[Samba] One file open or locked way too many times. How to fix?

[Gary MacKay]

A Windows 2000 Server is a member server of the domain. The domain 
server is CentOS 4.5 with all updates and Samba 3.0.24 built using the 
packaging/RHEL/makerpms.sh script. The W2k server is opening this file 
on the samba server.

This problem started several versions of CentOS and Samba ago, and I did 
the upgrades thinking it would fix it. It did not.

It seems to be "locking" or "opening" a file zillions of times and then 
finally starts throwing errors about "Too Many Files Open". I have all 
of the kernel, level2, and oplocks set to 'no' in the smb.conf file.

The FD column starts out at 1uw and just grows until it reaches whatever 
'open file' value I put in the /proc/sys/fs/file-max setting. Rebooting 
the W2k server or restarting samba fixes the problem for awhile. Never 
the same amount of time. Sometime it lasts days or weeks, other times 
only a few hours.

<snip>

smbd       4803    root  256uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  257uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  258uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  259uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  260uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  261uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  262uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  263uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  264uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  265uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  266uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  267uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  268uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  269uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  270uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  271uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  272uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF
smbd       4803    root  273uw     REG        8,2       182    5128393 
/usr/local/samba/fo/Goldmine/SyncLock.DBF

</snip>