NFS and Sharing ZPool + Datasets

[monarchdodra]

I'm not really sure how specific to FreeNas this is, but I'm trying to share all datasets under a ZPool over NFS.

Eg:
/mnt/Tank
/mnt/Tank/Dataset1
/mnt/Tank/Dataset2

The issue is if I share just "/mnt/Tank", then the "DatasetX" directories show up as empty directories.

I tried doing an NFS share with multiple paths, sharing both:
/mnt/Tank/Dataset1
/mnt/Tank/Dataset2

But I get an error that says "You cannot share a mount point and subdirectories all at once", which doesn't make much sense to me, as sharing just 1 works fine, and neither is a subdirectory of the other... Is this a bug?

What is the best solution here? I wouldn't want to have to create an NFS share per dataset, as that would create a LOT of shares, and be cumbersome to configure client side.

CIFS doesn't seem to have this problem. How am I supposed to tackle this "issue" with NFS?

 

[monarchdodra]

Hum... No one? Is my question just stupid, or does no one know?

I really figure this would be a really standard usecase... Isn't this the first thing you'd do when you share an NFS share? I'm sure there are a few people here that have used nfs and could help me.

Thanks.

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

The issue is if I share just "/mnt/Tank", then the "DatasetX" directories show up as empty directories.

I tried doing an NFS share with multiple paths, sharing both:
/mnt/Tank/Dataset1
/mnt/Tank/Dataset2

But I get an error that says "You cannot share a mount point and subdirectories all at once", which doesn't make much sense to me, as sharing just 1 works fine, and neither is a subdirectory of the other... Is this a bug?

Did you delete the share "/mnt/Tank" before sharing the datasets? Restarted the service?

 

[monarchdodra]

Yeah. I currently did:
- restart the nas.
- restart the service.
- outright delete the share.
- Click "add Unix (nfs) share"
- In "path" put "/mnt/Tank/Dataset1"
- Click "Add extra Path"
- put "/mnt/Tank/Dataset2"
- Click "OK"
- Error message is "You cannot share a mount point and subdirectories all at once"

Your reply seems to indicate that what I'm doing should be working?

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

You should just create 1 NFS share for /mnt/Tank/Dataset1 and create some subdirs in there, which you can use as paths. As i understand correctly you are now trying to create 1 share for 2 datasets. From the manual:

When creating the NFS share, keep the following points in mind:

1. ....
2. Each volume or dataset is considered to be its own filesystem and NFS is not able to cross filesystem boundaries.

 

[monarchdodra]

You should just create 1 NFS share for /mnt/Tank/Dataset1 and create some subdirs in there, which you can use as paths. As i understand correctly you are now trying to create 1 share for 2 datasets. From the manual:

Yes, that's what I'm trying to do. I missed that quote in the docs. Thanks.

What exactly do you mean by: "You should just create 1 NFS share for /mnt/Tank/Dataset1 and create some subdirs in there" ?

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve? You already have a lot of datasets? If you do, i think you have to create separate NFS shares for that. If not, just simply create 1 dataset and share it. Create subfolders for your storage needs in there.

 

[monarchdodra]

Ok. I thought that's what you meant. In this case, it really has to be 2 distinct data sets, so I can't just merge thm. Well, I'll just create multiple nfs shares then.

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

Maybe this can be of use for you.