samba - Sep 2007 - broken pipe

Hallo,

on a school server in the neighbourhood Samba 3.0.22 (only SMB server,  
"security = server") serves many Windows2000/XP clients in their  
classrooms.
The last lesson on a friday ends at 13:35, then the pupils shut down the  
clients and leave the room.

In /var/log/warn follows

--------------------------------------

Sep  7 13:39:37 Arktur smbd[31514]:   read_data: read failure for 4
bytes to client 192.168.0.34. Error = No route to host
Sep  7 13:39:37 Arktur smbd[31514]:   write_data: write failure in
writing to client 192.168.0.34. Error Broken pipe
Sep  7 13:39:37 Arktur smbd[31514]:   Error writing 75 bytes to client.
-1. (Broken pipe)

Sep  7 13:48:06 Arktur smbd[31536]:   read_data: read failure for 4
bytes to client 192.168.0.36. Error = No route to host
Sep  7 13:48:06 Arktur smbd[31536]:   write_data: write failure in
writing to client 192.168.0.36. Error Broken pipe
Sep  7 13:48:06 Arktur smbd[31536]:   Error writing 75 bytes to client.
-1. (Broken pipe)

Sep  7 13:48:36 Arktur smbd[31515]:   read_data: read failure for 4
bytes to client 192.168.0.32. Error = No route to host
Sep  7 13:48:36 Arktur smbd[31515]:   write_data: write failure in
writing to client 192.168.0.32. Error Broken pipe
Sep  7 13:48:36 Arktur smbd[31515]:   Error writing 75 bytes to client.
-1. (Broken pipe)

Sep  7 13:51:23 Arktur smbd[31574]:   read_data: read failure for 4
bytes to client 192.168.0.35. Error = No route to host
Sep  7 13:51:23 Arktur smbd[31574]:   write_data: write failure in
writing to client 192.168.0.35. Error Broken pipe

[...]

Sep  7 13:59:24 Arktur smbd[31781]:   read_data: read failure for 4
bytes to client 192.168.0.26. Error = No route to host
Sep  7 13:59:24 Arktur smbd[31781]:   write_data: write failure in
writing to client 192.168.0.26. Error Broken pipe
Sep  7 13:59:24 Arktur smbd[31781]:   Error writing 75 bytes to client.
-1. (Broken pipe)

Sep  7 14:06:56 Arktur smbd[31784]:   read_data: read failure for 4
bytes to client 192.168.0.31. Error = No route to host
Sep  7 14:06:56 Arktur smbd[31784]:   write_data: write failure in
writing to client 192.168.0.31. Error Broken pipe
Sep  7 14:06:56 Arktur smbd[31784]:   Error writing 75 bytes to client.
-1. (Broken pipe)

-------------------------------------------------

It takes about 30 minutes for these messages.

What is the reason for these messages? Show they real errors, or show  
they only "I cannot see the client - maybe it's shut down"?

Please excuse my gerlish!

Viele Gruesse!
Helmut

On Sunday 09 September 2007, Helmut Hullen wrote:
> only SMB server, ?
> "security = server"
For the only SMB server it should, under most circumstances, be "security =
user".

Also you should consider upgrading to a current version.

-- 
Chris

Just a guess - I'm not a Samba guru:

This looks to me like the student shutdown procedure
is "press the power button" rather than click
Start->Shutdown->Shutdown->OK. If so, the solution is
"don't do that". 

In summary, if the students turn off the power while
some disk operations are still pending in the PC's
memory, there's nothing Samba can do to make it right.
The best it can do is sense something is wrong, force
all the files closed, and force a disconnect  ...which
seems to be exactly what it's doing. 

Maybe it's time for a short lesson in "orderly
shutdown". Especially make sure the teacher
understands the awful consequences of an abrupt
shutdown. It's like having a power failure every day.
Show them the logs. Better yet, find a student file
that's unusable because it's corrupted and show them
that. 

It's very believable to me that the herd mentality has
asserted itself and all the students are doing the
same (wrong?) thing. If the students are working right
up to the class end time, then want to leave as
quickly as possible, instruct them it's better
(although not great:-) to _start_ an orderly shutdown
then leave than it is to turn off the power. 

thanks!

-Chuck Kollars


       
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