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Allow native extended attributes on Xsan 4

Use the command line to allow native extended attributes on Xsan volumes with metadata controllers (MDCs) in OS X Yosemite or later.

These steps work in OS X Yosemite and later. If you use StorNext clients, don’t follow these steps.

  1. If the Xsan volume is running, use Server app to stop it.

  2. Use cvfsck to check the Xsan file system. If the file system is damaged, repair it.

  3. Edit the volume configuration to allow native extended attributes. These attributes are also known as "named streams." In each command, replace VolumeName with the name of your Xsan volume.

    sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'set :config:globals:namedStreams true' /Library/Preferences/Xsan/VolumeName.cfgp

  4. Update the Xsan configuration that’s stored in LDAP:

    sudo xsanctl pushConfigUpdate

  5. Enable named streams in the Xsan volume's metadata:

    sudo cvupdatefs VolumeName

    When you run this command, you should see output that's similar to this:

    The following changes have been detected in the configuration. Please review these changes carefully.

    Stripe Group Name Stripe Status MetaData Journal ================= ============= ========= ========= MetadataAndJourna No Change No Change No Change Data No Change *** Names streams will be enabled in the file system. *** This will modify the file system "VolumeName". Are you sure you want to continue? [y/N]

  6. Make sure that the output shows that the only change is to allow named streams. Then type "y" and press Return. You should then see output that’s similar to this:

    Flushing journal entries... done Flushing buffers... Updating ICB information... Updating SuperBlock information... *Warning*: File system 'VolumeName' was modified. *Warning*: Please run dot_clean(1) on the volume to migrate extended attributes and Resource Fork data.

  7. Use Server app to start the volume.

  8. Use the dot_clean(1) utility to complete the conversion to native extended attributes:

    sudo dot_clean /Volumes/VolumeName

This process might take several hours or longer to complete, depending on how many files are on the volume. This process removes extended attributes from files, such as a custom icon that’s stored in a resource fork. After dot_clean completes, mount the volume on your client computers.

If you see an inode panic message in logs

After you allow native extended attributes on the MDC, an Xsan volume might not start. When this happens, you see an "Inode version mismatch" File System Manager (FSM) panic that looks like this:

Feb 25 17:27:42 server.example.com fsm[7101] <Alert>: Xsan FSS 'VolumeName[0]': PANIC:

/System/Library/Filesystems/acfs.fs/Contents/bin/fsm "Inode_init_pre_activation:

nodeInode version mismatch! Expected XSan 2.2 named streams inode version (0x205) or 4.0 big inodes + NamedStreams (0x207), received 4.0 inode version with big inodes (0x206) " file /SourceCache/XsanFS/XsanFS-546.1/snfs/fsm/inode.c, line 5086

If you see log entries like this in OS X Yosemite, upgrade to OS X El Capitan. Or follow the steps in this article again.

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