Best practice for accessing Qnap NAS from linux Mint

Manganus · 11-09-2013, 06:46 PM

What's considered The Right Way, ...or the best way... to let applications work on files on a NAS.

I've no problem to find the files and directories. Nemo presents them under Networks. Our Qnap uses Ext3 internally, but seem to be accessed from Nemo with SMB/CIFS. Nemo reports their location as SMB://Qnap-name.local/public/

If I for instance want to access them from, say, rsync or a Perl script, oughtn't I put the NAS-server in the fstab?

The network is somewhat safe - i.e. behind a firewall, but with WiFi inside the network.

Thanks in advance!

Manganus · 11-10-2013, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manganus

What's considered The Right Way, ...or the best way... to let applications work on files on a NAS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manganus

If I for instance want to access them from, say, rsync or a Perl script, oughtn't I put the NAS-server in the fstab?

Mounting on the command line works:

Code:

sudo mount -t cifs //qnap-119.local/Public/ljud/ /media/qnap-119/ljud/
sudo mount -t cifs //qnap-119.local/Public/ljud /media/qnap-119/ljud/

but the following line in /etc/fstab is of no use:

Code:

//qnap-119.local/Public/ljud     /media/qnap-119/ljud/    cifs    rw              0       0

nor does it help to insert the parameter "_netdev"

Code:

//qnap-119.local/Public/ljud     /media/qnap-119/ljud/    cifs    _netdev,rw      0       0

I ponder if the reason for this may be that the network isn't connected yet at the time when the /etc/fstab is used.

I can, however, mount with the -a option

Code:

johan@Johans-ThinkPad-T60 ~ $ ls -ls /media/qnap-119/ljud/
total 0
johan@Johans-ThinkPad-T60 ~ $ sudo mount -va  -t cifs
[sudo] password for johan: 
Password: 
mount.cifs kernel mount options: ip=192.168.2.Yyy,unc=\\qnap-119.local\Public,user=root,prefixpath=ljud,pass=********
nothing was mounted
johan@Johans-ThinkPad-T60 ~ $ ls -ls /media/qnap-119/ljud/
total 0
0 drwxr-xr-x 0 root root 0 mar 24  2012 Agusa-version av bitar
0 drwxr-xr-x 0 root root 0 mar  6  2012 Lindemän (Hans Alfredson, Tage Danielsson)
0 drwxr-xr-x 0 root root 0 jan 28  2010 Martin Ljung
johan@Johans-ThinkPad-T60 ~ $

The phrase "nothing was mounted" here does indeed surprice.
A library listing before and after that mounting of "nothing" gives the opposite impression.

RuZleBiFf · 11-11-2013, 06:02 AM

"The Right Way" is wery vague, depending on the system.
But "The Linux Way" is to use NFS istead of cifs

Now to your mounting-problem:
I am a bit confused because you are able to mount manually without password, but as soon as you use fstab, you are asked for a password. Not sure why.
You can use "user=xxxx,pass=xxx" in fstab. See if that solves your problem.
When I used CIFS on freeNAS i had to use the parameter "nounix" to get it to mount. You could try that one too.

TroN-0074 · 11-11-2013, 07:15 AM

This are the commands I have used in the past

Code:

# mount.cifs //192.168.1.65/Downloads /home/user1/Downloads -o domain=workgroup,rw,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,uid="$USER"

that command allows me to mount the Download directory in the server to the Download directory of the client laptop you can change what directory you want to mount and into what directory you want to mount it.

This other command has worked good for me

Code:

mount -t cifs -o username=<userhere>,password=<passwordhere> //192.168.1.65/shared_Drive /home/user1/Public

For the second command
replace <userhere> and <passwordhere> with the user name and password you use to log in your server
replace user1 with the user name you use in your client machine from where you are connecting
replace Public with the name of the directory you want the files to be mounted.

Keep in mind if you use the second command your user name and password to log in in the server will be storage in the therminal history so anyone else that uses your computer would be able to find that history.

Adding your server password in the fstab file is also not recommended because anyone can read what is on that file. Unless you are o.k. with sharing that password.

Good luck to you