vCops vApp vs. smb/cifs (EMC Symmetrix Adapter)

[mediumrare]

Hi all,

I am trying to install the EMC Symmetrix Adapter, therefore I need a connection to a Win2k8 Server for accessing the ttp data files.

Unfortunately I am _not_ permitted to turn on NFS on the windows host.

I can not access a (smb) share on the windows host because cifs/smb is missing on the vApp?!

secondvm-external:~ # mount -t cifs //mywindowshost /mymountpoint -o username=myuser,password=mypassword
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on //mywindowshost,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       (for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might
       need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program)
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

secondvm-external:~ #

The same command works like a charm on my RHEL-box, so I'm quite sure that it's not a problem with permissions or something like that.

Even though lsmod shows cifs:

secondvm-external:~ # lsmod | grep cifs
cifs                  301973  0

there's no /sbin/mount.cifs:

secondvm-external:~ # ls /sbin/ | grep ^mount
mount.nfs
mount.nfs4
mount.vmhgfs

secondvm-external:~ #

And this is in the messages:

secondvm-external:~ # cat /var/log/messages | grep CIFS
Jun 12 16:46:02 localhost kernel: [ 2123.808222]  CIFS VFS: cifs_mount failed w/return code = -22

secondvm-external:~ #

How can I access the ttp files on the windows host?

Is there an official smb/cifs package from vmware I can install on the vapp?

Thanks in advance!

[BasRaayman]

Hi,

since I ran in to the same issue, I tried to find a workaround. Normally you won't find any CIFS or SMB tools on the appliance. You can however use NFS, and what I did in my case was move the Solutionse Enabler host to a Linux box, and share the files via NFS. You can then mount the files from the analytics box, and use a local path to the Symmetrix main input folder. Make sure that the NFS mount is accessible to the admin user, otherwise you'll end up with permissions that won't allow the adapter to lock the TTP files.

That did solve my problem, but unfortunately the adapter still isn't showing the VMAX. I'll update if I have more info.

Alternatively, you can mount a SLES11-SP1 DVD, use yast to add the DVD as a repository, and install the "cifs mount" package and use mount.cifs to mount the share on the Windows host. Please note though, that this is not officially supported! And you still need to make sure the admin user can access the files.

[judbarron]

I dont know about previous versions of the vCOPs appliances but the 5.6 ones do include the CIFS kernel module.

you can edit /etc/fstab to have a line like this:

//1.2.3.4/Share      /some/path        cifs    username=user,password=password,uid=admin,gid=admin     0 0

use the IP address or try FQDN, short names dont seem to work.  you can check dmesg when you mount to see if theres an error.

I set up a local user account on the symapi server and gave it access to the TTP logs.. make sure you give that user full control of the directory and files in that path or it will not work.

[NASAWest]

i have another Solution that it is much easy.

if you have a VM that you can install a remote collector on Windows Platform and connect

it to the vcops ( you will need to break the firewall on the vapp to connect it)

then you can connect without any problem.

2 thing you need to know:

1. the adapter need a full read/write permission because he is moving the files from the EMC Server

    to the Collector to anal. the data.

    so if the files disappear it is the default behavior.

2. dont try to upload too much data to the collector - it will get stuck

    try first testing the adapter with copy a few files to see if the adapter is working well

Thanks

Eran