even after my last change.

And the problem remains.

You wrote that destroying datasets that I didn't create, could break things. What do you mean ? Is there some kind of a memory/database in the zpool that could lead to problems while deleting datasets that are created by the system?

Because I think that the boot2docker datasets refer to the Bootdocker host that I had installed in Corral, which doesn't work anymore. And I already did a fresh install two times (and imported the volume and uploaded my old config from an earlier instal of 9.3). So I guess that the FreeNas install on the USB drives won't contain anything that points to the former Docker...

 

[Arwen]

:)

Yes I've rebooted it a couple of times. Even after my last change.

And the problem remains.

You wrote that destroying datasets that I didn't create, could break things. What do you mean ? Is there some kind of a memory/database in the zpool that could lead to problems while deleting datasets that are created by the system?

Because I think that the boot2docker datasets refer to the Bootdocker host that I had installed in Corral, which doesn't work anymore. And I already did a fresh install two times (and imported the volume and uploaded my old config from an earlier instal of 9.3). So I guess that the FreeNas install on the USB drives won't contain anything that points to the former Docker...

I don't know anything about boot2docker, but it's not taking up much space, (46MB), and if no one else has thoughts on it, leave it alone.
Basically, if you remove a system type dataset, you may end up with any data FreeNAS may want to put in it, put into the parent dataset.

Looking at the ZFS list output, you don't have any duplicates that I can see. Your GUI seems to show something different. Perhaps if you attach an updated picture
of the GUI showing the problem, (again if need be), we can work towards a solution.

It's entirely possible that the FreeNAS user interface, (of which the GUI is only part of), is confused. Doing modifications, (but not R/O work), at the shell level is not
recommended. But, you might have to re-create the ZFS datasets, (one at a time), from the Shell command line and then, destroy them from the GUI. Repeat for the
second one. The GUI when asked, may attempt to destroy the datasets but when it's not found, fail, and not remove it from the GUI. Confusing.

This might be a reportable bug. Basically if the GUI allows creation of case significant datasets, but later treats them as case insignificant, that's a problem. However,
Corral may have had the bug, not 9.10.x.

 

[Mike77]

I've added the new picture of the current situation.

As I wrote before, I was able to create a share with the non existant hs33-media, which I could access from my windows desktop. I added a directory named "why is this here". You can also see that in the drop down.

[EDIT] The strange thing is, that a fresh install of PLEX tried to access the hs33-media folder. But it couldn't.

So it isn't there for PLEX, but PLEX thinks it is.
It isn't in the zfs list (cli) or in storage (gui), but it can be a share, which does work....

[EDIT] BigDave just showed me that his v.11 install (which he says, has never had a Coral install) has the same .Boot2Docker and .vm, datasets. So at the moment there is no longer a direct reason to assume that those datasets and my problem with the not working Plugins and "Ghostly datasets" are related. Still strange that there are Boot2Docker files, while 11RC doesn't support Dockers...

 

[Mike77]

But, you might have to re-create the ZFS datasets, (one at a time), from the Shell command line and then, destroy them from the GUI.

I tried the beformentioned. I created the dataset HS33-NAS/hs33-media/ through the cli (SSH using Putty) using the create command.

It did create the dataset, which did show in the the GUI under storage, and showed in the dropdown menu, without the extra folder named "why is this here".

Then I destroyed that dataset through the GUI. And then it was gone.

Then, after I restarted the server, the ghost dataset returend, again containing the extra folder, and still not showing under storage or under the zfs list command.....

So what now ?

 

[Mike77]

I just tried to add the dataset through the GUI. But that doesn't work, although it still doesn't show in zfs list:

 

[Arwen]

As I said, FreeNAS GUI may be confused. So, this is what I would do;

1. Remove any shares at that location
2. Remove any child directories, (like the afore mentioned "why is this here")
3. From the Shell level, re-create the dataset with the exact spelling used in the GUI
4. Reboot
5. Then see if the GUI will let you remove it.

I know this is a headache, but that is why I prefer not to use pre-release software with real data.

When I bought my FreeNAS Mini, FreeNAS 9.2.x would not install properly. Annoying but I had
no real commitment. So I tried the beta 9.3 and it worked fine. Plus, gave me ZFS root. So I waited
until 9.3 was officially released, (just weeks as I recall). Not a problem for me, as did not have all
my disks yet. That said, I did not like that I had to use beta software.

 

[Mike77]

The Ghost folder is gone!!

At first it didn't work.

1. I removed the content and the shares.
2. reboot
3. recreated the dataset through the shell
4. reboot
5. removed it through the GUI.
6. reboot

And they were back again.

But today I found out that under jails>config>jails root, there was still the path to a former jails install. So I reinstalled the jails and plugins on new datasets. Pointed them to the new datasets containing the media and then did the formentioned again.

And now they seem to be gone.

So it's not really clear to me why this worked, but it seems to have done the job regarding the ghost dataset.

 

[Mike77]

And back again. Total system failure

The system worked for a couple of weeks, after which first one USB boot drive failed. Then I got the message that the database was locked. Then at reboot two more USB boot devices failed, after which I tried to boot on the last USB drive, which didn't get any further then the Grub boot menu.

I did a complete clean reinstall, not using a config file, but using all of the old (bought them a week before) USB devices. Just imported the volumes. And it runs again. But the problem with getting acces with my sonos devices and some app's (i.e. PV Viewer) is back again.

I don't know if the failure has anything to do with my earlier problems, but it would be great if any one could help me with this.

 

[Arwen]

Many USB thumb / flash drives seem to be of poor quality. It appears that since FreeNAS moved to ZFS boot / root, (with >=9.3.x), we have had a rash of USB boot drive failures. My personal opinion is that the devices were of poor quality to begin with, but without ZFS we could not tell. Thus, un-explained problems before, (FreeNAS <9.3.x versions), may now have explainations.

Further, unless you continue to have problems, simply replace the USB devices, (possibly with a SATA flash drive), and get your NAS back to work.

 

[Mike77]

Thanks.

I thought it might be something different, because:

1. the systemen seemed to fail because of the devices, but they stille work (At the moment the newly installed system runs on two of the four failed devices).
2. the locked database doesn 't have anything to do with the devices; and
3. after a complete clean install (just imported the volumes, no configuration files or anything like that) an old problem resurfaces (problem with permissions, and my Sonos system and app's, are not able to connect with the shares).

So even if I didn't care about finding out what went wrong, then I stille have the problem that I can't connect to the system, except with a Windows computer..