Topic: Backup says "No removable disk available."

[StephenHodgman]

I have SME Server 8.0 and my software is up to date.
I wanted to do a complete backup onto a 2TB USB drive.
I have removed the HTFS partition on the drive, created a Linux partition, created ext3 filesystem of the whole drive.
I then manually mounted the filesystem (/dev/sdb1) at /media/backup
I tested the drive by copying some files there.  This worked fine

Then using the Server-Manage web interface, I selected Backup/Configure Workstation Backup.
I selected "local removable disk".
the screen then says:
Error : No removable disk available. Please connect an removable disk or select another type of backup share.

I also tried the "admin" login via ssh and attempted the "Complete backup to USB device".  This could not find a usb device either.

I must be missing something. 
What is it looking for?
Does the removable disk need to have a specially named mount point?
Or, do I have to manually configure this?  If so, where is the config that I need?

Thanks for your help
--
Steve H.

[janet]

StephenHodgman

Connect your USB drive & show us output of
fdisk -l

ls -al /media

cat /etc/fstab

Then do
mount /dev/sdb1 /media/backup
& show output of
df -h

Then unmount with
umount /dev/sdb1

[StephenHodgman]

Thanks Janet.  My results are  below.

StephenHodgman

Connect your USB drive & show us output of
fdisk -l

[root@arthur /]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2              14       60801   488279610   fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/md2: 499.9 GB, 499998195712 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 122069872 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/md2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/md1: 106 MB, 106823680 bytes
2 heads, 4 sectors/track, 26080 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8 * 512 = 4096 bytes

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.3 GB, 2000398933504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1      243201  1953512001   83  Linux

ls -al /media

[root@arthur /]# ls -al /media
total 16
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root 4096 Jan 16 13:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 4096 Jan 16 14:46 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Jan 16 16:52 backup
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Jan 16 13:00 usbbackup

cat /etc/fstab

[root@arthur /]# cat /etc/fstab
#------------------------------------------------------------
# BE CAREFUL WHEN MODIFYING THIS FILE! It is updated automatically
# by the SME server software. A few entries are updated during
# the template processing of the file and white space is removed,
# but otherwise changes to the file are preserved.
# For more information, see http://www.e-smith.org/custom/ and
# the template fragments in /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/fstab/.
#
# copyright (C) 2002 Mitel Networks Corporation
#------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/main/root          /                       ext3    usrquota,grpquota,acl        1 1
/dev/md1                /boot                   ext3    defaults        1 2
tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults        0 0
proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
/dev/main/swap          swap                    swap    defaults        0 0

Then do
mount /dev/sdb1 /media/backup
& show output of
df -h

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/main-root
                      450G  293G  134G  69% /
/dev/md1               99M   25M   69M  27% /boot
tmpfs                 501M     0  501M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sdb1             1.8T  196M  1.7T   1% /media/backup

Then unmount with
umount /dev/sdb1

[TerryF]

See Bug 6834

[janet]

StephenHodgman

That all looks OK.

Just to confirm:
When you finished testing the USB drive by copying some files to it, did you unmount the USB drive & leave it unmounted when you then tried to setup the backup in server manager ?

When you set up the backup in server manager, was the USB drive connected ?

Is there only 1 USB drive connected to the server ?

What type, brand/model is the USB drive ?

Have you tried a different USB drive ?

[StephenHodgman]

Janet,

Just to confirm:
When you finished testing the USB drive by copying some files to it, did you unmount the USB drive & leave it unmounted when you then tried to setup the backup in server manager ?
When you set up the backup in server manager, was the USB drive connected ?

Eureka!  That was the magic.  When I leave the drive unmounted then the "Backup workstaiton" page shows and it allows me to set it up.  I have done that and will know in a short time if it works correctly.

Thanks for persevering with me on this.

So, to confirm.  If I try to configure the "Workstaiton Backup" to "local (usb) disk" when the disk is mounted then the Backup fails to find a local disk.
If I leave the USB drive unmounted and configure it then it does find the drive, mounts it using the filesystem Label and all looks good.

Is there only 1 USB drive connected to the server ?

Yes

What type, brand/model is the USB drive ?

Seagate.  Not sure of model, I am remote currently.

Have you tried a different USB drive ?

No, I will see how this one pans out.

Once again, Thanks for that.  I read the wiki pages about USB drives and they all seemed to be saying that I needed to mount the drive if I was using it for the backups.
Well, thanks for that. Hopefully the backup will work.  I will let you know if it does.

BTW, does this mean that this could be a solution to bug 6834?
---
Steve H

[janet]

StephenHodgman

When I leave the drive unmounted then the "Backup workstation" page shows and it allows me to set it up.

Sounds like your issue may be resolved.

If I leave the USB drive unmounted and configure it then it does find the drive, mounts it using the filesystem Label and all looks good.

Yes it will be automounted, & unmounted when the backup is finished.

I read the wiki pages about USB drives and they all seemed to be saying that I needed to mount the drive if I was using it for the backups.

That's really for manual operation.
Maybe the wiki backup articles need improvement or updating.

...does this mean that this could be a solution to bug 6834?

Possibly so, that "bug" seemed a bit vague to me anyway.
It would be prudent to add your observations to that bug report, as it may assist others, & may even be a resolution to the bug.

[wellsi]

At the moment workstation backup presumes that an attached device will be umounted, which it will then auto-mount and and unmount. *** I think that this is your issue ***
Personally I feel that it would be good to have an option to use a mounted removable device as a backup destination, and to leave it mounted. That would be a New Feature Request and if raised it is likely that it would be implemented.

Bug 6834 is meant to be about workstation backup listing devices that cannot be written to - i.e. read only

Bug 7803 is about not backing up to a CD/DVD (i.e. writable ones - NOT read-only)

[StephenHodgman]

Wellsi,
Thanks for the confirmation.  I only mentioned 6834 as TerryF had pointed me at it.  I see the distinction.
As I said to Janet, for some reason it was not obvious to me that Backup wanted the disk unmounted.
I would be happy to update the documentation to that effect but hesitate as I am not really aware of the procedure/standards etc.
----
Steve H

[janet]

StephenHodgman

I would be happy to update the documentation to that effect but hesitate as I am not really aware of the procedure/standards etc.

Just open the wiki article or articles that you find lacking in accuracy or clarity, & start editing them.

If it is part of the official manual, then request an admin update those pages with text you supply.
You can request this via the bug tracker,
and/or you can edit the Discussion page associated with the Manual page(s) in question, an admin will either see that or become aware of it by you creating a bug request.

Extensive Help with wiki editing & creating pages is here
http://wiki.contribs.org/Help:Contents

[StephenHodgman]

Thanks Janet.  I will have a look.
---
Steve H.

[wellsi]

I have implemented backup to mounted drive as a new feature for SME 9.X see http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8144

It is likely to be ported to SME 8 after testing.