CIFS on HP-UX 11.11

[Brian Pedersen_1]

I'm running CIFS server v01.08 on an 11.11 server. Connections work find for a while, then PC's can't connect. This is especially true when they connect from a Windows terminal server. Other systems (this is our only 11.11 system) work just fine with the Windows terminal server.. Should I upgrade to 01.09??

[Geoff Wild]

I'm using B8725AA A.01.09.01 CIFS/9000 Server
No problems at all....on a RP7410 11.11.

You might even want to try the cifs/9000 server technology preview:

http://www.software.hp.com/cgi-bin/swdepot_parser.cgi/cgi/displayProductInfo.pl?productNumber=CIFSTP22

I have that running on our DEV system - no issues with it either.

Rgds...Geoff

[Geoff Wild]

As far as settings in smb.conf, you could try keepalive = 0

If this parameter is zero, no keepalive packets will be sent. Keepalive packets, if sent, allow the server to tell whether a client is still present and responding.


That's what I did.

[Steven E. Protter]

Yes, you should upgrade.

There is a huge security issue in older versions of CIFS that needs to be addressed.

I'm uploading a working smb.conf file for referene.

SEP

[Darren Prior]

Hi Brian,

The latest CIFS version is A.01.09.04; as Stephen says it fixes a previous security issue. It's a free download from http://software.hp.com

It may be useful for you to post your smb.conf so we can see how you have configured CIFS.

regards,

Darren.

[Don McCall_1]

This sounds like a resource issue to me, probably number of open files or locks per process; since terminal server users all come in on a single virtual circuit, and are handled by a single smbd process, the problem would be more acute with these users. Take a look at the /opt/samba/HP_Docs/README file for recommendations as to the minimum size for system parameters nflocks and nfiles. You should also get some idea of WHAT is going wrong by turning on some debugging in your smb.conf file and examining the files in /var/opt/samba/

add the following lines to your global section of /etc/opt/samba/smb.conf

log file=/var/opt/samba/log.%m
and
log level = 5
(NOTE that you will want to change log level to 0 after you are done, as this WILL affect performance)
This will create log files of the form
log.pcname (in the case of your terminal server, you will have a single log with your terminal server pc name, rather than one for each pc connecting THRU your terminal server)
Then when pc's cannot connect, take a look at the log.pcname for that pc that couldn't connect and see if you see any errors or failures.

Before you do any of this, you might want to grep your CURRENT /var/opt/samba/log.* for
-ei error -ei fail and see if you have any related errors to your pc's not logging in already at the default log level.

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
I have sometimes problems with users who can't connect to the CIFS server and the most common reason in my case is problem with NIS.

[Mark Landin]

The fact you are coming from a Windows Terminal Services client threw up a red flag for me. Windows' default values for networking, etc, are not tuned for multi-user workloads like you see on a terminal server.

I recommend you check some of the Windows network parameters like max TCP connections etc. I don't do CIFS from Windows servers anymore, so I don't recall the actual parameters. However, this document covers all this stuff, plus more: http://www.dabcc.com/thinsol/XP/docs/MF%20XP%20Instal%20and%20Tuning%20Tips.pdf

[Mark Landin]

The fact you are coming from a Windows Terminal Services client threw up a red flag for me. Windows' default values for networking, etc, are not tuned for multi-user workloads like you see on a terminal server.

I recommend you check some of the Windows network parameters like max TCP connections etc. I don't do CIFS from Windows servers anymore, so I don't recall the actual parameters. However, this document covers all this stuff, plus more: http://www.dabcc.com/thinsol/XP/docs/MF%20XP%20Instal%20and%20Tuning%20Tips.pdf

[Mark Landin]

The fact you are coming from a Windows Terminal Services client threw up a red flag for me. Windows' default values for networking, etc, are not tuned for multi-user workloads like you see on a terminal server.

I recommend you check some of the Windows network parameters like max TCP connections etc. I don't do CIFS from Windows servers anymore, so I don't recall the actual parameters. However, this document covers all this stuff, plus more: http://www.dabcc.com/thinsol/XP/docs/MF%20XP%20Instal%20and%20Tuning%20Tips.pdf

[Brian Pedersen_1]

I'm going to install the 1.09 version.. there may be some issues with 11.11 in 1.08.. I've attached the config file from that system. I've compared it to the config's on the other systems that are running fine with the terminal server and I don't see any reasonable differences (or any real differences).

Thanks to everyone for the help!!!!!!