topic Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share in Data Management Questions

Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 21:41:43 GMT

Hi all,

I'm trying to write feature classes to a file gdb on a samba share (linux mint). I can create a file geodatabase and a feature dataset, but i can't import a feature class to it. It always throws an error 000210 which says it has invalid arguments and can't aquire a lock. I can write anything else I want in the share: shapefiles, documents, geodatabases etc. The permissions appear to be wide open read and write for everyone.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

LanceShipman — Tue, 05 May 2015 20:18:12 GMT

Is this in general or through the File Geodatabase API? What version of ArcGIS? Linux? Samba?

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Tue, 05 May 2015 20:41:56 GMT

In general. You can create a file gdb in a samba share and it will have some functionality but you can’t import to it or do anything that creates a schema lock. I think locks get written and then can’t be unwritten regardless of permissions and such. I’ve long since given up on the file gdb and moved on to using postgres on that box. That was really painful to implement but it works.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Tue, 05 May 2015 20:49:08 GMT

Xubuntu 14.04 (doesn’t work in CentOS either), samba 2:4.1.6+dfsg-1ubuntu2.14.04.7, 10.2.2 or 10.3

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

FilipKrál — Wed, 06 May 2015 11:09:13 GMT

Hi,

I created a file geodatabase on our shared samba drive with ArcGIS 10.1. Then I created a polygon feature class in the geodatabse, added some columns and edited a polygon feature. In the end I deleted the whole geodatabase again from ArcCatalog window in ArcMap.

The only problem I encountered what that it was very slow to respond (perhaps due to network speed) but eventually everything worked fine. I cannot tell you any details about our samba setup though.

Filip.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Wed, 06 May 2015 12:42:00 GMT

Filip,

Can you import or copy in a feature class from elsewhere? I can create things too (file gdb, feature class in that file gdb) but feature class to feature class bombs every time.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Wed, 06 May 2015 13:01:12 GMT

Here’s what I get. See pdf.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

LanceShipman — Wed, 06 May 2015 22:06:36 GMT

I'm able to write feature classes and perform edits on a samba share on a Linux box. SMB is slow, Samba's implementation of SMB is even slower. We are aware of an issue with read only shares and Samba 3.6 where they changed return code. We have coded around this defect at ArcGIS 10.3.1. It's likely to be a configuration issue. I'll have to duplicate your environment more closely and see what I find.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

FilipKrál — Thu, 07 May 2015 07:48:12 GMT

Hi Scott,

Yes, I can import or copy feature classes successfully.

Can it be something about your privileges on the drive you are trying to write to?

The `ls -l` command shows me that I am the owner and that I can do the following with the .gdb folder on samba:

drwxr-x---

and I can do the following with the files in the geodatabase folder:

-rw-r-----

I can even see the .lock files when ArcMap session is using some data from there and the lock files disappear when I close ArcMap.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

VinceAngelo — Thu, 07 May 2015 10:01:40 GMT

(Moved this discussion from File Geodatabase API)

I would note that avoiding network shares is best practice in file geodatabase use (ALL network shares, including NFS). Samba is a particularly slow implementation.

- V

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Thu, 07 May 2015 14:15:49 GMT

On my samba folder, I did a chmod –R 777. I can read and write anything other than a file gdb from an external source (like another geodatabase on a different server). Do you have any special parameters set in smb.conf for that share or globally? You’re using 10.1 right? I’m on 10.3. Could be a difference maybe?

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Thu, 07 May 2015 14:37:11 GMT

Thanks, Vince.

Avoidance is probably the best and simplest answer.

I'm constantly having to remind myself to be a realist rather than an idealist when it comes to ESRI products.

Just because, ideally, I should be able to utilize this linux box's 6TB of storage for geodata, doesn't mean that I really can. Realistically, linux isn't one OS. It's thousands. So I get why it's hard to support. That said, an official ESRI linux distro would be awesome. Let's say with postgres pre-configured and samba pre-configured. Pretty please with sugar on top? Ubuntu-based? (Now I've went and sparked a distro debate...)

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

VinceAngelo — Thu, 07 May 2015 15:31:26 GMT

You can use this 6Tb for geodata storage, locally. I don't know why very basic blocked I/O handles so well locally and so poorly over NFS and SMB, but that's the way it benchmarks (I expected NFS to be faster, but it wasn't, and on one box in particular it was 10x slower). Lets just say that market forces haven't optimized network file sharing, and leave it at that.

I'd be amazed if Esri got involved with the Distro Wars.

- V

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Thu, 07 May 2015 17:28:25 GMT

I just built a postgres geodatabase on it. That works and seems reasonably quick. As for Distro Wars, I wouldn’t be that amazed. You guys have selected Red Hat as the officially supported linux distro for servers…but then you selected Ubuntu 12 for AppStudio. It would seem distro wars have arrived at ESRI already ☺. Casting my vote for Xubuntu or CentOS with two big thumbs down to any non-free distro. Thanks, Vince

-Scott

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

VinceAngelo — Thu, 07 May 2015 19:29:54 GMT

At ArcGIS for Server 10.3.1, there are five principal Linux releases supported -- RHEL 5/6/7 & Suse 11/12, with this caveat:

Esri Technical Support is available for CentOS, Scientific Linux, and Oracle Linux versions that provide full binary compatibility with an equivalent supported Red Hat version. As a prerequisite for logging a defect, any software issue on these operating systems will be attempted to be reproduced on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For Oracle Linux, support is predicated on the use of the Red Hat compatible kernel.

Xubuntu isn't really a commercial use distro, not even for dev/test.

- V

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

FilipKrál — Thu, 07 May 2015 20:17:36 GMT

Hi Scott, I know very little about samba drives so I'm not able to tell you whether there is anything special about our configuration, sorry.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ScottStopyak — Thu, 07 May 2015 20:48:14 GMT

Yep. Good info. Thanks. Xubuntu is same as Ubuntu but with XFACE instead of Gnome or Mate or whatever Ubuntu standard is running. All the same under the hood though. It uses Ubuntu repos.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

ElleryChan — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 23:02:18 GMT

I'm running into this same problem trying to access a file GDB on a NAS RAID (not able to create a feature class in a new or existing fGDB on the RAID, but able to do most everything else -- for example, Create Fishnet actually creates a table in the GDB but not the Feature Class). I'm a little unclear about your response. Are you saying that file GDB performance is poor over network shares, or also that some functionality is broken (as I am seeing)?

And if this is the case, does it imply that multiple ArcGIS Desktop users cannot work with a shared repository stored as a file GDB, from different workstations?

I would be much happier to hear that it is a simple configuration issue that can be solved by changing some permissions on the file server.

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

VinceAngelo — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 03:34:04 GMT

It's likely that you do have a misconfiguration (this is something to discuss with Tech Support), but multiple concurrent write access to file geodatabase is not going to be a workable solution, either. If access is read-only, you'd be better off making multiple local copies, even once you solve your write access issue.

- V

Re: Can't write feature classes to Linux samba share

EricErtl — Wed, 31 May 2017 16:48:09 GMT

Hello, I know this is an old post but thought I would respond with a solution that ESRI Tech Support had recommended. I was having issues writing feature classes to a file geodatabase on a Samba file share as well. I was receiving the same error messages as Scott. Here is a technical article that explains what you need to do to fix this issue.

Thanks,

Eric