samba - Jun 2003 - Samba & Sage Line 50 Accounting

Hi all,

Having a very specific problem here:

I have a working RedHat9 server running Samba 2.2.7 (the release that comes 
with RH9), acting as a PDC/File Server to around 15 WinXP Pro client 
workstations.

This all works nicely, apart from our accounting package, Sage Line 50, 
which depends on its data being stored on a network share.

Previously, when the data was stored on a WinNT4 share, there was no 
problem, several users could concurrently connect into the database and 
work simultaneously.

Now, using samba, this isn't possible. Sage will only allow one user to log 
in and access the DB at any one time. As soon as that user logs out, the 
next user can log in. This isn't normal Sage behaviour.

I have found instances of people on google asking for help with very 
similar problems (usually accounting packages and DBs - usually solutions 
involving oplocks), but having tried all the suggestions I found, I haven't 
found one that works.

Any help at this point would be very much appreciated, as I've got an 
entire NT4 server dedicated to sharing out a few files for 15 users, and 
I'm needing to decommission it for something else.

Many thanks in advance,

L

--
Louis Sabet - IT Manager
http://www.mobiles.co.uk
http://www.gadgets.co.uk

On Thu, Jun 05, 2003 at 11:35:20AM +0100, Louis Sabet
wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Having a very specific problem here:
> 
> I have a working RedHat9 server running Samba 2.2.7 (the release that comes
> with RH9), acting as a PDC/File Server to around 15 WinXP Pro client 
> workstations.
> 
> This all works nicely, apart from our accounting package, Sage Line 50, 
> which depends on its data being stored on a network share.
> 
> Previously, when the data was stored on a WinNT4 share, there was no 
> problem, several users could concurrently connect into the database and 
> work simultaneously.
> 
> Now, using samba, this isn't possible. Sage will only allow one user to
log
> in and access the DB at any one time. As soon as that user logs out, the 
> next user can log in. This isn't normal Sage behaviour.
Can you give the exact error message please. Also please upgrade to
Samba 2.2.8a for security reasons.

Jeremy.

--On Friday, June 06, 2003 11:07:25 +0200 David Morel 
<david.morel@amakuru.net> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Louis Sabet wrote:
>| --On Thursday, June 05, 2003 15:33:01 +0000 jra@dp.samba.org wrote:
>|
>|> On Thu, Jun 05, 2003 at 11:35:20AM +0100, Louis Sabet wrote:
>|>
>|>> Hi all,
>|>>
>|>> Having a very specific problem here:
>|>>
>|>> I have a working RedHat9 server running Samba 2.2.7 (the release
that
>|>> comes  with RH9), acting as a PDC/File Server to around 15 WinXP
Pro
>|>> client  workstations.
>|>>
>|>> This all works nicely, apart from our accounting package, Sage
Line 50,
>|>> which depends on its data being stored on a network share.
>|>>
>|>> Previously, when the data was stored on a WinNT4 share, there was
no
>|>> problem, several users could concurrently connect into the
database and
>|>> work simultaneously.
>|>>
>|>> Now, using samba, this isn't possible. Sage will only allow
one user to
>|>> log  in and access the DB at any one time. As soon as that user
logs
>|>> out, the  next user can log in. This isn't normal Sage
behaviour.
>|>
>|>
>|> Can you give the exact error message please. Also please upgrade to
>|> Samba 2.2.8a for security reasons.
>|>
>|> Jeremy.
>|
>|
>| Hi Jeremy,
>|
>| Actually there is no error message, just odd behaviour.
>|
>|
>
> Je pense que Jeremy faisait plus allusions aux logs qu'aux (incomplets,
> cryptiques et inutiles) messages d'erreurs affich? sur le bureau des
> clients. Montez le log level ? 10 par exemple (ce qui fait beaucoup de
> texte, mais bon...) et examinez le log d'un client sur le serveur avec
> un tail -f /var/log/samba/nomduclient.log pendant que cette tentative de
> connexion s'?ternise. Il y a fort ? parier que vous y trouverez des
> informations utiles. Vous pouvez aussi examiner smbd.log pendant le
> processus. peut-?tre qu'un log level 10 est un pu excessif... commencez
> par 2 ou 3
>
> D.Morel
It's a damn good thing I speak french... just about... :-)

Thanks David - I set the log level to 5, but didn't really see anything 
that helped - my log analysis skills were overcome by the sheer amount of 
information being thrown at me.

I have however managed to fix the problem anyway - discovered that Sage is 
actually based on Access databases, and having managed to fix some problems 
I've been having with .mdb/.ldb files have found a solution that works (I 
still need to do extensive testing, but it seems good so far) - for the 
list's reference, it's shown below:

[mobiles_sage]
    path = /home/netapps/mobiles_sage
    writeable = yes
    browseable = no
    create mask = 0777
    directory mask = 0777
    veto oplock files = /*.mdb/*.MDB/*.ldb/*.LDB
    locking = yes
    share modes = yes

Obviously isn't yet the most secure share in the world, but at least it 
works now!

Best Regards

L

--
Louis Sabet - IT Manager
http://www.mobiles.co.uk
http://www.gadgets.co.uk