Troubleshooting issues with connecting to or using the shared drive

For general information about using the shared drive, see Adding and sharing files with the shared drive.

Contents

Issue: I can’t connect to the shared drive…

  • …from within the VM operating system.

    • If the VM can’t connect to the shared drive at \\gw\shared, enter the network gateway IP address instead of gw. For example, if the network gateway IP address is 10.0.1.254, use \\10.0.1.254\shared. To locate the network gateway IP address, see Finding the network gateway IP address.
    • Windows VMs: Updated versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 disable SMB v1. If you can’t connect to the shared drive, use SFTP to access the shared drive. For instructions, see Accessing the shared drive from a Skytap VM.
    • Linux VMs created from a public template that contains Firstboot in the VM name: Make sure the IP address in the fstab entry matches the network gateway IP address for the VM.

      1. To check the fstab entry, use the following command:

           cat /etc/fstab
        

        The last line of the file contains the shared drive entry. For example:

           //10.0.0.254/shared /media/shared_drive cifs user,guest,sec=none,rsize=61440,wsize=61440 0 0
        
      2. If the IP address in the fstab entry doesn’t match the VM network gateway IP address, edit the IP address in the fstab entry and retry the shared drive connection. To locate the network gateway IP address, see Finding the network gateway IP address.

      If you later change the network gateway IP address by either attaching the VM to a manual network or editing the automatic network network gateway IP address, you will need to re-edit this file.

  • …from a shared drive shortcut icon.

    • If the shared drive shortcut on a VM desktop isn’t working, try connecting to the shared drive from an SFTP client or with the VM operating system tools. For instructions, see Accessing the shared drive from a Skytap VM.
    • Windows VMs: Updated versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 disable SMB v1. If you can’t connect to the shared drive, use SFTP to access the shared drive. For instructions, see Accessing the shared drive from a Skytap VM.
  • …from an FTP client.

Issue: I can download files from the shared drive, but I can’t upload files to it

  • The shared drive may be full. Work with your administrator to check the current usage of the shared drive and its current maximum capacity. For instructions, see Determining usage of the shared drive.
  • Make sure your SFTP client isn’t a read-only client (for example, the built-in Connect to Server option on macOS can read from FTP servers, but not write to them). Use a full-featured FTP client, like FileZilla or WinSCP.
  • Check your connection type. FTPS connections aren’t supported; use SFTP instead.

Issue: The shared drive is full, and I don’t want to delete anything from it

Administrators can increase the size of a shared drive by contacting Skytap Support at support@skytap.com.

Other options for transferring files to or from a VM

For other ways to transfer files to and from a VM, see Transferring files to a VM.