samba - Dec 2017 - command 'service smb status' returns many process IDs

Hello,

I have a Samba4 server running on Linux CentOS 6. Many users use this Samba
service from their Windows PCs.  After the Samba service is started (service smb
stop ; service smb start), days later, just don't know when, running the
command 'service smb status' would return many process IDs, like this:

smbd (pid 32557 32240 32204 32202 31880 31874 31788 31714 31707 31337 31107
30853 30755 30637 30581 30478 30464 30369 30300 30167 30087 30031 29618 29585
29247 29236 29168 29076 29068 28956 28937 28934 28835 28783 28725 28610 28609
28398 28339 28328 28258 28071 27970 27865 27843 27842 27578 27545 27505 27419
27278 27038 27009 26994 26988 26924 26912 26741 26653 26637 26537 26411 26301
26207 26170 26080 25715 25690 25518 25414 25412 25324 25273 25229 25200 25186
25130 25035 25023 25002 24969 24864 24355 24306 24285 24253 24215 24212 24211
23736 23632 23357 23316 23300 23291 23200 23051 23039 22808 22628 22561 22555
22550 22121 22118 22116 21747 21653 21640 21260 21164 20406 20287 20282 20224
20151 20124 19985 19971 19955 19933 19899 19762 19760 19510 19429 19428 19310
19309 19205 19178 19174 19140 19062 19024 19002 18892 18795 18678 18676 18567
18564 18563 17593 17566 17487 17050 17044 16948 16840 16839 16806 16784 16729
16596 16595 16591 16584 16563 16440 16414 16191 16088 16077 16058 16052 16046
16045 15957 15931 15885 15867 15799 15782 15704 15222 15221 15197 15100 15008
14918 14915 14788 14755 14518 14492 14398 14284 14273 14272 14173 13824 13501
13346 13255 13252 13166 13022 12899 12820 12597 12583 12342 12332 11683 11600
11546 11371 11301 11297 11267 11256 11191 10907 10800 10090 10086 10023 9924
9868 9758 9731 9273 9205 9182 9126 9090 8876 8465 8155 8042 8026 7908 7809 7711
7691 7464 7447 6691 6689 6596 6585 6462 6419 6407 5949 5937 5934 5927 5808 5729
5644 5643 5558 5521 5425 5309 5226 5182 5181 5107 4734 4617 4350 4326 4243 3882
3785 3757 3569 3007 2742 2272 2090 1970 1808 1803 1787 1767 1574 1548 1482 1414
1323 1112 965 878 867 739 559) is running...

Look like the above process IDs are the sub-processes associated with the main
smbd process (the main smb process is the process started by 'service smb
start'). That is, if I do a 'ps -ef |grep smbd', I would see the
above process IDs: like this:
root       559 19762  0 Dec07 ?        00:00:01 smbd
root       739 19762  0 Dec06 ?        00:00:01 smbd
root       867 19762  0 11:06 ?        00:00:03 smbd
root       878 19762  0 Dec06 ?        00:00:01 smbd
root       965 19762  0 11:10 ?        00:00:00 smbd
...


If I restart Samba (service smb stop ; service smb start), 'service smb
status' would return only the main smbd process ID (which what I expect):
smbd (pid  19762) is running...

Is returning many process IDs normal? If not, what might be the cause of
returning many process IDs?


Note: Samba is running fine and users are not reporting any issue with Samba
when 'service smb status' returns many PIDs.


Thanks

Jim

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