"Phantom" shares get created on ReadyNAS Pro / 4.2.27

[ehansin]

Today I noticed that two "Phantom" / duplicate shares mysteriously showed up on my ReadyNAS Pro running 4.2.27. This actually happened before about a year ago or so.

What happens for example is that I have a share named "Shared" and another say "IT" (and others). Out of nowhere two new shares show up, "shared" and "it", and I didn't create these for sure. The ReadyNAS software, being Linux based and ext3 filesystem (I believe), it is case sensitive, so these are two new unique folders under "/c" (so I now have "/c/Shared", "/c/IT", "/c/shared", "/c/it", when I really should only have the first two, the later two just mysteriously showing up.)

Then what happens, both Windows and OS X filesystems being case *insensitive*, they sometimes start mounting instead to the "phantom" shares, because to both of these platforms, "Shared" & "shared" and "IT" and "it" are the same thing. It is scary, because the new "phantom" shares are basically empty, and if you end up connecting to one you think you lost your files. Or you cannot connect at all because no permissions on these new shares. Etc, etc, etc.

I know how to fix the problem (I did so with precautions, but basically deleted the new "phanton" lower-case shares in the web admin interface.) But what I would really like to know, if anyone has any insight into this, why are these getting created out of nowhere? At least as best I can tell, they are out of nowhere.

Thanks everyone,
Eric

[RX]

Since it happened before and you know how to resolve it, it is possible that the problem might occur again.

Have tried doing an OS reinstall?

Do you have a backup of all files stored in your NAS? If yes, why not consider doing a factory reset on your NAS.

[ehansin]

Thanks Ixa.

Yes, I run a script to do a geographic backup of files, so we do have that part covered. I'll have to consider what you suggest above with a factory reset, it just seems so strange. Was hoping someone might have some insight how this could happen. Really just curious more than anything.

Eric

[mdgm-ntgr]

Do you have any add-ons installed? If so, do they use these shares?

[ehansin]

Hi mdgm,

The only add-on I have installed is to enable SSH access so I can SSH into the box, which has been very useful if only to explore for troubleshooting. Cannot see how this would cause this. Sounds like whatever is happening is not common or would most likely have gotten a response as such. So far, a very rare occurrence, and no harm - no foul. But it is interesting that it is happening.

Thanks,
Eric