samba - Aug 2025 - Problems with smb3 directory leases and linux mount (cifs-utils?)

Hi Matthias,

On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 02:30:01PM +0200, Matthias K?hne | Ellerhold
Aktiengesellschaft via samba wrote:
> Hello lovely samba-people,
> 
> after upgrading our debian servers to Samba 4.22 we have a lot of 
> trouble with them.
> 
> Today I'd like to ask if anybody has a similar problem as we have:
> 
> We have two debian 12 servers - both with Samba 4.22 from 
> bookworm-backports.
Can you please confirm the kernel version you are running?
> Server A has a samba share and server B mount this share via fstab (so 
> uses the cifs package). Server A in this scenario constantly puts new 
> files into the share and Server B should do something with them and 
> delete them after.
> 
> After a few minutes server B does not get any more updates from Server A 
> on some directories. Sometimes this happens after 5 minutes, sometimes 
> it takes an hour. And its always just a few directories - not every 
> directory.
> 
> I have a slight suspicion that the "smb3 directory leases" are to
blame.
> I disabled them on the server and the problem seems to be gone.
What do you mean by "does not get any more updates"? If Server A
changes
the contents of one directory, does this mean that Server B does not see
the new information? Does this state persist indefinitely, or does Server B
eventually observe the updates?

Can you also share details about the directory structure involved?
> Is there a known problem with the "smb3 directory leases" and
cifs-utils
> (version: 2:7.0-2)? There are no backports available for this package.
Just FYI, cifs-utils is unlikely to be responsible for the issue you are
experiencing. It does not provide the CIFS client itself; rather, it
contains userspace tools for managing CIFS mounts.

--
Henrique
SUSE Labs

Hello Henrique,

Server A (with the share) has Linux 6.1.0-37-amd64 #1 SMP 
PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.140-1 (2025-05-22) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Server B (thats mounting the share) has Linux 6.1.0-38-amd64 #1 SMP 
PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.147-1 (2025-08-02) x86_64 GNU/Linux

The condensed directory structure is

Server A /var/storage/application/share gets mounted on B as 
/mnt/server-a-share

In it are the dirs "hotfolder" and "results".

The hotfolder is being filled with files on A, B moves them out of the 
hotfolder, processes them and puts something else into results.

There are a few more of these hotfolders in this share, but it all boils 
down this structure.

"No more updates" means, that new files that a script on A puts into
the
hotfolder and they arent visible in the mounted directory on server B. 
This breaks our application, because the files in the hotfolder stop 
getting processed and the work stalls.

If its not cifs-utils, I guess this is a kernel problem then? So the 
cifs module in the kernel itself?

Thanks and have a nice day!

Am 19.08.25 um 00:03 schrieb Henrique Carvalho via
samba:
> Hi Matthias,
>
> On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 02:30:01PM +0200, Matthias K?hne | Ellerhold
Aktiengesellschaft via samba wrote:
>> Hello lovely samba-people,
>>
>> after upgrading our debian servers to Samba 4.22 we have a lot of
>> trouble with them.
>>
>> Today I'd like to ask if anybody has a similar problem as we have:
>>
>> We have two debian 12 servers - both with Samba 4.22 from
>> bookworm-backports.
> Can you please confirm the kernel version you are running?
>
>> Server A has a samba share and server B mount this share via fstab (so
>> uses the cifs package). Server A in this scenario constantly puts new
>> files into the share and Server B should do something with them and
>> delete them after.
>>
>> After a few minutes server B does not get any more updates from Server
A
>> on some directories. Sometimes this happens after 5 minutes, sometimes
>> it takes an hour. And its always just a few directories - not every
>> directory.
>>
>> I have a slight suspicion that the "smb3 directory leases"
are to blame.
>> I disabled them on the server and the problem seems to be gone.
> What do you mean by "does not get any more updates"? If Server A
changes
> the contents of one directory, does this mean that Server B does not see
> the new information? Does this state persist indefinitely, or does Server B
> eventually observe the updates?
>
> Can you also share details about the directory structure involved?
>
>> Is there a known problem with the "smb3 directory leases" and
cifs-utils
>> (version: 2:7.0-2)? There are no backports available for this package.
> Just FYI, cifs-utils is unlikely to be responsible for the issue you are
> experiencing. It does not provide the CIFS client itself; rather, it
> contains userspace tools for managing CIFS mounts.
>
> --
> Henrique
> SUSE Labs
>
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