Delete file problem

Drobo - End of Sale Drobo FS
1

Hi folkz,

I have a very annoying problem so i am in desperate need for your help.
I’m not sure how it ended up like this but for some reason i can not delete a file on Drobo Fs. The file is an Apple application file called —>Forklift.app
To start with i started mounting the folder using smb://ip-address/sharename but that didnt work
Then I tried also to ssh without much success.

chmod 777 -R ForkLift.app/
Gives me -->
chmod: ForkLift.app/: Operation not permitted

and

chattr -R -u -a ForkLift.app/
Gives me --> tons of below for each file in the .app like :
chattr: setting flags on ForkLift.app/Contents/Resources/.AppleDouble/droplet.icns::EA: Permission denied

And

rm -Rf ForkLift.app
Gives me --> tons of below for each file in the .app like :
…
rm: cannot remove ‘ForkLift.app/Contents/Resources’: Permission denied
rm: cannot remove ‘ForkLift.app/Contents’: Permission denied
rm: cannot remove ‘ForkLift.app’: Permission denied
…

Not sure what else there is i can do :frowning:

Any suggestion is welcome. And why does Drobo FS lock some files like this?
I have restarted, shutdown and restarted the Drobo as well without luck.
I was hoping a shutdown would free up any locks on files but i guess not. What causes this hassle? anyone who knows? And more importantly what is the remedy?

Cheers

2

Beh i think i just copy my 700gig to my PC that has a 2TB disc and reformat the damn Drobo FS. This is really disappointing to have a backup NAS with such basic fault!
Would be interesting to understand why Drobo has such limitation though …

3

[quote=“vampyren, post:1, topic:11227”]
for some reason i can not delete a file on Drobo Fs. The file is an Apple application file called —>Forklift.app
To start with i started mounting the folder using smb://ip-address/sharename but that didnt work
Then I tried also to ssh without much success.

chmod 777 -R ForkLift.app/
…and…
chattr -R -u -a ForkLift.app/[/quote]

How do you access the Forklift.app directory? Are you mounting the volume over NFS or AFP?
Unfortunately, my Mac runs the older OS 10.6 which doesn’t have chattr (only xattr). That seems a reasonable use of the GNU ‘chattr’ on Linux, except that the ‘-u’ arg indicates unsupported on ext3fs.

To see whether a process on your Mac has locked the file, you can run
$ sudo fuser -cu /Volumes/DroboFS
(substitute volume as appropriate) then use ‘ps’ to look up the PIDs it returns.

In any case, it sounds like you’re at the end of your rope with the DroboFS. I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe you’d be more happy with a different brand.

4

When you ran the “rm -rf” command, were you ssh’ed in as root? It probably won’t work to “rm” the files from a network mount, and you’ll need to be root on the DroboFS as I don’t think sudo is available.

5

Hi, Yes i was logged in as root use. And you are right sudo isnt available.

Not sure what you mean when you say rm wont work on network mount? i ssh the Drobo FS.[hr]

[quote=“rdo2, post:3, topic:11227”]

Hi,

I use smb when mounting the drives as recommended by Drobo. Using AFP makes the drive read only for some reason. I was running Mountain Lion when testing this.

It seems Drobo mainly has problem with OSX so what i will do is to make sure all my files are zip/rar or in a format that doesnt expose executables like .app.
I like the Drobo allot for ease of use but it can be better by providing better interface and control over files i think. I have now spent almost 2 days moving all my content to external drive and now back to Drobo FS. Actually i’m halfway moving it back to Drobo now. I have also removed the problematic file :slight_smile:

Thanks for your advice anyway. Still dont understand why Drobo wont let me delete a file even after its rebooted and from my PC.

6

Sorry, Vampyren. I understood your post to mean that you could not connect via SMB or SSH.
Thanks for telling us how your situation turned out. Good luck! :slight_smile:

7

Regarding your AFP problems, you might try deleting the “.AppleDB” folders at the root of each share, and then see if AFP works any better. That will force netatalkd to rebuild various databases about the share (AFP works fine on my DroboFS with Mountain Lion, so there has to be some way to get yours to work).

8

Thanks :)[hr]

thanks for the tips, i can give it a try once everything is copied to Drobo, its allot of data so its taking 1 more day i think. I have only 1 disk in now for less copy operation.
By the way is AFP a better choice compared to SBM (samba)?

9

I’ve always been under the impression that it is for Macs. It’s going to go to the greatest pains to maintain Mac metadata (spotlight comments, labeling, extended attributes, multiple forks, etc). Samba may have improved since the last time I used it, so I’m honestly not sure how it stacks up. Sadly, I am fairly certain that Samba (SMB) has better performance than netatalkd (AFP). (NFS blows both of them out of the water, but it also doesn’t bother preserving anything beyond the file data itself.)

10

Thanks for the info diamondsw, i guess i will have to experiment a bit and see which works better in the end.
I work mostly over wifi to backup data from my MBP to drobo fs so performance is most important (and not ending up in file lock ups hehe)

11

I’ve just been through a similar scenario, but managed to fix my issue. Here’s the timeline:

Just setup a new Drobo B810n, Drives were fitted by my supplier with one networked ‘Public’ share.

I start to copy files onto the Drobo, I am connected with SMB only, no AFP, and have full Admin rights.

I copy some apps onto the Drobo, and then decide to delete them, just experimenting really.

One app won’t delete. Finder says the file is in use or folder not empty depending on what computer I’m accessing the Dobo with. I’m using a Mac and/or iPad with the wonderful ‘FileExplorer’ app.

I force open the app folder and try deleting the sub-folders in the app folder directly. This works for some sub-folders, but not all.

I try re-naming them and moving them all into a new folder, renamed ‘ToDelete’.

Both Mac and iPad report the offending folders are empty and do not contain any hidden files. I switch on show hidden files on the Mac with 'CMD-Shift . ’

FileExplorer has a preference setting to show hidden files. However I still can’t delete any of them with the finder.

In the Terminal on a Mac I CD to the Volumes area and can see all of my connected and network drives except for ‘Public’.

I use the Drobo Dashboard app on the Mac to create a new share, I can see this in the Terminal as yet another attached network drive / volume / share.

I try renaming the original share ‘Public’ to ‘Public2’. It now shows up in the Terminal with LS… progress!!!

I navigate to the folder containing all the folders I can’t delete and … there are hidden files in there… These are not visible anywhere else. Very strange, must be some special permissions going on here?

Thankfully they are deletable with the standard Unix command from the terminal: rm -rf

As I delete the folders they disappear from the OSX finder as well.

Job done !!