Issues with folders

  • Hi all guys! I'm a newbie who is trying to set up his personal NAS at home..
    First of all, my congratulations to all of you, great community.
    It has been a week that I'm trying OMV, and I already had to reinstall it three times... What I did notice is that OMV is very fragile with shared folders, permissions, etc. Or maybe I am doing the wrong thing. At the begin I manually deleted folders while connected via SSH, and of course I messed up everything. I read that almost everything has to be done through the GUI, so I started from the beginning again. Fresh install, I created a folder, then I changed my mind, I want that folder nested in another one: so I clicked on modify, changed the path, and boom. Here my problem started. I always worked through the GUI this time, but now I'm keeping having this error:


    The folder has no references (I disabled all the services), no permissions (I didn't create any user yet). I cannot even create a shared folder nested in another one (example: new shared folder "A" in the root, then if I create another shared folder nested in "A" it gives me another error -configuration object is not unique-)
    I'm just at the beginning, but I'm starting to giving up...
    Cheers,
    Manu

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Yes, in some instances OMV is extremely brittle. As you have found out. But in many other ways OMV is extremely robust. I especially like that OMV is just a thin layer on top of a standard Linux server OS, Debian.


    There are folders and then there are Folders.


    OMV use the concept of "shared folder" for a lot of things. The shared folders are what you create in the GUI. And you use the GUI to specify how it works and with what. You just tell the GUI and it does all the heavy lifting for you. Writes config files, installing software, activating services and daemons. And so on. Very nice!


    But if you mess with a shared folder outside the GUI, rename it, move it or even delete it, then OMV blows up in your face. POFF! Small thermonuclear event. Or close to it.


    So don't mess with them outside the GUI! And preferably not inside the GUI either. Create a shared folder and then let it be. If possible. Then you are safe from many problems.


    Instead create subfolders INSIDE the shared folder(s) and mess with them. Rename, move, copy and delete. Create weird and wonderful meaningful hierarchical structures. As much as you want.


    To make sure you don't mix it up, it is a good idea to ONLY USE ONE shared folder per HDD. You are allowed to use as many shared folders as you like, but if you use many, with meaningful names for different purposes, you will soon be tempted to make changes. And if you make changes you break OMV. POFF! And many shared folders soon becomes complicated and confusing. They all need to be configured and you can't easily move things between shared folders, you have to copy and delete. Why bother? Use only one shared folder per filesystem/HDD, at least until you have some more experience.


    And give the lonely shared folder a very simple name, without meaning in a meaningful hierarchical folder structure. For instance if the HDD used is a 8 TB Western Digital Red, then a nice name for the shared folder on that HDD could be "RED8TB" or something similar. Or even simpler, just "share" or "nas". If you have more than one filesystem/HDD then you can add numbers. "share1", "share2" and so on. "share#", "disk#", "data#" , "volume#". "files#". If you have more than one OMV NAS then you can use that as well. "omv1vol1". "omv2vol3". And so on.

  • Ok, I'll work on that. I'm just experimenting, so I have no fear to mess everything up :)
    I'm thinking about this structure:
    1hdd (500 gb) -> shared folder: MGMT (and then you suggest to create inside it all the folders I need, right? e.g. "OMVBackup", "Apps", "DonaldDuck" etc
    2 hdd 4 tb each -> shared folders: Share (and inside all my media, stuff, documents, etc)
    So, if I didn't misunderstand, less shared folders meaning less troubles ("newbly" speaking).
    There's one thing I didn't understand: why does OMV create a copy of my folders in /sharedfolders and in /srv ? Is this like an hyperlink or something like that? Anyway, Tonight I'll read the documentation =)

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    why does OMV create a copy of my folders in /sharedfolders and in /srv

    /srv/dev-disk-by-... is the path to the actual folder. In /sharedfolders there is one symilink for each /sharedfolder.


    BTW the "one folder per filesystem" approach is a possibility, but it is not mandatory. Especially when you start using different services or you want to assign different access rights you need more shared folders for segregation. So, if you like, start with one shared folder for simplicity, but don't forget to use additional shared folders when you run into limitations.
    And try to do as much as possible in the GUI. OMV is made for that.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    The folders under /srv are the "actual" folders, as @macom says. But their paths are a bit unfriendly as they may contain unique identifiers like UUID and other strange stuff.


    The folders under /sharedfolders are a form of helpful "shortcuts" that are much easier to type and remember. They are what is "presented" on the network.


    In the beginning you can mostly ignore /srv. But if/when you start adding other, possibly 3:rd party, software then you may have to use the folders under /srv for things to work correctly.

    1hdd (500 gb) -> shared folder: MGMT (and then you suggest to create inside it all the folders I need, right? e.g. "OMVBackup", "Apps", "DonaldDuck" etc2 hdd 4 tb each -> shared folders: Share (and inside all my media, stuff, documents, etc)
    So, if I didn't misunderstand, less shared folders meaning less troubles ("newbly" speaking).

    Yes!


    You might want to test a setup where the first of the 4TB HDDs are used to share media and the second is used as a backup of the first. That is a nice way to make it less likely you will loose data. Or you may want to add a new 8TB HDD and use that for shared media and the two 4TB HDDs for backups.


    Without good backups you will loose data, sooner or later.

  • Thank you guys! I'll play again and I'll try to simulate my ideal setup :) Probably I'll mess up everything again, but at least now I know how to deal with shared folders XD
    Thank you again!
    Ciao,
    Manuel

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