[Samba] Cannot copy file to Samba share

[Ben Clayton]

Hi,

I have a very odd issue - I cannot copy a large-ish (1.1GB) ISO file to 
a Samba share on a specific server, and having spent a couple of days on 
the issue, I'm running out of things to try, and I'm hoping for some 
suggestions.

The destination system is an old P4 system on a Via based motherboard 
(P4MA Pro). It has two IDE disks, a Maxtor 40GB on IDE channel 1 as the 
system disk, and a 500GB drive on IDE channel 2, with one large EXT3 
partition, mounted as /home. (There would normally be a CD drive also on 
channel 2, but it is disconnected at the moment as part of my testing.)

/home/downloads is shared, and generally works fine, but we seem to have 
problems copying large files to it. I now have a repeatable issue: 
attempting to copy debian-live-6.0.3-amd64-gnome-desktop.iso, of 1.1GB 
to it fails every time - copying from an Ubuntu 10.04 or an Ubuntu 11.10 
system, either just using smb:// in Nautilus' address bar, or using a 
mount from fstab. The progress bar moves in fits and starts, then 
finally hangs right at the end for some seconds/minutes, before failing.

Clicking for more details on the "Error while copying..." dialogue gives 
"Error closing file: Input/output error".

The file on the source machine is fine - I've checked the MD5 against a 
published value for the file.
I can copy the file to the same location using sftp:// in Nautilus with 
no problems.
I can copy the file to another Samba server in our office with no problems.
The system was on CentOS5, but I've put in a new system disk and done a 
fresh install of CentOS6 - which made no difference to the issue.
Copying a full DVD ISO of 4GB to the same location fails in the same way.
Copying a smaller file to the same location works fine (e.g. a 100MB 
clonezilla live iso).
I've tried putting a different network card in the system, and that 
didn't help.

Samba version is 3.5.4-68.el6_0.2

Relevant extracts from smb.conf:
[global]
         log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
         load printers = no
         netbios name = irax1
         netbios aliases = irax1.irax.office
         server string = Non-backed-up storage for downloads etc
         workgroup = IRAX-NT
         os level = 20
         encrypt passwords = yes
         security = user
         passdb backend = tdbsam
         max log size = 50
         # options from orielly samba performance tuning pdf
         socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY
         dead time = 15
         getwd cache = yes
         lpq cache = 30
(as you can see in the last 5 lines, I've been trying a few parameters, 
none of which made any difference)

[downloads]
         writeable = yes
         delete readonly = yes
         path = /home/downloads
         valid users = @irax
         force group = irax
         comment = For downloads (no backup)
         create mode = 660
         directory mode = 770

The main purpose of this server is for storing large files that we want 
to be commonly available to the office, but which we don't want to use 
backup space for, so being unable to copy large files to it rather 
prevents it from being used...

I've spent a good deal of time trying things, and Googling, and nothing 
has made any difference, so: does anyone have any feel for what the 
issue / solution might be, of have any useful links or suggestions as to 
how to take this further?

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Ben Clayton



-- 
Ben Clayton
Director
Irax Ltd.
50C Bolton Street
Bury
Lancs
BL9 0LL
-
Tel: 0161 761 0077
Fax: 0161 797 2394
--