Jonathan Bennett
2010-Mar-03 23:38 UTC
[Samba] inotify error and a file opened 1000+ times on a Samba share
I service a small office with 6 XP computers. I just installed a server running CentOS 5.4 and Samba 3.0.33. They use a program called "On-screen Takeoff". This program accesses a couple database files that live on the shared drive. "Projects.ldb" and "Projects.mdb" On-screen takeoff stays open all day, and maintains access to it's database files all day. The folks at the office complained that On-screen Takeoff would occasionally lose access to the database. I came in and found a couple strange symptoms. First, in /var/log/messages, Samba is spewing dozens of times per second: Mar 3 17:18:30 localhost smbd[5556]: [2010/03/03 17:18:30, 0] smbd/notify_inotify.c:inotify_handler(249) Mar 3 17:18:30 localhost smbd[5556]: No data on inotify fd?! Second, lsof shows over a thousand concurrent connections to "Projects.ldb". From what I can see, this looks like the same problem that Excel occasionally causes. I have included "kernel change notify = no" "notify:inotify = no" under global in smb.conf, and still see the inotify errors in /var/log/messages. What is happening here? Is this a Samba bug? Why does turning off inotify in smb.conf not stop the error messages? Thanks for any help, Jonathan Bennett smb.conf [global] kernel change notify = no notify:inotify = no workgroup = ENDEX netbios name = ENDEX1 printcap name = cups disable spoolss = Yes show add printer wizard = No printing = cups wins support = yes name resolve order = wins lmhosts hosts bcast [homes] comment = Home Directories valid users = %S read only = No browseable = No [public] notify:inotify = no kernel change notify = no comment = Data path = /export force user = [removed] force group = users read only = No [printers] comment = All Printers path = /var/spool/samba printer admin = root, [removed] create mask = 0600 guest ok = Yes printable = Yes use client driver = Yes browseable = No
Jonathan Bennett
2010-Mar-04 02:53 UTC
[Samba] inotify error and a file opened 1000+ times on a Samba share
After hours of searching, I found a fix. Adding "posix locking = no" to that share in smb.conf fixed the problem. I'm not sure exactly what was happening, but everything seems to work with that clause in place. Thanks, Jonathan Bennett