How to mount /iwmnt from an another Solaris server

Hi,

I have Teamsite running on a Solaris (2.8) server A. The backing store for this is on a netapp.

I have a need to mount the virtual file system "/iwmnt" on this host A from an another Solaris (2.8) server B.

Can it be done? If yes, how do I do that?

Thanks for your help

- ashok

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nipper

did you try search netapp ?

here is one link I found

http://devnet.interwoven.com/site.fcgi/techlib/att/054529/5939/IwovNetAppwhitepaper03b.pdf

ashokc

Hi Nipper,

The backing store being on a netapp seems to be the issue. It all works when the backing store is on local disk.

I can't share the netapp resident backing store as it is a remote filesystem

From serverA (or serverB):

sudo share -o root=serverB -F nfs serverAstore

gives

share_nfs: Cannot share remote filesystem: serverAstore

But serverB can already see "serverAstore" so may be sharing is not needed.

So I go ahead and try from serverB

sudo mount -F nfs -o vers=2 serverA:/iwserver serverAstore

nfs mount: serverA:/iwserver: access denied

That pdf does not have the relevant information. It is mostly about the benefits and such.

Thanks for your input.

- ashok

nipper

OK, I am confused. What server is the netapp ?

This is the one you need to mount.

It also needs to be configured to be mountable from the TS server

ashokc

Well, we have

Teamsite Server A,
Server B,
NetApp filer C.

C has the backing store 'serverAstore' for the Teamsite server A and all is well with running Teamsite on A.

Now I am trying to mount the VFS of A on to B. As B also can see the backing store on C, I tried to directly mount it with the command

sudo mount -F nfs -o vers=2 serverA:/iwserver serverAstore

This gives me the

nfs mount: serverA:/iwserver: access denied

error.

If the backing store were on the local disk of A, this error would typically indicate that the backing store is not shared, and so running the 'share' command on server A would take care of the problem. All that works well.

The fact that the backing store is on the NetApp is what is causing this to fail. Perhaps the permissions on the NetApp backing store ;serverAstore' are not quite what are necessary for the mount to work from server B (even while I am able to view serverAstore from serverB). Access by 'root' is perhaps not being interpreted right by NetApp filer (though a command like 'sudo ls /netapp/serverAstore' shows me the list).

Thanks for your input

- ashok

nipper

OK, I think I am confused, you have TS running on serverA with netapp backingstore ? That does work already ?

Now you are trying to get serverB to nfs mount /iwmnt ?

That is not legal since you are doing a dual NFS mount, basically mounting a remove filesystem (serverA:/iwserver) which is mounted from the netapp.

ashokc

>>OK, I think I am confused, you have TS running on serverA with netapp backingstore ? That does work already ?

Yes, that works fine. NetApp is being used for the vast storage & fast backup benefits

>>Now you are trying to get serverB to nfs mount /iwmnt ?

Yes, I want to be able to access the VFS (/iwmnt on serverA) from an another host 'serverB'

>>That is not legal since you are doing a dual NFS mount, basically mounting a remove filesystem (serverA:/iwserver) which is mounted from the netapp.

I am not sure I understand this completely. But this is a serious limitation to the use of NetApp (or other remote devices) for the backing store. We simply cannot anymore view '/iwmnt' from anywhere except the Teamsite host! Is this really true?

Thanks.

John742

what path is your default iwmnt location currently set too? And what is the purpose of accessing iwmnt from another server other than the one that brought up this mount?

nipper

>>

>>That is not legal since you are doing a dual NFS mount, basically mounting a remove filesystem (serverA:/iwserver) which is mounted from the netapp.

I am not sure I understand this completely. But this is a serious limitation to the use of NetApp (or other remote devices) for the backing store. We simply cannot anymore view '/iwmnt' from anywhere except the Teamsite host! Is this really true?

Thanks.

I am 98% certain that this is not supported. NFS does not allow double hops, basically mounting a filesystem that is remotely mounted. You can research, but I will be surprised if you can find a solution. Since I do not have a netapp to try it with, cannot help you much more.

ANdy

Frederik

I'm sticking my neck out here, but I think this has nothing to do with NetApp... Ok, admittedly I know nothing about NetApp, but the way I understand Teamsite backing store, the store should always be mountable from another server...

Teamsite needs a location IWSTORE on the local disk (or appearing as a local disk) to store the backing store binaries. IWSTORE could be on an attached disk. At my office, it's on SAN (Clariion, IIRC). But don't share or mount IWSTORE with other servers!

When TS runs, it loads the binaries found under IWSTORE, and creates a virtual NFS service, that is shared as TSSERVER:/iwserver.

E.g., the TSSERVER itself will be mounting into TSSERVER:/iwserver/default to give you /iwmnt/default.

Equally, you should be able to do from a SERVER2:
mkdir -p /path/to/empty/dir
mount -o vers=2 TSSERVER:/iwserver /path/to/empty/dir

So there is no double NFS hop, as far as I can see.

But make sure that SERVER2 and TSSERVER can find each other (NFS resolution...) and that TSSERVER did not define any restrictions on the share of /iwserver. Are there firewalls between these 2 servers?

my 2 eurocents ;-)
-Fred.

ashokc

>>I am 98% certain that this is not supported. NFS does not allow double hops, basically mounting a filesystem that is remotely mounted. You can >>research, but I will be surprised if you can find a solution. Since I do not have a netapp to try it with, cannot help you much more.

You are correct, NFS does not allow mounting a filesystem that is already remotely mounted.

But much like Federik's use of a SAN for the backing store, the NetApp makes the backing store visible to any host that wants access. And I am not sure if all these other hosts have to explicitly (NFS ?) mount the backing store on the NetApp. Not sure how else they woud do it though. I am out of my depth here totally.

But this issue is not limited to using a NetApp. It all boils down to using a non-local disk for the backing store. The moment we do that it seems we are making "/iwmnt" unavailable from any host other than the Teamsite server.

- ashok

Frederik

Not sure how else they woud do it though. I am out of my depth here totally.

Can you AGAIN describe the exact design of your disk situation... because I got a feeling that your earlier description used some simplifications (e.g. "serverAstore" instead of real path, etc) that have obfuscated the problem more than they clarified.

also include the output of following commands:
- mount
- share
- iwgetstore

-F.

nipper

But much like Federik's use of a SAN for the backing store, the NetApp makes the backing store visible to any host that wants access. And I am not sure if all these other hosts have to explicitly (NFS ?) mount the backing store on the NetApp. Not sure how else they woud do it though. I am out of my depth here totally.

But this issue is not limited to using a NetApp. It all boils down to using a non-local disk for the backing store. The moment we do that it seems we are making "/iwmnt" unavailable from any host other than the Teamsite server.

- ashok

My experience was with ClearCase trying to do the same thing. Since CLearCase uses a virtual filesystem much like TeamSite AND uses NFS underneath to share the FS within the server, NFS mounting a remove VOB was not supported.

Now I am not certain if TS uses NFS in the same way that ClearCase does. My point is that if it does, then this is not supported.

Good luck

Andy

ashokc

Frederik, Andy:

Thanks for all your responses.

I am able to get it to work now. That is I can see the "/iwmnt/default" on the server "TeamsiteServer" from an another server "serverB". I had to explicitly mention the backing store ('default') in this case to get it to work. It was mentioned it KB 1338.

From serverB, I ran the following command

sudo mount -F nfs -o vers=2 TeamsiteServer:/iwserver/default /local/mnt/TeamsiteServer_iwmnt_default

Now I can browse "/iwmnt/default" of TeamsiteServer from serverB at the mount point "/local/mnt/TeamsiteServer_iwmnt_default"

Note that both TeamsiteServer & serverB can see the underlying NetApp storage for the backing store of TeamsiteServer. I did not test the case when the other server (serverB) cannot see the backing store. My guess is that it would not work.