NASLite Network Attached Storage

Hi
I have just built my NAS, and everything seemes to be working fine, however when I tried to copy or move a large file ( 7GB ts file) between shares it fails.
I can copy/move the file from 1 mapped drive to another, using the network between my machine and the nas, however this is obviously slower.
Is there a file size limit when copying between shares?

Thanks
Steven

Do you get a error message?

something like Network Name no longer available?

Tony copied 50GB over and had no problems.

Yes, the error message is "The specified network name no longer available."
After a bit more testing I can successfully copy a 1GB file, however it fails at 4.5 GB and 7GB.

Steven

Here is something to read.

http://www.serverelements.com/phpBB2/vi ... ea370fc8aa

I think it must be something with your setup of your client machine/s. I at present have transfered over 10GB of files from my NASLite box to a USB drive hanging off of my Win XP pro box with not a problem at all. I also have transfered another 4GB of files from a machine running Knoppix 3.7 to NASLite, again without a problem. I am at a lose to explain the trouble you're having. I do think that it is is NOT NASLite though.

Mike

mikeiver1. the problem yetiuk is having is copying data between drives on his Nas server from the shares, Doing so copies the data on that machine and not over the network.

I too have this problem, if i copy a 4GB file between shares on my Nas it has the same error but if i just copy the same file from Disk-1 to Disk-2 it works all the time but because the data is travelling out the nas to my xp machine and back to the nas again it takes so much longer.

Between Nas shares I can however copy smaller files without problems.

I will solve this problem just need some time.

I haven't ran the metest yet - no floppy disks!

However I have been running a few more test. I have copied over 20GB of files between shares no problem. As soon as 1 file is over 4Gb it fails.

The syslog shows nothing in it since I started the server 4 days ago. Is there any other log I should be looking at?

The machine was running XP fine ( if a bit slow!) before I turned it into a NAS, and apart from this problem seems to be functioning fine. I can stream HD files to my MCE machine no problem, and it is serving my MP3 collection around the house.

Yeti

The problem seems to be windows. Explorer seems to time out waiting for the actual transfer to occur. Disk to disk like that is not normal for a standard windows share, so the timeout must be short. I moved some 700M ISO files with the same problem using a regular slackware setup.

I have this problem too with large files (2GB seems to be the cutoff point - small files are fine). Did you ever find a solution?

I also find that, while moving files using the "shares" share doesn't impact on the client, copying does generate significant client CPU activity, which seems very strange.

Well I havent solved it yet, and I have tried. No matter what I try I still get the same error.

its a pain in the bum, small files are fine, but when you got a 10gb file you want on another disk you have to copy the long way around rather then do a quick local copy/move on the local server.

But I am sure a solution will be found!

I have been doing more testing and this is certainly a repeatable problem - and it's becoming quite frustrating.

As with other posters in this and other threads I find that:

(a) if copying between shares (i.e. two disks in the "Shares" share), I get network traffic and significant client CPU activity (client is an XP box). If I move files between shares, however, all traffic is on the NASLite box. And..

(b) Large files simply won't copy or move (between shares). I get the same message at yetiuk: "The specified network name no longer available." I seem to be able to copy/move files up to 1.75GB. If I simply copy from the client or use mapped drives, it's fine, although obviously slower.

I am using Directory Opus on the Windows client to copy files, which is normally more robust than Explorer.

I'm gonna try and explain this one so people don't get so frustrated.

When you move stuff within a normal share, all that changes is the location of the files within the filesystem tree. The physical data is not moved to a different location. That is a quick thing regardless of file size.

When doing the same thing within the shares share, windows expects the same quick turnaround, but since naslite has to move the physical data from one disk to the next, it takes a long time and windows times out. Windows does not know the share is not a single device so it expects the move to happen without actually moving the data.

That is why windows bombs out and complains about the network path. It didn't get a notification from naslite that the move is complete, so it times out.

When you copy on the other hand, things will always go through the client and network traffic is to be expected. The high CPU load can be attributed to that pig we all run called virus protection.

That's my take. If someone can clue me in otherwise I'd appreciate it.

Spot on Dimension!

It is a Windows problem and I also haven't found a way around it.

The size of the file that can be transferred is related to how fast the NASlite box can tranfer data from one disk to the other.

So, one of us can transfer 3Gb files using the shares method without any problems, whilst another person, because of a slower NASlite server, can only tranfer 1GB.

I think the only thing that is constant, is the amount of time Windows waits before timing out.

I just ran accross this myself today. It seems there are two problems,

first, windows errors out because it thinks the move should happen instantly. This isn't fatal, just another windows annoyance.

2nd, and this is the real problem, files moved internally fail at the 4gig mark. So you can move files up to 4gigs in size internally, if you ignore the windows error message. Just keep the target folder up and hit f5 periodically to monitor the transfer. If the file is over the 4gig line, you have to move it over the lan. If you aren't aware of it, or you aren't paying attention, you could lose data.

I have confirmed this to be a Windows Explorer only bug. Mounting my "Shares" folder using SMB on my Mac, I was able to do a disk-to-disk move without a timeout. OS X sits there patiently with the "preparing to move" dialog box while it waits for the nas to finish the disk write. I wish I had thought to try Mac SMB before resorting to an all night move across my network using AFP.

Tony and Ralph (or anyone that knows): I know very little about SMB or AFP internals, so pardon me if this sounds like a n00b question but, why wouldn't it be possible to virtualize a "Share" folder for AFP?