cifs share issues

[ndroftheline]

hey all,

i'm trying to add an existing cifs share to a new proxmox node and hitting some snags.

1. a share that isn't set to browseable can't be added?

i have a share called proxmox-content that i use already with another proxmox host, just to hold ISOs and VZ templates. i dont' like it to be browseable because it just clutters up other users' experience when navigating the shares. however it appears that i can't manually specify a share name; only those discovered via cifsscan appear to function. if i switch the share to browseable on my nas, i can pick it. if not, i can't. this seems like a bug, but i want to check before i file it as such.

2. i get errors about "creating" the iso folder in my share - this folder (well, it's a symlink) already exists.

create storage failed: error with cfs lock 'file-storage_cfg': mkdir /mnt/pve/pira/template/iso: Permission denied at /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Plugin.pm line 940. (500)

pira/template/iso is a symlink to pira/Media/Installers/OSes which is a general-purpose ISO store I use for a lot of cases. i suspect when the share is being brought online, if the iso *folder* doesn't exist, it gets created - but it can't be created because it already exists as a symlink, so it errors out and fails. i suspect this isn't an uncommon use case, so I wonder if this behavior should be changed? but again, wanted to get input before i filed a bug. thanks.

 

[wolfgang]

Hi,

. i get errors about "creating" the iso folder in my share - this folder (well, it's a symlink) already exists.

Why you add storage when there is already mounted/symlinked in this path.

You have to use in this use case Dir storage and not CIFSPlugin.

The general idea about Storage plugins is that PVE handles the storage.
But when you have custom requirements like you then use Dir storage.
In this case, PVE handles this as a normal dir on an FS.

1. a share that isn't set to browseable can't be added?

You can add a share it when it is not browsable. But you need still the correct permissions.

 

[ndroftheline]

thanks for the input! so basically to use an existing SMB-shared ISO store, the best practice is to manually configure the mount and then add it as a Directory storage?

if so, that's good, i can do that.

in that case though i suspect it would be a pretty nice feature to consider - i imagine most sysadmins have a folder for ISOs, and it would be nice to just click a few times in the UI (like the CIFS plugin seems to enable) and add the existing share to proxmox for pulling data from.

i confirm i am able to manually add a cifs share, not sure what i was doing wrong yesterday, thanks.

 

[ndroftheline]

hm. so, when i configured Directory storage I ended up in basically the same situation - proxmox created a template/iso folder inside the mount point i had the SMB share on, which is not what i wanted.

i also had forgotten that my fun little plan about symlinking one share to another directory elsewhere on the server wouldn't work without wide links enabled per this: https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php/Thread/15786-Using-sym-links-in-samba/

with symbolic links traversable via SMB, ended up using the CIFSplugin because it's slightly easier. i have a non-browseable share called proxmox-content which i point proxmox at, it generates its directories, then i went into that folder from the NAS and replace, for example, the template/iso folder with a symlink to my ISO store folder. this appears to work, but i'm slightly concerned that i've created potential problems for myself.

is there a better way to accomplish this that anybody cares to recommend?

thanks kindly

 

[wolfgang]

Why do you can't make a new ISO share for Proxmox like 'ISO_PVE"
This share is an normal share no symlinks and you use the cifsplugin.
On the NAS side you make a symlink from smb://ISO_PVE/template/iso -> path to ISO share.

 

[ndroftheline]

thanks again for your continued help

this is exactly as i have done (and tried to describe) - but this requires the use of unsafe wide links https://www.samba.org/samba/docs/current/man-html/smb.conf.5.html#ALLOWINSECUREWIDELINKS

and i'm fine with continuing to function this way, thank you.

it seems to me, however, that if proxmox had a feature/function to be pointed at a share directory with ISOs in it, it would be both easier and safer for some users.