Configuring fstab based NFS share mounts

[zilexa]

Thanks a lot! I didn’t know about the IP range.
But shouldn’t “rw” option always be present? To make sure you can read and write on the device?

[grahamh]

If it’s just for media, ro should be enough and is the safest. Since there’s no authentication, using rw needs a bit of careful thought.

[fzinken]

@Chillbo

the mount should be present before any library updating after a startup begins or in other words: as soon as the share is accessed.

Might need “wait for network” to be ticked

[Chillbo]

In a “normal” scenario, I’d say no. This was an issue for me and keeping the line simple with exactly the above commands fixed the issue of the share not being mounted early enough. No “wait for network” was needed anymore.

As “wait for network” can have other effects, too, that are not very convenient, I’d try to always avoid it. And I’d definitely not want to recommend it to all users setting up NFS FSTAB…

[zilexa]

@grahamh

You want something like:

/mnt/mySharedDrive 192.168.1.0/24(sync,no_subtree_check)

In the example, the drive mounted at /mnt/mySharedDrive is shared with any device on the 192.168.1.x subnet. Access will be read-only by default. For other sharing options refer to linux documentation for exportfs. I think the default is root_squash, sync minimises issues if disconnected but, yes, is slower if writing and no_subtree_check should speed things up, as I understand it.

I actually use no_root_squash beacuse I keep system backups on that nfs share which needs root permissions.

I noticed you use /mnt/ instead of /media/
I understand automounted drives are in /media/ and permanently connected drives should be mounted manually via /etc/fstab in /mnt/.

What happens when I mount my USB drive via fstab in /mnt/, but select “remove safely” in Kodi? And replug the drive later? Should I add it to fstab again? Or will I no longer have the option in Kodi to remove safely if I mount via fstab?

[Chillbo]

This is about remote mounts which should be present or, let’s say, available all the time. These should be mounted to /mnt/. Removable drives like a USB drive are and should be automounted to /media/.

Why would you want to mount a USB drive manually to /mnt/ via fstab? I’d guess that fstab mounted removable drives wouldn’t show up as safely removable. But it’s just a guess, somebody more experienced has to comment on this.

[Chillbo]

Well the USB drive is connected permanently but I might remove it once or twice a year.

But strangely, mounting NFS doesn’t work anymore (I’m doing a new setup).
On a clean OSMC RPi3 with Kodi disabled (headless) I have this in my /etc/fstab:

192.168.1.1:/media/USBDRIVE /mnt/USBDRIVE nfs noauto,x-systemd.automount 0 0

And on the Vero 4K (with IP 192.168.1.1) with a usb drive attached, nfs server is installed, this is /etc/exports:

/media/USBDRIVE 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

Strangely, this is the output on the client (RPi)

Ah, I see… This is a completely different scenario. It’s about sharing a USB drive connected to the Vero 4k to a RPi via NFS FSTAB?

[zilexa]

Yes exactly.

BTW I notice when the Vero4K boots, it is unable to start the NFS server, because /media/USBDRIVE is not mounted yet automatically.

How can I make sure it waits for the USB drive to be mounted?

[Chillbo]

Have you enabled “wait for network” under MyOSMC/network?

[zilexa]

@Chillbo

wait for network

No, I will try that one.

[Chillbo]

But honestly, this is out of my league… Does anybody like @grahamh or @fzinken have any ideas?
It’s a setup I haven’t tried myself yet and technically the NFS server doesn’t need to wait for the network to be ready, but for the mount process of USB devices… How could that be forced to happen?

[grahamh]

@zilexa

BTW I notice when the Vero4K boots, it is unable to start the NFS server, because /media/USBDRIVE is not mounted yet automatically.

So this is a matter of timing in the Vero. The NFS server won’t start if the mountpoint doesn’t exist. That’s why I mount my shared drive in /mnt. If you mkdir /mnt/USBDRIVE on the vero then /mnt/USBDRIVE is always there and NFS server will share it even it’s a bare directory. Then when it gets mounted (via fstab on the vero) you are good to go.

[zilexa]

@grahamh

So this is a matter of timing in the Vero. The NFS server won’t start if the mountpoint doesn’t exist. That’s why I mount my shared drive in /mnt. If you mkdir /mnt/USBDRIVE on the vero then /mnt/USBDRIVE is always there and NFS server will share it even it’s a bare directory. Then when it gets mounted (via fstab on the vero) you are good to go.

OK, this is a good argument to mount the drive manually via fstab instead of relying on automount.

But then I will not be able to “remove safely” via Kodi File Manager anymore, right?

[grahamh]

@zilexa

But then I will not be able to “remove safely” via Kodi File Manager anymore, right?

Probably not. But you said you only want to do his occasionally so just power down.

Edit: You can ‘remove safely’ if you add users as an option in fstab and make sure no-one is connected to the drive. But you will still have to reboot to mount it again.

[zilexa]

I also need to be able to access the drive via SMB. Only automounted drives are added to SMB share automatically. I can imagine this is going to lead to issues as well (I am really not a regular Linux user).

I really prefer automounting, unless manually mounting would also have performance advantages (with NTFS specifically).

[grahamh]

@zilexa

I also need to be able to access the drive via SMB.

So why are you bothering with NFS? Just let OSMC’s automount mount it on server (vero). Then from other devices look for the share using SMB.

File sharing with a NAS, media server, windows share or other device

Whether you already have a media sharing system on your network or are setting one up for the first time the options can be bewildering. To stream high-quality video you will want the fastest possible connections. Unfortunately, the easiest systems to set up are also the least efficient so some effort is needed to get the best performance. Here are some recommendations. This assumes you have already set up the wired or wireless LAN connections between the server where you store your media an…

[zilexa]

Because I need both. NFS for the connection between OSMC devices, SMB for file access from Windows

[Chillbo]

Your setup is becoming more and more unusual

[zilexa]

Not really. It is actually quite simple:

1. I want 1 device running Flexget, Transmission, SyncThing, Spotify-Connect, Kodi.
2. Flexget and Transmission should run via OpenVPN. Others should not since that will lead to playback issues for my legal local stream add-ons and performance issues with stuff like SyncThing.

None of the solutions provided in this topic have worked successfully yet to run specific apps via VPN. That’s why I use 2 devices for now:

In December I bought a Vero 4K. I now use my RPi3 purely for Flexget+Transmission, running OpenVPN.
My Vero 4K is my main playback device. I also use UPNP Library to share my library on the Vero 4K to RPi2’s in other rooms. Therefore, the USB NTFS drive is connected to the Vero 4K.

To give the RPi3 “download box” speedy access to the Usbdrive, since that’s my only storage, I use NFS.

Furthermore, I have Windows laptops for private use or for business and Android phones. Each one should be able to access the USB drive. It contains my photo backup and some documents. So Samba is active on the Vero.

Everything works smoothly. I just have to manually start NFS-server (I could probably add it to MyOSMC) if I ever reboot the Vero.

[Chillbo]

Ok, I see…

It doesn’t sound like a very “speedy” solution at all as this all goes through a fast ethernet port of the Vero 4k, but as long as it serves your needs

@zilexa

To give the RPi3 “download box” speedy access to the Usbdrive, since that’s my only storage, I use NFS.

@grahamh

So why are you bothering with NFS? Just let OSMC’s automount mount it on server (vero). Then from other devices look for the share using SMB.

As @grahamh suggested before, why not try using SMB here and see, if there are any performance issues at all. As long as everything’s working fine, why make it complicated?