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• Done

Introduction

The TeraStation is a nice device. My goal was to use it for backing up OS X machines. If I would have researched the product better I would not be writing about it now. Since the TeraStation uses Linux there is a solution to the problems.

The Problems - File Size Limits

The heading of this section says it all. I need to write disk images up to 100GB in size. So my road blocks are:

• smb has a 2GB file size limit on the device
• afp has a 4GB file size limit on the device

The Solution - NFS

Well nfs just works with Mac OS X. With a little searching on Google I found the following web site.

http://www.terastation.org

This site will provide you with the information to get NFS working on the TeraStation. You will need to accomplish the following tasks on the site.

• Install the modified firmware which gives you root access.
• Install dropbear for ssh access
• Install nfs so Macs can happily talk to the NAS

Configuring NFS To Work With Mac OS X

There are some configuration options that need to be done. Below is an example /etc/exports file.

 
# sample exports file
# the insecure option is the key to making Macs happy
/mnt/array1 192.168.1.200(rw,insecure,no_root_squash)

Reboot the TeraStation and enjoy copying large amounts of data.

TeraStation, NFS, 4GB File Size Limit - Oh No

Gasp! I was happily copying my 7GB image only to throw an error at 4GB. I have never had this problem before with NFS and Macs. Geeze! Some research revealed that NFS V2 had the limitation. Oh no, my Mac connected to the NFS server on the TeraStation using protocol version 2. Yikes! I checked the Mac and the TeraStation and they both support NFS V3. But they weren't using it.

Well after losing some hair I found the problem in the startup script. We need to comment out a couple of lines because it couldn't find out what I already know. V3 is supported. See below for the section of the script that needs to be changed.

edit: /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server

 
                printf "Starting $DESC:"
                printf " nfsd"
                start-stop-daemon --start --quiet \
                    --exec $PREFIX/sbin/rpc.nfsd -- $RPCNFSDCOUNT
                printf " mountd"
# commented out to enable nfs v3
#               $PREFIX/bin/rpcinfo -u localhost nfs 3 >/dev/null 2>&1 ||
#                   RPCMOUNTDOPTS="$RPCMOUNTDOPTS --no-nfs-version 3"
                start-stop-daemon --start --quiet \
                    --exec $PREFIX/sbin/rpc.mountd -- $RPCMOUNTDOPTS

Conclusion

Well it was worth it. I can now move 100GB files the TeraStation.

Enjoy.

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