Format, manually mount & automatically mount on system boot secondary system & shared drives in linux.
This guide runs through how to Format the secondary drive(s), manually mount them for the first time in the system, then set them to automatically mount on system reboot using fstab.
This guide was written for my VM's & servers running Ubuntu Server, as such YMMV following these commands on other non-debian/non-ubuntu OS's.
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identify secondary hard drive(s)
lsblk -
Format secondary hard drives
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To format the disk using linux standard ext4.
sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdb -
To format the disk using FAT32.
sudo mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdb -
To format the disk using Windows Standard NTFS.
sudo mkfs -t ntfs /dev/sdb
NOTE 2: Press enter when mkfs asks to specify block size (leave blank). This will automatically format the partition to the max block size.
(Breakdown)
sudo mkfs -t [format] [secondary drive address]
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Create a directory to mount the disk volume into (created in /mnt directory).
sudo mkdir /mnt/virtio-hdd -
Mount the secondary disk into the new /mnt directory.
sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt/virtio-hdd
(Breakdown)
sudo mount /dev/[secondary drive] /mnt/[new mnt directory]
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Check secondary drive has mounted successfully under the specified directory.
lsblk
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Set secondary drive to automatically mount to specified /mnt directory on boot.
sudo nano /etc/fstab -
Add secondary drive to the bottom of fstab.
/dev/sdb /mnt/virtio-hdd ext4 defaults 0 2
NOTE 2: In the event the host reboots into emergency mode, an error with the configuration of the command above has occurred and is causing boot issues. Repeat Step 6: and verify the host's fstab against Step 7: example.
(Breakdown)
[secondary drive address] [mount directory] [disk filesystem type] [options] [dump] [fsck]
NOTE 3: If you are unsure of the disk's file system, instead of specifying the filesystem (ie ext4 or FAT32) you can instead specify "auto" and fstab should automatically determine the file system.
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Verify the changes to fstab are formatted correctly.
mount -a
NOTE: If the command runs without outputting any text, the command has run through successfully. If it returns a format error, something has gone wrong - recheck Step 7:.
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To check fstab without running the system call.
mount -f
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Reboot server.
sudo reboot -
Ensure secondary drive has automatically mounted to the host.
lsblk
This part of the guide is for mounting shared drives from a NAS or server using SMB protocol (with authentication). It is NOT for NFS Shares.
You must follow section i. in order before following section ii.
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Install CIFS-Utils from the package manager, this will allow us to mount our SMB share.
sudo apt install cifs-utils -
Create a directory in /mnt to use as the mount point for the SMB server folder.
sudo mkdir /mnt/ER-10TB-SMB
NOTE: You can call this anything, but if you are mounting multiple SMB Shares you MUST create seperate folders for each mount.
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Manually mount the SMB share to test the connection
sudo mount -t cifs -o username=Server //10.20.3.10/SATA-10TB-HDD/Files/examples /mnt/ER-10TB-SMB/
(Breakdown)
sudo mount -t cifs -o username=[SMB share Username] //[SMB Server IP Address]/[SMB Mount Path] /mnt/[Specific mount directory]/
NOTE: This will bring up an prompt to enter the SMB Share's password. By manually mounting and inputting the password when prompted the password WILL NOT be persistent (ie after reboot the share will be unmounted). Follow Section ii. to create a persistent mount.
NOTE 2: If the SMB share path contains spaces then a specific format for entering the SMB path must be followed or the command will fail. See below.
3a. If the SMB share your trying to mount contains directories which contain spaces (not a problem for Windows, but a problem for Linux) then you will have to follow a specific format otherwise the command will fail.
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During manual mount the CIFS command will accept spaces if preceeded by a \ . For example if the directory I wanted to mount was called "My Album" in a dataset called "Main Storage Pool" the path would look like;
//10.20.10.5/SATA-10TB-HDD/Main\ Storage\ Pool/My\ Album -
Alternatively, you can use the correct ASCII code for space which is 040. This will be required later in Section ii., Step: 6 when we come to automatically mounting the share on boot using fstab. Using the same directory "My Album" the path would look like;
//10.20.10.5/SATA-10TB-HDD/Main\040Storage\040Pool/My\040Album
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If all steps above were followed correctly then the SMB Share should have mounted correctly. To verify this, check the mounted directories.
df
Assuming you have successfully mounted the SMB Share using the information above, you now need to set the share to automatically mount on system boot using fstab.
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Create a hidden credentials file under a system directory. I use /etc but you can use any other system directory such as /root. This credentials file will contain passwords in PLAIN TEXT, so it needs to be hidden AND have the correct file permissions for such a file.
sudo nano /etc/.smbcreds
NOTE: The . before the filename means this file will be a hidden file. If you run a basic ls to list files the file will not be shown (although running an ls -a will show the hidden files).
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Add the SMB share's credentials into the file taking care to use no spaces in any of the inputs.
username=Server password=password1234
2a. If your network uses Active Directory, you will need to add the domain to the bottom of the credentials file.
username=Server
password=password1234
domain=sitedomain
2b. If you have multiple shares, do not create multiple credential files (you can, but theres not really much point). Add them all to the same file and point each share to the same credentials file.
username=Server
password=password1234
domain=sitedomain
username=Server1
password=password4321
domain=sitedomain
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Once the credentials have been saved to the file, it needs to have its permissions restricted so only the root user can access the file.
sudo chmod 600 /etc/.smbcreds
NOTE: BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN RUNNING THIS COMMAND THAT THE PATH TO YOUR FILE IS CORRECT. IF THE PATH IS WRONG OR SPECIFIES THE WRONG PATH, BY RUNNING THIS AS SUDO YOU WILL SET THE PERMISSIONS OF THE TARGETED FILE/FOLDER AS ROOT R/W only.
NOTE 2: This is a "Safe" way of storing the SMB servers credentials. However, if the server's root user gets compromised this file will be viewable, so it is best practice to create a user on the NAS/SMB Server that only has access restricted to the required share's for this server and not the whole server/other shares in case the server and thus the credentials are compromised. DON'T USE THE SMB SERVERS ROOT OR ADMIN CREDENTIALS AS AUTHENTICATION!
- For more on securely storing SMB credentials see Mounting CIFS FSTAB Securely.
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Ensure the /.smbcreds file has successfully had the correct permissions applied to it. The permissions should be rw-------.
ls -l /etc/.smbcreds -
Edit fstab.
sudo nano /etc/fstab -
Add the path to your SMB server as well as the path to the mount folder created earlier as shown below.
//10.20.3.4/SATA-10TB-HDD/Main\040Storage\040Pool/My\040Album /mnt/ER-10TB-SMB cifs noperm,_netdev,credentials=/etc/.smbcreds 0 0
NOTE: As discussed in Section i., Step: 3a the SMB share path must not contain any spaces of any kind. As such the path must be written with spaces represented in ASCII format using \040.
(Breakdown)
//[SMB Server IP Address]/[SMB Mount Path] /mnt/[Specific mount directory]/ [connection protocol - cifs] [skip permission check],[tell kernel to hold mount until after network is up],credentials=/path/to/credentials 0 0
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After saving, verify the formatting of the new command in fstab is correct. The command should return no output if it has run successfully.
sudo mount -a
NOTE: This command must be run with sudo, otherwise it will fail with a file permission error (only root is allowed to read credentials file).
NOTE 2: If the command returns a formatting error, go back and run Step 6: again. Most importantly check for hidden spaces.
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Check SMB share is mounted by listing the mounted directories.
df -
Reboot server to test automatic mounting of the share.
sudo reboot. -
If all goes well you may see the SMB Share mount during system boot. It will show up as "[ OK ] Mounted /mnt/ER-10TB-SMB. - If you don't see it, after the system has booted check the mounted directories.
df
The share will now automatically mount on boot using the credentials file and the fstab path.
TROUBLESHOOTING - Using CIFS mounts with Docker mountpoints causing permissions issues with the container.
This is because the containers UID/GID does not match the CIFS mount permissions, this can be fixed by ammending the /etc/fstab info with the correct GID/UID
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Identify the host mount permissions and owner.
ls -ld /path/to/mounted/volume
NOTE: The permissions should list something like root:root (user:group) as the owner. This means that the user "root" and the group "root" own the share.
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Once the mount owner has been identified, identify owners UID/GID.
id username
NOTE: If the owner identified in the previous command was "root" for example, then "username" = "root".
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Add the GID/UID to /etc/fstab
//10.20.3.10/WD-10TB-SATA/Storage/Test /mnt/EF-10TB-Sync cifs noperm,_netdev,credentials=/etc/.smbcreds,uid=1000,gid=1000,forceuid,forcegid 0 0 -
Reboot system to apply changes.
sudo reboot
This can be used if you dont want to remember your password but only want the SMB share mounted manually. This can be useful for verifying the credentials file works as expected.
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Run through Section ii. Steps 1: - 4: to create and secure the credentials file.
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To mount the SMB share manually run the manual mount command. There is no need to specify the share's username (as in the Section i. instructions), as it will be pulled from the credentials file
sudo mount -t cifs -o credentials=/etc/.smbcreds //10.20.3.4/SATA-10TB-HDD/Main\ Storage\ Pool/My\ Album /mnt/ER-10TB-SMB/
NOTE: In this case the command will accept spaces in the share path, so long as it is preceeded with a \ . However where possible use the ASCII value for space (040).
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If the command ran successfully it should output nothing, to check the share mounted correctly check mounted directories.
df
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Identify the directory that needs unmounting.
df
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Unmount the SMB Share's mounted directory.
umount /mnt/ER-10TB-SMB