[Samba] RE: License Metering Software to work with SAMBA

[Andrew Bartlett]

On Thu, 2002-11-21 at 01:42, Chris Lindberg wrote:
> Dear Tom,
> 
> The express product makes standard windows api calls to the machine where it
> is installed to open, read, write to, and close files on the network. It
> does not, in any way tell samba how to react, it is simply telling Windows
> to open, read and write to the files on the network leaving how it is done
> to the underlying network protocols.

You would be surprised how much of 'standard system calls' turns into
'unusual series of packets on the network'.  Quite a number of bugs in
Samba have been found by simple database applications...

> Based on what I have seen it appears that Windows XP workstations are
> intermittently writing invalid data to the log files. The log files
> containing invalid data are deleted by express when a repair is run, at the
> beginning of any update of the database, which is done to prevent corrupt
> data from being written to the database.
> 
> We believe that there is a conflict between Windows XP and samba which
> results in the intermittent writing of invalid data.

And the basic rule around here is 'if it works against Win2k server, and
fails against Samba, then it's a bug'.  Is there any chance you can test
your software against the latest production Samba?  

If you can reproduce the bug against 2.2.7 or (bonus points!) reproduce
it under some form of test program, I know Jeremy gets very keen to add
it to the test-suite.  (In the past, a small database vendor's internal
lock torture-test found it's way to jra' INBOX - a slew of bugfixes
followed :-).  Much of the information discovered finds it's way into
our smbtorture utility.

> The applib.loc file is a text file which simply indicates what machine last
> had the library open in the Express Administrative Console.
> 
> Sincerely, Chris Lindberg
> Express Metrix Technical Support
>   -----Original Message-----
>   From: Thomas G. Tri, P.E. [mailto:ttri at skees.com]
>   Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 5:40 AM
>   To: samba at lists.samba.org
>   Cc: bburnett at skees.com; clindberg at expressmetrix.com;
> ssipinen at expressmetrix.com
>   Subject: License Metering Software to work with SAMBA
> 
> 
>   Dear List:
> 
>   We have a 25+ node mixed networked of NT4SP5, Win2K, & WinXP.  We are
> currently using Express Meter to control our software licensing and capture
> data to analyze software license utilization to justify additional licenses,
> etc. We are running SAMBA v 2.0.7 on a Sun Ultra 2 running Solaris 7. 

I would seriously recommend an upgrade to Samba 2.2.7.  A large number
of locking bugs have been fixed since then.

> We
> have been unable to get the reporting functions to work (the Express Meter
> log files get purged when the data merging / reporting process is
> performed).  A SAMBA debug log shows the following strange sequence of locks
> / unlocks. The applib.loc file is opened with read=No, write=Yes and then
> followed by opening another handle on the same file with read=Yes and
> write=No. This seems a little strange to me and may not be the problem at
> all. Their tech support is apparently not willing to invest any more time to
> investigate this problem as it appears to function correctly when the files
> are stored on an NT workstation. We are not willing to
> 
>   [2002/11/05 15:17:33, 2] smbd/open.c:(602)
>     bburnett opened file em/fromtaurus/applib.loc read=No write=Yes
> (numopen=3)
>   [2002/11/05 15:17:33, 2] smbd/open.c:(602)
>     bburnett opened file em/fromtaurus/applib.lib read=Yes write=No
> (numopen=4)
>   [2002/11/05 15:17:33, 2] smbd/open.c:(602)
>     bburnett opened file em/fromtaurus/applib.loc read=Yes write=No
> (numopen=5)
> 
>   We would like to continue to use Express Meter because of the time we have
> invested in setup and configuration.  However, the reporting capability is a
> requirement for our firm.  Therefore, we are considering switching to
> another software metering application. We are currently reviewing the
> following:
>   Keyserver from Sassafras Software
>   Application Metering from Codework
> 
>   If anyone has a suggestion to correct / workaround the above file locking
> sequence or has experience with these or other software metering
> applications, I would greatly appreciate your comments (good & bad).
> 
>   Thanks,
>   Tom
-- 
Andrew Bartlett                                 abartlet at pcug.org.au
Manager, Authentication Subsystems, Samba Team  abartlet at samba.org
Student Network Administrator, Hawker College   abartlet at hawkerc.net
http://samba.org     http://build.samba.org     http://hawkerc.net
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