samba - Nov 2002 - RE: License Metering Software to work with SAMBA

Andrew:

Thanks for the heads up. As always, the support you guys give to an open 
source product amazes me. We worked with Jeremy & John Terpstra a few years 
ago when there was a problem with how AutoCAD was creating lock files 
(AutoCAD R14 running against SAMBA 1.9.something; it ended up being a 
timing issue that AutoDesk & Microsoft resolved, as well as samba 2.0 
provided an internal workaround).

I downloaded the 2.2.7 code last night & built it. Because this is a 
production server I have to wait until off-hours to make the install 
(hopefully Sun or Mon). This was going to be our last effort at trying to 
make the Express Meter software work.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to the source code to duplicate the API 
calls (Express Metrix is the software vendor).


At 07:55 AM 11/22/2002 +1100, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
>On Thu, 2002-11-21 at 01:42, Chris Lindberg wrote:
> > Dear Tom,
> >
> > The express product makes standard windows api calls to the machine 
> where it
> > is installed to open, read, write to, and close files on the network.
It
> > does not, in any way tell samba how to react, it is simply telling
Windows
> > to open, read and write to the files on the network leaving how it is
done
> > to the underlying network protocols.
>
>You would be surprised how much of 'standard system calls' turns
into
>'unusual series of packets on the network'.  Quite a number of bugs
in
>Samba have been found by simple database applications...
>
> > Based on what I have seen it appears that Windows XP workstations are
> > intermittently writing invalid data to the log files. The log files
> > containing invalid data are deleted by express when a repair is run,
at the
> > beginning of any update of the database, which is done to prevent
corrupt
> > data from being written to the database.
> >
> > We believe that there is a conflict between Windows XP and samba which
> > results in the intermittent writing of invalid data.
>
>And the basic rule around here is 'if it works against Win2k server, and
>fails against Samba, then it's a bug'.  Is there any chance you can
test
>your software against the latest production Samba?
>
>If you can reproduce the bug against 2.2.7 or (bonus points!) reproduce
>it under some form of test program, I know Jeremy gets very keen to add
>it to the test-suite.  (In the past, a small database vendor's internal
>lock torture-test found it's way to jra' INBOX - a slew of bugfixes
>followed :-).  Much of the information discovered finds it's way into
>our smbtorture utility.
>
> > The applib.loc file is a text file which simply indicates what machine
last
> > had the library open in the Express Administrative Console.
> >
> > Sincerely, Chris Lindberg
> > Express Metrix Technical Support
> >   -----Original Message-----
> >   From: Thomas G. Tri, P.E. [mailto:ttri@skees.com]
> >   Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 5:40 AM
> >   To: samba@lists.samba.org
> >   Cc: bburnett@skees.com; clindberg@expressmetrix.com;
> > ssipinen@expressmetrix.com
> >   Subject: License Metering Software to work with SAMBA
> >
> >
> >   Dear List:
> >
> >   We have a 25+ node mixed networked of NT4SP5, Win2K, & WinXP. 
We are
> > currently using Express Meter to control our software licensing and
capture
> > data to analyze software license utilization to justify additional 
> licenses,
> > etc. We are running SAMBA v 2.0.7 on a Sun Ultra 2 running Solaris 7.
>
>I would seriously recommend an upgrade to Samba 2.2.7.  A large number
>of locking bugs have been fixed since then.
>
> > We
> > have been unable to get the reporting functions to work (the Express
Meter
> > log files get purged when the data merging / reporting process is
> > performed).  A SAMBA debug log shows the following strange sequence of
> locks
> > / unlocks. The applib.loc file is opened with read=No, write=Yes and
then
> > followed by opening another handle on the same file with read=Yes and
> > write=No. This seems a little strange to me and may not be the problem
at
> > all. Their tech support is apparently not willing to invest any more 
> time to
> > investigate this problem as it appears to function correctly when the
files
> > are stored on an NT workstation. We are not willing to
> >
> >   [2002/11/05 15:17:33, 2] smbd/open.c:(602)
> >     bburnett opened file em/fromtaurus/applib.loc read=No write=Yes
> > (numopen=3)
> >   [2002/11/05 15:17:33, 2] smbd/open.c:(602)
> >     bburnett opened file em/fromtaurus/applib.lib read=Yes write=No
> > (numopen=4)
> >   [2002/11/05 15:17:33, 2] smbd/open.c:(602)
> >     bburnett opened file em/fromtaurus/applib.loc read=Yes write=No
> > (numopen=5)
> >
> >   We would like to continue to use Express Meter because of the time
we
> have
> > invested in setup and configuration.  However, the reporting
capability
> is a
> > requirement for our firm.  Therefore, we are considering switching to
> > another software metering application. We are currently reviewing the
> > following:
> >   Keyserver from Sassafras Software
> >   Application Metering from Codework
> >
> >   If anyone has a suggestion to correct / workaround the above file
locking
> > sequence or has experience with these or other software metering
> > applications, I would greatly appreciate your comments (good &
bad).
> >
> >   Thanks,
> >   Tom
>--
>Andrew Bartlett                                 abartlet@pcug.org.au
>Manager, Authentication Subsystems, Samba Team  abartlet@samba.org
>Student Network Administrator, Hawker College   abartlet@hawkerc.net
>http://samba.org    http://build.samba.org    http://hawkerc.net