Solved Cannot mount Hetzner storage box for backups using SSHFS

[avatar1024]

Hello,

On one instance I've got backups issue when mounting my storage box using CIFS (we tried to debug with @nebulon but we didn't quite get to the bottom of it). One suggested solution was to mount the storage box using SSHFS instead.

Problem is, I cannot get it to work. I have set-up my ssh keys and it seems to work fine as I can login with that key pair from a terminal on my local machine via sftp.

When try connect to it via cloudron I get the following (sadly unhelpful) error message: Failed to mount (failed): Could not determine failure reason.

Things I've tried:

• set-up two type of public keys as per the hetzner doc: https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/storage-box/backup-space-ssh-keys
• tried to connect to several remote directories on the same storage box
• tried to connect with either port 22 or 23

SSH is enabled on the Hetzner storage box control panel (which is obvious otherwise I could not connect via sftp from terminal).

Has anyone tried to mount such storage via SSHFS?
Any idea what might be going wrong?

Thanks!

[girish]

@avatar1024 Had to try it myself to understand it.

• I generated OpenSSH keys using ssh-keygen on my PC.
• SFTP'ed the keys as suggested by - https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/storage-box/backup-space-ssh-keys/#uploading-authorized_keys .
• Because, we are using OpenSSH keys, we should use port 23. So, I tested it:

$ ssh -p 23 -i /tmp/storage_rsa xx@xx.your-storagebox.de
The authenticity of host '[xx.your-storagebox.de]:23 ([116.202.54.208]:23)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:XqONwb1S0zuj5A1CDxpOSuD2hnAArV1A3wKY7Z3sdgM.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '[xx.your-storagebox.de]:23,[116.202.54.208]:23' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
PTY allocation request failed on channel 0

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Your authentication works but we do not support interactive logins.           |
| For more information on how to access your Storage Box please check our Docs: |
| https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/storage-box/access/access-ssh-rsync-borg       |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Connection to xx.your-storagebox.de closed.

Nice, so the hetzner setup works.

Now, for Cloudron side:

The key part is that the Remote Directory is /home. That took a bit of diving into their docs but I finally found that it was /home from the output at https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/storage-box/access/access-ssh-rsync-borg/#sftp

[avatar1024]

@girish I mean, what can I say, other than a big THANK YOU. I'm sorry I missed the "/home" as being the root remote directory with sftp and you had to go through the bother of trying it out by yourself. It's weird they don't make it that explicit. I actually went through their docs too and went through the same steps as you did so I knew the set-up was working which is why I resorted to this forum and to you guys as a last resources (I promise I try not to ask you for help until I've exhausted my own resources ).

Now it's successfully switched to SSHFS my fingers are crossed I won't have any more backup issues (still the backup failures with CIFS are a mastery...got exactly the same set-up on two other instances and it never fails - all on the same storage box, same VPS provider, same OS, etc.).

[girish]

@avatar1024 No worries, it was good to test it out with our mounting code. I found that Hetzner CIFS is SMBv1 (atleast per dmesg output) which is a thing of the past. This is why CIFS mounting is not working/not reliable.

[SolarSimon]

Trying to connect a hetzner storagebox as Volume. I keep having the the error:
'Failed to mount (inactive): read: Connection reset by peer'

I followed the guidline: https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/storage-box/backup-space-ssh-keys/#uploading-authorized_keys

• Hetzner Robot: SSH-Support enabled
• generated the key with oppenssh, uploaded the authorized_keys file.
• SFTP is working

Any idea?

[nebulon]

@solarsimon are you able to manually mount this using a custom line in /etc/fstab or a sshfs mount command?

For reference in my Cloudron, which also uses Hetzner SSHFS for backups, the Cloudron generates the following systemd mount unit at /etc/systemd/system/mnt-cloudronbackup.mount:

[Unit]
Description=backup


[Mount]
What=u193526@u193526.your-storagebox.de:.
Where=/mnt/cloudronbackup
Options=allow_other,port=23,IdentityFile=/home/yellowtent/platformdata/sshfs/id_rsa_u193526.your-storagebox.de,StrictHostKeyChecking=no,reconnect
Type=fuse.sshfs

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

[SolarSimon]

@nebulon said in Cannot mount Hetzner storage box for backups using SSHFS:

using a custom line in /etc/fstab

From the basic knowlege i have, i tried doing that.
I followed some tutorials i found.
(https://ivan.reallusiondesign.com/mount-sshfs-volumes-in-fstab-with-ssh-key/ and https://www.bveml.net/de/news/hetzner-backup-space-inkrementelles-backup-mit-rsnapshot.html)

• I added ssh key to /home/.ssh
• added fstap: sshfs#uxxxxx5@uxxxxxx5.your-storagebox.de:/home /mnt/backup/ fuse IdentityFile=/home/.ssh/id_rsa,uid=0,gid=0,users,idmap=user,noatime,allow_other,_netdev,reconnect,ro 0 0
• restarted the server

I find a folder mnt/backup/ without content. I placed some files in the storeagebox/home. No content in /media/

I'm a basic user coming from windows Trying my best^^

[nebulon]

@solarsimon what you did seems to be correct from a quick glance. So looks like this is independent of Cloudron as such. Maybe the permissions of the SSH key file is too open? The permissions should be -rw------- so can you for a start try to run chmod 600 /home/.ssh/id_rsa?

Further are there any logs in the system logs while attempting to mount? Once you have the /etc/fstab line, you can use mount /mnt/backup and umount /mnt/backup without having to reboot the server. Logs may be found in journalctl --system

[SolarSimon]

I made a clean installation of cloudron on a ubuntu hetzner server.
After that I could mount the storage box with the procedure I tried before without problems.

So I dont know what was wrong. But now everything working fine.
Thanks

[manngobaum]

@girish
I tried this exact same setup. I was able to connect to the storage via SFTP and my SSH key and I copied my private SSH key as instructed to Cloudron.

When I now try to save the backup settings using SSHFS it keeps working and never finishes. The log says

Jan 14 11:40:33 box:shell addMount spawn: /usr/bin/sudo -S /home/yellowtent/box/src/scripts/addmount.sh [Unit]\nDescription=backup\n\nRequires=unbound.service\nAfter=unbound.service\nBefore=docker.service\n\n\n[Mount]\nWhat=uxxxxx@uxxxxx.your-storagebox.de:/\nWhere=/mnt/cloudronbackup\nOptions=allow_other,port=23,IdentityFile=/home/yellowtent/platformdata/sshfs/id_rsa_uxxxxx.your-storagebox.de,StrictHostKeyChecking=no,reconnect\nType=fuse.sshfs\n\n[Install]\nWantedBy=multi-user.target\n\n 10
Jan 14 11:40:44 box:shell addMount (stdout): Failed to mount
Jan 14 11:40:44 box:shell addMount code: 3, signal: null
Jan 14 11:42:04 box:shell removeMount spawn: /usr/bin/sudo -S /home/yellowtent/box/src/scripts/rmmount.sh /mnt/cloudronbackup

Not sure what else I can try.

Edit: magically and waiting one night it works now.