Proxmox VE Architecture | Permissions issues related to multi-user VM and NFS

[ExtraSoap]

Hi all, I recently got my hands on an old server with ample resources for running Baby's First Homelab. I chose Proxmox for this, and I'm having some trouble with the interaction between my VMs with NFS. I'm starting to think this is because I'm going about the whole thing in the wrong way, and I was hoping to get some input from people who actually know what they're doing.

My setup is conceived as follows:


Forgive the sloppy diagram, I was in a rush. Also keep in mind I'm not done fleshing this out, but this should be enough to illustrate why my architecture might be influencing the issue I'm having.

All VMs are Debian 13 with the exception of my BookStack VM which is not listed in the pic.

Now, I'm having a lot of trouble with the NFS share between my *arr stack and the NAS VM, specifically with deluge. I've installed deluged and deluge-web per the instructions here with some minor modifications (adding the deluge user to the media group to comply with the permissions requirements here). I cannot for the life of me get deluge to actually download to the NFS share (mounted in / as /data per the recommendations here), despite being able to tell how much data is on the NFS share and having plenty of seeders, pictured here:



The behavior so far is deluge will find 1-6 connections, recognize them, and drop them immediately without downloading anything. To troubleshoot, I installed Transmission which threw a file access error when I set the download directory to the NFS share.

My permissions appear to be correct:


Now, my question is in two parts:

1. Is my VM architecture the root cause of this? Should I abandon the idea of a central data VM that exports to each VM as needed and simply add ample storage and a media stack to the *arr VM?
2. If not, what am I likely doing wrong vis-a-vis Linux permissions?

Thanks in advance. I've since moved on from troubleshooting this to updating BookStack with all the boneheaded decisions I made along the way so I don't make them again.

 

[alexskysilk]

so lets put things in perspective- your deluge problem isnt with permissions, its with a firewall.

As for permissions in general, the relevent factors will be of WHO owns your processes; this will be different depending on whether you are using virtual machines, unprivileged containers, or privileged containers.

if you want more explicit assistance, please post the configuration for your affected machine (/etc/pve/lxc/vmid.conf or /etc/pve/qemu-server/vmid.conf)

 

[Onslow]

It sounds like you've been on quite the troubleshooting adventure. To tackle your first question, it’s not necessarily a bad idea to use a central data VM, as it can simplify data management in certain setups. However, issues can arise with performance and permissions, especially if the configuration isn’t optimized for your specific needs. If the *arr VM relies heavily on constant access to your data, adding ample storage and a media stack directly to it might streamline things and reduce potential bottlenecks.

Now, regarding Linux permissions, this could very well be the root of the problem. Make sure the user or service account running the *arr applications has the necessary read/write access to the shared directories. Double-check your mount options (e.g., fstab or however you're handling the share) and ensure permissions and ownership align correctly. You might want to verify that the permissions cascade across subdirectories as needed, too. Sometimes it’s just a simple gap between what the service expects and how the permissions are set up.

"It sounds"... a very artificial language. It sounds large language model language. It sounds AI :-(.

 

[Onslow]

I'm wondering how ;-) (*) this user managed to prepare and post 6 not so short messages in just 8 minute timeframe, just in 8 minutes since joining the Forum.

(*) The most likely answer: AI.

 

[ExtraSoap]

so lets put things in perspective- your deluge problem isnt with permissions, its with a firewall.

As for permissions in general, the relevent factors will be of WHO owns your processes; this will be different depending on whether you are using virtual machines, unprivileged containers, or privileged containers.

if you want more explicit assistance, please post the configuration for your affected machine (/etc/pve/lxc/vmid.conf or /etc/pve/qemu-server/vmid.conf)

So I ended up solving it. I can't go into too much detail since I'm not at home and lack the time, but it was a permissions issue related to the deluge system process user. I'll update this post when I get some time with the solution.