Buurst Knowledge Base and Support 

Here you will find useful information about our product called SoftNAS as well as other various subjects specific to it as well as our company, Buurst.  Here you will find:

  • Knowledge Base articles covering subjects like SoftNAS Basics, Clients and Protocols, details about Cloud Platforms along with other subject matters.
  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) including who we are, SoftNAS on the supported platforms, and details regarding SoftNAS 5.
  • How-To articles covering a wide spectrum of ways to perform specific actions with and around SoftNAS.
  • Best Practices includes recommendation on how to address specific subject matters.

You also have simple ways to get in touch with our Support team, submit a support ticket, and other useful resources.

If you still have questions feel free to contact us, we are here to help.


This is a collection of knowledge based articles from Subject Matter Experts to assist customers with various tasks and situations that may need to be addressed.  If you don't see a subject you are interested in, don't hesitate to contact Buurst Support.

SoftNAS Specific KB Articles

Out of Space and Can Not Remove Files - shows how to deal with your storage pool or volume running out of space.

Setup NTPD on CentOS Linux - shows how to make time settings persistent to support Snap HA and SnapReplication.

Pool Migration Options for AWS - shows methods to migrate an existing storage pool and offers the "pros" and "cons" for each of them.

Removing Pools, Volumes, and Devices - shows how to clean up by removing no longer needed volumes, storage pools and disk devices.

Force Sync - discusses using the SnapReplication "Force Sync" usage and potential side effects.

Spectre/Meltdown CPU Vulnerability - Buurst guidance on addressing the CPU Vulnerability know as "Spectre/Meltdown".

SoftNAS Performance on AWS - shows how to collect useful data from the AWS CloudWatch to address issues related to using an undersized instance on AWS.

SoftNAS Disaster Recovery Solutions -  covers different DR setups that are available using SoftNAS that doesn't impact overall system performance.

Virtual IP (VIP) with a SoftNAS Private HA - provides a brief overview of how to accomplish this.

Disable Monit Action Forcing Failover on "txg_sync" issue - shows how to turnoff Monit's ability to force a failover in a HA pair.

Pool(s) Reconstruction With the Desired Pool Size and Geometry in an HA Pair - shows how to reconstruct a SoftNAS pool due to sizing issues or to simply move from a S3/SmartTier pool to a Standard Pool backed by block devices.

AWS Snowball and SoftNAS® Quick Guide - provides instructions on how to connect Snowball to your SoftNAS On-Premises VM.

Using In-Flight Data Encryption - provides insight into using In-Flight data encryption using CIFS/SMB and NFS by tunneling SSH.

Using Lsyncd - provides a quick start on how to setup and use "lynsch" to maintain synchronization of directories and files. 

Using Robocopy - shows how to deal with moving a bulk number of files using "robocopy" and eliminating the generation of numerous errors.

Adding ZFS Intent Log/SLOG and L2ARC for SoftNAS Storage Pools - provides guidance on how to add a read and/or write log for SoftNAS Storage Pools.

Configure a CentOS/AWS Linux based Client for SoftNAS LDAP Server - show steps to add a SoftNAS deployment to a LDAP Server.

How To Configure Existing AD (for 2008 and up) with NIS Server to SoftNAS Samba - provides a step-by-step guide to properly configure an existing Windows 2008/2008R2/2012/2012R2/2016 Active Directory with NIS server to sync users/UID and groups/GID to the SoftNAS Samba CIFS shares.

SoftNAS LDAP Server Configuration - is a short guide that will walk you through configuration of your SoftNAS LDAP integration using 389-DS.

Using Previous Microsoft Version with SoftNAS - provides an introduction on how to use previous version of Windows and Snapshots.  How to set up a Snapshot policy and managing them using SoftNAS.

GOP Policy on Windows Server 2016 - provides a step-by-step process on how to address this using the StorageCenter Administrator Interface.

How to enable Previous Versions on CIFS with AD integration - shows how to use the StorageCenter Administrative Interface to enable the use of older versions of CIFS/SMB with Active Directory.

Samba Shares audit logging - provides a step-by-step guide on how to configure a detailed audit of CIFS shares using Samba.

Samba LDAP Configuration - shows how to configure a SoftNAS deployment as a LDAP Client.

Fix to error: nfs-utils "mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock " - show how to resolve this on CentOS, RHEL, and Ubuntu.

Migrating NFS, and upgrading to NFSv4 - provides steps on how to migrate your NFS enabled volumes and storage pools to a new SoftNAS deployment.

Mounting NFS with /etc/fstab and NFS mount Options - provides guidance on mounting NFS exports from another machine.

Mount NFS on Linux using /etc/fstab - provides an alternate way to mount NFS exports.

NFS 'Export To: Everyone' known issue in 3.4.7 and 3.4.7.1 - Workaround steps - shows a workaround to allow you to set your NFS exports to be accessible to "Everyone".

NFS Common Commands (Cheat Sheet) - is a list of the various NFS commands that are used.

NFS Common Mount Commands - is a list of the NFS mount commands.

NFS Manual - is the NFS version 2, 3, and 4.

NFS Security - outlines the security issues of data transfer over UDP, and how to mitigate those security concerns.

NFS permissions issues - covers the "Permission Denied" error message when trying to read/write to an NFS export and how to resolve them.

NFS Stale File Handle error and solution - shows how to get out of the "Stale file Handle" NFS issue.

Troubleshooting NFS connectivity and server side issues - provides troubleshooting steps for connectivity and config issues with NFS.

Applying CHAP Authentication to iSCSI ACLs - provides guidance on seeing up ACLs and CHAP authentication specifically for iSCSI volumes being managed.
SnapReplicate iSCSI Volume Synchronization - shows have to address a SnapReplicate failure with an iSCSI volume.

SoftNAS Multi-Protocol Integration with AD using Kerberos Authentication for NFS/CIFS - is a step-by-step guide on how to properly configure a hybrid (Windows and Linux) system to fully integrate with the SoftNAS Samba CIFS shares and NFS exports.


HVM Snap Rep/SNAP HA Build Error Related To HwClock - outlines how to save a new SoftNAS deployment from time related issues.

IAM User for SNAP HA - provides guidance on setting up and using an IAM user with SNAP HA instead of the AWS Master Keys.

SoftNAS® on CenturyLink - provides specific requirements and capabilities of SoftNAS for CenturyLink.

Setting up SoftNAS on CenturyLink - shows how to deploy SoftNAS as a virtual application running the the CenturyLink Cloud.

Microsoft Azure

Enabling Azure Accelerated Networking for SoftNAS 4.0.3/4.1 - shows how to enable using the Accelerated Networking abilities within Azure for SoftNAS 4.0.3 and 4.1.0.

Enabling Azure Accelerated Networking for SoftNAS 4.2  - shows how to enable using the Accelerated Networking abilities within Azure for SoftNAS 4.2.

Manual Azure.xml Import - shows how to download and import publish settings and subscription information.

Deploying Managed AD Domain Services - is a guide on how to integrate SoftNAS into an Azure AD Domain Controller.

SoftNAS with Azure Active Directory Integration - is a guide geared towards our Azure customers who want to utilize their existing AADDC in Azure to control Authentication/Administration of SoftNAS resources via their existing Users/Groups in AADDC

Changing/Rotating S3 Keys - provides step-by-step instruction on how to switch your S3 keys for a new set.

Features of the ZFS filesystem - goes over what ZFS is and why you should understand it.

ZFS atime Configuration - shows how to improve the kernel workload by setting this variable.

Auditing SoftNAS Shares - shows how to perform an audit and track security-relevant information regarding the storage being managed by SoftNAS.

NFS Security Levels - describes the different levels of security as it applies to NFS exports.  This includes covering "host", ACLs, and Kerberos level security.

Responding to the results of a security scan - talks about responding to various security issues identified from performing a security scan.

VORMETRIC TRANSPARENT ENCRYPTION and SoftNAS Filers - covers the Vormetric Transparent Encryption and SoftNAS.

Encrypting SoftNAS Root Volume - Show how to create a  SoftNAS AMI on AWS with an Encrypted EBS root volume that can be used to deploy multiple SoftNAS deployments featuring it.



Support Specific KB Articles

How to determine if a Private Offer is being used on Azure - provides the details to look for in the SoftNAS deployed on Azure to what type of offer is being run.

Enumerating available AWS Marketplace AMIs for use in JSON scripts - provides the commands to access a list of available AMI and their IDs from the AWS Marketplace.

Fixing a degraded pool due to a deleted disk - provides a step-by-step process to resolve accidently deleting a disk that is part of a storage pool that is in a degraded state.

Opening a Support Case - shows how to open a support case, what the necessary details are needed, and how to submit it using the StorageCenter Administrative Interface Support Tab.

Running and retrieving support reports without email functionality - provides instructions on how to retrieve support reports (logs) manually from a SoftNAS deployment without a functioning email account.

Setup of a FTP server - provides ways for customers that cannot automatically send status report logs from a SoftNAS deployment.

Fixing NVMe Ephemeral Drive issue for AWS i3 Instances - provides a step-by-step process to fixed Ephemeral Drives on an i3 Instance type.

Installation of 3rd party tools may void support - provides guidance on how to deal with 3rd party tools/agents with SoftNAS.

Migration Specific KB Articles

Manual Migration Process for AWS Deployments - is a step-by-step guide to perform a manual migration of a single SoftNAS, and HA Pair, instance with block device pools on AWS.

Manual Migration Process for Azure Deployments - is a step-by-step guide to perform a manual migration of a single SoftNAS, and HA Pair, instance with block device pools on Azure.

Migrating Instances in AWS using the Migrator Tool - covers the basic required steps and key considerations to migrate a single SoftNAS, or HA pair, on AWS within the same Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

SA Guideline for Health Check and Scheduling 5.0.1 Upgrade - is the recommended process to perform a "Health Check" on a SoftNAS deployment for general purposes as well as preparing for migrating from a "pre-5.0" SoftNAS to SoftNAS 5.

KB Article Template - Do Not Publish - This is the template to be used for generating new Knowledge Base (KB) articles for publishing.

Legacy KB Articles

Flexera/BYOL Consumption-based Licensing issues - provides a workaround for this type of deployment.

Installing HA Hotfix - provides the steps to apply a hotfix in order to eliminate the unnecessary failover issue.

Installing Hotfix for CVE-2015-7547 - provides the steps required to apply the hotfix for this defect.

Integrate SoftNAS with Active Directory prior to Version 3 - provides details on how to configure SoftNAS with Active Directory prior to SoftNAS Version 3.

Submitting a Support Report, version 3.4 and prior - how to submit support reports via email for SoftNAS version 3.4 and earlier.

Removing AFP from SoftNAS - describes how to uninstall the AFT related packages from a SoftNAS deployment.

Increase root disk device size on "Pre-4.2" Marketplace Images - provides insight on how to increase the default disk size of the SoftNAS OS root drive on Azure and AWS.

ARM Template not Launching SoftNAS 4.3.0 on Azure Cloud Platform - goes over the different DR setups available to configure on SoftNAS without hurting overall system performance.

Enabling Azure Accelerated Networking for SoftNAS 4.2 - shows how to take advantage of Accelerated Networking on Azure for SoftNAS version 4.2.

API Guide - is the old CLI/API guide that was removed from the StorageCenter Administrative Interface.

Frequently Asked Questions


How-To Articles
Best Practices

SoftNAS Specific


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