[Samba] Problem After Upgrade - NT_STATUS_FILE_IS_A_DIRECTORY

[Leandro Tracchia]

> Is this a *real* RAID controller or a 'fake' (BIOS/Software/MB) RAID
> controller?  If it is a real controller are you sure there is no Linux
> driver for it?  (Esp. since you are using Ubuntu!) If it is a
> software/BIOS/MB RAID controller the performance is going to be really
> bad -- these controllers are really only meant for home systems and not
> really for true servers.
>

This is an Addonics controller card that uses Silicon 
Image 3124 chip. We have a RAID tower housing 12 hard 
drives.

>>
>> I'd have to setup mdadm on Ubuntu, which I've done
>> before and was not impressed. The Windows RAID system
>> we have is much more easier to maintain.
>
> Oh, you mean you have to actually use your keyboard? How dreadfull...
>

Not really. The GUI-based software for this controller 
card provides a lot of configuration options and 
documentation, something that is not so intuitive in 
mdadm. Its not just about using a dreadful keyboard, 
be real.

> Do you mean to say that the files local to the Ubuntu *server* are not on
> a RAID array?

No. They are not as important and the data can be 
quickly restored from backups.

> This sort of 'game' (mounting files from one 'server' on another server
> and then re-exporting them), is not *specific* to Samba.  See what
> happens when you try to NFS export file systems mounted as nfs file
> systems (although I expect nfsd/mountd would refuse to let you do that
> in the first place).
>
> There are several problems:
>
> It tends to confuse the server(s).  File serving software (Samba, NFSD,
> etc.) really expect the data they are serving to be local (yes, using a
> NAS or something like that is a little different) and are written to
> optimal to work that way.
>
> It causes lots of network traffic: every I/O operation causes two
> batches of network traffic and implies two sets of network channels: one
> set between the machine with the physical disks (the XP box) and the
> 'server' (the Ubuntu box), and a *second* set of network channels
> between the 'server' (the Ubuntu box) and the final client(s) (the
> client MS-Windows machine(s)).  If this is on one physical network (if
> the 'server' (the Ubuntu box) only has one NIC), then the you have lots
> of network collisions, which means your network thoughput will truely
> suck (eg network timeouts, dropped/lost packets, etc.).
>
> I expect that 'before' you 'got by' by luck.  What might be happening
> now is that some fix to Samba is biting you or maybe you are getting
> network I/O errors (timeouts?) because of what I described in the
> paragraph above.
>
> What you are doing is not really going to work in the long term.  You
> either need to:
>
> 1) Buy a real, supported RAID card for the Ubuntu system.
> 2) Live with mdadm
> 3) Pay for licenses for the XP system.


I agree with this and will probably have to begin 
doing one of the above. I was just hoping someone 
would know an exact cause and fix for my situation 
without having to redo infrastructure.

Thanks for your comments.