I'm trying to install some new files on our new server while our sysadmin is in holidays:

Here is my df

#  df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb3             273G   11G  248G   5% /
tmpfs                  48G  260K   48G   1% /dev/shm
/dev/sdb1             485M  187M  273M  41% /boot
xxx.xx.xxx.xxx:/commun
                       63T  2.2T   61T   4% /commun

as root , I can create a new directory and run chown under /home/lindenb

# cd /home/lindenb/
# mkdir X
# chown lindenb X

but I cannot run the same command under /commun

# cd /commun/data/users/lindenb/
# mkdir X
# chown lindenb X
chown: changing ownership of `X': Invalid argument

why ? how can I fix this ?

updated:

mount:

/dev/sdb3 on / type ext4 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sdb1 on /boot type ext4 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
xxx.xx.xxx.xxx:/commun on /commun type nfs (rw,noatime,noac,hard,intr,vers=4,addr=xxx.xx.xxx.xxx,clientaddr=xxx.xx.xxx.xxx)

version:

$ cat /etc/redhat-release 
CentOS release 6.3 (Final)