Unable to write files or update permissions on folders in pool

[Kevin A]

I have recently updated to Drivepool 2.1.1.561 from a previous version (I don't know what it was). After this update I am unable to create new files or copy files on to the DrivePool disk. I can create new files fine on the individual drives. Additionally all permissions have changed in all folders in the pool and when I go to the Security (riht click folder > Properties) tab I get the error "The permissions on Media are incorrectly ordered, which may cause some entries to be ineffective." (Media is the folder name). I've seen a previous post on here indicating that I should re-inherit all permissions from the root of the pool drive but I'm unable to do this as I do not have permissions on the individual files/folders to do so. When I go to Advanced security settings I get an option to re-order the Permissions but this just ends up showing the advanced security settings where I can see the ownership and all other permissions. Nothing I do in this tab makes any difference to the permissions of the folder.

 

The security tab does indicate that the folders are owned by a secondary user on my system but I am logging in with Administrator user and this user in the local Administrators group. Even if I log in with the secondary user I can't perform any action on the pool drive.

 

I have already enabled tracing (I hope its what I did, its now StableBit Drivepool window > Settings > Troubleshooting > Enable file system logging) and uploaded the resulting log files to the log files page (http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Log_Collection). The file is named Kevin********-DrivePoolLog-20141019.zip (the *** is my last name).

 

Please help, I'm absolutely stuck on this (very rare for me).

 

Thanks

Kev

 

 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Download the WSS Troubleshooter, and run the "Reset NTFS Permissions on the pool" option:

http://dl.covecube.com/WssTroubleshoot/Release/download/Wss.Troubleshoot_1.0.0.165.exe

 

 

If that doesn't help, could you get an image of the the permissions look like (in the advanced tab)?

 

 

And thank you grabbing the logs and uploading them. I've flagged them for Alex (the developer), and he'll take a look at them.

 

 

Also, can you verify that StableBit DrivePool is properly licenses? TO do so, just open the UI. It will prompt you if it isn't, but won't do anything really, if it is properly licensed.

[Kevin A]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for getting back to me, I've been away on holidays so haven't been able to follow up on this. I was kind of hoping that it would have fixed itself over the past week while I've been away but no luck!

 

I've ran the Wss.Downloader you linked to and I get an Access Denied message when I try and run with the Reset NTFS Permissions option.

 

Drivepool is properly licensed AFAIK, I get no prompt and a "Deactivate" option when I go to Manage License.

 

See attached screenshot from the Advanced security tab for the Media folder in the pool.

 

Thanks for all of your help.

 

Kevin

 

 

 

[Ian]

When I've had file ownership troubles in the past a little program (freeware) from Winaero called TakeOwnership has been extremely helpful.

It doesn't help work out what the problem was - but it has always fixed it for me.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for getting back to me, I've been away on holidays so haven't been able to follow up on this. I was kind of hoping that it would have fixed itself over the past week while I've been away but no luck!

 

I've ran the Wss.Downloader you linked to and I get an Access Denied message when I try and run with the Reset NTFS Permissions option.

 

Drivepool is properly licensed AFAIK, I get no prompt and a "Deactivate" option when I go to Manage License.

 

See attached screenshot from the Advanced security tab for the Media folder in the pool.

 

Thanks for all of your help.

 

Kevin

I'm sorry that I didn't get to you sooner here.

 

If you're getting an error, it may be an issue with one or more of the actual disks.

 

From the screen you've listed, change the "Owner". Generally "Administrators" is the best option. But you can change it to the "Files" account again. Once you've done that, there will be a checkbox below that in the window, "replace owner on child entires" or to that affect. Check that and hit "Apply". 

It may prompt you that it needs/will give the owner full control. That is fine. 

That will either immediately error out or will run until it runs into a problem file.

[DrParis]

Hello there,

 

It seems that I have exactly the same problem.

For me the symptom is that DP never finishes balancing (perhaps as it cannot remove some files due to access rights).

 

The troubleshooter refuses to reset the NTFS access rights under Server 2012 R2.

Where are documented the minimal rights to assign to files and folders?

 

What puzzles me is why DP does not handle those minimal rights by itself...

This is really a critical issue to me, DP should not ever let you modify the access rights on a pool it manages that would prevent it from... managing it, isn't it?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

If you need/want to use the tool, use this version:

http://dl.covecube.com/WssTroubleshoot/Release/download/Wss.Troubleshoot_1.0.0.165.exe

 

 

However, as for the defaults? Give ownership to "Administrators", and assign "Administrators" and "SYSTEM" to get full control, and "Authenticated Users" and "Users" read/list/execute permission.

And use the "Replace" option on both parts.

 

If you have any issues doing that, there may be a file system error on one of the underlying disks that is preventing this from occuring (i've seen and experienced that myself). Running a check on all the disks may be a good idea.

 

 

As for managing those permissions... well, the only one that matters is the "SYSTEM" account, since that is what the DrivePool Service runs under. And if there is an issue with the file system, then it won't really matter what account it's running as or the permissions it's using.

 

However, "locking" in the SYSTEM account for permissions, well, NTFS permissions can be troublesome when you know what you're doing. Also, to properly do this, I believe that it would require a file system filter. Which is very complex and cause lots of issues if not properly written (which is what Antivirus software uses for real time scanning, and why they can cause so many issues)

[pclausen]

I seem to have a related issue.  On the server running DrivePool, I set the ownership to the defaults you suggest above as seen here:

 

 

I also ran the following command to make the admin group the owner of all files and folders:

 

takeown /a /r /d Y /f F:\

 

I'm able to create folders, copy files, etc just fine from a RDP session to the server.  However, when I'm on one of my workstations on the same network, I'm not able to create folders or copy files to them.  This is the message I get:

 

 

I'm using the same local account name on all computers and they are all members of the admin group.

 

What gives?

[DrParis]

Perhaps the share permissions that are not correctly set...

Got to your shared folder, right click / properties, share, permissions, and add "full control" to Everyone.

Doing so will rely on the NTFS permissions only.

[pclausen]

Thanks.  That was set to read only, but I changed it to full control as seen here:

 

 

But I'm still not able to create a new folder.  On the networked computer, I did exit all the way out and went back into my shares, and still no dice.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

If you're not able ot create folders... check the licensing status of StableBit DrivePool. Not being able to create folders is a symptop of a licensing issue usually.

 

 

If you're still having issues.... run "fsmgmt.msc" on the "server", and check to see what user account is ACTUALLY accessing the folder.

 

Also, try doing this:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection

And reproduce the issue, then send the logs to us (ideally via https://stablebit.com/Contact as the logs may contain information about your pool)

[pclausen]

DrivePool still shows 24.1 days left in the trail.  I'm able to create folders and copy files to them just fine from the "server" itself.

 

I ran "fsmgmt.msc" and then I browse to the folder in question, it shows me "peter" as the user.  The "Open Mode" is "Read".

 

Just for grins, I shared my D: drive on the server and then from the other computer on the network, was able to create a new folder there with no problem.  It was the same user and "Open Mode" was "Read" as well.

 

I'll capture the log information when I get a chance to see if that reveals anything.

 

Thanks!

[pclausen]

So I went ahead and registered DrivePool (and Scanner) and applied the license to rule out it being a licensing issue.  Problem persists.

 

I enabled file logging and performed the action and disabled again.  But when I attempt to send the service folder to a compressed file, I get an error message about half way through that states:

 

File not found or no read permission

 

I'm able to manually create a new folder in C:\ProgramData\StableBit PrivePool just fine.

 

So I made a copy of the Service folder and dropped it on my desktop.  I was then able to create a zip file there just fine of it's contents,

 

I have submitted that file via the support link you provided.

 

Thanks

[pclausen]

Another possible clue.  I'm able to delete files ok from the server, but when I attempt to do it from within an application, it fails. So I think this rules out it having anything to do with network shares.

 

For example, I can delete a trailer from say F:\Blu-Ray\testmovie "by hand" just fine, but if I attempt to delete it from within JRiver Media Center (using the Remove from Media Library and permanently delete from disk) I get the following error message:

 

There was a problem deleting files.  Please ensure that the files are not in use by another program and that the files have delete permissions

[DrParis]

On my side I always had issues deleting files from a share on a DP drive.

It very often halt in the middle of the deletion with the impossibility after that to do anything with the file.

The solution I adopted is to move the files to delete in a special "recycle" folder that is regularly emptied by a scheduled job on the server.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I think you posted a ticket about this as well...

 

If so, is this Windows 10? If so.... unfortunately, Windows 10 is NOT supported currently. We've already had some issues report that DrivePool was completely broken in previous builds (the driver wouldn't load). And I suspect that this issue is ALSO because of some low level change to how things work. 

 

We'll still look into it ... but providing a fix may be problematic. Because it may fix it now, but cause it to break even worse later. 

THis is why running a Tech Preview "in production" is a bad idea. It's in flux, and it's much harder to test for compatibility.

On my side I always had issues deleting files from a share on a DP drive.

It very often halt in the middle of the deletion with the impossibility after that to do anything with the file.

The solution I adopted is to move the files to delete in a special "recycle" folder that is regularly emptied by a scheduled job on the server.

 

This was actually probably due to a rare condition when deleting files. It should be fixed in the internal beta builds.

[pclausen]

Yep, I submitted a ticket about this.

 

I found a solution to get around the situation for now.  I basically gave everybody full control and made myself the owner:

 

 

That did the trick and I'm now able to write/delete to the drivepool across the network and apps running on the server are able to do their thing.

 

I plan to slowly restrict access back to more normal levels and see at which point things start to break.  Might have been a one time fluke being that I'm on Windows 10.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Okay, glad to hear it.

 

And from the logs you posted, it did look like a permissions issue.

[chrismilne]

i'm having the same issue.  I tried to run the tool to reset NTFS permissions, and it said i don't have permission...what is going on??

 

I can' view files, play videos from the pool, i can create files by going to the actual drive letter and in to the serverfolders, but if i go to my pooled drive (locally or remotely) i can not create a file.

[Spider99]

Need more info

 

Windows version

what type of  account are you logged in as when you cant create a file

etc

 

it sounds like a permission issue - i.e. you only have read access - similar to the guest account

 

can you show us some screen shots like post 10 and 17

 

it simple to sort but i cant help without some basic info to start off with

[Christopher (Drashna)]

i'm having the same issue.  I tried to run the tool to reset NTFS permissions, and it said i don't have permission...what is going on??

 

I can' view files, play videos from the pool, i can create files by going to the actual drive letter and in to the serverfolders, but if i go to my pooled drive (locally or remotely) i can not create a file.

 

Try doing this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q5510455

 

if that doesn't help, open a ticket at https://stablebit.com/Contactand see if we can set up a remote support session to see what's going on.

[puulima]

Does DrivePool lock down the ability to create new folders and copy files to the server when it is in the middle of removing a drive?   I'm in the process of removing a drive (upgrading the size) and I wanted to copy some files over to the server and I'm getting those same error screens (need permission) - regardless of what PC on my network I try that on.  ALL have the proper permissions to create folders/files in the sahred folders I'm trying to do this.  I can't even add a new folder from the Administrator logon to Windows Home Server 2011.  

 

I've had my license for a number of years but went to check in the Dashboard anyways, all looks to be good (shows I'm active and gives me an option to deactivate).  I do recall having this issue back after the trial expired...but that's not the case now.

 

The only thing different this evening is the fact that a drive is in the removal process...so is that my issue?

 

UPDATE: Never Mind - I just read that the DrivePool goes into "read only" mode when a drive is being removed.  I guess that makes sense...but never realized that as I've never tried to copy files to the pool when removing a drive before.  That explains why KODI is crashing as well as it must be trying to write data to the pool.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Does DrivePool lock down the ability to create new folders and copy files to the server when it is in the middle of removing a drive?   I'm in the process of removing a drive (upgrading the size) and I wanted to copy some files over to the server and I'm getting those same error screens (need permission) - regardless of what PC on my network I try that on.  ALL have the proper permissions to create folders/files in the sahred folders I'm trying to do this.  I can't even add a new folder from the Administrator logon to Windows Home Server 2011.  

 

I've had my license for a number of years but went to check in the Dashboard anyways, all looks to be good (shows I'm active and gives me an option to deactivate).  I do recall having this issue back after the trial expired...but that's not the case now.

 

The only thing different this evening is the fact that a drive is in the removal process...so is that my issue?

 

UPDATE: Never Mind - I just read that the DrivePool goes into "read only" mode when a drive is being removed.  I guess that makes sense...but never realized that as I've never tried to copy files to the pool when removing a drive before.  That explains why KODI is crashing as well as it must be trying to write data to the pool.

 

Yup, it does go into a read only state.  There are a number of reasons for it, but mostly for integrity and simplicity. 

 

There is an advanced setting to disable that, but we recommend against it. 

Additionally, you can use the "Drive Usage Limiter" balancer to clear out the drive, essentially prepping it for removal.