Q. I’m using NAS server share to make a backup of my webserver. However samba is not allowing me to backup of large files (2GB+).
My Samba share mount command is as follows:
smbmount //nas1.domain.com/sharename /datanas -o username=LOGINNAME,password=LOGINPASSWORD
Now if I copy file called /var/log/httpd/access.log (which is 3.5 GB file):
cp /var/log/httpd/access.log /datanas
I get ab error - file size limit exceeded
How do I solve this problem and copy large files to NAS samba share?
A. Linux kernel use smbfs.ko/smbfs.o module and it does not support file sizes greater than 2 GB. This is well known problem.
Mount your NAS samba share with lfs (large file system) option. General syntax is as follows:
smbmount //Hostname/Username /local/mountpoint -o username=username,password=password,lfs
For example:
# smbmount //nas1.domain.com/sharename /datanas -o username=LOGINNAME,password=LOGINPASSWORD,lfs
Where,
- //nas1.domain.com/sharename : Server and Share name
- /datanas : Local mount point
- -o username=LOGINNAME,password=LOGINPASSWORD,lfs : Specify login, password and lfs options
Now you should be able to copy large files w/o a problem.
- 30 Handy Bash Shell Aliases For Linux / Unix / Mac OS X
- Top 30 Nmap Command Examples For Sys/Network Admins
- 25 PHP Security Best Practices For Sys Admins
- 20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know
- 20 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips
- Linux: 20 Iptables Examples For New SysAdmins
- Top 20 OpenSSH Server Best Security Practices
- Top 20 Nginx WebServer Best Security Practices
- 20 Examples: Make Sure Unix / Linux Configuration Files Are Free From Syntax Errors
- 15 Greatest Open Source Terminal Applications Of 2012

- My 10 UNIX Command Line Mistakes
- Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software
- Top 5 Email Client For Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows Users
- The Novice Guide To Buying A Linux Laptop










{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for adding this information. It proved very helpful.
Hey,
Well, I had been looking for this a long time. I don’t know why I never landed on this site before. But I am here and thank you for this post. Saves me a lot of trouble!
Leo
Did you format the drive using the NTFS format? it sounds to me the drive is formatted as FAT32, which does not allow for files larger than 2GB
FAT32 allows files larger than 2GB, up to almost 4GB
“You cannot create a file larger than (2^32)-1 bytes (this is one byte less than 4 GB) on a FAT32 partition.”
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/
also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat32#FAT32
Hi, thanks!
Thats been very useful.
I was stuck at 2GB trying to rescue 60gb disk, writing to an NFTS partition mounted via SMBMOUNT.
Just one question. With this lfs option – is there any limits at all? i hope not