Hello to all the forum,
I get straight in to the problem and the analysis I made so far.
I am using the OMV Release: 4.1.12 Codename: Arrakis on a rock64 arm base mini computer board. The operating system is :
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 9.5 (stretch)
Release: 9.5
Codename: stretch
I have mounted a external usb disk LG 500Gbytes and I only enabled the SMB/CIFS protocol Service because I am using 10 machines to connect to some shared folders on the external disk.
At first everything was working fine and a lot of users happy to transfer files to the new disk remotely... BUT after the update I have done ( apt -update) and after a few days actually I notice this extraordinary problem. The drive was unmounting and mounting again with a different each type device name --> sometimes was on dev/sda --> sda1 and some times on dev/sdb --> sdb1. This caused all the users who were transferring files these times to experience problems like : please check internet connection ..no specified drive path .. and e.t.c.
Well the things I have done was : 1] First I thought that it was a hardware issue but later one I was VERY WRONG about it...!!!
2] I changed the usb cable of the external disk --> nothing happened
3] I changed the network cable because I thought I was having a loose connection --> irrelevant but I did that --> nothing
happened
4] Check the drive for errors or hardware defects --> nothing happened. Problem still happening at random.
Then I notice that this was happening under 2 actions ...a] When a user was trying to write something to shared folders
b] When I was opening the GUI of OMV and going to the files systems section under storage.
VERY STRANGE INDEED..!!! Not so reliable of course. But then I realize that was not the case because I notice that when I enter the above section the drive was unmounted randomly.!!!!!!!!!! This situation drove my crazy last night ..all night long.
Then I decided to got to /etc/fstab to see what was happening and how it was mounted at boot.!!! Well I saw that the external disk was mounted by label..!!! I did not like that so I change it to UUID of the disk. I found the UUID of the disk with " ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ " (I am writing this to help others with same problem). DO NOT USE the straight command "blkid" because it was giving me other results due to the change of the dev device randomly. Trust me , it is crazy but it happened to me. After that I changed fstab manually like this :
UUID=4ca1fe56-0ade-4e2d-8f6d-c85883763da3 /srv/dev-disk-by-label-Storage ext4
defaults,nofail,user_xattr,noexec,usrjquota=aquota.user,grpjquota=aquota.group,jqfmt=vfsv0,acl 0 2
Then reboot the system..~!!!!
I show something strange on my folders on the drive : There were to directories mounted 1] /srv/dev-disk-by-lable-Storage and 2] /SheardFolders all having the same files of my users. Owaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! OMV is playing me around..!!! anyway...
Now it is working fine again BUT I DO NOT KNOW FOR LONG!!!!!!!!!! Also I have noticed that when I was entering the GUI and the File Systems section , a slightly refresh on the page like the OMV was trying to mount again or it was my imagination...Anyway..!!!
Also I notice something else which might be irrelevant to the problem I am facing but I am going to report it here..!!
On my first update and after ( apt update) the system in the end put some warnings like this :
W: Target Packages (main/binary-armhf/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omv.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list:1
W: Target Packages (main/binary-arm64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omv.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list:1
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omv.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list:1
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omv.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list:1
W: Target Packages (main/binary-armhf/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omv.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list:1
W: Target Packages (main/binary-arm64/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omv.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list:1
W: Target Packages (main/binary-all/Packages) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omv.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list:1
W: Target Translations (main/i18n/Translation-en) is configured multiple times in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/omv.list:1 and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list:1
Well this is not really a serious problem because it has multiple entries ( the same I think) in the source lists as it mentioned. I think it is irrelevant to my problem , isn't it???? (Upgrade is doing fine on the requested packages.)
Conclusions
This is a serious problem which I think happened after the Update ( or it was luck I do not know anymore..). With my experience to the linux OS generally I found this problem very very serious especially for a project which want to call it shelf a NAS. These kind of problems do not occur to me the last 38 years installing these systems on much larger server units.And I didn't have any problems with FreeNas in these situations. I am sorry to say this. I found one threat on this forum having the same problem with me. Maybe the problem is with the SMB/CIFS service ...I DO NOT KNOW. The developers should see this because it is a nice job and it is so shame to have problems like these...!!!
If someone have something to elaborate please do post. Now my server is running fine but I lost my trust on this project as a business solution and of course as a private use.I think you would have the same reaction as I have. 