SOLVED CIFS Shares, deleting datasets, zombie dataset/share?

[Linwood Ferguson]

New to Freenas, installed 9.10 (on real hardware this time, if you read my HyperV story).

Install was easy, everything recognized, up and running fine as far as I know. Actually scary sort of easy, I keep wondering what I missed. Anyway...

In experimenting I got tangled up between shares and datasets (the wizard not helping as it did both I think), and now do not understand what I have.

First issue is I would try deleting the dataset, it would warn all files would be deleted, then would refresh the screen and still be there. No error (console messages are on), just nothing happened.

Deleted the share - worked, share gone. Deleted the dataset - no error, but no delete.

So I went into shell and deleted all files in the folder (based on posts indicating that may be an issue, despite the warning it would delete the files), deleted from gui again... got a in use error. Hmmm... different.

Rebooted (I couldn't find a way to see if some client was accessing a share), deleted again - worked this time.

Question #1: Is this right? Have to delete the data manually before deleting at dataset?

Created a new share (LEF_Dataset), then a share (GS_LEF). All OK, except in creating the CIFS share, browsing the path, there's an extraneous name there (dataset? Share?) LEF_BACKUP_T. This was a share I tried to create earlier with the wizard that would never appear correctly for some reason. I did not think it existed. See attached screen shot showing the view volumes plus the browse on create cifs share.

It does not appear under view CIFS. It does not appear as a dataset.

Question #2: What is it? I'm assuming a zombie dataset that the GUI thinks exists but isn't?

Note that df -h does not show it at all, it shows only the LEF_Dataset (as expected). No share is visible from windows.

Question #3: How do I make it go away properly? And related -- any idea what I could have done to get it to exist (but not really exist)?

I am trying hard to do everything from the GUI as I read some indications that doing stuff in the command line is bad in FreeNAS (discomforting for someone fairly old school). The only thing I've done from the command line other than look was to remove the files under the original dataset so I could delete it.

Question #4: Is that indeed the right approach -- let the GUI do it all? Or is it like most unix systems, more cleanly managed from the command line?

 

[SweetAndLow]

Do everything from the GUI that involves modifying stuff.

When you try to delete the dataset are there any log messages in /var/log/messages? You can also display these logs in the footer by turning that setting on in the system settings.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Sakuru]

1. No, that doesn't sound right. You should have been able to delete the dataset. Create a new one, put some data in it, and try again. It should throw an error message at the top of the screen if it doesn't want to delete for some reason.
2. Most likely a folder instead of a dataset. Run zfs list to show all of your datasets and see if it shows up.
3. If it's a folder rm -rf /mnt/Pool/LEF_BACKUP_T. If it's a dataset zfs destroy Pool/LEF_BACKUP_T
4. Yes, do everything in the GUI. Only use the command line for troubleshooting or situations the GUI can't handle (such as this :))

 

[Linwood Ferguson]

When you try to delete the dataset are there any log messages in /var/log/messages? You can also display these logs in the footer by turning that setting on in the system settings.

I had that on, but I just hunted through the log from that time (I can tell when because of the reboot), and no errors related.

1. No, that doesn't sound right. You should have been able to delete the dataset. Create a new one, put some data in it, and try again. It should throw an error message at the top of the screen if it doesn't want to delete for some reason.

I did this and everything worked.

I may have figured out why I didn't see the error - I accidentally left a lock on the folder in the dataset when i tried this, and at the bottom of the screen where the /var/log/messages are appearing nothing appeared, but a brief light green "busy" message appears at the top. I didn't notice that in my earlier attempts, not sure if it was not there, or I missed it. But my guess is I missed it, concentrating on the bottom. I'm still not sure what was causing it the first time (since I never saw the error), but maybe still had something touching it.

1. Most likely a folder instead of a dataset. Run zfs list to show all of your datasets and see if it shows up.

Right, folder then, not shown in the above.

1. If it's a folder rm -rf /mnt/Pool/LEF_BACKUP_T. If it's a dataset zfs destroy Pool/LEF_BACKUP_T

OK, I see it there and now know where to look, thanks.

1. Yes, do everything in the GUI. Only use the command line for troubleshooting or situations the GUI can't handle (such as this :))

I will. Though this is why I don't like GUI's. :(

Thank you both.