[olug] Samba

[Adam Haeder]

Hi Craig

Is the software vendor the one that says "Not Linux due to the fact that
you cannot turn off file locking"? Because that is not true.

I have supported (in the past) a number linux/samba servers for Windows
networking using the Plato educational software. Now, this was a few years
ago, so their docs all talk about NT4 servers. Specifically, there is a
patch that you had to install (from MS) on the NT4 server that would
disable opportunistic file locking. This is the only way that the Plato
software would work.

Unfortunately, when you apply this patch, it turns off this file locking
for EVERY kind of file sharing this server does, potentially screwing up
other things where file locking is useful. The company's
recommendation was to have a dedicated server just for serving Plato and
nothing else.

I successfully implemented this numerous times on linux/samba using the
'oplocks' option. The other great thing about this is that with samba,
this can be set on a per share (or even per file) basis, making the box
usable as a generic file server for other things.

I know this is Access, and not the proprietary db format that Plato used,
but I really think turning off oplocks is the answer here. Have you had
any feedback from the foundation since you put that in place?

--
Adam Haeder
Vice President of Information Technology
AIM Institute
adamh at omaha.org
(402) 345-5025 x115
PGP Public key: http://www.haederfamily.org/pgp.html

On Fri, 14 May 2004, Craig Wolf wrote:

> The company that the SW was bought from says it works perfectly with Windows servers.  Not Linux due to the fact that you cannot turn of file locking.  I take that as a load of crap personally!  So I will give that a try...  I will post more when I know more...thanx!!
>
> Craig Wolf
> Linux Web Server Support
> Desktop/Network Specialist
> 402-894-6283
>
>
> >>> phil at brutsche.us 5/14/2004 >>>
> Craig Wolf wrote:
> > Ok, here we go.  I have a Samba server serving 7 people with 3-4
> > people accessing the database of a program that is on each
> > workstation.  The program works GREAT when 1 person is in it.  We
> > just started using it with more than 1 person and noticed a problem.
> > It appears that there is some file locking going on because when 2-3
>
> I was going to say "fudge with your oplocks" but someone beat me to it.
>
> > If I don't find a "workaround/fix" quickly for this piece of
> > software, this machine will have to have Windows server 2000
> > installed and setup.  TIA!!
>
> Before you go through all that trouble I would verify that it'll work
> with a Windows 2000 server.  There are some programs that simply aren't
> designed for this sort of environment, and will have file locking and/or
> data corruption issues no matter what the file server OS is, regardless
> of whether opportunistic locking is on or off.
>
> You may need to verify with the software vendor that their program is
> designed to work with a file server.
>
> Of course, this is all AFTER you try to turn off opportunistic locking :)
>
> --
>
> Phil Brutsche
> phil at brutsche.us
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