samba - Jan 2005 - Roaming Profiles -- Problem Rapidly Switching Users

Does anybody have any insight into what could be causing this strange 
problem? I have Samba 3.02 (sorry, can't upgrade right now). My Linux box is
running
Mandrake 10 Official. I have Samba configured as a PDC. 

I can successfully add machines to my Domain -- and log on as ANY user from 
ANY machine. However on a SINGLE MACHINE, when I log on as USER_1 and access 
that user's roaming profile, if I then log off and immediately try to log on
again (AS USER_1 or ANOTHER USER), Windows XP gives me a message saying that it 
can't access the user's roaming profile and that maybe there's a
problem with
permissions. 

If I just wait about 3 or 4 minutes, however, I can log on again as any user 
and access the roaming profile. 

Looking at the "profile" directory on my Linux Box, and can see that
the
roaming profile is updated when I succeed in accessing the roaming profile. When
I
get that message, Windows just uses the last information that was stored 
locally on the computer. 

The cause doesn' t seem to be a problem with permissions. As I log on and
log
off, I am watching the permissions on the "profiles" directory and
they are
not being altered. 

And I don't see anything in /var/log/samba/[machine_name].log that looks 
suspicious, except an occasional message: "[machine_name] (192.168.1.101)
couldn't
find service [user who was trying to log on]". 

BTW, I have my profiles directory in the following path:
/home/bigboss/profile/

The home directory on this machine is actually on its own very large 
partition -- so it's a good place to put the profiles. Whereas the root
partition "/"
has much less space -- certainly not adequate for 200 users with roaming 
profiles. 

I tried putting the profiles in /home/profile -- but every time I rebooted 
the permissions of the permissions of the "profile" directory would
get changed
to read-only for the group that needs to access the directory. 

Any ideas or solutions? 

Andy Liebman

Il 24/01/2005, alle ore 21:16, AndyLiebman@aol.com ha scritto:
> ANY machine. However on a SINGLE MACHINE, when I log on as USER_1 and
access
> that user's roaming profile, if I then log off and immediately try to
log on
> again (AS USER_1 or ANOTHER USER), Windows XP gives me a message saying
that it
I recall having similar errors on Win2000 machines, when rapidly logging
off and on using various machines (I don't remember experiencing the same
on a single machine, though).
I was told it's a Windows problem, as Win clients do not immedately remove
all file locks upon logout. I worked around this using the following
parameter in smb.conf:

veto oplock files = /NTUSER.DAT/

-- 
Ciao,
  Marco.

..."Refugee", Refugee 1974

Here is the log from /var/log/samba/[machine name].log. It seems to imply that
it takes Samba about a minute to finish closing all the connections for the user
who just logged out on a machine -- and therefore a new user can't log on
and access his/her roaming profiles until the logging out/closing connections
and services has been completed.


This is when I am able to log on with a roaming profile: 

[2005/01/24 15:37:23, 1] smbd/service.c:make_connection_snum(705)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) connect to service profiles initially as user
jessica (uid=508, gid=500) (pid 3561)
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 1] smbd/service.c:close_cnum(887)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) closed connection to service profiles
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter domain master found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter preferred master found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter local master found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter domain logons found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter logon path found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter encrypt passwords found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter add user script found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter logon script found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter time server found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 0] param/loadparm.c:lp_do_parameter(3066)
  Global parameter logon script found in service section!
[2005/01/24 15:37:25, 1] smbd/service.c:make_connection_snum(705)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) connect to service netlogon initially as user
jessica (uid=508, gid=500) (pid 3561)
[2005/01/24 15:37:26, 0] smbd/service.c:make_connection(857)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) couldn't find service jessica
[2005/01/24 15:37:27, 0] smbd/service.c:make_connection(857)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) couldn't find service jessica
[2005/01/24 15:37:56, 1] smbd/service.c:make_connection_snum(705)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) connect to service profiles initially as user
jessica (uid=508, gid=500) (pid 3561)
[2005/01/24 15:37:57, 1] smbd/service.c:make_connection_snum(705)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) connect to service profiles initially as user
jessica (uid=508, gid=500) (pid 3561)
[2005/01/24 15:38:04, 1] smbd/service.c:close_cnum(887)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) closed connection to service profiles
[2005/01/24 15:38:26, 1] smbd/service.c:close_cnum(887)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) closed connection to service netlogon


Below is where I COULD NOT log on with roaming profiles. I'm not sure
whether the last line above goes with logging off or logging on.



[2005/01/24 15:38:28, 0] smbd/service.c:make_connection(857)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) couldn't find service jessica
[2005/01/24 15:38:33, 1] smbd/service.c:make_connection_snum(705)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) connect to service netlogon initially as user
jessica (uid=508, gid=500) (pid 3561)
[2005/01/24 15:38:34, 0] smbd/service.c:make_connection(857)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) couldn't find service jessica
[2005/01/24 15:38:35, 0] smbd/service.c:make_connection(857)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) couldn't find service jessica
[2005/01/24 15:38:48, 0] smbd/service.c:make_connection(857)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) couldn't find service jessica
[2005/01/24 15:38:59, 1] smbd/service.c:close_cnum(887)
  gateway9500 (192.168.1.100) closed connection to service profiles


Am I to conclude from these logs that it takes Samba about a minute or so to
finish logging off the current user from a machine, and that you can't log
on as the next user for about one or two minutes?

That is my observation. If I wait for two minutes, no problem logging back on,
or logging on as a different user. Wait only 30 seconds, it doesn't. Waiting
some time between, I'm not sure what works and what doesn't.

Andy Liebman

Hallo AndyLiebman@aol.com, 
> 
> If I just wait about 3 or 4 minutes, however, I can log on again as any
user
> and access the roaming profile. 
Maybe a Timesync Problem between Samba Server and Windows Client ?
Can you pleas check this ?

Thomas