samba - Dec 2010 - Samba crashes & floods logfiles: "smbd/notify_inotify.c:244(inotify_handler) - No data on inotify fd?!"

Dear Group members!

Since I have set up a Samba PDC-Server (openSUSE 11.2-64bit with default 
package Samba 3.4.3) approx. 8 months ago, I have encountered 3 or 4 
times a severe crash of Samba.

What happens is that all over a sudden Samba floods /var/log/messages 
and /var/log/warn with the following message (cropped out 
date/time/servername, etc.):

smbd[19724]: smbd/notify_inotify.c:244(inotify_handler)
smbd[19724]: No data on inotify fd?!


This message is being repeated until those 2 logfiles have filled up the 
/var partition.
Samba is not responsive anymore and due to a filled up /var the whole 
server is malfunctioning.

The only remedy that I had until today is to reboot the server and 
delete ../messages & ../warn.
Everything works fine then, until a few months later it occurs again 
without any obvious reason.

I updated to Samba 3.5.6 (From the official openSUSE-Samba-Repository: 
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/samba:/misc/openSUSE_11.2/noarch/)
after the second time it occured, but it happened another 2 times after 
the update, too.

Is there anybody out there who could help me with this one?
I am thankful for any hint or peace of advice!!

Best regards
Tom H. Lautenbacher

On 2010-12-29 19:52, Tom H. Lautenbacher wrote:
> smbd[19724]: smbd/notify_inotify.c:244(inotify_handler)
> smbd[19724]: No data on inotify fd?!
Here is my /etc/samba/smb.conf
(all default values and comments are cropped automatically by SWAT):

[global]
	workgroup = SOMEGROUPNAME.SGN
	server string 	max open files = 10000
	add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -c SambaMachine -g sambamachines 
-G "" -d /dev/null/ -s /bin/false %u
	logon script = %G.bat
	logon path = \\%N\profiles\%U\%a
	logon drive = z:
	domain logons = Yes
	os level = 255
	preferred master = Yes
	domain master = Yes
	wins support = Yes
	hosts allow = 10.31.40.0/255.255.255.0
	hosts deny = 10.31.40.1
	follow symlinks = No

[homes]
	comment = Home directory
	valid users = %S, %D%w%S
	write list = %S, %D%w%S
	force group = root
	create mask = 0600
	directory mask = 0700
	browseable = No

[profiles]
	comment = Windows User Profiles
	path = /somepath/somedir
	force group = root
	read only = No
	create mask = 0600
	directory mask = 0700
	map archive = No
	map readonly = no
	store dos attributes = Yes
	browseable = No

[netlogon]
	comment = User logon scripts
	path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
	browseable = No

followed by some custom shares for normal data...

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 07:52:58PM +0200, Tom H. Lautenbacher
wrote:
> Since I have set up a Samba PDC-Server (openSUSE 11.2-64bit with
> default package Samba 3.4.3) approx. 8 months ago, I have
> encountered 3 or 4 times a severe crash of Samba.
> 
> What happens is that all over a sudden Samba floods
> /var/log/messages and /var/log/warn with the following message
> (cropped out date/time/servername, etc.):
> 
> smbd[19724]: smbd/notify_inotify.c:244(inotify_handler)
> smbd[19724]: No data on inotify fd?!
As far as I know there's a kernel problem. Try "kernel
change notify = no". The catch is that you won't see the
changes done by Unix process.

Volker