Cannot store bitcoin core data folder on Samba or SMB file share

[larry.the.head]

Hi all,

As per the title, something seems broken with the bitcoin core wallet running on either Windows 10 or Ubuntu Linux where the .bitcoin-qt data folder is stored on a Linux Samba or a Windows SMB file share.

Whatever I do, on Linux I get the "Cannot obtain a lock on data directory /media/bitcoin Bitcoin core is probably already running"

On Windows the location is "Z:\bitcoin"

Bitcoin Core is definitely not running (the error appears even after a fresh restart of the PC) and this happened even after new install of the wallet, and running it for the first time.

The issue is definitely not file permission related as Bitcoin Core creates new folders and files at the share location before erroring out, and I can do the same from the file manager (I can also execute files). The user permissions are Full Access, and RWX on Linux.

When using Linux as the file server, I have also disabled all oplock features.

I can get a file share working using NFS but not Samba / SMB.

Im going to log a bug report on Github but not if someone has also encountered this and has a solution.

Thanks.

[jackg]

I don't think it should work AT ALL using network drives. If you use a network drive, there is the obvious issue as the directory is supposed to be online and the network drive needs to be logged on by a computer in a root user in order to lock a directory.

Also, it's probably slower to put it on a network drive. That being said, I have no experience with SMB filesharing itself.

[LoyceV]

After I upgraded from 0.14 to the latest version, Bitcoin Core no longer allowed me to use a simlink to my wallet.dat. That means Bitcoin Core knowingly interferes with something my filesystem takes care of.
My workaround was to only move and simlink the blocks-(sub)directory to another disk. You could try to only mount your blocks-directory on a network drive, it's the biggest directory anyway.