Mount Xsan volumes with advanced options

Command line options with xsanctl commands can give you more control when you mount Xsan volumes on Xsan clients.

Use these arguments with the xsanctl commands on each computer that you want to mount the Xsan volume.

--at=directory

Mounts the Xsan volume on the specified directory instead of the default location in /Volumes. When specifying the mount point, the mount point directory is not created automatically; it must already exist for the mount to succeed. On Xsan clients running macOS Catalina, a mount point directory in the root directory must be synthesized as described in the synthetic.conf(5) manual page.

--ro

Mounts the Xsan volume as read-only, instead of read-write, which is the default.

--rw

Mounts the Xsan volume as read-write. Use this option to change a volume that was set up to mount as read-only. This is the default value for Xsan clients.

--threads

Changes the number of threads that the Xsan client uses for I/O requests. You shouldn't use this option for normal use. Make sure to test it before you use it in a production environment.

You should adjust the default values in the --threads argument in small increments. Be sure to test it before you run it in a production environment..

--dircachesize

Sets the size of the directory information cache on Xsan clients. A larger cache can make some functions go faster, like reading directories. The default value of 10485760 is fine in most cases. You should test this before you use it in a production environment.

You should adjust the default values in the --dircachesize argument in small increments. Make sure to test it before you run it in a production environment.

--mnt_retry=n

If a mount attempt fails, retry the mount up to *n* times with a one second delay between attempts. This option is available in macOS Sierra 10.12.4 and later. In some environments, increasing this value may be required to automatically mount an Xsan volume at boot.

These sample commands use the arguments above with the volume named MyVolume.

mkdir /MyVolume xsanctl mount MyVolume --at /MyVolume xsanctl mount MyVolume --ro xsanctl mount MyVolume --at /MyVolume --ro xsanctl mount MyVolume --mnt_retry=60

In OS X El Capitan and later, when you mount a volume with any combination of these options with "xsanctl mount", your options are saved in /etc/fstab and reused when the volume mounts automatically at boot time. To change the current mount options stored in /etc/fstab, unmount the volume with "xsanctl unmount MyVolume", then mount again with the desired options via "xsanctl mount"

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