EC2 volume not mounting via fstab; manual mount successful

Question

I have a web application which sends a download link to subscribers. Subscribers are able to click the link from their inbox and get access to download a pdf document. It is fine but what I want is to allow the access to pdf document only when link is clicked from his inbox only. I mean if subscriber forwards this email to some one else or tries to paste the link in browser manually it should not work.

Solution 1

Have you tried removing /dev/sda2? Since it's not defined in the block device config you posted it could be having an issue since the device doesn't exist. I'm not sure if mount at boot aborts on error or if it tries to mount additional devices. As it was mentioned by @richard-bentley EBS backed instances don't have ephemeral storage and this part of the command will fail.

It's doubtful that the issue has anything to do with the fact that this is a micro unless you went from a S3 backed instance to an EBS backed instance (relating to the fact that ephemeral storage isn't defaulted on EBS backed instances).

Solution 2

FWIW, I had this same problem on a small Amazon Linux AMI instance and it was caused by the nobootwait option in the fstab entry. Removed the offending option and it mounted at boot just fine.

Comments

[Patches]

Run dmesg and look toward the end of the output for any errors that might be occurring relating to the mounting of the volume at boot.

[Sterling Archer]

Put a token on the URL or something unique that matches their account

[Funk Forty Niner]

You can use a nonce - See this also about a nonce => stackoverflow.com/a/4145848

[Travis P]

This appears to work. Funny, I had commented out /dev/sda2 a while ago but never tested the system without my /etc/rc2.d/ hack. Thanks for the reply.

[Travis P]

Proceed with caution. I removed nobootwait on one of the volumes (can't remember which, probably /dev/sda2, the non-existent ephemeral volume) and it bricked the micro instance. Had to re-mount the drive from another running instance and edit fstab to get it in a bootable state again.

[RickyA]

As indicated here you can put the nobootwait as the last one. Fixes the hanging ssh connection.

[Quentin]

All three will appear "different" to your server — It is more likely that they will all appear the same (both as each other and as anyone the link was forward to).

[Quentin]

and the webmail system is stupid enough — and to not be using SSL (since browsers will block outgoing referers from it)

[Quentin]

that SOMEONE clicked on the link in SOME email — You can't even tell that. All you can tell if that there is no referer header in the request.

[Marc B]

@Fred-ii-: what good would that do? I get the email, I forward it to someone else without ever clicking on it, that person clicks, and they're in.

[Funk Forty Niner]

True, true. But, that'll teach the person who forwarded the email in the first place, and won't be able to do it him/herself after; shoots him/herself in the foot for it. ;)

[Rahmat Ali]

Thanks for your reply. Actually I am thinking, may be I am wrong please correct me if so, is there no way to get any type of information related to particular email address or inbox etc back at the time email is sent to subscriber's inbox? If it is possible then I can save this information in database for recognizing the request from same inbox any time. May be I am thinking in wrong direction but I am not sure. Thanks.

[Rahmat Ali]

Thanks for your reply Quentin! Actually I am thinking, may be I am wrong please correct me if so, is there no way to get any type of information related to particular email address or inbox etc back at the time email is sent to subscriber's inbox? If it is possible then I can save this information in database for recognizing the request from same inbox any time. May be I am thinking in wrong direction but I am not sure. Thanks.

[Rahmat Ali]

Thanks for your reply Fenring! Actually I am thinking, may be I am wrong please correct me if so, is there no way to get any type of information related to particular email address or inbox etc back at the time email is sent to subscriber's inbox? If it is possible then I can save this information in database for recognizing the request from same inbox any time. May be I am thinking in wrong direction but I am not sure. Thanks.

[Quentin]

You can send a unique link to each user. That won't tell you the address of the person clicking on the link, only of the address you send it to in the first place.