[Samba] Missing Files/Missing Folders from an NFS Share

Conor Armstrong conorarmstrong at gmail.com
Thu Feb 16 19:46:26 UTC 2023


I'm trying to get to the bottom of where the normal directory functions
differ in results for block storage compared to NFS.

I created a short c script to look at the offsets generated for the
directory when block storage backed in comparison to NFS backed.

block storage backed are always positive:

File: 5050, Offset: 9213006461214587617

File: 6567, Offset: 9218690536865144001

File: 4033, Offset: 9220247894244709239

...

NFS backed are negative:

File: 2535, Offset: -376809161603969956

File: 4236, Offset: -376809161586095012

File: 3507, Offset: -376809161585570724

...

The negative NFS negative offsets seem to be managed already
in source3/smbd/dir.c in the map_dir_offset_to_wire() function which
adjusts for signed/unsigned longs.

You mention that NFS doesn't have a working seekdir()/telldir()/rewinddir().
Other than the different offset (cookie) management, do you know of any
other differences?

I had a look at the wireshark dumps. I'm getting a STATUS_PENDING shortly
followed by a STATUS_CANCELLED for the NFS share which are absent on the
block storage share.


> On Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 08:28:47PM +0000, Rowland Penny via samba wrote:
> >>>>>>*NFS has no real idea about user authentication and uses
> *>>>*ipaddresses,
> *>>>>*True for NFSv3, not for NFSv4.
> *>>*But then wont it be using NFSv4acls ?
> *
> This is authentication, not authorization. NFSv4 can be configured
> to use krb5 auth, so then it's not ipaddess based and is as secure
> as Samba for initial connection and can be as secure as SMB3
> (signing, sealing etc).
>
> >>>*in other words, you are going to have problems, at least I did
> *>>>*when I tried it once. It may be different now, but I doubt it. If
> *>>>*you are going to share an nfs share, just do it with nfs.
> *>>>>*Good advice, but mostly because NFS doesn't map completely to
> *>>*POSIX semantics, and it also means the data goes over the
> *>>*wire twice. Having said that, sometimes people need to do
> *>>*this (the Amazon NFS user is a case in point) so we should
> *>>*track down and help fix the problems when we can.
> *>>*I can understanding helping people when we have to, but I still think
> *>*the best first help should be 'do not do that', closely followed by
> *>*'upgrade Samba' :-D
> *
> Well Ralph just pointed out that NFS doesn't have a working
> seekdir()/telldir()/rewinddir() which means that working code
> that depends on this.... won't (work over NFS that is :-).
>
> Always try and help people first, only later say "don't do
> that". People always have a reason to be doing what they're
> doing, even if we don't agree with it.
>
> You can tell 'em you don't agree with what they're doing
> without being judgemental :-).
>
>


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