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

[Ryan Booz <ryanbooz@alumni.psu.edu>]

Thank you Michael.  I'll try those this evening and see how it works with the
test tomorrow.

Ryan

Michael Williams wrote:

> 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.