SOLVED Unable to map to share after reboot?

[Tom Luley]

First off, I am new and I have never used FreeNAS until yesterday...in which I was thrown into the issue and had about 30 minutes to figure out the problem.

I am working at a small office where someone else has been doing IT work and I was asked by a friend to come help out. It was set up by another person but they have not been able to get a hold of him for about 6 months now and they said he was in the middle of setting this all up.

They have a PC sitting in a closet that they said they all map to and call it their Z drive. I look at the PC and it has a screen with a bunch of, well, logs I guess. I had no idea what this screen was (I took a picture of it too). It had dates from months prior, with things like "*FreeNAS hostname*: matchname failed on *PC1*" littered all over the screen. I was confused as to what I was looking at, but the hostname of the computer made sense and I was able to map to it from any PC on the domain. Since I wanted to dig further into what setup they had going on, I rebooted the FreeNAS PC. It went through startup and brought up the FreeNAS configuration screen (configure network, DNS etc.). I saw the IP and went to a computer and went to the web interface. Okay, this is making a little more sense now. I brought up a YouTube video just to get a general understanding of what this FreeNAS was...

While I was doing this, one of the users stated that their network drive had disconnected from their Z drive. Hmmmm. I try to remap it with the hostname and the share that they were mapping to, no go. I ping the FreeNAS device, it pings just fine. I ping the hostname, it pings just fine. I attempt to map to it from all the other PC's, none of them could map to it. I looked a little bit further into CIF and it was setup and configured by the previous guy, as far as I could tell. I rebooted the FreeNAS box a couple more times just to see, nothing. I understand that a reboot of the FreeNAS box would disconnect all the network mappings, but why would it then not be able to establish connection when trying to map again? At that point, they were all leaving for the day so they kicked me out. Between leaving my day job and getting over there, I really only have about an hour or so to troubleshoot.

I changed nothing which is why I am confused. No settings were tampered with, the only difference is that when I got there, the FreeNAS box had that "logs" screen up and after a reboot, it was just at the normal FreeNAS configuration screen (I had no idea how to get back to that log screen either, there was no option for it)

Again, I am new to this so be easy on me. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DrKK]

Hi Tom. I realize you're in a tough spot there. Let me do my best, but, I, too, have to leave for work.

It *should* have come back up just fine. Here are some ideas:

1) Try rebooting a CLIENT box, see if the rebooted box can see.
2) Try cycling on/off the CIFS service in FreeNAS---see if you have some sort of error when that happens (go to system->advanced->show console messages in footer)
3) When you rebooted the FreeNAS box, it may have changed IP addresses (if it was on DHCP).

I have to go, but, the guys on the IRC channel (#freenas) on the FreeNode IRC server can probably provide live assistance. I have already linked some of them to your post so they might know you are coming. Some of the European guys will be coming home from work soon and might be able to help.

 

[Tom Luley]

I appreciate it. I am actually at my day job now and have the day to research. I may be stopping back over at the office where the issue is after my shift here, in about 7 hours. It luckily isnt a rush situation at the moment :)

I appreciate the quick response and will give your suggestions a shot.

 

[anodos]

Try to figure out the version of FreeNAS and post here.

 

[cyberjock]

Knowing the hardware might be useful too.

 

[Tom Luley]

It ended up being encryption. I did not know that SSD's were encrypted so I had to unlock them after the reboot. I did not have the password to get back into them so that took forever to recover, but I eventually got them working again.

 

[DrKK]

It ended up being encryption. I did not know that SSD's were encrypted so I had to unlock them after the reboot. I did not have the password to get back into them so that took forever to recover, but I eventually got them working again.

Interesting. I guess I should have thought of that, in hindsight.

When I got out of work today, I was chatting with Cyberjock on my Mumble server (via the cell phone app, of course), and we were talking specifically about your problem, which we were going to tackle tonight...but neither of us thought of the fact that your predecessor might have made an encrypted pool.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I had no idea how to get back to that log screen either, there was no option for it

I'm pretty sure what you're describing as the "log screen" is just the normal console after FreeNAS has been running for a while. The system will output various warnings and errors to the console, and when it does, the menu that you see when it first starts up will scroll off the screen. To get the menu back, just hit the Enter key.

*FreeNAS hostname*: matchname failed on *PC1*

This is a message that appears frequently when the CIFS service has Hostname lookups enabled but the network is not set up correctly to resolve client hostnames. You can work around it, by disabling Hostname lookups, or you configure the network to resolve hostnames correctly.

 

[anodos]

Interesting. I guess I should have thought of that, in hindsight.

When I got out of work today, I was chatting with Cyberjock on my Mumble server (via the cell phone app, of course), and we were talking specifically about your problem, which we were going to tackle tonight...but neither of us thought of the fact that your predecessor might have made an encrypted pool.

It's reasonable to assume that the pool would not be encrypted. Encrypting the pool for a small office without reason or documentation is reckless / stupid / crazy.

 

[DrKK]

It's reasonable to assume that the pool would not be encrypted. Encrypting the pool for a small office without reason or documentation is reckless / stupid / crazy.

I think *ANYONE* encrypting their pool, for *ANY* reason other than a legal/policy requirement to do in a govt or commercial context, is making a terrible mistake, as they assume a large risk surface, and (in my view) mitigate no serious threat surface. What, some random dude is going to steal your drives, figure out it's part of a ZFS pool, know what to do with them, care, have the hardware to mount it up, and have the time to piece together some files or file fragments on your pool, and then he'll find what? Gay porn, pirated movies, and some pictures of your kids? BFD.

And if someone....more important....is targeting you for some reason, I doubt that "ZFS Encryption" is going to help you, since there are 10000 better vectors to get at your pool than to steal it and remount it.

I just think the whole "pool encryption" thing is the height of moronic.

But, opinions vary. I respect everyone's right to be wrong.

 

[Tom Luley]

I think *ANYONE* encrypting their pool, for *ANY* reason other than a legal/policy requirement to do in a govt or commercial context, is making a terrible mistake, as they assume a large risk surface, and (in my view) mitigate no serious threat surface. What, some random dude is going to steal your drives, figure out it's part of a ZFS pool, know what to do with them, care, have the hardware to mount it up, and have the time to piece together some files or file fragments on your pool, and then he'll find what? Gay porn, pirated movies, and some pictures of your kids? BFD.

And if someone....more important....is targeting you for some reason, I doubt that "ZFS Encryption" is going to help you, since there are 10000 better vectors to get at your pool than to steal it and remount it.

I just think the whole "pool encryption" thing is the height of moronic.

But, opinions vary. I respect everyone's right to be wrong.

After finally talking to my predecessor, he thought the same as both of you. The reason for encryption is because its a small financial firm, they have customer records that need to be on encrypted drives. They have auditors coming in Monday and needed it setup by then. I am not sure what happens if they WEREN'T encrypted, I just did what I was told/paid to do. It has been a 6 month project that I was called in on last minute to get working. Fun, right?

 

[cyberjock]

DrKK and I (and your predecessor) all agree that encryption is something you do because of law, not because of choice. So yeah.. you're kind of stuck with it... unfortunately. :(

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Gay porn, pirated movies, and some pictures of your kids?

Have you been talking to my clients behind my back?
;)

 

[DrKK]

Have you been talking to my clients behind my back?
;)

No, just other members of the community. :)