Weird problem with NCP/novell clustered vol. Directories are there, but not files!

theYinYeti · 05-25-2009, 07:20 AM

I have a very strange problem with a mounted NCP share (remote Novell clustered volume).
Directories are there, but not files!

I mount the share with autofs, but the same happens with mount, or directly with ncpmount. Example mount command:

Code:

mount -t ncp -o tcp,ipserver=SERVER,volume=VOL,multiple,uid=501,gid=500,filemode=0664,dirmode=0775,passwd=PW,codepage=cp850,iocharset=utf8 SERVER/USER test/

(all parts in capitals were substituted).

A “find -noleaf ! -type d” in test/ returns nothing.
Stranger still: I can create and delete a file but I don't see it happen! Example: I ran “touch test/SOME/DIR/test_file”, and a coworker on Windows could see the file, but I could not! And I ran “rm -f test/SOME/DIR/test_file” and my co-worker reported to me that the file disappeared! Neither command gave any error.

I don't know if that's any help, but here's some more information.

Where I work, we were previously using Novell from server NV1, and now data is being moved to clustered volumes on server NV2.

On Windows boot, here's the current login log:

Code:

Contexte actuel : CO.NTE.XT

Utilisateur : USER Contexte : CO.NTE.XT
Arborescence actuelle : TREE
Vous êtes attaché au serveur NV1.
	 Nous sommes aujourd'hui Mercredi 20 Mai 2009  
																  
																  
		 BIENVENUE SUR LE SERVEUR		NV1			 
																  
		   Votre identification est 001F160E9D36					
Authentification sur le serveur NV2.
Unité P : = NV2\DATA: \
Authentification sur le serveur NV3.
LOGIN-LGNWNT32.DLL-430 : impossible de terminer l'opération d'assignation d'unités.
	 [U:=NV3/USR:] 
le code d'erreur était 8804.
S1: = Z:. [NV1_SYS.:PUBLIC \]
Unité Q : = NV1_SYS.:PUBLIC\
Unité R : = NV2\DATA:SUB\DIR \
Les unités C,D correspondent à un disque local.
Unité F : = NV1_SYS.:\
Unité P : = NV2\DATA: \
Unité Q : = NV1_SYS.:PUBLIC\
Unité R : = NV2\DATA:SUB\DIR \
L'unité X correspond à un disque local.
	  -----   Unités de recherche   -----
S1: = C:\Applications\Java\jdk16\bin
S2: = C:\WINDOWS\system32
S3: = C:\WINDOWS
S4: = C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem
S5: = C:\WINDOWS\system32\nls
S6: = C:\WINDOWS\system32\nls\FRANCAIS
S7: = Y:. [NV1_SYS.:PUBLIC \]
S8: = Z:. [NV1_SYS.:PUBLIC \]

And here's exactly the contents of my /etc/autofs/auto.ncpfs file:

Code:

NV2 -fstype=ncpfs,tcp,ipserver=NV2,volume=data,multiple,uid=501,gid=500,filemode=0664,dirmode=0775,passwd=PW,codepage=cp850,iocharset=utf8   :NV2/USER.CO.NTE.XT
NV1 -fstype=ncpfs,multiple,uid=501,gid=500,filemode=0664,dirmode=0775,passwd=PW,codepage=cp850,iocharset=utf8   :NV1/USER.CO.NTE.XT

Also, this line is ran on boot by /etc/rc.d/rc.local: “ipx_configure --auto_interface=on --auto_primary=on”

NV1 works OK.
NV2 does not: I see directories, but no files, although I have access to them. For example, I could open a PDF file I knew was there (gnome-open /path/to/file.pdf), even though I could not see the file! As told before, I can also (blindly) create and delete files.

Yves.

saavik · 05-25-2009, 09:06 AM

1. use slist to see all the server
2. try

ncpmount -S SERVERNAME -U USERNAME -P PASSWORD -p cp850 -C TARGETDIR -u LOCALUSERNAME -m -i2

theYinYeti · 05-26-2009, 03:52 AM

Thank you for your answer, saavik.

Here is some more information.
On the IP side, both machines are seen:

Code:

[yves@work ~]$ ping N1
PING N1.workdomain (x.x.x.x1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from N1.workdomain (x.x.x.x1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=1.42 ms
64 bytes from N1.workdomain (x.x.x.x1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=0.389 ms
^C
--- N1.workdomain ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1923ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.389/0.908/1.428/0.520 ms
[yves@work ~]$ ping N2
PING N2.workdomain (x.x.x.x2) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from x.x.x.x2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.378 ms
64 bytes from x.x.x.x2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.396 ms
^C
--- N2.workdomain ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1505ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.378/0.387/0.396/0.009 ms

Now, I notice that ping “64 bytes…” lines look different for the second server. I don't know if there's any meaning to this.

On the NCP side of things, though, N2 is unknown, which is no surprise because I've read that clustered volumes only work in IP mode because they use a capability of IP that the Novell protocol does not have:

Code:

[root@work ~]# slist

Known NetWare File Servers		  Network   Node Address
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
N1                                        0534FA74  000000000001
NA                                        0B6DB224  000000000001
NB                                        00008657  000000000001

So, for N2, I have to use the “tcp” and “ipserver” mount options, which give the IP sub-protocol to use and the DNS mapping for the given Novell logical name.
Here's the result of the test you suggested, and another test I did based on it:

Code:

[root@work ~]# ncpmount -S N2 -U USER.CO.NTE.XT -P PW -p cp850 -C data -u yves -m -i2 test/
ncpmount: Server not found (0x8847) when trying to find N2
[root@work ~]# ncpmount -S N2 -A N2 -U USER.CO.NTE.XT -P PW -p cp850 -C -V data -u yves -m -i2 test/
Get host address `N2': Server not found (0x8847)
[root@work ~]# mount -t ncp -o tcp,ipserver=N2,passwd=PW,codepage=cp850,noupcasepasswd,volume=data,uid=501,multiple,signature=2 N2/USER.CO.NTE.XT test/

The latter works, although I still don't see any files, just directories.

As for the “volume=” mount option, it is because I've read that this option is mandatory for clustered volumes, unless you want to see the administration volume (or something like that; I'm far from an expert in this area); for non-clustered volumes, ncpfs' default without this option is to mount all volumes (as sub-directories) under a single mount-point. And indeed, until I added this option, the contents of N2's mount point would remain “_admin/” and “sys/”, which has nothing to do with the contents I need.

Yves.

theYinYeti · 06-15-2009, 09:56 AM

Trying to solve this by myself, I tried and logged to the Novell machines in a way as close as possible to what Windows PCs do.
I tried to mimick what a Windows user sees on their Novell login window, as well as the sequence of operations: first login, then map the drives. So I tried this:

Code:

ncplogin -T TREE -X CO.NTE.XT -E -U USER.CO.NTE.XT -u 501 -g 500 -P PW -f 0664 -d 0775 -y utf8 -p cp850 -i 3
ncpmap -S NV2 -A NV2 -o tcp -X CO.NTE.XT -E -V DATA -f 0664 -d 0775 -y utf8 -p cp850 -i 2 -a

and this :

Code:

ncplogin -S NV2 -A NV2 -o tcp -X CO.NTE.XT -E -U USER.CO.NTE.XT -u 501 -g 500 -P PW -f 0664 -d 0775 -y utf8 -p cp850
ncpmap -S NV2 -A NV2 -o tcp -X CO.NTE.XT -E -V DATA -f 0664 -d 0775 -y utf8 -p cp850 -i 2 -a

Both sets “worked”, although the first set of commands does not anymore… I suppose I was lucky, and “ncplogin -T” only worked because I had connected before ; now I get “failed:Cannot attach to tree TREE. Err:Server not found (0x8847)”.

Anyway, whatever the commands I use, I still get the same result: I can browse directories, create, open and delete files, BUT I cannot browse files (see them in Nautilus or command-line)…

And ncpfs hasn't got a web site, and wasn't updated since 2005. This is getting depressing.

Yves.

Crow_T_Robot · 06-18-2009, 01:21 PM

Where I work, I recently set up a server with SLES SP2 and OES2 SP1b to test using ncpmount to access ncp shares, and ran into this very problem.

It's not really a good solution, but a little birdy (engineer) told me that one the newer novell-ncpenc rpms (around version 5.1.3) broke the ability of ncpfs to see files.

I haven't tested it yet myself, but hopefully helps you out.