Re: [seul-edu] File locking question with Samba

[Michael Williams <michael@haywood.k12.nc.us>]

I've run into the same problems with the Accelerated Reader program for
Windows and Follet Library software for DOS (running on WIN95). We are
currently working on the Win95 issues which are: ( on the 95 box)
   1: Disable write behind cacheing  (My Computer | Properties | File System
| Troubleshooting)
   2: Update MSclient - Run VRDRUPD.exe  (Article #1634981 @ Microsoft.com)
        VREDIR.VXD >= 4.00.1116 and VNETSUP >=4.00.1112
   3.  Disable new file sharing and locking semantics (My Computer |
Properties | File System | Troubleshooting)
   4. Newest SAMBA includes imrovments in oplocks.

 I've implemented the first two and getting ready to implement # 3.

Michael Williams
Haywood County Schools
http://www.k12linux.org

Ryan Booz wrote:

> I'm wondering if anyone can give me some thoughts on some file locking
> issues with Samba.
>
> I have a couple of programs that came with texts for testing and such.
> I'm trying to get them going one at a time and can't seem to get stable
> results with any of them.  Basically, the program is installed on a
> share for the class and everyone must have file read/write permissions
> to a few files that hold the database for questions and scores so that
> as students give answers and finish test they can be written to the
> database and views later.
>
> I've tried many different types of locking, oplocking, share modes
> settings and can't seem to figure out what this type of program expects
> from a file server to work well.  Of course the instructions and the
> company seem to be of little help with the actual setup.  The only
> instructions are that each user has to be able to write to the database
> files (the specific files are given in the instructions) for it to
> work.  But in a class of 20 students, about half the time it locks up at
> the end when students try to finish the test, which is when the scores
> are to be written.  Sometimes a message appears that "trying to unlock
> the database because it is locked by another user: try x of 60".
>
> This problem is very similar to another program we use in typing and I
> had problems similar to this last year.  The database often became
> corrupted.  The only help I got from the company is that Samba is not
> supported by there help and that they could only tell me to make it work
> like an NT server... allowing everyone read/write to the database files.
>
> Any thoughts?  Anyone run into this problem with programs before?
>
> Thanks,
> Ryan Booz
> Belleville Mennonite School
>
> P.S.  Oh yeah, I've tried to look through the logs for each computer and
> don't see anything obviously wrong, but I admit that I don't understand
> each of the locking messages and such.