[Samba] Office products Locking issues
Mark Adams
3.0.23c-1
I am currently having 2 strange re-occuring issues, that seems to happen
sporadically. I am not sure if they are related.
Users are advised when trying to save a file that "the Drive is full",
even though there is alot of free space. I have read a technote on the
microsoft site about this as it is a known issue with Word, but their
suggested fixes do not help.
Excel users are sometimes advised that 'The file is read only, as it is
locked by $USER' the USER is themselves. They quite often have not even
opened the file that day, when they get this. I have found in the past
that restarting samba has corrected this particular issue which leads me
to believe it is a problem with lock files.
Has anyone else experienced these issues and been able to correct them?
How does samba create, and release its lock files, and what could stop
this from working as desired?
Any help greatly appreciated. If i have not provided enough information
please let me know what you need.
Regards,
Mark
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Mark Adams
Thanks for the link. I had already tried disabling oplocks completely on
the share as I thought this would be the issue, Unfortunatly it has not
helped.
can anyone advise how samba locking works? It seems in my case that
locks are not being released, until I restart samba.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
On Wed, Mar 07, 2007 at 04:27:00PM -0600, Dale Schroeder wrote:
> Maybe this will help:
>
> http://samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/locking.html#id348952
>
> "veto oplock files =" was especially helpful for me.
>
> Dale
Michael Heydon
>>> I have found in the past that restarting samba has corrected this particular issue
users connection dropping out. I used "reset on zero vc", it greatly
improved the situation (and we are slowly replacing the dodgy gear/cabling).
Obviously there is something causing the problem in the first place and
you should try to track down what the problem is and fix it, in the mean
time reset on zero vc might help make it more manageable.
-- Michael Heydon
John Drescher
> Hi All,
>
> 3.0.23c-1
>
> I am currently having 2 strange re-occuring issues, that seems to happen
> sporadically. I am not sure if they are related.
>
> Users are advised when trying to save a file that "the Drive is full",
> even though there is alot of free space. I have read a technote on the
> microsoft site about this as it is a known issue with Word, but their
> suggested fixes do not help.
>
mode like in the following example:
http://acl.bestbits.at/pipermail/acl-devel/2001-November/000807.html
John
Marcello Romani
>
>>>> I have found in the past that restarting samba has corrected this
>>>> particular issue
> I had similar problems in the past where a flaky network would lead to a
> users connection dropping out. I used "reset on zero vc", it greatly
> improved the situation (and we are slowly replacing the dodgy
> gear/cabling).
>
> Obviously there is something causing the problem in the first place and
> you should try to track down what the problem is and fix it, in the mean
> time reset on zero vc might help make it more manageable.
>
> -- Michael Heydon
In the past months I had similar locking problems: outlook running on a
client PC, outlook.pst file stored on a (private) network share. The
client PC would sometimes hang, and the user would then reboot the PC.
After the reboot, Outlook complained that the outlook.pst file could not
be opened because it was already locked by someone else (in fact it was
the "old" smbd process of that same user that didn't notice the client
did reboot).
The solution was always to manually kill (-TERM) the "hanging" smbd process.
The situation got a bit better when I disabled oplocks entirely, but I
still get that error sometimes (yes, we *almost* fixed the PC hardware
issues :-).
Thanks to your post, I'm considering putting this configuration option
in place.
Did you have some PC-freeze problems that the "reset on zero vc" config
parameter solved ?
Did the use of this parameter have some drawbacks ?
Thank you.
--
Marcello Romani
Responsabile IT
Ottotecnica s.r.l.
http://www.ottotecnica.com
Michael Heydon
>
> In the past months I had similar locking problems: outlook running on
> a client PC, outlook.pst file stored on a (private) network share. The
> client PC would sometimes hang, and the user would then reboot the PC.
> After the reboot, Outlook complained that the outlook.pst file could
> not be opened because it was already locked by someone else (in fact
> it was the "old" smbd process of that same user that didn't notice the
> client did reboot).
> The solution was always to manually kill (-TERM) the "hanging" smbd
> process.
> The situation got a bit better when I disabled oplocks entirely, but I
> still get that error sometimes (yes, we *almost* fixed the PC hardware
> issues :-).
>
from personal experience I tend to agree. Some times it's the lesser of
two evils but in the long term you might want to think about a different
solution.
> Did you have some PC-freeze problems that the "reset on zero vc"
> config parameter solved ?
It had the same effect, the client disconnected, the server thought it
was still there.
> Did the use of this parameter have some drawbacks ?
It hasn't caused any problems that I'm aware of and it has reduced the
number of support calls, but I wouldn't consider it an alternative to
fixing the root of the problem.
I believe it does cause problems if you have multiple connections coming
into the server from behind a NAT connection and it may also play up if
you have a terminal server.
Overall I think it is a neat option and in most simple networks it is
worth having, just be wary that it may hide problems that will bite you
down the track.
-- Michael Heydon
Marcello Romani
>
>>
>> In the past months I had similar locking problems: outlook running on
>> a client PC, outlook.pst file stored on a (private) network share. The
>> client PC would sometimes hang, and the user would then reboot the PC.
>> After the reboot, Outlook complained that the outlook.pst file could
>> not be opened because it was already locked by someone else (in fact
>> it was the "old" smbd process of that same user that didn't notice the
>> client did reboot).
>> The solution was always to manually kill (-TERM) the "hanging" smbd
>> process.
>> The situation got a bit better when I disabled oplocks entirely, but I
>> still get that error sometimes (yes, we *almost* fixed the PC hardware
>> issues :-).
>>
> Just as a note, MS don't recommend storing PST files on a network and
> from personal experience I tend to agree. Some times it's the lesser of
The company I work for has had pst files on a network share for many
years now (on a win2k server and, since about 1 year, that is since I
came, on a gentoo/samba server). I still haven't seen any problems (a
part from the mentioned pc freezing issues), but our network and servers
have a very low load...
> two evils but in the long term you might want to think about a different
> solution.
I've been thinking about implementing an imap server for some time
now... I hope I'll have time to get rid of "personal stored" e-mail as
soon as possibile...
>> Did you have some PC-freeze problems that the "reset on zero vc"
>> config parameter solved ?
> We didn't have problems with freezing, we had problems with the network.
> It had the same effect, the client disconnected, the server thought it
> was still there.
>
>> Did the use of this parameter have some drawbacks ?
> It hasn't caused any problems that I'm aware of and it has reduced the
> number of support calls, but I wouldn't consider it an alternative to
> fixing the root of the problem.
>
> I believe it does cause problems if you have multiple connections coming
> into the server from behind a NAT connection and it may also play up if
> you have a terminal server.
We don't have neither of the two, so I guess I'll be safe :-)
>
> Overall I think it is a neat option and in most simple networks it is
> worth having, just be wary that it may hide problems that will bite you
> down the track.
>
> -- Michael Heydon
>
>
Thank you for your reply. It was helpful.
--
Marcello Romani
Responsabile IT
Ottotecnica s.r.l.
http://www.ottotecnica.com
Mark Adams
help with my strange issues.
On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 08:32:48AM +0100, Marcello Romani wrote:
>
> I've been thinking about implementing an imap server for some time
> now... I hope I'll have time to get rid of "personal stored" e-mail as
> soon as possibile...
>
I would do extensive testing with IMAP and outlook before you put this
in to place, as Outlook support for IMAP is terrible, especially if you
want to have any remote users. If you are using any other mail
client you will be ok.
That is for a different mailing list though!
Cheers
Mark
Neil Jolly
On 20-Mar-07, at 5:34 AM, Mark Adams wrote:
> I will also be trying the reset on zero vc option, in the hope it will
> help with my strange issues.
>
> On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 08:32:48AM +0100, Marcello Romani wrote:
>>
>> I've been thinking about implementing an imap server for some time
>> now... I hope I'll have time to get rid of "personal stored" e-
>> mail as
>> soon as possibile...
>>
>
> I would do extensive testing with IMAP and outlook before you put this
> in to place, as Outlook support for IMAP is terrible, especially if
> you
> want to have any remote users.
I'll second that one. I just setup an IMAP server for our office, and
I wouldn't do it again. Outlook is made to work with one thing:
Exchange. For anything else it sucks.
> If you are using any other mail
> client you will be ok.
>
> That is for a different mailing list though!
>
> Cheers
> Mark
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> To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the
> instructions: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/samba
Neil Jolly
Jolly Computations
#12 800 Bowcroft Place
Cochrane, Alberta
Phone: (403) 688-7516
Fax: (403) 851-0873
Web: www.jollycom.ca
Marcello Romani
> I will also be trying the reset on zero vc option, in the hope it will
> help with my strange issues.
>
> On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 08:32:48AM +0100, Marcello Romani wrote:
>> I've been thinking about implementing an imap server for some time
>> now... I hope I'll have time to get rid of "personal stored" e-mail as
>> soon as possibile...
>>
>
> I would do extensive testing with IMAP and outlook before you put this
> in to place, as Outlook support for IMAP is terrible, especially if you
> want to have any remote users. If you are using any other mail
> client you will be ok.
>
> That is for a different mailing list though!
>
> Cheers
> Mark
>
>
Thanks for your suggestion. Some of us are using Thunderbird, but the
majority uses Outlook 2000. Thundrebird is unfortunately lacking some
features of Outlook that would make some of the employees unhappy so the
switch would not be without problems, but that's another story, and I
think I'd better quit as we're already way too off-topic :-)
--
Marcello Romani
Responsabile IT
Ottotecnica s.r.l.
http://www.ottotecnica.com
John Drescher
>
> Thanks for your reply. I had already tried using this, although I use
> 2775 for my directory mode to ensure the group is retained. Unfortunatly
> it did not correct the issue.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
Have you checked the permissions of the files? I had implemented that
fix over a month ago and single user complained two weeks ago that she
had the read only problem again. It turns out she had bad permissions
on her folders and after a chmod 777 -R . on her root of her private
files all was well again.
Mark Adams
> I had the same issue recently. I ended up having to use force create
> mode like in the following example:
>
> http://acl.bestbits.at/pipermail/acl-devel/2001-November/000807.html
>
> John
Hi John,
Thanks for your reply. I had already tried using this, although I use
2775 for my directory mode to ensure the group is retained. Unfortunatly
it did not correct the issue.
Thanks,
Mark
Mark Adams
> fix over a month ago and single user complained two weeks ago that she
> had the read only problem again. It turns out she had bad permissions
> on her folders and after a chmod 777 -R . on her root of her private
> files all was well again.
>
> John
Yea I have been checking the permissions on the files each time and they
appear fine, open in openoffice fine also. They also work ok after samba
is restarted which is why I initially thought it was to do with lock
files.
Mark
Mark Adams
I have heard that there is a limit on the amount of saves you can have
on a file, but can not find any evidence to back this up (except for my
problems!). All files that I have been having these issues with, are
files that have been saved many many times (100+).
This happens from Word and Excel.
Has anyone heard of this? or have any links to pages that talk about
this?
Help appreciated.
Regards,
Mark
Mark Adams
the same folder makes this issue go away.
> Hi All,
>
> I have heard that there is a limit on the amount of saves you can have
> on a file, but can not find any evidence to back this up (except for my
> problems!). All files that I have been having these issues with, are
> files that have been saved many many times (100+).
>
> This happens from Word and Excel.
>
> Has anyone heard of this? or have any links to pages that talk about
> this?
>
> Help appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Mark
John Drescher
> I should also mention, simply saving the document as another filename in
> the same folder makes this issue go away.
>
issue as well. I have one question though. Is your data on an external
box mounted via NFS? I am using NFS for my public and private drives.
Sorry if this was asked before in the thread.
John
Mark Adams
> On 4/2/07, Mark Adams <ma...@campbell-lange.net> wrote:
> >I should also mention, simply saving the document as another filename in
> >the same folder makes this issue go away.
> >
> When this has happened to us saving it to a new filename has fixed the
> issue as well. I have one question though. Is your data on an external
> box mounted via NFS? I am using NFS for my public and private drives.
> Sorry if this was asked before in the thread.
>
> John
Hi John,
No it is all internal storage, mirrored SATA drives to be precise.
I believe this is a Microsoft issue, but can not find any evidence to
prove this.
I wonder, do people have the same issue with Windows servers? anybody
seen this that is running a windows server fileshare?
Mark