BlackArmor NAS Network Storage Server

[woody5512]

I have a problem with Snow Leopard 10.6.2 using SMB and NFS mounts.  I have a Seagate BlackArmor 440 NAS system and Snow Leopard seems to have broken NFS entirely from the finder, and SMB mount works, but I can only write from the CLI without getting error -36.  I have searched many bulletin boards and have not yet found any answers to either issue.  NFS does not work at all from finder (see below), it creates the mount point in /net, but then I have zero access to the directory.

Usingthe disk utility and declaring the nfs mounts doesn’t appear to do anything other than create mount point directories wherever I point them – like < NAS IP address://nfs/myfolder> or  <NAS IP address://Volumes/myfolder.  These mount point directories are then inaccessible saying I don’t have permission to access (via “cd” cmd)  to them,unless I then run the manual mount command as below.  I have also used the NFS Mount utility advanced mount parameters of –P,-I,-S, -w=32768,-r=32768 and still no joy from the finder to display the hierarchy, just the same little spinner that something is going on in finder, but nothing appears to happen on the Blackarmor.

Using the terminal -

sudo mount –t nfs <NAS IP address>:/nfs/myfolder /nfs/myfolder

Everything works from the CLI, and very well performance wise.  I can also then connect from the finder using connect to nfs://<NAS IPaddress>/nfs/myfolder , but the finder never displays the file hierarchy, just gets the little spinner at the bottom right of the finder window (not the pinwheel) when the folder opens, but nothing is happening on the NAS device.

Although this does work, I get “device disconnected” messages ~every 30 seconds or so and I click on “ignore”.  This happens even when I/O is obviously occurring on the Blackarmor.

sudo cp –Rfv also works well from the CLI once the file system is mounted.

I can ftp with filezilla to the NAS device and that works extremely well also, except the owner & permissions get changed to ftp.

SMB mount works, but the performance is abysmal <25Kb/s avg. and the BlackArmor is wired GigE behind my Airport Extreme!

Using smb:// to connect to the device displays the hierarchy, but then dragging and dropping files gets the -36 errora bout 85+% of the time and the bandwidth sucks if it proceeds to copy anything.  Deleting files from an smb connect also takes forever if it completes at all, and when it just hangs with the little spinner, the file is then corrupted (at least with jpg and pdf files so far).

Any useful suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[mygk1234]

I create a  share named test with "full access" for NFS.

The shares are not published by Bonjour, thus the finder can not find them automatically?

 but the finder can access to it by using the following steps

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22243?viewlocale=en_US

pls use the following info for the "Address"

nfs://your_blackarmor_ip_address/nfs/share_name

here the share name is test

nfs://your_blackarmor_ip_address/nfs/test

for the disconnected issue, simply your network env. and see if it still happens. I do not have this issue in my env. 

[woody5512]

I have tried your suggestions and no joy.  The apple support article is extremely old and only deals with OS  x server 10.3 and OS x 10.0.  I am running Snow Leopard - OS x 10.6.2.  This all worked in Leopard OS x 10.5.1 -> 10.5.6

With 10.6.2, I am not sure what you mean  "simply your network env."

using this for address -

nfs://my_blackarmor/nfs/Public - I can use the DNS name or physical IP address for <my_blackarmor> - same results with either

if you don't use the /nfs/ in the share path, it will never even connect 

the above will mount the share, but it never displays the hierarchy, this still gives the little spinner in the lower right corner of the finder window (not the Color Pinwheel from the OS) and it will spin forever like it is doing something, but nothing appears to be happening with the network activity lights.

even when I mount with smb and the share gets mounted and the finder window opens, the little spinner is done within 15 seconds and I can see network activity with tthe lights flashing until it completes.  But that is as far as any functionality goes with smb mount.  You cannot drag and drop files or copy and paste anything the the share.  95% of the time it will give a -36 error. 

[rhcmuts]

It might have to do with an incorrect password for that user account in your keychain? I experienced some weirdness on my iMac (10.6.x) that would allow me to connect to the BA420, but then when doubleclicking on the non-public shares, it would complain about 'the network resource is no longer available'.

Only when I 'ejected' the server from my Finder, and then connected back to the BA using the finder, it would first log on as user 'guest', only when I specified the proper user / password for that share, and set the checkbox 'save in keychain' it would work again...

Roland

[haroon]

NFS was busted for me in 10.5.8 as well on my 220.  It would stay mounted for about 30 seconds and then just disconnect.  SMB is working [i]okay[/i], though extremely slowly with occasional quirks.  FTP has generally worked as expected. 

[zipl_org]

Woody5512, I am experiencing this same exact behavior in Snow Leopard 10.6.3. Did you get any resolution to this?

[racemouse]

Okay, sam thing here with Blackarmor 220 and latest firmware.

Have any of you found any solutions?

Regards,

R

[woody5512]

I haven't have any luck resolving this issue and I am now on OS x 10.6.5.  Because I was getting pushed really hard to provide the expanded storage, I was forced to remove the 440 from my environment and repurposed the drives in a Synology DS410.  The Synology has been a true dream to setup & use.  It has excellent performance using smb vs. nfs, although they have now released a firmware upgrade that allows the ext 3 filesystem so it can also be used with afp.

As much as I truly am convinced of the reliability of Seagate drives, the NAS devices and tools leave a huge doubt in my mind of Seagate's ability and commitment to design a NAS device that is compatible with OS x.  It has been well over 6 months since I began this thread, and I still haven't had a single response from Seagate regarding the issue, so it is my opinion that Seagate doesn't see a business case posing justification to support NAS on OS x in the fashion Mac users would be appreciative of.

I will not recommend any Seagate NAS offering to any Mac user I know based on this experience.

[Ben1.0]

NFS on the BlackArmor 420 is useless for our 10.2-10.6 clients. Slower and less reliable than AppleTalk on our gigabit network which gets full speed on AFP, SFTP, CIFS, and other protocols. November firmware has not fixed the issue. Clients mount NFS exports from CentOS and other Linux hosts at full speed and stability.

NFS is somewhat usable from Linux clients, but with only one semi-intensive operation (~100 MB file read/write) at a time. SMB works at good speed, but fails in ugly ways when attempting to store complex resource forks.

We are holding back on deployment until we've discovered the major issues.

[racemouse]

Thanks. Regarding AFP, does anyone of you know if you can enable it for all shares in any way? I suppose the TimeMachine share is an AFP one (it certainly looks so and it should be, shouldn't it?) - so I guess the functionality should be in there!!?

Since I've already installed the SSH hack, an AFP hack would be nice too...