[Samba] Occasional problem with hanging SMB mounts.

[Rashkae]

This would appear to me as though Samba is having trouble finding the
W2K server in question when it wants to re-connect.  The default
nameresolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast
might be the cause of your problem, since host (normal unix DNS
lookup) takes priority before attempting a wins search or bcast.  If
you have a properly configured wins server used by all the network
nodes, consider placing wins before host.  Alternatively, add the
computer names of your W2K Servers to your /etc/hosts file for quick
host lookups..

You can also change the behaviour of Windows 2000 via Registry to change
the connection timeout values or disable them altogether.  I don't
have those registry keys on hand.


In the likely event that I've completely misunderstood the problem,
I apologize in advance.

On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Kris Kelley wrote:

Hello everyone.

I have two linux servers* that each have four directories mounted as
SMBFS shares from a Windows 2000 Server.  For the most part, this set-up
is working great, however, there have been occasional hiccups.

Every so often, one of the servers, LINUX-ONE, logs a couple of
Samba-related errors.  The following is an example:

   Jun 30 06:30:45 mx-two kernel: smb_trans2_request: result=-104,
      setting invalid
   Jun 30 06:30:45 mx-two kernel: smb_retry: successful, new pid=553,
      generation=25

I believe this is due to the network connection used by the relevant
SMBFS mount shutting down because of inactivity, and then being
re-established when the mount is accessed.  I haven't been worrying
about these messages, however, recently I have encountered even bigger
issues.  Sometimes when one of these "disconnects" occurs, the
connection isn't always reestablished when it should be.  When this
happens, the mount hangs, and all processes trying to access the mount
are blocked, resulting in a high load average.  Anywhere from two to
fifteen minutes after I've discovered the problem, it clears up on its
own, and I see messages like these in the syslog:

   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_get_length: recv error = 110
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_trans2_request: result=-110,
      setting invalid
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/s failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/c failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/s failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/c failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/s failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/s failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/a failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/j failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/c failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/w failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/w failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_lookup: find archive/s failed,
      error=-5
   Jul  1 13:52:57 mx-two kernel: smb_retry: successful, new pid=553,
      generation=44

Why does this happen?  Is this a known issue with Samba 2.2.4?

Also, I have yet to see any of these events on the other linux server,
LINUX-TWO.  I believe this is because LINUX-TWO has processes running on
it that hit these mounts every five seconds, and so there is never an
opportunity for the underlying network connections to become inactive.
Does this make sense?  If so, all I have to do to work around the
problem on LINUX-ONE is set up a script that periodically pings the
mounts, perhaps running an "ls" command, every so often, correct?  If
that is true, I need to know what the inactivity time-out limit is, so
this script doesn't have to run more often than necessary.

If this is covered in documentation somewhere, feel free to point me in
that direction.  Otherwise, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

---Kris Kelley

* Red Hat 7.1, kernel 2.4.9-34 (supplied by Red Hat), Samba 2.2.4
  (compiled from source with all defaults, except smbmount support was
  enabled)